Types of workflows: Building a re-engagement campaign

Re-engagement campaigns help you maintain a healthy, engaged subscriber list. By targeting inactive subscribers with automated check-in emails, you can encourage them to re-engage, or cleanly remove them if they don’t.

In this article, you’ll learn how to:

• Use a a quick start template to build an automation that identifies unengaged subscribers.
• Send a re-engagement email sequence to these subscribers.
• Automatically mark the subscribers as inactive if they don’t respond.
• Find answers to common questions about re-engagement workflows.

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Using the Re-engagement Flow Automation template

To simplify the process of building automations, beehiiv offers a library of pre-built templates. In this walkthrough, you’ll use the Re-engagement Flow (90-day Inactivity) template and learn how to customize each step of the workflow to fit your needs.

1. From your account dashboard, go to Audience > Automations.
   
   If you have already created workflows, they will be listed. Scroll down to the Quick start templates section or click Use template to browse the library.
   
   
   
   
   
   
2. From the Quick Start Templates, locate the Re-engagement Flow (90-day Inactivity) option.  Click the 3 dots menu and select Use template.
   
   
   
   
   
   
3. The template will open on the Workflow canvas where you’ll see the trigger is grey, and the steps are in color, signaling that the automation is inactive. You’ll need to go through each step and customize it as needed, then activate the trigger to enable the workflow.
   
   We’ll start at the top with the trigger and move down. To view the workflow in its entirety, use the controls at the bottom left of the canvas to zoom in or out. You can also click and hold on the canvas to move it around.
   
   On the trigger box, click the Configure step icon.
   
   
   

Set the trigger

4. In the left edit panel that appears, you’ll see the Unengaged trigger is used and is set to 90 Days without opens or clicks.
   
   To adjust this, click the arrow to select Days without opens or Days without clicks. You can also adjust the number as desired.
   
   
   
   
   
   
5. (Optional) Click Add Conditions on the trigger panel to include any additional requirements. When done, click Back to return to the main panel.
   
   
   
   
   
   
6. (Optional) To include multiple trigger options, click + Add Trigger again. Each added trigger creates an OR condition, meaning subscribers only need to meet one of them to enter the workflow.
   
   
   
   Tech Note: Every automation begins with a trigger that defines when it starts. You can add conditions to this initial trigger, but you can’t add other triggers later in the workflow. After the trigger is set, use actions to build the remaining steps on the workflow canvas.
7. Review your selections, then click Save in the bottom-right corner of the Triggers panel.
   
   
   

Customize the email message

8. Back on the workflow canvas, move down to the next step of the automation, the Send Email node. Click the Configure step icon.
   
   In the edit panel that appears on the left, click the pencil icon to open the email builder.
   
   
   
   
   
   
9. You’ll be brought to the email editor where you’ll see a preview of the email that you can customize for your needs. The control panel on the right will be open on the Details tab.
   
   Email details you can edit:

• Subject line: This should be clear and address that you haven’t heard from them. 
• Preview text: Follow up your subject line sentiment with a bit more details.
• Author of the post: Click the arrow to select an author for the post, and choose from your available team members, or click Create Guest Author to add a new one.
  
  
  

10. Click the Write tab in the right panel to edit the copy of the email. Use the copy that’s already provided as a base to craft a message that addresses why you are reaching out, that they haven’t been engaging with your emails lately.
    
    
    
    
    
    
11. To adjust the look of the email to match your brand aesthetic, click the Style tab.
    
    The Style panel will open on the right and is organized into two tabs for Basic and Advanced. Upon accessing it, the Basic tab will be selected by default with the Colors options exposed. Click the arrow icon to close it and then choose from Colors, Typography, Spacing, or Borders.
    
    For additional customizations, switch over to the Advanced tab to access settings for the Background, Email Header, Body, Widgets, and Email Footer.
    
    
    
    
    
    
12. When using the automation email editor, changes are not saved automatically.

• Click Save in the top navbar to save your email edits.
• Click Preview to see how the email will look on desktop and mobile.
• Click the Preview arrow to send a test email. 
• To exit the email editor after saving your edits, click the arrow icon in the left corner of the top navbar.
  
  
  

13. You’ll be brought back to the settings panel where you’ll see an overview of the Send Email node you just customized on the left of the workflow canvas. To continue to add more conditions to this step, click Add Conditions and repeat as needed.
    
    When all looks good, click the black Save button in the bottom right corner of the panel.
    
    
    

Include a time delay

14. Moving down the re-engagement workflow, a Time Delay is the next step. Click the Configure step icon to open the edit panel for it.
    
    The Time Delay is the amount of time that will pass before the next step is taken. Since we just sent an email, we’ll want to give them a few days to open it at their leisure. You’ll see it’s set to wait for 3 days, which you can adjust it as you wish.

• Click the arrow icon to select from Minutes, Hours, or Days. 
• Adjust the ‘Wait for’ amount as desired. 
• When all looks good, click the black Save button in the bottom right corner of the panel.
  
  
  
  

Set up the True/False Branch condition

15. After the time delay you specified earlier, subscribers will reach the True/False Branch, which splits them into different paths based on a condition you set.
    
    Click the Configure step icon to open the edit panel for the True/False Branch. By default, this re-engagement template sets the condition to: Days without opens or clicks is greater than 3. To change this, click on Edit Conditions.
    
    
    
    
    
    
16. Adjust the condition by using the dropdown menus and number field. To include multiple criteria, click on + Condition.
    
    When finished, click Back to return to the edit panel.
    
    
    
    
    
    
17. Review your conditions and then click Save in the bottom-right corner of the edit panel.
    
    
    

Create the True and False nodes

18. With the branch condition set, it’s time to create the true/yes path and the false/no path. For this example, we’ve set the condition to be Days without opens or clicks is greater than 7.
    
    False branch/path: Subscriber is active
    If the subscriber opens or clicks on the email in the 7-day window, they are considered engaged. The template’s false path uses the Update Subscription node to reflect this status in your account, and then that is the end of the automated journey for the subscriber.
    
    
    

To configure the Update Subscription node:

• Click the Configure step icon to open the edit panel.
• Keep or transition subscription status to: Select from Active or Inactive (depending on your flow).
• Keep or transition custom fields to: Add a custom field to the subscriber’s profile by clicking on + Add Custom Field or Manage Custom Fields. 
• Apply the following subscriber tags to: Assign subscriber tags to the subscriber’s profile by clicking into the Select tags field and choosing one of your subscriber tags. Or click Manage Subscriber Tags to add a new one. 
• Click Add Conditions if you want to apply this node only under specific conditions.
• When everything is set, click Save in the bottom right corner of the panel.

True  branch/path: Subscriber is inactive
If the subscriber does not open or click on the email in the 7-day window, they are considered unengaged. In this path, the automation gives the subscriber a few more chances to re-engage by repeating the same sequence of steps: time delay > email send > evaluation.

You’ll add another Time Delay, followed by another Send Email, and then insert another True/False Branch to evaluate engagement again. This repeated cycle gives you the flexibility to extend the re-engagement period before taking further action (like marking the subscriber as inactive or removing them from your list).

Repeat the workflow as needed

You can continue building out your re-engagement sequence by repeating the core pattern: send an email, wait, and evaluate engagement.

To extend your workflow, simply repeat these steps:

• Customize the email message: Refer back to steps 8–13 above.
  Include a time delay: Refer to step 14.
• Set up the True/False Branch and nodes: Refer to steps 15–18.

Repeating this sequence gives inactive subscribers additional opportunities to engage before you take the final action of removing them from your list or marking them inactive.

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Frequently asked questions about re-engagement automations 

Is there a limit to how many follow-up messages I can send to re-engage my audience?

There is currently a limit of 45 steps in our automated journeys. However, if you need this limit to be raised, you can reach out to our team from the Help page in the top navbar of your account. On the Help page, you’ll find a variety of resources including our chatbot Buzz and the option to submit a ticket to our support team.

If I set an unengaged trigger with the condition set to “7 days without opens”, will it pull in people who signed up within the past 7 days?

Our unengaged trigger logic automatically filters out people who have signed up within the time window specified, so you will never run into the issue of accidentally removing subscribers who signed up more recently and qualify as 'unengaged' within the window. In this example, if you set the condition to '7 days without opens', it will only pull in subscribers who have signed up over 7 days ago with no opens.

Will I be able to recover subscribers who get deleted from my list?

Unfortunately, no, you cannot recover any subscribers that you delete from the segment. However, as a backup we suggest that you double check and/or export the list from the segment before you delete those subscribers.

Can I specify opens for a specific re-engagement message?

Not at this time. Currently you can only specify opens across all emails within the specified time frame.

Can I specify clicks on a specific CTA within my re-engagement message?

Not at this time. Currently you can only specify clicks across all emails within the specified time frame.

Will I be able to see which subscribers are unengaged?

Yes, you can see which of your subscribers are unengaged by segmenting for those based on the subscription details. For example, if you update the status to 'Inactive' for unengaged subscribers, you can then create a segment for 'unengaged' subscribers to produce a list of subscribers who qualify for this.