Re-engaging old leads without becoming spam
Dormant leads are the cheapest list a brokerage owns. They are also the one where the consent question is least likely to have a comfortable answer, so that is where this starts.
Then: how to segment by why they went quiet, what to actually say, and when to stop.
Settle consent before you write anything
In Canada, CASL governs commercial electronic messages, and an enquiry that went nowhere two years ago is precisely the case where implied consent is most likely to have expired. Before a re-engagement campaign, three questions:
- Do you have express consent, and can you show when and how it was obtained?
- If you are relying on implied consent, is it still current on your reading of the rules?
- Has this person ever unsubscribed or asked not to be contacted? That answer is permanent.
If you cannot answer the first two for a given lead, a phone call is a different regulatory question from an email, and often the better option anyway for someone who once spoke to you.
This is operational guidance, not legal advice. CASL and the rules on implied consent have specifics and exceptions; check your own obligations, and if a campaign is large enough to matter, check them with somebody qualified.
Segment by why they went quiet
A single "we miss you" to everyone performs badly because the group is not one group. Three segments, in order of how likely they are to convert:
- Quoted, never decided. The best group by a distance. They wanted it, they engaged, something interrupted. You also know exactly what they were looking at, which makes the message easy.
- Timing was wrong. Mid-term, waiting on a house purchase, business not started yet. These are diary entries, not a campaign. If you recorded the reason, you know roughly when to come back.
- Went elsewhere. Worth one touch near their likely renewal date, and only if you have something specific to say. Otherwise leave them.
All three segments require a loss reason to have been recorded at the time. If yours were not, this is the argument for starting now: a year from today this list is either segmented or it is one undifferentiated pile again.
What to say
Reference the specific thing. "I quoted your shop insurance last March and we never picked it back up" is a real message. "We miss you" is a template, and people can tell.
Give a reason for contacting them now that is about them rather than about your quarter: their renewal is approaching, the market has moved, their circumstances probably changed. Then make the ask small — a reply, or ten minutes.
And make leaving easy. An obvious way to say "not interested" protects the list, because the alternative is people ignoring you, which teaches you nothing and damages deliverability.
Stop rules, which nobody writes down
Decide these before the first message goes out, because deciding them afterwards means deciding them while looking at disappointing numbers.
- Two attempts, then stop. Not two a week — two, total.
- Any negative reply ends it permanently, and gets recorded.
- An unsubscribe is forever and applies across every future campaign.
- No second campaign to the same person within twelve months.
- If a segment produces nothing at all, stop the segment rather than rewriting the copy.
The last one saves the most time. Two rewrites of a message to a group that has no interest is a week spent proving something you already knew.
Doing it without a campaign tool
CovioIQ does not send email to your clients, so this is tasks and drafts rather than a sequence: filter the segment, create a dated task per lead, and use a written template. For a list of thirty that is an afternoon and it is more personal than a campaign.