Is taking advantage of a sales period to reactivate inactive customers really a good idea?

Reading time: 9 min.

Every marketing database, regardless of the sector, eventually accumulates dormant or inactive contacts . These are people who no longer open emails, click on links, visit websites, return to stores, or interact with the brand, sometimes for months or even years. This situation is normal and unavoidable. Habits evolve, needs change, competition intensifies, and attention spans become more scattered.

Faced with these silent contacts, the temptation to follow up is strong . After all, these profiles are already in the database, they have agreed to receive communications at some point, and they represent, on the surface, a source of low-cost revenue.

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Introduction – an understandable marketing temptation

In this context, sales periods seem ideal . Sales, Black Friday, French Days, and private promotions offer powerful tools: attractive discounts, a sense of urgency , social pressure, and the dynamics of collective buying. The idea is simple: take advantage of this surge in activity to attempt a last-ditch reactivation before considering more radical measures such as permanent deactivation or data erasure under the right to be forgotten.

On paper, the logic seems irrefutable. But is it really a good idea?
In reality, this logic is much riskier than it seems. The answer is clear: no, it's generally not a good idea. Worse still, It's often a very bad idea, despite its apparent obviousness. !!!

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1. Analysis of the pros: Strengths and apparent opportunities

It would be dishonest to deny the arguments in favor of this approach. Trading periods bring together several factors that may seem favorable to reviving the inactive workforce.

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2. Analysis of the drawbacks: major weaknesses and threats

However, it is on the side of the risks that the analysis becomes truly decisive.

• The first problem is saturation.
  During sales periods, inboxes are literally flooded. Brand messages multiply, often with similar promises. An inactive contact, already less receptive outside of sales periods, is even less likely to notice a message lost in this ambient noise.
• The second pitfall concerns differentiation.
  Offers described as "exceptional" are becoming less and less so. Similar promotions reappear throughout the year, sometimes under different names. For an inactive contact, the message can lack credibility and reinforce the impression of opportunistic rather than truly personalized communication.
• Technical and reputational risks They, however, are very real.
  Sending mass emails to inactive subscribers significantly increases the likelihood of rejections, hard bounces, spam complaints, and being added to spam traps. These negative signals damage the sender's reputation and can lead to permanent spam filtering or even blacklisting.
• The paradox is then cruel…
  A few attempts at reactivation jeopardize all campaigns during the commercial period, the business stakes of which are in no way comparable to the gains expected from a handful of reactivated contacts.
• Added to this is a strong organizational constraint.
  Marketing teams are already under pressure during these peak periods. However, an effective reactivation strategy requires precisely the opposite: time, attention, and close monitoring. Precise segmentation, list cleaning, message adjustments, A/B testing, real-time monitoring, and the ability to quickly pause the campaign at the slightest sign of weakness are essential. These are rarely compatible with the frenetic pace of a sales event.
• Finally without specific adaptation from the offer to the inactive target, the message loses all meaning.
  Offering a generic promotion to a disengaged contact often confirms their disinterest rather than correcting it.

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3. SWOT Analysis: A largely unfavorable balance

Strengths	weaknesses
Offers perceived as more attractive thanks to promotions and commercial advantages; favorable buying dynamics and a sense of urgency which can, marginally, trigger a change in some inactive people.	Saturation of canals during commercial periods; low differentiation of messages and limited credibility of "exceptional" offers repeated throughout the year.

Opportunities	Threats
Possibility of testing a "last chance" speech and measuring the residual appetite of a part of the database before putting it to sleep or deleting it.	High risks to deliverability (spam complaints, bounces, spam traps), degradation of sender reputation, blacklisting and jeopardizing all high-stakes business campaigns.

The SWOT matrix highlights a clear imbalance. Strengths and opportunities are primarily based on a favorable short-term external environment. Conversely, weaknesses and threats affect the core of marketing performance: deliverability, brand image, operational efficiency, and revenue sustainability.

In summary, the structural risk far outweighs the potential benefit. The conclusion is logical: reactivating inactive customers during a sales period is, in most cases, a poor strategy, especially when pursued opportunistically.

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4. What strategies should be prioritized to successfully reactivate the business?

Reactivating inactive customers is not inherently wrong. It simply needs to be considered outside of peak commercial periods and treated as a standalone strategy.

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5. Concrete examples of good practices

• A retail brand can, for example, launch a dedicated reactivation campaign outside of the sales period, with a message focused on the season's new products and an exclusive, non-repeatable benefit.

Steps	Subject (email or main message)	The goal
Step 1	Re-establish contact with the brand	To verify the existence of residual interest without commercial pressure, to re-establish an initial signal ofcommitment.
Step 2	Highlighting the brand's value	To remind people of the universe, the new features or the differentiating services in order to recreate consideration.
Step 3	Personalized invitation (email + retargeting)	Encourage light interaction (visit, click, registration) via a consistent message across multiple channels.
Step 4	Targeted exclusive advantage	Offer a truly differentiating offer only to contacts who have shown a sign of interest.
Step 5	Final reminder or exit from the system	To formally acknowledge reactivation or definitively classify inactivity with a view to putting it into sleep mode or deactivation.

• An e-commerce player may prefer a progressive scenario: an initial re-engagement email without promotion, followed by a second personalized message, then an offer targeted only to profiles that have shown a sign of interest.

Steps	Subject (email or main message)	The goal
Step 1	Re-engagement email without an offer	Test the receptiveness of the contact and identify profiles that are still sensitive to the brand.
Step 2	Personalized message based on history	Reinforce perceived relevance by building on past preferences or behaviors.
Step 3	Discreet advertising retargeting	Multiply the points of contact without direct pressure and install a brand reminder.
Step 4	Conditional Targeted Offer	Trigger the action only with contacts who have shown a signal of interest.
Step 5	Final qualification	Confirm reactivation or direct the contact towards being put on hold or deleted.

• In the B2BA brand can use content as its main lever, by offering a high-value white paper or webinar before any commercial solicitation.

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Conclusion

Re-engaging inactive contacts is a legitimate goal for any organization. These contacts represent a record of the customer relationship, a history of interactions, and sometimes, untapped potential value. However, this goal should not obscure a fundamental reality: not all contacts can or should be reactivated.

Taking advantage of a sales period to conduct this type of operation is more often a knee-jerk reaction than a genuine strategy. The pressure of the sales calendar pushes people to act quickly, sometimes without sufficient forethought , even though reactivation requires finesse, a gradual approach, and a strong capacity for adaptation.

Behind the promise of quick wins lie significant structural risks: deteriorating deliverability, weakened brand image, loss of control over negative signals, and jeopardizing business strategies with a far more critical business impact. These effects are often invisible in the short term but have serious long-term consequences.

Reactivation therefore requires a dedicated framework, time, and a methodical approach based on data, testing, and the careful orchestration of channels. It also implies accepting that some contacts may no longer respond and that this inactivity is a signal in itself, which must be respected.

Failing to innovate in its approaches, the best decision is sometimes to accept support. Leveraging external expertise, specialized tools, or experienced partners often helps to secure these sensitive systems , maximize their value, and, above all, prevent good intentions from turning into lasting risks for the entire marketing ecosystem.

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Some references

• « Deliverability Best Practices – Matthieu Raffard – Badsender – 2023
• « Email Engagement and Sender Reputation » – Spamhaus Project – Spamhaus – 2023
• « Email Deliverability: The Ultimate Guide » – Kath Pay – Holistic Email Marketing – 2022
• « Cross-Channel Marketing Orchestration » – Forrester – Forrester Research – 2022
• « CRM Data Hygiene and Performance » – Gartner – Gartner Research – 2022
• « The Cost of Poor Email Hygiene » – Return Path – Validity – 2021
• « Consumer Attention in Promotional Periods » – Think with Google – Google – 2021
• « Managing Inactive Subscribers » – Chad S. White – Oracle Marketing Consulting – 2020
• « Why Re-engagement Campaigns Fail » – Dela Quist – Alchemy Worx – 2019

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