The most dangerous users in your SaaS aren't the ones who complain. It's the ones who go silent. They stop logging in, stop using features, stop opening your emails. And then one day their credit card renews, they see the charge, and they cancel.
This is the silent churn pattern, and it accounts for more revenue loss than any other type. The good news is that inactivity is the easiest churn signal to detect and act on. You just need to be watching for it.
Defining "Inactive" for Your Product
Before you can re-engage inactive users, you need to define what inactive means. And this varies wildly by product.
Daily-use products (project management, communication tools, CRM): Inactive = 5-7 days without login. These users have built a daily habit, so even a few days of silence is significant.
Weekly-use products (analytics, reporting, marketing tools): Inactive = 14-21 days. Missing one week might be a vacation. Missing two or three is a pattern.
Monthly-use products (invoicing, payroll, quarterly reporting): Inactive = 30-45 days. These products have natural gaps in usage, so don't overreact to a quiet month.
The best approach is relative, not absolute. Compare each user's current activity to their own historical average. If someone who usually logs in 20 times a month drops to 3, that's a bigger signal than someone who always logs in 3 times a month.
The Re-Engagement Ladder
Don't go from silence to "WE MISS YOU!" in one step. Escalate gradually from soft to direct:
Level 1: The Soft Check-In (First Inactivity Threshold)
Subject: "Everything okay?"
"Hey [name], just wanted to make sure everything's working fine on your end. I noticed things have been quiet on your account. If you ran into any issues, hit reply and I'll help sort it out."
Send from the founder's email. Plain text. No design. The goal is a genuine human touchpoint, not a marketing campaign.
Timing: Trigger this the moment they hit your inactivity threshold.
Level 2: The Value Nudge (3-5 Days After Level 1)
Subject: "Quick tip for [something they were working on]"
This email references something specific about their past usage and offers concrete value:
"Last time you were in [product], you were [specific activity]. Here's a quick tip that might help: [actionable suggestion]. Takes about 2 minutes to set up."
The goal is to remind them of the value they were getting and give them a reason to log back in.
Level 3: The Feature Update (5-7 Days After Level 2)
Subject: "New in [product]: [feature name]"
Share something genuinely new or improved that's relevant to their use case:
"We just shipped [feature], and I think it would help with what you were doing. [One sentence about what it does and why it matters.] Worth a quick look: [link]."
Don't dump a changelog on them. One specific, relevant improvement.
Level 4: The Direct Ask (5-7 Days After Level 3)
Subject: "Honest question"
"Hey [name], I want to make sure [product] is still a good fit for you. If something's not working or your needs have changed, I'd genuinely like to know. And if you're just busy and plan to come back, no worries at all. Just reply with a thumbs up and I'll leave you alone."
This gives them an easy out (the thumbs up response) while also opening the door for a real conversation.
Level 5: The Last Email (7 Days After Level 4)
Subject: "Should I keep your account active?"
"I've sent a few emails and haven't heard back, so I want to respect your inbox. I'll stop emailing about this, but your account and all your data are here whenever you want to come back. If there's ever anything I can help with, just reply to this email. It goes straight to me."
This is the final email in your re-engagement sequence. After this, move them to a low-frequency list.
Behavioral Triggers That Work
The more specific your trigger, the better your re-engagement. Here are the most effective ones:
Login frequency drop: User's logins dropped below 40% of their 4-week average. This catches gradual disengagement, not just sudden stops.
Feature abandonment: User stopped using a key feature they previously used regularly. This is more specific than login frequency and allows for more targeted re-engagement emails.
Session duration drop: User still logs in but spends much less time in the product. They might be checking out of habit but not getting value.
Inactivity after event: User triggered a specific event but didn't complete the next expected action. For example, they created a campaign but never sent it. They started onboarding but didn't finish.
With Sequenzy, you can set up inactivity triggers that fire when a user hasn't performed a specific event (like "login") for X days. The re-engagement sequence starts automatically.
What "We Miss You" Emails Get Wrong
Most re-engagement emails are terrible. Here's why:
They're generic. "We noticed you haven't been around!" Yeah, that could be sent to literally anyone. There's no personalization, no relevance, no reason to care.
They're desperate. "We miss you! Please come back!" This screams "our metrics are down and you're a number." Users can feel it.
They're branded. A beautifully designed HTML email with your logo and a big "Come back!" CTA feels like marketing. At this stage, you need to feel like a person, not a brand.
They offer nothing. "Just a reminder that [product] is here for you!" What is the user supposed to do with that information?
What Works Instead
- Reference their specific past activity
- Offer something genuinely useful (a tip, a new feature, a resource)
- Sound like a human, not a template
- Give them a specific, easy action to take
- Respect their time and attention
The Post-Sequence Strategy
After your 5-email re-engagement sequence, users fall into three buckets:
Re-engaged (10-25%): They came back. Move them back to your regular email cadence and monitor closely for the next 30 days. If they go inactive again, they might need more hands-on help.
Responded but didn't re-engage (5-10%): They replied saying they're busy, or they'll come back later. Move them to a monthly "what's new" digest. Check in again in 60-90 days.
No response (65-85%): Move them to a low-frequency update list (monthly or quarterly). If they don't open 3 consecutive updates, sunset them.
Sunset Policy
This is the part most founders struggle with. You worked hard to get these subscribers, and removing them feels like giving up.
But keeping unengaged contacts on your list actively hurts you. Email providers look at your engagement rates when deciding whether to deliver your emails. A list full of people who never open anything drags down your deliverability for everyone, including your active users.
The sunset rule: If a user hasn't opened any email from you in 90 days AND didn't respond to your re-engagement sequence, remove them from your active email list. You can keep their account data, just stop emailing them.
You're not deleting their account. You're cleaning your email list. If they ever come back and log in, you can add them back to your email sequences.
Measuring Re-Engagement
Track these:
- Re-engagement rate: % of inactive users who log in within 14 days of receiving your sequence
- Re-engagement by email: Which email in the sequence drives the most returns?
- Sustained re-engagement: Of those who came back, how many are still active 30 days later?
- Second inactivity rate: % of re-engaged users who go inactive again
- Deliverability impact: Are your overall email metrics improving as you clean your list?
The sustained re-engagement rate is the one that really matters. Bringing someone back for one session doesn't count if they disappear again the next day.
Start Here
- Today: Define your inactivity threshold based on your product's usage frequency.
- This week: Set up a 3-email re-engagement sequence (the soft check-in, the value nudge, and the direct ask).
- This month: Implement a sunset policy for users who don't respond.
The combination of re-engagement emails and a clean sunset policy does two things: it saves a chunk of users who would have churned, and it improves your email deliverability for everyone else. Both of those translate directly to revenue.