📉 Why You Have Low Engagement (And How to Fix It)

Judith Prugger
Feb 17
3 min read

Updated: Jun 20

Low email engagement is frustrating—but it’s often a symptom of something deeper. If your opens and clicks are lagging, it might not just be weak content or bad timing. You could be emailing unengaged subscribers… or worse, fake or inactive addresses that are silently hurting your sender reputation.

Let’s dig into why it’s happening and how to fix it.

📌 The Real Cost Of Low Engagement

When emails aren’t opened, clicked, or even seen, inbox providers take notice—and not in a good way. Here’s what that can lead to:

🚧 Lower Deliverability: More emails routed to spam or promotions tabs.
🔻 Fewer Clicks & Conversions: Poor visibility leads to missed revenue opportunities.
❌ More Unsubscribes or Spam Complaints: When your content does reach subscribers but doesn’t resonate, they may opt out or report it as spam — both of which can damage your sender reputation and future inbox placement.

🤔 What Might Be Going Wrong

You’re sending to low-quality contacts: Fake signups, purchased lists, or old subscribers who haven’t opened in ages hurt deliverability and engagement metrics—fast.
Irrelevant content: If it doesn't resonate, it won't get opened.
Lack of personalization: One-size-fits-all messaging doesn’t perform.
Too frequent sends: Overloading inboxes can lead to fatigue.
Bad timing: If it lands when your audience isn’t checking email, it gets buried.
Spam filtering: Some emails are flagged before they even reach the inbox.

🚀 How to Fix It

✅ Segment Based on Engagement

Use time-based filters in your ESP (like Klaviyo) to break out subscribers based on how recently they've interacted with your emails. Start with a basic 30/60/90-day segmentation:

0–30 days = Highly engaged
31–60 days = Warm
61–90+ days = At risk or inactive

Tip: Suppress unengaged subscribers from regular sends to protect your deliverability score. Only include them in targeted winback campaigns after cleaning your list and seeing improved inbox placement.

✅ Send Relevant and Personalized Content

Generic blasts don’t cut it. Use Klaviyo’s tag-based segmentation or custom properties to serve content tailored to the subscriber’s:

Purchase history
Quiz results
Product interests
Location or time zone

Tip: Add dynamic blocks in your emails to show personalized product picks, reminders, or educational content. Klaviyo’s predictive analytics tools (like expected next order date) can help automate this.

✅ Optimize Your Email Frequency

Monitor engagement drop-offs and complaint rates to fine-tune how often you send. There’s no one-size-fits-all cadence—start with:

1–2 emails/week for engaged segments
Biweekly or monthly for less active segments

Tip: Watch for patterns. If open rates dip after a second weekly send, scale back.

✅ Test Your Send Times

Open rates can swing dramatically depending on when your email lands. Run A/B tests with Klaviyo’s Smart Send Time or manually test across weekday mornings vs. evenings.

Tip: Don’t assume weekends underperform—test it. B2C brands often see spikes on Sunday night.

✅ Improve Deliverability

Use tools like NeverBounce or ZeroBounce to validate your list and identify invalid or bounced email addresses—especially if you’ve ever run a giveaway, used a pop-up with no double opt-in, or imported a list. Be sure to exclude hard bounces from all future sends to protect your sender reputation. Set up a sunset flow to automatically suppress subscribers after 90+ days of inactivity if they haven’t re-engaged.

Tip: Avoid spam triggers like deceptive subject lines or excessive exclamation points. Stick to a consistent sending schedule and warm up new domains properly if switching platforms.