Acknowledge the silence, skip the guilt
"We miss you" works. "We noticed you haven’t opened our last eight emails" does not — it reads as surveillance, and post-MPP it is often not even true.
Preview
What's inside
What's inside this re-engagement email template, module by module.
Read off the file itself, not a spec sheet. This is the module order the download actually ships with, in the order a reader meets them.
- Greeting hero
- Founder byline
- Primary CTA
- Editorial body zone (what's new)
- Editorial card
- Address
Import
How to import this template into ActiveCampaign, step by step.
The download is a single HTML file. Here is where it goes in ActiveCampaign, what the platform expects, and which tags are already wired up.
- Open Campaigns, then Campaign Templates.
- Choose Create a Template, then Start From Scratch.
- Pick Custom HTML and paste the downloaded file.
- Replace every placeholder before you send — image sources, link targets, body copy, the sender name and the footer address. ActiveCampaign does not host images in Custom HTML, so each img src has to point at a URL you control.
- Save, then select the template when you build a campaign.
Editing Custom HTML is one of ActiveCampaign’s three template paths and it is mutually exclusive with the two drag-and-drop designers — a Custom HTML template cannot be reopened in Email Designer. You can toggle to the visual editor for WYSIWYG changes when the HTML parses cleanly.
Watch for ActiveCampaign appends its own default footer unless the email carries both an unsubscribe tag and a sender-info tag. This template ships with both, so the footer you see is the footer that sends — remove either one and ActiveCampaign will bolt its own on underneath.
Swapping the placeholder images
ActiveCampaign does not host the images in a Custom HTML template. Every src has to resolve to a URL you control, or to a file you have uploaded into ActiveCampaign, before the first send — otherwise the image is simply missing in the inbox.
<img src="https://app.emailtemple.com/api/assets/26b5d…38-94bc-ac633647d185"
alt="Your brand name"
width="120">How to use it
When to send this re-engagement email, and what to change first.
When to send it
Build a segment of people who have not clicked in roughly six months and send only to them. Judge it on clicks, not opens. If they still do not respond, stop mailing them. Repeatedly sending to the disengaged is what trains inbox providers to route you to spam, and the rest of your list pays for it.
What to change first
The founder byline reads “Jane Doe, Founder, Your brand name”. That has to be a person your lapsed reader would actually recognise. The what’s-new card sells a “new Studio Dashboard” and claims it halves your setup time. Replace both with one concrete change and a number you can prove. The button says “Come say hi”, which is warm and vague. Give it a destination worth the click. Leave the pre-footer opt-out block alone. Three image slots: the logo, the founder avatar and the square card image. ActiveCampaign does not host images in a Custom HTML template, so all three need real URLs.
The craft
What makes a re-engagement email worth sending.
Make the exit visible
A preferences arrow-link and a soft "or unsubscribe here" in the pre-footer. Respecting the reader’s choice is part of the voice, and a clean list is worth more than an inflated one.
Protect the sender reputation
Frequency should match engagement — send most often to the recently engaged, and to contacts dormant past six months only inside a campaign like this one. Repeatedly mailing the disengaged is what trains inbox providers to route you to spam.
Or refine this
Make this email template yours.
Generate your own with this template as a starting point. Change the colors, the voice, the offer — describe what you want different and the studio recomposes it. Apply your brand kit and ship in your tone, not the template's.
The download is yours either way.
Open this template in the studio →
Questions
ActiveCampaign template questions, answered.
Can I reopen this in ActiveCampaign’s drag-and-drop designer?
No. Custom HTML is mutually exclusive with Email Designer and Classic Designer — a template created in one cannot be opened in the other. You can toggle to the visual editor for WYSIWYG edits when the HTML parses cleanly.
Does ActiveCampaign host the images in this template?
Not automatically. Every image in a Custom HTML template must point at an externally hosted URL or at a file you have uploaded into ActiveCampaign. Swap the placeholder sources before your first send.
Should a win-back email include a discount?
Only if the reason they left was price. Give them a reason to stay or an easy exit — a reflexive discount teaches the engaged half of your list to wait for the next one.
Does Re-engagement 'we miss you' — ActiveCampaign hold up in dark mode and Outlook?
Every zone sets its background twice — once as a bgcolor attribute and once as an inline background-color — which is the pattern that survives dark-mode inversion in clients that repaint backgrounds.
The “Come say hi” button is a bulletproof VML button, so Outlook on Windows draws a real filled button instead of collapsing it to a bare text link.
The layout is a 600px table backbone with a mobile breakpoint, and the CSS is already inlined for the clients that strip style blocks.
In the studio
Compose your own.
Describe what you want to send. Get a high-converting, dark-mode-safe template in seconds. Free tier, three generations a month, no card required.