# Unengaged Subscriber Sunset Page: https://alidemirbas.com.tr/en/lab/journeys/unengaged-sunset No engagement → preference check → final campaign → reduce or stop marketing ## Purpose Reduce or stop non-essential marketing when a subscriber repeatedly ignores messages, while giving them a clear preference choice first. Goal: Consent & Permission · Category: Retention & Subscriptions ## Steps - **Trigger**: No meaningful engagement with recent marketing messages - **Decision**: Is the person still an active customer? - Yes: Reduce marketing frequency; keep important messages only - No: Email: How would you like us to contact you? Open the preference centre - **Action**: Reduce marketing frequency; keep important messages only - **Action**: Email: How would you like us to contact you? Open the preference centre - **Wait**: Wait 3–5 days - **Decision**: Did they update preferences? - Yes: Journey ends - No: Push: Review your communication preferences - **Action**: Push: Review your communication preferences - **Wait**: Wait 2–3 days - **Decision**: Any response? - Yes: Journey ends - No: Send one final return/value campaign - **Action**: Send one final return/value campaign - **Wait**: Wait about 7 days - **Decision**: Any engagement or purchase? - Yes: Journey ends - No: Stop non-essential marketing - **Exit**: Stop non-essential marketing - **Exit**: Journey ends ## Guardrails - Keep service and mandatory messages separate from marketing suppression. - Respect any preference change immediately. ## Core rule Silence should reduce pressure, not trigger more and more campaigns. ## When to set it up Set this journey up when campaign reports show reach growing while a widening share of subscribers has not clicked, changed a preference or bought anything for a long time. Check first that clicks, preference center changes and product or purchase activity sit on the same person identity, that the active customer flag is current, and that service notices run outside the marketing list. If the silence sits in one channel whose permission just closed, or opens are simply unobservable, fix the measurement and the permission first; do not sunset people you cannot measure. ## How to set it up - **Trigger and entry**: Entry starts when no meaningful engagement is recorded against recent marketing messages for the period you define. At entry, randomly split eligible subscribers into a journey group and a control group that keeps its usual calendar and gets none of this journey's messages. - **Who must not enter**: Anyone who already opted out or unsubscribed stays out; an existing refusal is applied at once and never becomes the reason for a final campaign. So does a person the Permission Recovery journey is still holding. A marketing subscriber holds one instance at a time; no second flow opens for the same person. - **Timing and channels**: Someone still an active customer gets no message; frequency drops and only important messages remain. Everyone else gets an email opening the preference center, a preference check after 3 to 5 days, a push if nothing changed, a response check after 2 to 3 days, then one final campaign and about 7 days of waiting. - **Exit and handoff**: An updated preference, any response, or engagement or a purchase after the final campaign ends the journey and cancels what is queued. If the silence outlasts the final campaign, non-essential marketing stops. That stop leaves service and mandatory messages untouched and closes no account or paid membership; there is no handoff to another journey. - **Frequency and consent**: A silent subscriber receives no more than three messages: the email, the push and the single final campaign, with push used only where permission exists. Whenever the person changes a preference or unsubscribes, the choice takes effect immediately and the remaining touches are dropped. ## How to measure success **Incremental preference-update rate vs control**: What this journey wants is an explicit choice from a silent person; a stop applied without an answer, or opens on the final campaign, do not show that value. Among all subscribers assigned at entry to the journey group and the control group, the share who update their communication preferences within the same follow-up window from assignment; the gap between the groups is the journey's effect. Whether the email was delivered, opened or clicked does not change the denominator. Also track: - **Silent stop share**: The share of entrants whose non-essential marketing stops without any answer; read next to preference updates, it shows how much of the list the journey is cleaning. - **Engagement after the final campaign**: Engagement or a purchase within the roughly 7 days after the final campaign, as a share of those who received it; it shows who one campaign brought back and is no argument for sending more. - **Unsubscribes and complaints**: Track email unsubscribes, push opt-outs and complaints per touch; an unsubscribe is itself an explicit choice and is applied at once, while rising complaints say the final campaign reached the wrong people. - **Active customers moved to lower frequency**: Those judged still active at entry and moved to reduced frequency without a message, as a share of entrants; use it to confirm you really separate active customers from people who merely ignore messages. ## What to watch when reading the result - If the preference-update gap does not beat the control group, the journey is only shortening the list rather than producing a choice; open counts on the final campaign do not make up for it, since mail clients that load images record opens nobody read. Decide on the preference gap and the unsubscribe trend together. - Treat the result as specific to the email, push, final campaign order and these waits. Winning back a lapsed paid relationship belongs to the Lapsed Customer Win-Back journey; do not credit a return there to this one. While the Permission Recovery journey is trying to reopen a channel, do not count that person's silence here. - Preference updates are rare, so when the gap looks small, first enter the control group's baseline rate and the smallest difference you want to detect into the [sample size calculator](https://alidemirbas.com.tr/en/calculators/sample-size-calculator) to see how many subscribers each arm needs; do not decide before your entries reach that number. - Reaching the stop exit leaves the account and the paid membership open, and service and mandatory messages continue unchanged. Never read silence as proof the product is unused; if the active customer share keeps rising, tighten the entry definition. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### Should everyone without recorded email opens be treated as inactive? No. Systems such as Apple Mail can load images without a person reading, while some real reading is unobservable. Consider clicks, preference changes and product or purchase behavior. Distinguish active customers from unresponsive messaging subscribers. ### Does a sunset journey close the customer's account or subscription? No. This example reduces or stops nonessential marketing. It does not automatically close accounts or paid memberships. Handle necessary service notices separately and do not equate messaging silence with definite product inactivity. ### What should be offered before marketing is suppressed? Provide a clear preference center for frequency or channel choices. This example ends marketing after bounded follow-up without response. An existing opt-out is different from silence and must not trigger one last promotional campaign.