Summary4 min read

Podcast Episode Summary

Podcast: Success With Jewelry
Hosts: Laryssa Wirstiuk (Solo episode)
Episode Title: 164 – Laryssa Responds: Should You Resend Email Campaigns to Non-Openers?
Date: March 9, 2026

Episode Overview

In this solo episode, Laryssa Wirstiuk dives into the commonly asked question: Should you resend email campaigns to non-openers? Drawing on her expertise in email marketing for jewelry brands, Laryssa gives a decisive answer, breaks down the reasons behind her stance, and offers practical alternatives for better email engagement. This episode is part of a special listener Q&A format, with more questions addressed for Insider members on Patreon.

Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Understanding the Question

What is Resending to Non-Openers?
- Sending an email campaign as usual, then creating a segment of subscribers who didn’t open it, and resending the same campaign to them a few days later.

2. Laryssa’s Short Answer [02:06]

Direct Quote:
- “The short answer is I literally never ever, ever recommend doing this and here’s why.” – Laryssa [02:06]
Reassurance:
- If you’ve done this before, “It’s okay, you’re not doing anything crazy wrong, but let’s not do it moving forward.” [02:18]

3. Why Laryssa Advises Against It

a. Open Rate Data is Unreliable [02:40]

Apple’s Privacy Update (ca. 2021):
- Apple Mail now disguises open data, so marketers can’t confidently tell if emails are actually opened.
- Quote:
  - “We can no longer rely on it as an engagement metric…” – Laryssa [03:05]

b. Chasing the Uninterested is Counterproductive [03:45]

List Health Facts:
- 30–40% open rate is normal and healthy.
- Not everyone will engage, and that’s expected.
Dating Analogy:
- Quote:
  - “It’s kind of like, let’s compare it to dating. […] They have demonstrated that they’re not interested. It’s kind of the same thing with email marketing. And you don’t want to be chasing the people who are showing that they are not interested.” – Laryssa [04:35]

c. Focus on Engaged Subscribers [05:28]

Practical Tip:
- Segment out active subscribers (those engaged over the last 90–180 days) and cater to them for better results.
- Quote:
  - “You’ll have much less friction, much less effort by continuing to talk to the people on your list who are showing you that they want to hear from you…” – Laryssa [05:35]

d. Negative Impact on Deliverability [06:00]

Low Open Rate Signals Spam:
- Resending often results in only 5–10% open rates.
- If you keep sending to disengaged people, email providers like Gmail may flag your emails as spam.
- Quote:
  - “The more people that Gmail thinks that about, and the more often you do that, the higher likelihood will be that you actually will start ending up in spam folders. And that’s not a place you want to be.” – Laryssa [06:35]

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

“The short answer is I literally never ever, ever recommend doing this and here’s why.” – Laryssa [02:06]
“It’s okay, you’re not doing anything crazy wrong, but let’s not do it moving forward.” – Laryssa [02:18]
“We can no longer rely on [open rate] as an engagement metric…” – Laryssa [03:05]
“It’s kind of like, let’s compare it to dating… you don’t want to be chasing the people who are showing that they are not interested.” – Laryssa [04:35]
“You’ll have much less friction, much less effort by continuing to talk to the people on your list who are showing you that they want to hear from you…” – Laryssa [05:35]
“The more people that Gmail thinks that about… the higher likelihood will be that you actually will start ending up in spam folders.” – Laryssa [06:35]

Timestamps for Key Segments

00:00 – Introduction, show format, and listener question setup
02:06 – Laryssa’s short answer: Don’t resend to non-openers
02:40 – Apple privacy changes and open rate reliability
03:45 – How chasing non-openers is like chasing uninterested dates
05:28 – How to focus on engaged subscribers instead
06:00–06:35 – Deliverability risks and spam folder warnings

Takeaways for Listeners

Don’t chase non-openers:
Focus on serving your most engaged subscribers rather than trying to “convert” the unengaged.
Open rates are unreliable:
Privacy changes have made this metric a poor basis for decisions.
Protect deliverability:
Resending to non-openers too often hurts your sender reputation and can put you in the spam folder.
Segment and nurture:
Prioritize people who are actively engaged in the last 90–180 days.

For more in-depth Q&A and candid advice, listeners are invited to join the Success With Jewelry Insider community on Patreon.

To submit your own question or hear the extended episode, visit: successwithjewelry.com

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Transcript1 lines

[00:00]
A
Welcome to the Success With Jewelry Podcast. Your go to source for real conversations about business marketing and what it actually takes to succeed as a jewelry brand. Today I'm Larissa Strategist, systems lover and the person who genuinely enjoys turning big messy marketing problems into simple step by step plans that actually work. Email marketing and helping brands generate real revenue from it is the specialty of my agency, Joy Joya. Today's episode is a little bit different. Liz will be back with me next week, but for this episode it's just me and I'm answering listener submitted questions about my favorite topic, email marketing. I'll answer the first question here on the public episode, but the rest of the Q and A is part of the extended insider episode. If you didn't already know, we have a private insider community on Patreon. For $10 a month you unlock the extended version of every weekly episod where Liz and I go deeper, get candid, and share the kind of practical insights we don't always have time to fit into the main show. We also love getting listener submitted questions and topic ideas. So if you ever wanted to ask us something directly about marketing your jewelry business, this is exactly the kind of episode you'll want to hear. You can join us at successwithjewelry.com to to become an insider. All right, but let me get into the first question. So one of our Instagram followers on the Success With Jewelry account submitted this question to us. What do you think about resending emails to people who didn't open the first time? This is actually such a common question that I get and it's still a practice that a lot of people do. So if that question didn't really make sense, let me break it down. Basically there is a practice where you send an email campaign and then a few days later you create a segment of the people who didn't open it the first time and then resend the same campaign to those people. The short answer is I literally never ever, ever recommend doing this and here's why. And by the way, if you are doing this, it's okay not doing anything crazy wrong, but let's not do it moving forward. So let me explain why. A few years ago, maybe about five years ago at this point, Apple introduced new privacy settings on the iPhone that basically what happens when you use Apple Mail on your phone. It basically disguises the data that gets sent to email marketing providers. So any user on your email list that's using Apple Mail mail, they may or may not be opening the email and you can't ever actually know the truth. And so that's one really big reason why open rate is just really unreliable. We can no longer rely on it as an engagement metric. Another reason that I really don't recommend resending emails to people who didn't open in the first time is it's kind of like a negative way of looking at email marketing. You're basically reinforcing that you're going to keep sending to people who are not interested. So in a healthy email list, on average about 30 to 40% of your subscribers will consistently open your email. I know that probably doesn't sound a lot, but that's a really healthy open rate. The rest of your list may occasionally open your emails or they may be fully disengaged. And there's really not very much you can do about that. It's just how a healthy email list functions. Not everyone is going to be engaged. And when you send a campaign and then you take the same campaign and resend it to people who didn't open the first time, it's kind of like, let's compare it to dating. If you really like someone and you want them to go on a date with you and you send them a text or call them and you're like, hey, do you want to go on a date? And they don't respond, but you keep asking them, well, you're the one that kind of looks like the fool because they have demonstrated that they're not interested. It's kind of the same thing with email marketing. And you don't want to be chasing the people who are showing that they are not interested. So instead of resending to non openers, it's better to focus on the people who are engaged with your list. So see the people who are the most engaged over the past 90 over the past 180 days and focus on them, you'll have much less friction, much less effort by continuing to talk to the people on your list who are showing you that they want to hear from you, rather than trying to chase the people who for many different kinds of reasons have checked out and are not going to magically start opening your emails. One other reason I want to mention, if you're still not convinced that this is a bad practice, I have seen seen this in practice and I have seen the data associated with it. If you pull a report of email campaigns that were resent to non openers, you'll likely be seeing open rates on those campaigns that are like 5% to 10%. When you send an email campaign and it only has an open rate of 5 to 10% and you continue to do that over time. The inbox providers of those people who are not opening your emails, like Gmail, for example, are going to start to take a hint. They're going to start to think, hmm, my user doesn't seem to want to be opening these emails. I wonder if they're actually spam. And the more people that say Gmail thinks that about, and the more often you do that, the higher likelihood will be that you actually will start ending up in spam folders. And that's not a place you want to be. So if I haven't already convinced you that this is a bad strategy, hopefully, hopefully you kind of get the point. But I would love to hear if you have any follow up questions. Feel free to join our Patreon. We have a free community where you can post comments and questions in addition to the insider community. If you do want the rest of this Q and A episode where I answer many more questions about email marketing, head over to successwithjewelry.com to become an insider and that's where you'll get access to the full extended version version, plus our entire library of bonus content. And if you've been enjoying the podcast, I would be so grateful, and I know Liz would be too, if you take a moment to leave a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Those reviews really help more jewelry business owners discover the show and join our community. Thanks so much for listening.