How should email marketing segment readers who open newsletters but rarely click?

Hi! You shouldn’t be treated as “inactive” just because you rarely click—lots of genuinely engaged newsletter readers don’t click often (they read for awareness, they buy infrequently, they shop later via search/app, etc.). The tricky part is that “opens” are no longer a clean engagement signal for many subscribers because of privacy features (like Apple Mail Privacy Protection) that can make opens look inflated or inconsistent, so smart segmentation usually uses a mix of signals instead of clicks-only or opens-only.

A good way to avoid misclassifying low-click but interested readers is to define “dormant” based on multiple engagement paths and to separate “not clicking” from “not engaging at all.” Here are practical approaches that work well in email marketing:

1) Use a tiered engagement model (not a single rule)
Instead of “no clicks in 90 days = inactive,” create tiers such as:

• Highly engaged: recent clicks and/or recent purchases
• Engaged readers: consistent recent opens (with caution) and/or long-term tenure + occasional clicks
• At-risk: no reliable engagement signals for a while (more on this below)
• Dormant: no signals for an extended period and no response to a re-permission/re-engagement attempt

This way, someone like you lands in “engaged reader” or “low-click engaged,” not “inactive.”

2) Treat clicks as “strong intent,” opens as “weak/uncertain,” and add other signals
Clicks are still one of the strongest intent signals, but they’re not the only one. Depending on what data the brand has, you can combine:

• Click-through activity (strong)
• Conversions/purchases (very strong, often overlooked in email-only segmentation)
• Website behavior tied to email (e.g., sessions from email, logged-in views, add-to-cart—if tracked ethically/with consent)
• Reply behavior (if you ever reply to newsletters or contact support)
• On-site preference center updates (updating interests is a strong “still want this” signal)

If you have purchase data, a “rare clicker who buys once or twice a year” should usually be segmented by customer lifecycle (active customer, lapsed customer, repeat buyer) rather than being pushed into a generic re-engagement bucket.

3) Build a “low-click engaged” segment on purpose
This is the simplest fix operationally: create a segment like:

• No clicks in X days AND has (reliable) opens in Y days OR has purchased in Z months OR has any site activity
  Then exclude that segment from “dormant” suppressions and from aggressive win-back messaging.

4) Use re-engagement segments that test intent (not just activity)
Before calling someone dormant, run a lightweight “still want these emails?” check that doesn’t require a purchase:

• A one-question email: “Do you still want weekly emails?” with clear choices
• A preference-center CTA: “Tell us what you want more/less of”
• A “snooze” option (reduce frequency)
• A “choose topics” option (segmentation by interest often increases click-through rate without punishing readers who don’t click)

Someone who clicks that is clearly not inactive, even if they never click product links.

5) Be careful using opens as a hard cutoff
Opens can be useful directionally, but because they can be noisy, avoid rules like “opened in last 30 days = engaged” as the only criterion. If you do use opens, consider:

• Longer windows (to smooth out noise)
• Combining with at least one other signal (purchase, site visit, preference update, reply, etc.)

6) For deliverability, suppress truly unengaged addresses—but define that group conservatively
From a deliverability standpoint, brands often want to stop emailing people who show no signs of life to reduce spam complaints and protect inbox placement. The key is making “no signs of life” mean something like:

• No clicks, no purchases, no site activity, no preference updates, and no re-engagement responses over a longer period
  —not merely “rare clicks.”

If you want, tell me what the brand measures today (clicks only? clicks + opens? purchases?), and what their “inactive” window is (30/60/90/180 days). I can suggest a clean segmentation rule set that protects deliverability and keeps low-click readers like you out of the dormant bucket.