Reviving a Dormant List: How One Distributor Turned 60,000 Inactive Contacts into a Revenue Engine
When we first connected with this distributor, they had a valuable but completely untapped resource: a list of more than 60,000 past customers. For years, they had done zero marketing to that list. No newsletters. No campaigns. Nothing to keep their brand in front of the very people most likely to buy again.
Their goal was straightforward but ambitious:
- Leverage email to keep the brand top of mind.
- Position the company more clearly against competitors.
- Drive more repeat purchases from existing customers.
But there was a catch. Starting from zero in a brand-new Klaviyo account, this list had never received a marketing email. Sending to 60,000 cold contacts all at once would have destroyed their deliverability and risked getting the account blacklisted.
Our Approach
We started by cleaning the list, removing bad addresses and trimming down more than 15,000 unusable contacts. From there, we split the remaining list into 22 carefully sequenced batches—a deliberate, controlled warm-up designed to establish sender reputation the right way.
Then came the campaign. Over five emails, we focused on:
- Strong positioning of the brand and its differentiators.
- Personal messages from the CEO to build trust and encourage replies.
- Helpful, relevant resources for buyers.
- Clear CTAs driving traffic back to the online store.
- Progressive pacing: starting with high-value, educational content and ending with more direct sales messaging.
We also encouraged recipients to reply directly to the emails, a powerful signal that boosted sender reputation while creating unexpected customer engagement.
The Results
The campaign exceeded expectations. While its primary goal was deliverability, it also generated significant revenue:
- $62,382 in sales in the first month
- 172 conversions and 1,435 site visits directly from the flow
- 36,825 recipients entered the sequence
- Deliverability score improved from 0 to 52 in one month, and to 74 by the end of the second month
- 500+ direct replies from customers, creating conversations and strengthening relationships
Key Wins
- Revenue Lift: Even as a “warming” exercise, the flow delivered over $62K in sales within 30 days.
- Healthier List: 15,000+ dead contacts were removed, leaving a cleaner, more engaged database.
- Deliverability Established: From zero reputation to a strong sender score in just weeks.
- Brand Reinforcement: The campaign proved the importance of staying top of mind with B2B buyers—and continually highlighting core differentiators in every touchpoint.
One unexpected win? The client noted over 500 replies to their orders inbox from customers who simply wanted to engage. As they put it: “The warming campaigns generated >500 responses to our Orders email account. I don’t have a watermark for what ‘good looks like,’ but I view that as a positive and thought I would relay that data to you.”
The Takeaway
Even a “cold” list can become a growth driver if approached with care. By combining a methodical warm-up process with human-centered campaigns, this distributor turned dormant contacts into an active, revenue-generating channel—while laying the foundation for long-term retention.
