“I just thought it was best practice to always do a re-send.”
On the surface, the logic seems solid. Some people missed your email the first time. Why not give them another shot?
The problem is that routine resending isn’t actually best practice. It’s closer to the opposite.
This came up recently during a Power Hour. A client couldn’t understand why her overall open rate looked lower than her individual broadcast open rates. When we dug into her Kit account together, the answer was right there: she’d been resending her newsletter every week to everyone who hadn’t opened it within a few days.
Her initial send was getting over 50% open rates – genuinely strong numbers. But then that resend would go out to the non-openers, and only around 14% of those people would open it. When Kit combines both sends to calculate her overall rate, a beautiful 50% looks like more like 30-something percent.
But the more important issue isn’t how it looks in her dashboard. It’s how it looks to Gmail, Yahoo, and other inbox providers.
When you send an email to your whole list and 50% open it, inbox providers read that as a strong engagement signal. When you then send what is essentially the same email to the remaining half and only 14% open it, that’s a weak signal – and those providers are paying attention to both. Over time, a pattern of alternating strong and weak sends can quietly erode your sender reputation and hurt your email deliverability, meaning fewer of your emails make it to the inbox at all.
As I told my client, you’re getting more people opening your email, yes. But you’re sending a confusing signal to the people who actually control whether your emails land.
The dopamine hit is real – and it’s the problem
I say this as someone who checks email stats way too often, both my own and my clients’. It’s a genuinely nice hit of dopamine to watch your open rate tick up after a resend. I completely understand the appeal.
But should you never resend?
When I posted my hot take posted my hot take about it on LinkedIn, the responses told me that I’d struck a nerve.
“I’ve wondered if you’re ‘supposed’ to resend to unopens but it feels so pushy and annoying that I just ignored it. Glad to hear it really IS pushy and annoying.”
“As a subscriber to many emails, I cannot possibly read them all, so I pick and choose what is most relevant at that time. If someone were to keep sending content that I intentionally did not open, I would be more inclined to unsubscribe.”
“If I didn’t read/reply to your newsletter the first time, then I have it flagged to read later or I’ve already deleted it. Either way, receiving it twice would be annoying!”
“Thanks for affirming my uneasiness about resending. I did it a few times last year, but started to feel weird about it.”
Then two thoughtful responses gently nudged me off my soapbox and reminded me to practice what I preach when working with my 1:1 email marketing clients, which is blending email marketing best practices with what works for your business.
(And to avoid one-size-fits-all advice.)
I reached out to the two people in that post who shared about why their clients sometimes do resend.
Email strategist, copywriter, and storyteller Toby Myles shared that one of her clients resends her newsletter the next day, changing only the subject line, and it often pays off in terms of sales:
“For the first send we’re seeing about 40% open rate and the 2nd send about 11% open rate. I do a monthly recap of metrics and while the 2nd email doesn’t always result in sales, sometimes it does.”
Marketing Strategist Kristi Mitchell told me:
“I’ve always told my clients it’s a good idea to send to non-openers, especially if they’re a client that doesn’t email that much, so like once a month emails.”
However, Kristi added that she doesn’t recommend this approach for her clients who send weekly or more frequent newsletters.
I’ve done it myself on occasion under specific circumstances, such as when I polling my subscribers in the fall or when I sent a promotional email last spring.
So as I come back to this idea of resending emails to people who didn’t open the first time, I’m brought back to the intent vs. impact framework.
What to ask yourself before resending a newsletter
“Why am I resending my newsletter to people who didn’t open it? What is the intent?”
- Is this time-sensitive or urgent information that your subscribers might miss out on?
- Was it a particularly relevant resource or piece of content?
- Was there an issue the first time you sent it and you want to make sure people actually received it?
- Am I trying to boost sales for a specific offer?
“What is the potential impact of resending newsletters?“
Then consider the experience you’re creating:
- Some subscribers could’ve missed it first time around and might welcome another opportunity to read it
- Others might’ve made an intentional choice not to engage, and now you’re overriding that choice
- Some could see duplicate emails before they’ve even opened the first one
- Your readers whose privacy settings blocked open tracking get penalized with redundant content
Resends to non-openers should be the exception
Rather than routine resending, put that energy into the initial send. A stronger subject line, a more compelling preview text, sending at a time that works better for your audience – these build your sender reputation rather than quietly working against it.
And if you do resend, make it the exception rather than the rule. Reserve it for the emails that genuinely warrant a second chance, not every newsletter as a matter of habit.
The question isn’t whether resending works. It’s whether it serves your subscribers – or just your metrics.