imperialdigitalhq.com

Email Copywriting · Northgate Solutions

4,000 Contacts. Two Years of Silence. One Campaign That Brought in Three New Clients.

A dormant list, no email strategy, and a team that did not know what to say. Imperial wrote the sequences, sent the first campaign, and one of the three new clients it generated became their largest account.

41% Open Rate — 3 New Clients — First Send

The Challenge

Northgate Solutions had built a contact list of over 4,000 people across two years of business development activity — events, referrals, website enquiries, and previous client contacts. The list had never been emailed. Not once.

The reason was simple: nobody on the team knew what to say, and the longer they waited the more uncomfortable the silence became. By the time they came to Imperial the list felt too cold to touch, the team had convinced themselves it would not work, and they were leaving a significant revenue opportunity completely untapped every single month.

The contacts were warm. The problem was the copy.

The Solution

Imperial Digital HQ audited the contact list, segmented it by relationship type, and built a three-part reactivation strategy. First, a welcome and reintroduction sequence that acknowledged the gap without apologising for it and reminded contacts why they were connected to Northgate in the first place. Second, a value-led newsletter format that gave contacts a reason to stay engaged beyond the initial reactivation. Third, the first campaign — a direct offer to a segmented portion of the list most likely to convert based on past interaction history.

Every email was written with a specific job to do. Subject lines were tested for open rate. Body copy was written to move, not inform. CTAs were specific, not generic.

The first send went out to 4,000 contacts. 41% opened it.

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Website Copywriting Services
Homepage Copy
Service Page Copy
About Page Writing
Landing Page Copy
SEO-Optimised Copy
Brand Voice Development
Copy Audits & Rewrites
CTA & Microcopy Writing
Conversion-Focused Copy
Copy for Agencies & Consultants
Delivered in 7–10 Business Days
Website Copywriting Services
Homepage Copy
Service Page Copy
Landing Page Copy
Website Copywriting Services
Homepage Copy
Service Page Copy
About Page Writing
Landing Page Copy
SEO-Optimised Copy
Brand Voice Development
Copy Audits & Rewrites
CTA & Microcopy Writing
Conversion-Focused Copy
Copy for Agencies & Consultants
Delivered in 7–10 Business Days
Website Copywriting Services
Homepage Copy
Service Page Copy
Landing Page Copy
"

We had been sitting on that list for two years telling ourselves it was too cold. Imperial sent the first email and we had three new client conversations within a week. One of them became our biggest account.

Director Northgate Solutions
The Numbers

What One Email Campaign
Actually Produced

Every number below is from the Northgate Solutions engagement. A list that had never been emailed, activated with one campaign.

41%
Open Rate — First Send
Industry average email open rate sits between 20 and 25%. The first Northgate campaign hit 41% — nearly double — on a list that had been silent for two years.
3
New Client Conversations
Three new client conversations initiated directly from the first campaign send. All three progressed to discovery calls within one week of the email going out.
1
Largest Account Won
One of the three new clients became Northgate's largest account to date — a direct result of a single reactivation email to a list that had been sitting untouched for two years.
4K
Contacts Reactivated
Over 4,000 contacts across two years of business development activity — events, referrals, enquiries, and past clients — reactivated with a three-part welcome and reactivation sequence.
Deliverables

What Imperial
Actually Produced

Every deliverable that went into turning a dormant list into Northgate's most productive new business channel.

01
List Audit and Segmentation
The 4,000-contact list was audited and segmented by relationship type — past clients, warm leads, event contacts, referrals, and cold enquiries. Each segment received messaging calibrated to the relationship, not a generic blast.
02
Reactivation Sequence
A three-email reactivation sequence written to acknowledge the silence, re-establish the relationship, and give contacts a reason to engage — without apologising, over-explaining, or leading with a pitch.
03
Newsletter Format and Template
A repeatable newsletter format and template that gave the Northgate team a structure they could maintain independently — consistent sections, consistent tone, and a layout that builds familiarity over time.
04
First Campaign Copy
The first direct offer campaign — written to a specific segment of the list most likely to convert based on past interaction history. Subject line, preview text, body copy, and CTA all written and tested before send.
05
Subject Line Testing Framework
A subject line testing framework for every future send — two variants per email with a clear hypothesis for each. Built so the Northgate team could continue improving open rates independently without guessing.
06
Email Strategy Document
A written email strategy document covering send cadence, content pillars, segmentation logic, and escalation sequences — so the Northgate team had a clear system to follow rather than starting from scratch each month.
Services Used

The Services Behind This Result

Every Imperial service that contributed to Northgate Solutions activating their dormant list and winning new business.

Primary Service
Website Copywriting
The email copy strategy — reactivation sequences, campaign copy, subject line frameworks, and newsletter format — all produced as part of a broader copywriting engagement covering Northgate's full written presence.
Learn More
Supporting Service
SEO Blog Writing
The newsletter content strategy was built on the same content pillars as Northgate's SEO blog — meaning every newsletter send also drove traffic back to high-value blog content and reinforced the site's organic search authority.
Learn More
Supporting Service
Sales Funnel and Pipeline Setup
The three new client conversations generated by the campaign were fed into an automated pipeline — so every future email response was captured, routed, and followed up without any manual tracking by the Northgate team.
Learn More

A Dormant List Is Not a Dead List —
It Is Untapped Revenue

If you have contacts you have never emailed, or a list that has gone quiet, we can write the sequences that bring it back to life. Book a free call and we will map out exactly what your list needs.

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