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Lead reactivation in the UK: a playbook for the old enquiries in your CRM
The cheapest leads you will ever work are the ones you have already paid for. Reviving them is mostly a matter of asking politely, in the right order, with permission, and knowing when to stop.
By the Unibound team6 min read
Every business that has run adverts for a few years owns a list of people who asked for a quote, a brochure or a call back and then went quiet. Most never hear from the business again. Some of them have since bought elsewhere. Some weren't ready then and are now.
A reactivation campaign finds the second group. Almost every guide to it online is American, and so skips the part that matters most here: under UK rules, whether you may contact someone depends on the channel and on how you got their details. This playbook starts there.
Who is worth reactivating
Not the whole database. Good candidates are:
- Enquiries that were never reached. They asked; nobody got through.
- Quotes sent and not accepted, where the reason was timing or money, not a competitor.
- "Not yet" leads. People who said to try again after the summer, the move, the grant decision.
- Lapsed customers due a service, a renewal or an upgrade.
Leave out anyone who said no, anyone who opted out, anyone who complained, and anything you bought as a list. And have a reason for writing: a price change, a new grant, a slot in the diary, an annual service falling due. "Just checking in" is not a reason.
Check permission first
This is the step that separates a campaign from a fine. In January 2026 the ICO fined one firm £120,000 for texts where the soft opt-in failed because people had no simple way to refuse. Since 5 February 2026 the maximum penalty for breaking these rules has risen from £500,000 to £17.5 million or 4% of global turnover.
| Channel | What you need to market to an individual |
|---|---|
| Email and SMS | Consent, or the soft opt-in: they gave you their details when buying or negotiating to buy, you are offering similar products or services, and they were given a simple opt-out at the time and in every message |
| Live phone call | No objection from them, and the number screened against the TPS and CTPS. If they are registered, you need their consent to call |
| Automated call | Specific prior consent to automated calls from you. Whether a conversational AI call counts is unsettled; the cautious course is to assume it does for marketing |
| Opt-in to hear from you on WhatsApp, on top of the rules above |
Three points people get wrong:
- The soft opt-in covers enquirers, not strangers. The ICO's test is someone who "bought (or negotiated to buy)" from you. A person who asked for a quote can reasonably fit. A name from a bought-in list or a competition entry cannot.
- Business contacts are not a free-for-all. You may email corporate addresses without consent, but sole traders and some partnerships are treated as individuals, and calls to businesses must be screened against the corporate register.
- The TPS list changes. Screen each time you run a campaign, not once when the lead arrived.
This is a summary, not legal advice, and the ICO's guidance is being revised following the Data (Use and Access) Act. Our guide to the UK rules goes further. If your list is large or old, have someone qualified look at how it was collected.
Clean the list
- Remove opt-outs, complaints and anyone marked do-not-contact, on any channel.
- Remove duplicates, so nobody is contacted twice as two records.
- Screen phone numbers against the TPS and CTPS.
- Drop anything older than your own retention policy allows.
- Split what is left by what you know: what they asked about, when, and why it stalled.
The last step is what lets the first message be specific. "You asked us about a heat pump in March" is read. "We have exciting offers" is not.
The channel order
Start with the least intrusive channel and escalate only for people who show interest or stay silent.
| Day | Step | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | A short email from a named person at your own domain | What they asked about, what has changed, one question. An unsubscribe link |
| 1 to 4 | Wait for a reply | If they reply, the conversation starts and nothing else is sent |
| 4 | A text to those who didn't reply | One or two sentences. A way to opt out |
| 5 | One phone call to those still silent, where permitted | A single attempt, in sociable hours |
| After | Stop, and mark the record | Try again in six months only if there is a new reason |
Keep it to three touches. These people owe you nothing, and the 2007 Lead Response Management data is a reminder that repeated dialling quickly reduces, not raises, the chance of a conversation.
What to write is simpler than most templates suggest. Say who you are, remind them what they asked about, give the reason you are writing now, and ask one easy question: "Is this still something you're looking at?" A question that can be answered in a word gets more replies than an offer.
Let the AI ask, and a person ring the warm ones
When replies arrive, three things need to happen, and two of them are tedious: answering quickly at any hour, finding out what has changed, and deciding who is worth your salesperson's time.
That is a good division of labour. An AI agent holds the first exchange, by email, text or WhatsApp, and saves what it learns. An AI decision step sorts the replies into outcomes you define: ready to talk, not now, not interested. Your team gets a short list of people who said yes, with a note of what to talk about.
The close belongs to a person. Someone who has come back after eight months has usually had a change of circumstances, and a human conversation about it is worth more than any automation. The handover has to be quick: within the hour if you can. See AI-to-human handoff, done properly.
Set the pace
Don't send to the whole list on Monday. If 5,000 emails produce 150 replies in a morning and you have two salespeople, most of those replies will wait days, which wastes exactly the interest you worked to create.
Release a batch a day, sized to what your team can call the same day: a few hundred contacts at most for a small team. It also protects your email domain's reputation, and gives you several days' results to learn from before most of the list has been used.
Know when to stop
- "No" or "stop" on any channel ends contact on every channel.
- "Not now" gets a date, and nothing until then.
- Silence after three touches ends the campaign for that person.
- A rising opt-out rate means the message or the list is wrong. Pause and look.
What results to expect
You will see figures online: 3 to 15% of old leads revived, sometimes far higher. All of them come from companies selling reactivation, none comes with a method, and we could not verify any. The truthful answer is that it varies enormously with how the leads were won, how old they are and what you have to say.
So measure your own. Run the first 300 contacts and look at:
- reply rate, by channel and step;
- the share passed to a person;
- appointments or sales that result;
- cost per booked appointment, compared with the cost of a new lead;
- opt-outs and complaints.
If cost per appointment beats your advertising, carry on through the list. If not, you have spent very little finding out. This is what Unibound's lead reactivation flows and free pilot are for: a sample of your own list, run to a result you can count.
Questions people ask
What is a lead reactivation campaign?
A planned effort to re-engage people who showed interest in the past but didn't buy: enquiries that went cold, quotes never accepted, lapsed customers. It is sometimes called database reactivation or a win-back campaign.
Can I email or text old leads in the UK?
For individuals, only with consent or under the soft opt-in: they gave you their details while buying or negotiating to buy, you are marketing similar products, and you offered an opt-out then and in every message since. Bought-in lists don't qualify. Emails to corporate addresses don't need consent but must identify you and offer an opt-out.
Can I phone old leads?
You can make live marketing calls unless the person has objected or is registered with the Telephone Preference Service, in which case you need their consent to call. Screen the list against the TPS and CTPS and your own do-not-call list before every campaign. Automated marketing calls need specific prior consent.
How old is too old for a lead?
There is no legal cut-off, but permission and relevance both fade. The longer the gap, the weaker your case that they would expect to hear from you, and your privacy notice may set its own retention period. If you wouldn't expect the person to remember you, don't contact them.
What conversion rate should I expect from reactivation?
Nobody can tell you honestly. The percentages quoted online come from vendors and can't be verified. It depends on how the leads were generated, how old they are and what has changed. Test a few hundred contacts and measure cost per booked appointment before scaling.
Sources
- ICO, guidance on electronic mail marketing. ico.org.uk
- ICO, guidance on live direct marketing calls. ico.org.uk
- ICO, telephone marketing. ico.org.uk
- ICO, fines of £225,000 for nuisance marketing messages (January 2026). ico.org.uk
- Lewis Silkin, UK data reform becomes reality (February 2026). lewissilkin.com
- WhatsApp Business Messaging Policy. whatsappbusiness.com
- InsideSales.com and Oldroyd, Lead Response Management Study (2007). mortech.com
