People that have expressed an interest in you in the past may no longer care about you nor want to hear from you.
This may be sad, but it is still true.
What should you do with these prospective customers?
Talk to them.
I recently got an email from TripAdvisor.com where I has signed up to receive notifications about a trip to Chile:
Still thinking about that trip to Santiago, Chile?
We’ve been sending you e-mails about Santiago, Chile for a while. Are you still interested?
Wherever you’re hoping to go, TripWatch can bring you the best deals and reviews. Add new places and drop the places you’re no longer interested in.
This email helped do two things:
1. Made me think if I still wanted to get these emails.
2. Let me know how I could change my preferences if needed.
In this Trip Advisor case, they were sending me regular emails with updates about Chile. If I had changed my mind about that destination, I would have started to ignore their emails or could possibly mark them as spam.
Either of those actions is damaging to the relationship.
By sending an email specifically asking if I was still interested, it reopens the conversation and allows the customer to select the course of action he or she most wants.
If you have prospective customers that haven’t purchased from you or interacted with you in some time, reopen the conversation to see if they are still interested.