A win-back campaign is one designed to reach out to inactive subscribers. They previously interacted with your company — visited your website, made a purchase, etc. — but for some reason stopped contact with your brand. Your task is to make them interact with your emails and CTAs again.
Why send win-back emails? It costs five times as much to attract a new customer than to keep an existing one. So, the goal of every business is to retain existing customers and build loyal relationships with them.
To do that, you can use a single win-back email, but a series of emails works even better. In the following chapter, we’ll identify the types of customers that need re-engagement, and proper win-back email techniques.
Let’s define what we mean when calling a customer “lapsed”. Usually, this term is about:
In our article, we’ll observe the algorithm of activating these customer types and see why they become inactive.
To make the subscribers interested again, it is necessary to understand what made them lose interest in your company’s emails. It happens because:
The reasons may also be as follows:
The findings of the past several years seem to conclude that most businesses lose about 20-40% of their customers every year. But the good news is that you can win a considerable part of them back using targeted marketing techniques.
Usually, win-back emails are sent within 3 months after the subscriber has become inactive (stopped interacting with your emails). The longer this period is, the harder and less effective it will be to bring your customers back.
When planning your re-engagement campaign, consider the peculiarities of your business and the length of your sales cycle. For example, if you sell expensive items, customers may not need to buy from you again right away. Or, if your sales cycle is quite long, it may be okay for people to disappear for a couple of months and then suddenly return and make a purchase.
It is always better to re-engage your subscribers using a series of emails –– a single message is easily lost in a pile of other marketing notifications. Let’s observe the types of win-back emails you can send in the following chapter.
A single win-back email means you are giving your customer only one chance to return. As we already said, it would be more effective to send several emails –– so that you’ll give several chances to come back.
We recommend you send several emails in the following order:
Let’s observe every step of a win-back email campaign.
Make your customer feel unique and appreciated by sending them an email after 3-6 months of being inactive. It will help to refresh your brand in customers’ minds and remind them of the awesome benefits your product provides.
This is a nice example of a “We miss you email” by Rabbit. It is short and to the point, reminds that the subscriber’s opinion matters, and has a prominent CTA button. Moreover, it looks cute: you’ve probably noticed that many brands use little animals in their re-engagement emails. This is because everyone likes them and these pictures immediately catch the attention and activate “the awww factor”.
It would be naive to expect that everyone comes back only because you said “hello”. Moreover, the majority of your subscribers won’t even open this email! That’s why in the second email you should offer some benefits that’ll make them interested in your brand again.
Offering a discount is quite an obvious solution, so to stand out, you can send your subscribers a bonus gift, free shipping or upgrade of the product, extra reward points, a free consultation, or other benefits.
A promo code is one of the simplest yet working options. Making it time-limited will strengthen the effectiveness of your offer –– like in the example above.
Show the customers that their satisfaction is your top priority by sending them a feedback email. The answers you’ll get may help you improve your product and your customer service.
People like giving feedback. It is so satisfying to know that your opinion matters. Even if a feedback email doesn’t make them make a purchase, it’s a good trick to make the subscribers interact with your email newsletter.
This is your last-ditch effort to convince the customer that your brand is worth their attention. The essence of this email type is that if they don’t click on the CTA button, they’ll be removed from your mailing list within several days.
In a positive scenario, you’ll try to win their attention with your future email campaigns. In another case, you move on. Cleaning inactive subscribers improves your email deliverability rate and reduces email bounce backs, so this is a necessary measure.
Let’s observe general recommendations to re-engagement emails you can follow.
A captivating subject line can inspire your customers to open your email and see what you offer. The common strategy is using “we miss you” as a key message.
To help your message stand out in subscribers’ overcrowded inboxes, you can use emojis. They draw the attention of the readers and sometimes help to increase open rates.
Good examples:
Another strategy is adding the customer’s name to the email subject line, making them feel it’s a personal message:
No matter what strategy you choose, keep the subject line and the body of the email short and catchy. Inactive subscribers are not interested in long novel-like messages –– remember that brevity is the soul of wit, and follow this rule.
Creating a sense of urgency is a proven technique to make the customers make faster decisions. If you give them an attractive discount or offer in your incentive email, make it limited in time –– like in an example below.
CTA should not be commanding –– your task is to gently convince customers to come back to your website, not intimidate them.
Using neutral encouraging phrases is a good strategy, in case you don’t want to risk.
In this example, the CTA button looks unobtrusive and won’t make a subscriber feel they are obliged to push it. No strings attached.
We’ll try to look into the matter of a good win-back email by the examples of successful campaigns by famous companies.
Why is it good?
The first thing that catches the eye is a CTA button: in this case, it is bright and round, unlike the habitual rectangular one. The overall playful tone of the message creates a casual atmosphere and helps to establish friendly relations with the subscriber. The subject is You’ve Earned a New Badge! –– this phrase awakens interest and makes the reader want to open the email.
Why is it good?
This email is straightforward, has a minimalistic design, and clearly tells the reader what is expected from them. Moreover, it has a benefit for the subscribers –– a time-limited code to spend on shopping. That’s a nice motivation to return!
Why is it good?
The first thing that catches the reader is the design of this email –– it is quite offbeat, looking like a real envelope with a postcard. The text gently reminds of the benefits Animoto’s content offers, and, most importantly, tells the reader how to unsubscribe. Nice job!
Why is it good?
Netflix’s campaigns are examples to be followed when it comes to email personalization. They have unique offers for every subscriber based on their preferences. It’s a nice win-back strategy: remind the readers of the movies they enjoyed and offer something else they might like.
Old friends and old wine are best, the proverb says. So, instead of developing complicated marketing strategies for attracting new customers, think about reactivating old ones. Start sending re-engagement campaigns within 3 months after the subscriber has become inactive (stopped interacting with your emails). The longer this period is, the harder and less effective it will be to bring your customers back.
It is always better to re-engage your subscribers using a series of emails:
When creating your win-back email campaign, consider the following tips:
By following the successful win-back email examples we’ve observed in this article, you’ll be well-prepared to launch an effective re-engagement campaign of your own.
