#81. The Winback Flow Part 1: New Winback Strategies to Try in 2022 | Podcast

Vira: 0:16

Today we will be talking about the Win Back series. And I know that we talked about it in the past, but this time we came up with brand new and really cool strategies that we have personally tested. Some of them we heard about and our colleagues in the industry have tested them, but we can’t wait to share them with you.

Alissa: 0:57

Hello. Hello everyone. Welcome to another episode of Email Einstein. Episode number 81. We are getting there to the triple digits. It’s exciting.

Vira: 1:07

We should celebrate triple digits. Alissa.

Alissa: 1:10

We will, we will. Our Centurion episode Vira and Alissa here, we are two email marketers at an email marketing agency called Flowium. We are super passionate about email marketing and because we love what we do, we want to share our insights with you. Flowium is one of the fastest growing email marketing agencies in the world. We specialize in providing a premium, full service e commerce email marketing experience for all of our clients. Our service is tailored specifically for your business and is designed to help increase your online retail revenue. We deliver the right message to the right person at the right moment. That’s what we’re all about here at Flowium. And today’s episode is a part one of a two part series. So not quite a saga like what we usually like to do here, but it is a two part series. Vira, take us away.

Vira: 1:57

And it’s a good one. And it’s a good one you guys. Today we will be talking about the Win Back series. And I know that we talked about it in the past, but this time we came up with brand new and really cool strategies that we have personally tested. Some of them we heard about and our colleagues in the industry have tested them, but we can’t wait to share them with you. Here’s the hard truth you guys and I’m sure you will agree with me that with every brand loyalist and like engaged customers that keeps coming back, every business will have a fair share of lapsed customers who haven’t interacted with your brand for some time. And I mean even though it’s like a nature of things, right. It’s still very unpleasant process. Is it worth winning back that lost customer at all? The short answer is yes. Yes, of course it’s worth it. Studies have found that while 44% of companies actually prioritize acquisition, only 18% focus on retention. I don’t know what the other percentage of companies are doing because 44 plus 18 is definitely not 100%. But still you understand that only like a small portion of companies actually focus on retention and re engagement. And those stats, those numbers are very like striking when you, especially when you consider the fact that customer retention, like increasing your customer retention by 5% can actually boost your profit by as much as 95%. And that’s like the number that we talked about in the past that those who are your returned customers have much higher value. Right. Than in fact in another study we learned that 26% of clients returned with win back campaign have actually lifetime value that is doubled as a result of like reengage and their return on investment for like reactivating past clients is like 32x or more. So these numbers are crazy if you think about them. But we are all about a good win back strategy and in the past we already talked about some good and proven methods. But today we’ll talk about some new tricks and strategies to help you reignite your relationship with your shoppers and maybe even like win them back and make them come back, make them love you again. So Alissa, start with a tip number one. This is a good one and I love this one. This is not a one that we talked about a lot, but.

Alissa: 4:39

I actually don’t recall talking about this before. But I love this one. It’s so smart and it’s actually something that I need to personally start doing more for my own account. So tip number one is to put the spotlight on your customer. And I think this is so smart. So we’ve all received emails right in our inbox from one brand or another that basically, basically says we miss you. We’re missing you.

Vira: 5:02

So many of them.

Alissa: 5:04

Which is like pretty overdone and it’s kind of old. Right? Like no, they’re not missing us, they’re missing our money. Right. So it’s cute.

Vira: 5:11

It can be cute. Yeah, but I see what you’re saying.

Alissa: 5:13

Yeah, yeah. And it definitely can be cute with the right brand, especially when there’s like a little puppy involved or something like that. Yeah, like we mentioned, it is definitely overused. So Instead of putting a spotlight on what your brand needs out of your customers, what you really should start doing, and this is how you should approach all marketing, in all honesty, is acknowledge your customer and what they need. So what you want to start doing is changing the language from we’re missing you to your missing out. So you’re the one who’s missing out on us as a brand. And the best way to do that is really dig into the mindset of your customer and analyze why it is that they haven’t purchased from you. Again, maybe they weren’t happy with their purchase or they had a bad customer service experience. Maybe they’re loyal, but they don’t actually need to purchase as frequently as what you think. Or maybe they purchase from different retailers based on price. I know I do this a lot. If I find a product that I really, really like, I’m likely to go back to it. But if I find another product that I haven’t tried yet that’s a little less expensive because everybody’s balling on a budget, I tend to try out that new product to see if it compares. If it doesn’t, I’ll go back. But if it does, then the cheaper price always wins, right? So what you want to do is frequently consider how it is that your product or service helps your customer and what benefit they can get from you, which they may have lost sight of. So reiterating the benefits that your brand brings, reiterating the benefits of your product, maybe even reiterating the fact that, okay, maybe we make a T shirt that is as good as any T shirt that you can find on Amazon. But when you buy a T shirt from us, you’re actually saving a puppy or something like that, whatever the cause is. Are we moving from socks and mattresses to puppies now, Vira? I think we should.

Vira: 6:58

New Year. New Year, right?

Alissa: 6:59

Yeah, New Year, new us. It’s all about puppies this year. So essentially, what you want to do when you’re putting the spotlight on your customer is making the effort understand your customer’s journey and where they are making decisions around whether or not they should buy from you again and make sure that you’re changing your language. So there’s an example here. Obviously you can’t see it because you’re listening to us, but at the very top of the email, so there’s a hero image. And underneath it says, we couldn’t help but notice you haven’t opened any emails from us in a while. Here’s a few things that you may have mixed and Then it goes into showing different articles. This looks more like a service based email or a service based company. But they go on to show like tips and tricks to change your habits. So three steps to to a zero waste bathroom or a zero waste. It’s not just about our footprint. It’s about being a part of a movement. So there are different ways again that you can change your language so that way you’re not just talking about I need you to come back cause I need you to buy from us cause we need to make money. That’s not really the best strategy. What you can do is kind of go into the mind of your customer, think about where they’re at and then talk to them in a way that focuses everything on them. Right. Because for your customers, it’s all about them and you should keep it that way as you’re trying to win them back. So that’s your strategy. Number one is putting the spotlight light on your customer. Vira, before we move on, there’s a song by Jennifer Hudson called Spotlight. Have you heard that song?

Vira: 8:18

No, I haven’t.

Alissa: 8:18

Oh my gosh.

Vira: 8:20

Okay, wait, maybe I have. Let me.

Alissa: 8:22

Right, you have to listen to it after this because every time I think of the word spotlight, I think of that song and it’s such like a like woman independent, like empowerment song. And Jennifer Hudson has like a voice of voice. So you have to listen to it because it’s the kind of song that you belt in the shower or when you’re driving in the car by yourself. That’s a fun.

Vira: 8:40

I have a, I have like a playlist with a road trip music. So maybe that’s going to be one of them.

Alissa: 8:45

There you go for sure.

Vira: 8:46

No. Alissa, I really love what you say about like changing the language from we are missing you to like you are missing out. And I really like that like mentality of digging into the mindset of your customer and like analyzing their needs and why they have laps. And actually the next strategy somehow connected to what you talked about is actually the feedback email. It’s not a very common strategy that people think about when it comes to win back emails just because usually the win back emails are for customers who are less engaged and they, they are not necessarily your biggest fans at the moment. Right. But the information that you can actually get from these people just for the future, it’s really, really important. So you can actually spend hours trying to work out why your subscribers aren’t engaging or like why they haven’t purchased from you in a while. But sometimes it just makes Sense to ask them directly. And feedback emails are very common for many email sequences. Not many people use them for win back sequences, but you can be one of them. In fact, this email, when you’re like genuinely asking for feedback, it can come across as totally sincere. It can give a number of legitimate reasons that may have stopped your customer from checking out. But you can also show that you are genuine, that you are really interested in your customer, that you’re, you want to hear from them. This kind of email quickly makes subscribers feel heard. It makes them feel appreciated especially I love those email when you give the option to voice those questions like directly in the email. Some brands are doing like a survey when you have to click the CTA link and then it will bring you to the page. Well, there are actually ways to do it like directly to do the survey, like a little survey directly in your email. So there are like a ton of different apps you can use but you can also do something as little and that’s what we’ve done internally for one of my clients. You can actually like in Klaviyo, you can create multiple call to actions and the call to action will create sort of like a different, how do you call it? The different sort of like a group of customers or like a tag or something. Yeah, it will basically like segment your customers based on what they have picked on what option they have picked in the email. So yeah, don’t be afraid of those like feedback emails. Again as I said, you can spend hours trying to figure out why people haven’t purchased from you, but you might as well ask them directly. And the feedback you will get, believe me, it will be very, very valuable to you as a brand and maybe people even will start re engaging with your brand just because they feel heard, they feel appreciated and they feel that you’re giving them the option to voice their concerns to a human being. Pretty much. So experiment with those feedback emails.

Alissa: 11:44

Ye, yeah. And before you do that, just make sure that your customer service team can handle the influx of feedback that you’ll get.

Vira: 11:51

Oh yeah, we had, we had some instances in the past when you actually got a ton of really valuable feedback but the customer service was like overwhelmed. I mean it’s a good, it’s a good problem to have. Right. It’s very helpful. We actually, in fact we have changed some of our email marketing strategies like completely based on that like single email survey that we received from our customers.

Alissa: 12:13

Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, the feedback is awesome and I think, I think a lot of us as marketeers but Also, as business owners, we underestimate the power of asking our customers for feedback. Because people want to be heard and they will give you their feedback when you ask. So sending out the surveys and everything, people think it’s kind of a waste of time. No one’s going to answer. No, they do answer and they answer in full voice. So just be prepared person.

Vira: 12:37

Even if a small portion of your customer will answer it. Yeah, it’s a great resource to have. And actually another way to understand your customer and to learn more about his or her like, preference and their challenges with your brand is through email preference page. Sometimes we even like link the email preference page in the cta and they can basically pick their interests, how often they want to hear from you, because maybe not your content itself is the problem. Sometimes how often they hear from you might be the problem as well. So yeah, just, just like give them the option to basically decide on what they want to get from you and like how often they want to hear from you.

Alissa: 13:17

Yeah, yeah, true that. I love it. Okay, number three, experiment with more than one email. So this is our last win back strategy for today. So obviously one of the trickiest parts of win back emails and a win back flow overall is just deciding how many emails to actually send. Like what feels like overkill, right? So when you break up with an ex and then you’re like, wait a second, I want you back and then

Vira: 13:42

I want to send you three more emails, right?

Alissa: 13:44

Yeah, yeah, exactly. Like sending one win back, like text is like, okay, like, you know, questionable, but then like sending like a hundred of them. You know, like, you gotta think about your strategy and how you’re gonna win back your ex. And it’s the same thing with your customers and your brand. So a lot of brands usually just send one win back campaign here and there, but there’s always a chance that their customer could miss those campaigns, especially considering that they haven’t opened one from you in a while. And it’s likely that they really haven’t engaged with your brand in a while. So depending on how long a customer has lapsed, meaning how long it’s been since they’ve engaged with you and purchased from you, two to three automated messages should be enough. And usually a strategy that we use here at Flowium might consist of an offer email, which can be pretty aggressive. If you’d like, that’s optional. And you can make them an offer that won’t be hard to say no to. And in the offer email, obviously you’re offering an incentive that basically Nudges people who are on the fence about buying again. So if they made their first purchase and then it’s been like 30 days, but the normal repurchase rate of your product is like every 20 days, then what you could basically do is send out an offer email that says, hey, you know, like you’re missing out. So make sure that you buy back from us and we’ll give you 15% off your next order. Which is just enough to kind of push them over the edge where they were like, oh yeah, I did need more of that product. Sure, I’ll buy it for 15% off. So that’s the first. And then the strategy that we use would also consist of an offer reminder. So the last chance email, which sounds really dramatic, but the level of urgency that we add to these emails, it works. It really does work. And that last chance email can be an offer reminder as well as a here’s what you’re missing sort of follow up. So sometimes FOMO fear of missing out or fear of losing something. So I guess fo foles F O L S.

Vira: 15:35

Don’t.

Alissa: 15:36

Is a much more powerful motivator and tactic for you to be using than the prospect of actually gaining something. So in psychological terms this is called loss aversion. This is funny cuz if my husband listened to my podcast, which he doesn’t, but it’s fine, just one tear falling down my face. He’s actually do. He was doing a marketing course last last semester and he was learning about this loss aversion and all these different marketing terms. So he’ll be proud that we featured that today. Vira. But yeah, definitely. And if you think about it like in everyday terms, right, Like I love to go out because I’m a very social person, but I also have my lazy days where I really don’t feel like doing anything. But whenever a friend reaches out to me and they’re like, hey, we’re going out, we’re going to do this. It’s not that I want to go out because I’m going to be gaining something out of the experience. Like, wow, I’m going to go out and, and make more friends and get all this stuff out of it. It’s just more of like, wait a second, like all my friends are going out without me and what if they have an amazing time and they have it without me? Like I’m going to miss out on everything. So that is usually what persuades me to go out. Not necessarily because I’m going to make new friends and eat great food or whatever. It Is it’s just because all my friends are getting together and I don’t want to be the only one out. So that’s how to kind of think about it in like everyday terms. And then the last sort of strategy that we would also incorporate is. And this totally optional, but it’s kind of like a Dear John letter. And when you use these, again we say optional because you have to do it well and it has to match your brand. So make sure that you make it count. And you want to use funny language and good grace might actually be the thing that prompts the re engagement. So a really good example, and this is an example from a brand called Polyvore. And so they said, hello. Okay, we get it, you’re just ghosting us. And instead of the word ghosting, they did like the little ghost emoji. We were so good together. Yeah, yeah. This is sms. This is sms. And then the customer replied, I know, sorry, I’m just so broke right now. Are there any sales? And then the brand responds, yes, so many sales. There may be plenty of sites in the sea, but they don’t love you like we do. And then the customer’s like, oh, so cute. And then the brand is like, come on, let’s go shopping. So it’s like a silly little thing, but it works because you’re like sort of leveling with the customer and like, hey, we love you. Like, please, like we want to hang out and shop and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Again, this wouldn’t necessarily work for like, for example, one of the brands that we work with sells hazmat suits and gas masks and gas mask mask filters and things like that. If they ever sent out a message like this, it would totally disconnect with their audience. So it’s not appropriate for everyone. But if you’re a brand where this fits, definitely utilize this strategy because it’s helpful. And then the other thing to remember is because you’re sending to, you’re likely sending to unengaged people, you do have to be careful because the last thing that you want to do is actually hurt your deliverability. So just continuing to almost borderline harass these customers that have made it clear they don’t really want anything to do with your brand. So according to the same marketing land research we’ve already referenced, on average around 12% of emails sent as part of win back campaigns are opened. Which is cool, right? But 12% is not a huge amount. So you want to make sure that you’re just very careful about what that win back strategy looks like. And the other thing to remember as well is that if someone has already lapsed, the last thing you want to do do is give them another reason to moan about you to anyone and everyone that’s prepared to listen. So just don’t over send. Word of mouth is still like the king of marketing because everyone is going to buy from a brand that their best friend and their mother and their sister and their dog’s mother, sister’s brother has bought from. But you want to make sure that you’re not leaving a bad impression if that customer doesn’t want anything to do with you anymore. So definitely experiment with more than one email. But just be cautious with how you do it. Monitor your win back strategy very very closely because that’s going to be a key moneymaker for you. But it can also be something that kind of shoots you in the foot if you’re not careful. So just yeah, caution, caution when creating your win back strategy.

Vira: 19:46

That’s a good one Alissa and I’m so excited about our next episode because this one was more like an intro to advanced win back strategies. But next time we’ll go deeper into it. But before we like tell you what the next episode going to be about, don’t forget to subscribe and share this podcast with your friends. And if you leave us a review as always we will send you the socks. So just like leave us a review, go to flowium.com/socks and we will send you the your very own pair of branded volume socks. Also we have another exciting news. We are actually hiring for project Manager possession and we are looking for people to join our team of rockstar email marketers. So go to flowium.com/career. Guys, I can’t, I can’t tell you enough how much I love this team that I work with and at least I’m sure you feel the same about people we work with and the clients are really cool. So yeah we are looking for some cool people to join our team. So flowium.com/career yeah.

Alissa: 20:48

Cool people only. That’s it.

Vira: 20:51

Don’t get it. Yeah.

Alissa: 20:53

And come back next week. As always we want you to come back every week but make sure that you come back next week so you can hear part two of this series. Next week we’ll be talking about how to actually segment your win back series which is going to be really helpful as well and that will tie into the making sure that you have the best strategy in place and not over sending. So come back next week we’ll talk about segmentation for your win back series, and then you’ll have the whole puzzle built for you. And then you can start winning back your customers. So make sure you come back.

Vira: 21:21

Thank you for listening, you guys. See you next week.

Alissa: 21:24

See you next week.