There is always a risk of clients not returning to your business and finding other competitors on the market to fulfill their needs.
When this happens, the best solution is to send a customer winback email.
Why Do You Need a Customer Winback Campaign Strategy?
With good email marketing strategies and consultations, you can either win back old clients or retain your existing ones.
There are many reasons as to why you need a good customer winback strategy, and we list these below.
To Remind the Customer About You and Your Services
It may not be necessarily an issue with your product or service that makes the client disappear, but sometimes they may have found a better deal elsewhere.
Whatever the case, it is important to demonstrate to them that there is value in your services.
A gentle reminder to let them know that you are still around can be a powerful tool. If it is a long-term relationship, this should be one of the key practices you should be sticking with.
If they know about you and you stay at the forefront of their lives, they most likely won’t need a reason to look for another eCommerce business.
Acknowledge and Address Their Needs
Another reason why you need a winback strategy is to let them know that you miss them and acknowledge their needs.
Look at things from their perspective and find ways to analyze why they don’t use you anymore.
Sometimes, the client doesn’t feel like you are addressing their needs, and will look for a business that does.
Show Some Appreciation
When customers are appreciated, the chances of them staying with you are higher.
According to the National Law Review, it costs a business five times more to acquire a new customer than to keep their current ones and this alone can increase your company’s profits by over 60%.
A few ways of doing this is:
- Sending them an email for their birthday
- Offering them a reward or discount
- Congratulate them on their anniversary from when they first started using your products.
Rewarding loyalty is an influential strategy.
Other Advantages of a Winback Campaign
- One of the main benefits is to re-establish a positive relationship with older clients. When you have the right data at hand, you can distinguish at-risk customers through some common features
- Certain tools and strategies (such as surveys often included in a customer winback email) can help you as a business to acquire the contact information of the customers which you can then use going forward to keep them in the loop
- By asking for feedback, you can find out where to make improvements on your offerings and change things to fit your client’s specific needs
- It can help you add new products and services, as well as give you an idea about possible new benefits to add or programs you can offer
- And of course, you can gain from the financial rewards of getting back your older clients.
When Do You Know That a Customer Needs to Be Won Back?
Winback emails should ideally be sent once every 3 months and especially to those who have stopped engaging with you. If you wait too long, it may not be as effective.
Some businesses sell expensive items which deter the clients, however, if you have an effective sales cycle i.e. one that is not too long, it is more likely to get them to come back or continue doing business with you.
When your customer has not purchased an item or used a service within 3 months, it may be a good idea to get that email out.
Chances are you could show up in their email inboxes just as they are considering a competitor. You can boost your email subscriber engagement significantly, by making this one move.
What Is a Good Customer Winback Campaign?
To have a great winback campaign there are a few aspects to help you get your buyers back. These include a few of the best practices:
- When creating a good email campaign always keep your subject line simple and straight to the point – succinct
- Test out a few different tones of voices, while using the language that resonates with customers the most. Do an A/B test
- If you’re reaching out, remind them why they should come back. Including an image of the product or details about them
- There should always be only one call to action and not more
- Personalize the email messages.
Types of Winback Campaigns and Their Effect on the Customer
Customers become disengaged if your winback campaign doesn’t draw their attention in the first few seconds. If it’s too boring, or they receive too many emails, it can deter them.
There are several different types of campaigns that can have a successful impact on a customer.
Informational
Some studies show that those email campaigns that offered a discount in pounds or dollars, rather than giving clients a percentage discount, did better.
Giving them the right information is key. Keep it simple and to the point.
Emotional
It is a fact that in marketing, emotions never fail to grab the attention of a subscriber.
Timely and empathetic messages can be a great way to show your customers you are human. Marketers usually tie this in with their messages and find that it resonates with many.
Humour
The majority of viewers welcome some good humour. It is a great idea to relate to your customers and builds the seller and customer relationship.
Clever subject lines and the right content and images will go a long way to increase conversion and open rates of emails fitting with the brand’s voice.
Strategies to Make Them Click This Time
In any ecommerce business, profit usually comes from repeat customers.
There are many ideas you can implement to keep your customers engaged, but when it doesn’t work, winback emails are the way to go.
Perhaps your strategies haven’t worked in the past; are you missing something? The qualities below for successful winback campaigns will help you figure it out.
A Simple, Straight-forward, and Catchy Subject line
Keep things simple, yet compelling. When a subject line mentions exactly what you offering it will get readers to click on the message.
For example, something like – “We’ve made your dinner so you won’t have to!” Or “We haven’t seen you in a while”.
A Short and Personalized Content Calling to Action
Great content usually is:
- To the point
- Short and sweet
- Personalized
- With a noticeable Call To Action (CTA)
The first few seconds of someone reading the content of the customer winback email will either catch their attention or, at this point, lose it forever.
A Creative Design
Design plays a significant part in an email campaign. No one wants to click on something dull.
Be creative, come up with great images that will draw attention the first time.
You could use background images in the email, for instance. Make sure they are optimized to the text and use PNG and GIF formats.
Some of the biggest brands use email strategies to win back their customers all the time. Asking yourself why they may have become scarce is a good starting point to craft a campaign.
Never make false promises when trying to win your customers back. Not only is it deceiving but it may lose their trust in you forever.
