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7 min read

Win Back Email: The Ultimate Guide

Written by Andriy Boychuk
7 min read
Table of Contents

    A popular way for a brand to get more leads and sales is to use email marketing. It’s easy and convenient and you can reach out to consumers by simply hitting the send icon on your computer.

    However, despite efforts to keep customers constantly engaged via email, no brand has 100 percent success.

    Over time some customers will lapse, while others just lose interest. This is when a win-back email can be used to re-engage your customers and bring their attention back to your brand.

    What is a Win back Email?

    Win-back emails are a series of messages that are aimed at re-kindling customer engagement. This sequence of messages is sent to customers who have lost contact and not purchased from you in a while.

    The main aim of win-back campaign emails is to bring your customers back and make them active users again. The target should be to get them to engage with your messages.

    The Importance of Winback Email Campaigns

    Email marketing campaigns are not only meant for sending out newsletters and email coupons but research proves that it can increase your revenue significantly.

    For instance, 59% of B2B marketers state that one of their most important revenue generations comes from emails.

    Increasing email revenue means that the ROI will improve significantly up to as much as four times compared to direct mail marketing.

    Email marketing leads customers to spend much more when compared with customers who do not receive any email offers.

    Winback email: example of a good practice.

    Emails are one of the most effective ways of marketing your brand, but research shows that the open rate for e-commerce emails is quite low.

    On average, only 20 out of every hundred emails that are sent to customers get opened. This is primarily because many subscribers are disengaged from your emails for many months or are dormant.

    This does not mean that they are unsubscribed, but it means that they are not viewing your emails or are simply ignoring them.

    The importance of a win-back email is to increase your open and click-through rates and to drive customers to your service or product by offering them unique benefits.

    What is a Successful Winback Campaign?

    A win-back campaign seems easy to make. Essentially you just need to write the text, add some images and send it to everyone on your email list. But in reality, a successful win-back email campaign requires a smarter and more thorough approach.

    When subscribers are not engaging, your main aim should be to create content that is sure to guarantee customer win-back as soon as possible.

    Ask yourself the question of why they left in the first place? Once you figure out how to send the best win-back email to consumers, you will be set up for success.

    Here are some tips:

    • Break down your email campaign into smaller, simpler, and more manageable tasks
    • Consider creating a master template and making the necessary changes each time you need to send out a win-back email
    • Measure the success of your win-back campaign and readjust if necessary.

    To measure how successful your win-back campaign is, the two most common ways are to measure the open rate and the click-through rate.

    The open rate measures how many consumers opened your email, whereas the click-through rate is a measure of the percentage of consumers who clicked on links in your emails against the total number of people who received the email.

    How to Get Your Customers Back Using a Winback Campaign?

    There are many reasons why customers fail to look at your emails. Some factors can be beyond your control. For example, maybe their inbox is too cluttered.

    Other reasons why a customer loses interest are because:

    • You send too many emails too often
    • Your subject lines are boring and not attractive enough
    • They signed up only because of a “one-time” deal
    • They had a bad experience with your brand.

    If customers don’t engage, it might seem that they don’t care at all. When you understand how a win-back campaign works, you can go ahead and create a strategy of your own.

    One of the best ways to attain customer win-back is to show that you care about them. Make it a personal affair and show consumers that you are genuinely interested in them.

    You can segregate your customers into the following categories based on how many days have passed since they last engaged with your email:

    • Risk of lapsing
    • Lapsing
    • Lapsed

    Once you have segregated your customers into different sections, you can format and draft your win-back email campaign according to each category.

    Personalization in a win-back campaign is a great way to for retaining past consumers and recovery.

    Open the win-back email with a statement to show that they are missed and continue to include personalized messages for the rest of the message.

    For instance, use messages like:

    • “We miss you”
    • “Are you still there?”
    • “We are so sorry to lose you”
    • “Goodbyes are hard!”

    Tips and Tricks for Creating a Good Win-Back Email

    Here are a few tips and best practices that you can keep in mind when creating a win-back email.

    Follow a Sequence

    • First, remind your customers that you exist
    • Next, offer an incentive, followed by feedback
    • If they still don’t respond, give them a last chance to reply
    • Finally, tell them that they will be unsubscribed from the mailing list, but that they can still get back if they want to.

    Customer Winback: Let Customers Know About Improvements

    Let customers know if you have any new recent improvements. If you have information about why they left and have updates regarding the same, own up to what went wrong in the past and show them that you have something worth their attention.

    Recognize your past relationship and remind them about why they chose you in the first place.

    A good winback email example.

    Add a Personal Touch Through Your Winback Email

    Add emotion to your win-back email for customers with who you had a long relationship. For these customers, you can use a stronger tone of emotion.

    Make Your Winback Campaign Attractive

    Offer discounts, freebies, and other attractions so that customers choose you over competitors, especially for people who take a look at your emails.

    Some good ways to keep your customers coming back for more:

    • Bonus gifts
    • Free shipping
    • Extra reward points
    • Free consultation.

    Improve Your Open and Click-through Rates

    Ask subscribers if they still want to remain on your list. This way you keep your click-through rate as high as you can.

    Removing subscribers who don’t want to receive your emails ensures that your list is cleaner.

    Hire a Professional

    Today win-back campaigns are a popular method that many companies opt for. If you need help with crafting the best win-back email, contact professionals of email design who have plenty of experience and know exactly how to frame one.

    Winback email campaigns are a great way to ensure customer win back and remind consumers about your brand. This is a tried and tested method that many big brands use in their marketing strategy.

    If you are thinking about using a win-back email campaign for your brand to bring back lapsed or lapsing customers, you are on the right track.

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