Smart businesses know how to re-engage and win back lost customers, engage existing customers and delight them, and attract new ones.

Customer retention marketing is important for several reasons, but here’s two pieces of data to begin with:

1. It costs five times as much to attract a new customer than to keep an existing one. (Source).
2. In financial services, for example, a 5% increase in customer retention produces more than a 25% increase in profit (Source).

Let’s rephrase both the above for better clarity.

The first statistic says that if you need to spend $500 to attract a new customer, you’ll need to spend only $100 to retain an existing customer.

The second statistic says that if you increase your customer retention from 100 to 105, your profits can rise from $100 to $125.

Smart businesses understand that selling to existing or former customers is not only easier and faster but also less expensive and more profitable.

Here is the sequence of 11 steps to help you with the process of winning back lost customers, leveraging email marketing campaigns.

Step 1: Define what is ‘lost’ customer

When exactly does a customer become a lost customer? A day after they made the purchase? A week? A quarter?

It’s not that easy.

It depends upon a number of factors, like:

• How quickly will the product be consumed?
• Is it a seasonal service or product?
• Between their last purchase and today, have better alternatives emerged in the market?
• Is the customer aware they have run out of the product (or the service validity)?

You’ll want to be careful who you call your former customer and reach out for re-engagement. You do it too soon and they think you’re pestering them. You do it too late and they’ve completely forgotten you.

Step 2: Create a separate list

Ok, you’ve done the difficult part first by defining a lost customer.

The next step is pretty simple. Move all those email addresses into a separate list.

Be sure you name it properly (e.g. “Former Customers Unqualified List 2021”) because you’ll be using the list in different ways and, based on the results, you’ll be moving out many of the email addresses to different lists. Also, some email addresses may have turned invalid and you’ll be removing those email addresses permanently.

Step 3: Clean the list

Because they aren’t your current customers, you don’t know if their email addresses are valid today. People move from one job to another, switch operators, close accounts associated with an email address… a number of things can turn an email address invalid.

So before your efforts of winning back lost customers go into overdrive, clean the entire mailing list. Email verification will tell you if there are any invalid or undeliverable emails on your list. Compare email verification tools out there and find one that best meets your requirements.

After validating the email addresses, retire the invalid email addresses and create a new mailing list with a name like “Former Customers Unqualified List 2021- Valid Emails”.

Step 4: Create reasons to re-engage

Yes, your former customers have likely forgotten you. Or probably they no longer remember what makes your businesses awesome. Either way, customer winback takes some work.

Which is why you’ll need more than just an email to win them again. One way is to create and organize online events. For instance, you can conduct Live AMAs (Ask Me Anything sessions), Facebook Live Sessions, webinars and so on. Anything you believe can improve the life of your customers is welcome.

Besides that, you can create some special offers (“$35 off on your next purchase!”) for them.

Whatever you do, be sure to make the value clearly visible.

Step 5: Draft your message

Now that you’re ready to create your win back email campaigns, the question is: What should you write?

Remember you’re trying to win back lost customers who haven’t engaged with your business lately. There’s a good chance they might have even forgotten they’ve ever bought from you.

That’s exactly why your message must contain the following two things:

• A short, gentle reminder of what they had bought from you last, and
• How you prize your relationship with them

Remember, the first message is to reconnect, not to sell so don’t be in a hurry to sell.

It’s important that you include a strong reason, a hook, for them to re-engage. A big discount, an extended warranty, faster shipping, a high-value webinar …anything that will bring them back.

Step 6: Improve your message

It’s not a good idea to rush your message after you’ve written a draft. There’s so much to be done with the draft that it’s like creating a new message afresh.

Firstly, make sure the message is humane. Sharing a good offer is fine, but it’s important to come across as a human, not a machine.

Compare the two customer winback messages below

Message 1

Hi Subscriber

We see you haven’t bought anything from us in the past 8 weeks so we thought we’d check to learn if you’d want to continue receiving messages from us.

Hit ‘Reply’ and write ‘Yes’ to continue receiving emails from us.

Best,

Team SomeGoodCompany

Message 2

Hey Jordan,

You haven’t talked to us since 8 weeks and we’re so sad!

Can’t we be friends again? Please, please!

Just hit Reply, write ‘Yes’ and we’ll continue writing to you and we’ll be great friends again!

Want to drop out? Sure, no hard feelings. But hey, that’d break our heart 🙁

Best,

Molly Someone

SomeGoodCompany

No prizes for guessing that Message 2 will achieve much better results. Here’s why Message 2 is way more effective.

• It’s personalized – see how it addresses the subscriber by the name – Jordan, in this case.
• The writing style is warm and personal, not stiff and machine-like.
• There’s a tint of light-hearted humour. Lines like Can’t we be friends again? or But hey, that’ll break our heart 🙁 make the email fun to read.
• The message respects the receiver’s choice by saying they can drop out if they want to.
• And notice there’s the name of the employee as the sender, not a business. It’s always a little more difficult to unsubscribe an email from a person than it is to unsubscribe from a business. Even if the messages are automated.

Step 7: Offer choices

You’ve worked hard to win back customers, no matter when they last bought from you. Not making enough efforts to retain them would be costly negligence.

Also, since they haven’t engaged with you for a while, you don’t know if their preferences have changed.

Offer them choices. Do they want to receive emails less frequently? Maybe once a month? Or once a fortnight?

Do not choose on their behalf; let them decide.

Step 8: Allow updating contact info

Some of your lapsed customers will choose to stay on your mailing list but may wish to update their latest contact info.

Allow them to make changes in their contact info like their email address or contact number.

Making things easier for them is one the best ways of winning back lost customers.

Step 9: Ask why

As a part of your winback campaign, ask your outgoing subscribers (i.e. the ones who are opting for Unsubscribe) as to why they’re leaving.

By asking a simple question ‘Why are you leaving us?’ you’ll learn a lot of things about what you need to repair.

Not everyone who’s unsubscribing will respond, but that shouldn’t stop you from asking.

Step 10: Either way, say thank you

Pay a great deal of attention to those who’ve chosen to stay with you. Make a point of to promptly serve them and treat their requests on top priority.

Most importantly, thank them for their patronage.

For those who wish to leave your mailing list, thank them for their time, respect their decision and take them off your list. That will make your mailing list smaller but more targeted.

Also, a smaller list will save you money on storage and mailing costs. And finally, because the list is more targeted, your email analytics will be more accurate.

Step 11: Go back to cart abandonment emails

Ok, so you spent a good deal of time and resources in winning back lost customers. Some of them stayed back and some of them left.

What next?

Use the learning to improve your marketing processes. Are some things slipping through the cracks?

In particular, pay attention to your cart abandonment emails. If you aren’t sending powerful cart abandonment emails, you’re leaving a lot of money on the table.

Summing up

It’s not unnatural for businesses to lose a small fraction of customers due to a variety of reasons. What is not acceptable is letting them go without trying your best to win them over.

Establishing a process to re-engage former customers will make your marketing more cost-efficient and more customer-focused. With so many automation tools out there in the market, this shouldn’t be difficult.

What other tips do you suggest to win back lost customers?