Win Back

“Win back” is a marketing strategy used to re-engage and reactivate customers who have stopped buying from a business. The goal of a win-back strategy is to encourage customers to re-engage with a brand through targeted campaigns that offer incentives such as discounts, loyalty rewards, and coupons.

As part of an effective win-back campaign, businesses can use email outreach, social media posts, or even direct mail to reach out to previous customers and remind them why they should come back and buy from the brand again.

Email: highly effective and simple to set up, email is a popular channel for win-back campaigns. By creating an automated flow, you can target and entice customers who haven’t made a purchase or visited your store for several months using personalized discounts.

SMS: for mobile-first customers, or those that don’t respond to email, SMS can be a great way to get your message straight into their hands. With over 90% of SMS messages being opened, compared to email’s 21.5%, it’s clear how effective this channel can be.

Paid social: segment your customers and set up custom audiences across Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok to target those that haven’t made a purchase in a while. Using dynamic visual content in paid social campaigns can be a great way to entice past customers to return.

Use “win back” correctly, and you can make a significant difference to your marketing ROI. Here are some tips and strategies to employ in your win-back campaigns:

Offer discounts or incentives: Give customers an incentive to come back by offering discounts or special promotions. This could be a percentage off their next purchase, free shipping, or even a free gift with purchase.

Send personalized emails: Personalized emails can help make customers feel valued and appreciated, which can encourage them to come back. Be sure to Include their name in the subject line and use data from past purchases to recommend products they might like.

Create loyalty programs: Loyalty programs reward customers for their repeat business and give them an incentive to keep coming back. Offer rewards such as points for every purchase they make or exclusive access to new products before anyone else gets it.

Ask for feedback: Reach out to inactive customers and ask for their feedback on why they stopped using your product or service. This will provide valuable insight into how you can improve the customer experience and make it easier for customers to come back in the future.

By implementing these strategies, you can create successful win-back campaigns that will help bring back lost customers and increase customer loyalty over time.

Set your win-back criteria: what does a churn risk look like for your business? For a fitness supplement brand, this could be someone who hasn’t purchased or interacted with email in the last 2-3 months. For a home appliance company, this could be 18 months.

Segment your data: set up smart segmentation within your email marketing platform so customers get added to your win-back automation as soon as they meet your criteria.

Create automated emails: decide on the content of your flow, from requesting customer feedback, inviting them to your loyalty program, presenting a personalized offer, and more. Start with 3 emails that are triggered to send a few days apart.

Test for success: trial new subject lines, send cadences and offers to improve your email performance.

Make it omnichannel: connect your email automation to web, SMS, and paid social campaigns to reach customers across multiple touchpoints and increase your chances of success.

SAP Emarsys helps leading brands like PUMA, Pizza Hut and Nike connect their sales, product, and customer data to deliver real time, personalized win-back campaigns that re-engage at-risk customers and drive lifetime value.