Even when customers churn, you still have an opportunity to reverse course. That’s where a customer win-back campaign comes into play. These strategies seek to turn attrition into retention using channels like email and direct mail.
In this guide, you’ll learn how to win back customers with proven examples as well as how to track these campaigns to find success.
What Is a Customer Win-Back Campaign?
A customer win-back campaign is a targeted marketing strategy that re-engages churned, lapsed, or inactive customers. The goal is to present them with an appealing offer to convince them to make a repeat purchase.
Win-back vs. retention vs. reactivation
Win-back, retention, and reactivation are all connected but have differences. Here’s how they differ:
- Win-back pertains to lost customers with the primary goal of getting them back to being active. Understanding why they left helps companies customize campaigns to re-engage them.
- Retention focuses on active customers with tactics to prevent churn and increase customer lifetime value. The approach to this is measuring ongoing satisfaction and rewarding loyal customers.
- Reactivation targets idle or dormant customers who haven’t officially churned. You’re seeking to stop that from happening with gentle nudges and personalized communications.
Why win-back works
Win-back campaigns are worth the investment of time and money. That’s because it typically costs much more to acquire new customers than to re-engage a lapsed customer. New customers can cost six to seven times more than retaining one.
You can also tailor communications and offers to this disengaged audience based on historical data. With this information, you can leverage familiarity and value that restores brand affinity and can increase customer lifetime value.
RELATED ARTICLE — Improve Customer Retention
Why Win-Back Campaigns Pay Off for Home Service Businesses
Win-back reactivation campaigns are an effective, cost-efficient strategy. You already have the advantage that customers know you and need your services. You simply need to remind them and deliver an offer that resonates.
Lapsed customers already know & trust you
When customers become inactive or churn without a major reason, like complaints around service, they likely still trust you. Trust is hard to earn and easy to lose.
If a client has generally been satisfied with your work, they may not rebook for motives that aren’t about dissatisfaction. They may just need a nudge or a promotion to get them back to active status.
Continue to build on that trust with transparent communication and offers.
Seasonal & maintenance reactivation opportunities
One of the best win-back lapsed customer email tactics is to focus on seasonal and maintenance offers. Seasonality changes what a customer needs. For example, they’ll need winterization services in the fall and summerization services in the spring.
Creating a nurture email series about four weeks before the season reminds customers of how important it is to keep their home in shape.
Maintenance plans can also lock in lapsed customers because they can pay a lower annual fee to have you out each month. They get a discount and other perks like priority scheduling. You can position this as an exclusive deal for your most loyal customers.
How to Identify Lapsed Customers
To launch any type of win-back initiative, you first need a process to identify lapsed customers. You should be able to pinpoint when they “lapse” based on time frames around the average purchase cycle.
Define “lapsed” for your service cycle
What does lapsed mean in your company? You’ll need to define it based on:
- Calculating your purchase cycle: How often do most customers use your services? If it’s monthly, the purchase cycle would be 30 days.
- Monitoring transaction signals: Create a process to flag customers whose last purchase data exceeds your buying cycle.
- Tracking behavior: Look for signs of disengagement like unopened emails or unsubscribes.
- Using segmentation tools: These help you customize messaging based on lapses. You can set up emails to trigger based on your lapsed definition.
Segment by recency, frequency & value
On segmentation, there are several ways you can divide your audiences. You can do this in three major ways:
- Recency: This describes the time since the last purchase. These customers are likely at risk of churning. Use your defined lapsed period to group this segment.
- Frequency: This group would be customers who had a regular frequency with you but have not rebooked or renewed a maintenance plan.
- Value: You may have high-value and low-value lapses. The former represents a larger part of revenue and may need special attention. Low-value lapses are still important but may not receive the best offer.
These are the three primary ways to segment, but you could also do so by the reasons they lapse. The challenge here is that this information is mostly unknown unless the customer explicitly tells you.
How to Build a Win-Back Campaign
Now that you have the data and information to develop a win-back campaign, let’s review how to do it step-by-step.
Map the multi-touch sequence
In this first step, you will define each touchpoint in this series to re-engage customers. Consider how many communications you will send to reactivate this audience. It will differ depending on how you are segmenting.
Here’s an example:
- Touchpoint one: General content thanking them for being a customer and reminding them of your value
- Touchpoint two: More specific communication based on their past services and frequency
- Touchpoint three: Specific and tailored offer
Choose channels
Next, you should align the right channels to your touchpoints. You can use the same for all communications or a mix of all. The most common are:
- Easy to set up a nurture series with triggers
- Best for longer content
- Most useful for audiences with historically high open rates
SMS
- Simple setup
- Best for shorter content
- Often has better engagement rates than email (a State of Business Texting Report found that 74% of people read every text they receive)
Direct mail
- Setup difficulty depends on automated versus manual processes
- Higher cost than digital channels, but can have high response rates
- Great for time-limited offers
Pick the right incentive
Finally, you will need to identify the best incentive. The promotion should align with how you have segmented your lists.
Win-Back Email Examples & Templates
The first channel for consideration is win-back emails. As noted, these are easy to develop and automate with the right technology. Here are some win-back campaign examples and templates for inspiration.
“We miss you” reminder
“We miss you” reminder emails help you target inactive users. You are reminding them they have not rebooked a service and that they’re due for it. These emails should be highly personalized and paired with an offer.
Template
Subject line: We miss you; rebook now with this special offer.
“Hi, [NAME]. Did you know it’s time for [SERVICE]? We haven’t heard from you, so we’re sending this quick reminder to book now. This [SERVICE] is critical to maintaining your property, so don’t forget. If you schedule this week, you’ll earn an exclusive discount.”
The call to action (CTA) should be a link to “Schedule Now.”
Incentive / offer email
These emails provide a direct incentive for the customer to do business with you again.
Template
Subject line: Rebook today and get 15% off.
“Hi, [NAME]. Thanks for being a loyal customer. Our records show you haven’t rebooked [SERVICE] in some time. We welcome you back so your [PRODUCT] receives the attention it needs. We’re extending an exclusive offer to our best customers for 15%. Book by [DATE] to claim it.”
The CTA should be a link for the customer to request an appointment.
Feedback / “what happened” email
In this win-back email, you’re focusing on feedback about past experiences with an offer.
Template
Subject line: Your feedback matters!
“Hi, [NAME]. It’s been a while since we’ve heard from you, and we’d love to hear about your past experiences. We strive to satisfy every customer, and your responses can help us improve. The survey only takes a few minutes. Once you complete it, you’ll see a special offer.”
The CTA should be “Take the Survey.”
Redirect survey takers to a website page with the offer.
RELATED ARTICLE — Automate Customer Feedback
Direct Mail Win-Back Examples
Direct mail can also be an effective win-back channel. You can personalize offers that are urgent and appealing. An actual piece of mail often gets more attention than digital channels.
It can be cumbersome to manage manually, which is why direct-mail customer retention solutions are becoming more popular. In fact, the adoption of these grew by 56% according to an industry survey.
Let’s review some campaign ideas for direct mail.
Seasonal reactivation postcard
This theme is similar to the email campaign discussed above. What’s unique about direct mail is that it can include more imagery. Postcards for reactivation should be highly visual.
You can highlight the changing of seasons and what that means for the service you provide. Before-and-after pictures may be appropriate, or you could highlight what happens to an HVAC system without proper maintenance.
Be sure the CTA is bold and clear, driving them to scan a QR code or make a call. You can include a discount if they act now. Give them a defined deadline to get in touch.
Loyalty / win-back offer mailer
In this example, you want to remind customers why they chose you in the first place. Those receiving this mailer know your brand and have previously been recurring customers. Something has happened to cause them not to rebook. You may not know the answer to that, but you can focus on rewarding them if they come back.
Use strong imagery and a relevant CTA with an offer for them to book with you again. You could also highlight maintenance or loyalty programs.
Win-Back Campaign Best Practices & Metrics
For a win-back campaign to be successful, you will want to consider these best practices:
- Don’t treat all inactive or churned customers the same. Remember to segment based on attributes.
- Send the “right” number of communications. If you bombard them with constant emails or texts, there’s a likelihood that they will unsubscribe. Set the number of touchpoints by considering historical data and how much the purchase price is. The more expensive the service is, the more touchpoints it may need.
- Develop the right offer. Incentives matter, but they need to be relevant and compelling. Remember that each segment needs its own personalized promotion. Experiment with different ones and collect data to understand which one has the best response rate.
- Guide their next step with a clear CTA that’s easy for them to act on.
Other best practices relate to timing and cadence.
Timing & cadence
The timing of these campaigns has much to do with the purchase cycle.. Once it’s been over this amount of time, you can make the assumption that the customer is in jeopardy of churning.
If the usual purchase time is every three months and the customer has no appointment scheduled, you could trigger the win-back series a week after the three-month mark.
Cadence refers to how you’ll space out communications. It shouldn’t be too short because that may be annoying. However, you don’t want to wait too long, or the customer may forget about the initial email or text.
The sweet spot for cadence would be every four business days. It’s a good halfway point.
Measuring reactivation rate & ROI
As with any marketing strategy, you want to measure the effectiveness of win-back campaigns.
The first metric to watch is reactivation rate. The formula for this is:
Reactivation rate = (Number of reactivated customers / Total number of churned or inactive customers) × 100
You can define these numbers either by a time period or a specific campaign.
Here is an example:
Number of reactivated customers: 40
Total number of churned or inactive customers: 175
(40 / 175) × 100 = 22.9%
You can track this metric across campaigns to determine which are the most effective. This offers insight into visuals, copy, and channels that provide the best ROI.
For overall ROI, you need to determine the amount of revenue generated by these efforts and your costs.
Costs would include technology you use for email, texting, and direct-mail automation. For direct mail, you will have other expenses as well, like printing and postage.
A direct mail example could be:
$7,500 revenue attributed to a direct-mail campaign
Total costs of the campaign: $3,600
Use this formula:
ROI = [(Revenue generated − Cost) / Cost] × 100
[($7,500 − $3,600) / $3,600] × 100 = 108%
Track this metric regularly as well to understand the true return on these efforts. They will vary by channel because costs are different. That doesn’t necessarily mean you should always use the cheapest channel.
RELATED ARTICLE — Measure Customer Retention
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a win-back campaign?
A win-back campaign is a marketing strategy that companies use to re-engage lapsed customers. The objective is to convert a churned customer to a retained one, using appealing communications and offers.
When should you send a win-back campaign?
You should send a win-back campaign after a defined period of inactivity or an official churn action. You can set the period to any time frame. Look at the usual patterns of repeat customers to decide this. Data suggests that win-back emails sent after a 30-day lapse have a 40% rate of success.
Do win-back campaigns actually work?
Yes, win-back campaigns work. They are a cost-effective way to drive retention and re-engagement. The performance of these tactics is positive because they warm up audiences and deliver appealing promotions. Most companies using them see high conversion rates and are able to protect CLV.
Invest in Win-Back Campaigns
Developing win-back campaigns delivers many advantages to home service companies. When you re-engage lapsed or inactive customers, these strategies help pull them back in and bolster loyalty.
Using email and direct mail are the best channels, but it can be challenging to manage all this at scale. Adopting customer retention software can help by automating many workflows. You’ll find this feature and more with pulseM. Explore how it works by booking a demo.