We’ve all heard the story before - someone buys from your store or signs up for your email list, and then you never see them again. Where did they go? Did they forget about you? Was it all a mistake in the first place?
Paranoia aside, this is an all too common scenario that any ecommerce company can relate to. But on the bright side - these customers did care about you once, and there is promise that they’ll come back.
It’s important to remember that your customers are busy - in a study conducted by Return Path, it was found that even though customers may not open a particular email, 45% of customers will read subsequent emails. This is the goal of a winback campaign - to send a series of emails that are likely to re-engage leads that are falling off.
Now that we’re on the same page - it’s time to craft a winback campaign to re-engage your customers. Here are some ideas from brands that are notorious for knowing their customers that created great winback campaigns.
ASOS: It’s not you, so… it must be us?
ASOS isn’t the first to use this classic breakup expression in their winback email, but their content is clever. They give customers a method of expressing why they left in the first place, so that they can respond with a recommendation, discount, or message accordingly.
Bonobos: Hello? Anyone home?
Using human analogies is an easy way to keep your brand voice personal, increasing the potential for re-engagement. Bonobos knocks on the doors of their customers’ inboxes to clean their list by automatically unsubscribing those who don’t click the link in the email. This works well at the end of a winback campaign, once you’ve tried getting a customers attention 3 or 4 times.
Benefit: Texts from last night
Benefit combines clever, relatable copy with a promo code to remind their customers what’s great about their quirky brand.
Kobo: We've missed you!
The most notable aspect of Kobo’s winback email is that they’re basically giving away books for free. If you were once an avid e-book purchaser, this offer would be too good to pass up.
Paul Mitchell: We Hate Goodbyes
If you can make a sad face with your products for your winback email, Paul Mitchell shows why you should definitely do it. Hair products have never made me feel so sad. This email includes a clear option for the subscriber to opt-out of future emails, which is a solid way for Paul Mitchell to clean up their email list.
Sephora: Where’ve You Been?
Sephora adds an exclusive feel to their winback email by making it for Beauty Insiders only. The $15 off discount is front-and-center, making the odds of winning back these customers even better. It’s worth considering creating a separate winback campaign for your VIP customers, especially if you’ve got high price points.
Feeling inspired? It’s time to set up some automated customer winback campaigns - your unengaged subscribers can’t be ignored any longer!