to create a real reactivation programme //

Jane Austen said that “it is universally recognized” that retaining old customers is cheaper than acquiring new ones. Why don’t marketers do more to win back those customers who have spent money in the past but are now silent?

They’ve always told me that they tried reactivation and re-engagement campaigns, but it didn’t work. The email marketers didn’t succeed in reactivating those customers or achieving the ROI they expected.

It’s not so much a problem that reactivation programmes don’t work. It’s more likely that the reactivation programme was poorly designed. It could have been that the data wasn’t correct. Or the brand only sent one email, instead of several. It treated all customers who left the brand in the same way, instead of acknowledging important differences between them and creating programs that spoke to these differences.

Reactivation programs can be one of the most difficult to plan and implement. It’s important to get this right, so that you can spend less on acquisition costs and maximize the return on your existing investments.

Reactivation and re-engagement are not the Same

You can choose to either wake up subscribers that haven’t opened your emails for a while or bring back customers who purchased once, but not in a period tied to your buying cycles.

Success metrics also differ. Re-engagement is about seeing people do something with your emails — open it, click on it, or unsubscribe from it. Reactivation Program: Your goal is to encourage previous customers to return and purchase again. It’s nice to see long-dormant subscribers respond to your emails, but this is not your goal.

Why dormant, lapsed, and lapsed customers matter?

Your reactivation campaign will target different groups within your database. Understanding your regular purchasing cycle is important. This includes how frequently people purchase, whether they buy at the same intervals or only during certain seasons of the year, and other variables. Take the time to understand these differences.

When I am building a program to reactivate a client’s customers, I consider three types of clients:

• Lapsing These clients are on the outside of your purchasing cycle. These customers may have made their last purchase a few days before or after your 60-day cycle. Start with them if you are just starting to use reactivation programmes. They’re likely the most active and interested customers.
• Lapsed : These customers are just outside your purchase cycle. These customers may have made purchases 90 days ago or longer, but they are more recent than the next group on this list.
• Dormant : These customers are at least two purchase cycles behind. They may be 121-days late on a 60 day purchase cycle. This group needs special attention to avoid delivery issues and attract attention. This group of customers may be more inclined to click on the spam button, or ignore your emails. Both actions can damage your sender’s reputation with ISPs.

It is easy to see that the purchase data is important and there are no rules of thumb as to when a reactivation campaign should be launched or for how long. You must use your data and knowledge about your customers to make the right decisions as a marketer.

Consider shopper personalities

Understanding what drives your customers to purchase is another important element of a successful reactivation campaign. Take a look at the four shopping personalities defined by Bryan Eisberg.

• Competent. Quick decision-making and logically-oriented.
• Impulsive. Emotionally driven, fast-paced decision making.
• Humanistic. Emotionally oriented, slow-paced decision making.
• Methodical. Logical, slow-paced decision making.

You can use your email program to determine if your customers, particularly your most valuable shoppers, fall into a certain category.

Do they tend to buy on impulse (impulsive shoppers)? They need to be methodical (read the fine print) before they make a purchase.

But you don’t need to choose one personality. I am a spontaneous consumer of goods. When I am in B2B mode and shopping for products for my company I switch to a competitive mode. Solution: Include something to satisfy each personality type in every email sent in your reactivation series.

You can create different message modes using Generative AI. In my experiments with ChatGPT I found that the tool was able to write a message that would motivate each of the personalities in the above list.

Use recency-frequency-monetary (RFM) value

Prepare to dive deep into your data. B2B marketers have different parameters, customer groups, and buying or activity cycles than B2C marketers. To structure your program, you’ll look at how often customers buy from you, how much they spend and how recently.

Nine questions that a program for reactivation should answer

After you have gathered all your data and identified your target groups, it is time to develop a strategy.

Reactivation programs have more moving parts and require more planning and preparation than reengagement programs. As you create your program structure, you will need to consider the following questions:

1. What is your goal?

Your reactivation programme is not about sending out emails. Reactivation programs are designed to turn past customers into active ones. How you keep them in your corral will be the subject of another part to your program.

You can focus on the status of customers, for example, reactivating 10 percent of your lapsed or lapsing customers within a year or raising 20% of your email revenues from reactivated clients. Make sure that every aspect of the program is focused on your goal.

Who should receive the reactivation email?

Use the data that you have collected to answer this question. Include other data as well, like average order values, types of products purchased, and more.

You may not need to reactivate all your customers if you are looking for customers who have a higher lifetime value, like those who purchase more frequently or at full price rather than waiting for sales.

Answer depends on the products you sell and your customers’ buying habits. Tennis racquets are more expensive and repurchased less often than tennis balls. You may need to have different reactivation campaigns for the two categories of products if you sell them both.

This might seem like a lot to do in theory. Remember that these are personalized programs. These emails perform better than mass-emails because they are customized to the characteristics of each customer group.

3. How many emails per day should I send?

Re-engagement programs can be an email sent manually, or triggered when a subscriber has not opened their email for a period of time. You’ll be more successful with a series for a reactivation campaign.

You can test to find out the number of emails you should send and at what intervals. Automating this process is crucial because triggers (e.g., X number of days after the last purchase) and message content can vary between customer groups.

Recently, I worked with a customer to update emails that were aimed at retention. For example, cart abandonment or reactivation. I suggested starting with three emails sent one week apart to the segment that was lapsed, and then reviewing their performance before expanding the program.

4. Should you stop sending promotional emails during the reactivation?

Consider this so that customers do not receive mixed messages — e.g., a promotional email one day followed by Email 1 in a 5-email series reactivating your account the next — or a sudden and unwanted increase in frequency or volume.

You can use your data to decide whether or not you want to switch from the standard promotional emails to a reactivation campaign.

Launch a reactivation campaign for each segment that is lapsed, dormant or in the process of slipping away. Start with your lapsing clients, as they are your most recent customers and most likely your most engaged. Next, move to the segments that are lapsed or dormant.

5. What should your reactivation email sound like?

Remember one rule. Talk to your customers like people and understand why they may have stopped buying. Use familiar formatting and familiar branding elements such as your logo, colors, taglines, and voice.

Use subject lines, preheaders, and message copy to make your reactivation email stand out. Mention why the customer left and what they will gain by returning.

The tone of your email should be consistent with your brand and reflect the needs and desires of your customers. Many reactivation email campaigns go off track in this area.

Kim Greenop Gadsby, a panelist from Proact IT AB, said the following:

When a relationship fails, it’s either me or the other person. Imagine I am in a relationship with someone who is always talking to me about how wonderful they are, how amazing their company is, and how that will solve all of my problems. You don’t understand my problems. You haven’t even asked me. But sometimes, I am the problem. The brand continues to hammer on this dead horse even though I have moved jobs or left my job. Accept that someone isn’t engaging. “Move them to another segment and go on with your life.”

6. What is the difference between overt and covert messages?

Your copy should acknowledge that you are contacting your customers because they haven’t purchased recently. See the Bulletproof Coffee example in the following section.

You can use covert messaging to highlight new products, an order system that is streamlined, an exclusive offer for VIPs, or any other subtle approach.

7. What should I include in my incentive?

Maybe. What you choose should be based upon what you already know about your clients, what motivates and excites them, how long they will stay with you, and whether or not you can expect to recoup the cost of this incentive through a new purchase.

Save the incentive for later in your email series. Imagine you sent a five email series that included a budget-busting offer. You can be sure that more people will redeem the incentive if it is placed in Email 1. This is because it’s easier to do than to add it to Email 5 while excluding anyone who has converted through any of your previous emails. You still want to make as much money as possible so do not lead with your most attractive offer.

8. What should I test for?

Everything! Here is a list of quick tests you can run on each email program to determine whether it’s working or not:

• The number of emails in a series
• Subject line/preheader
• Tone
• Use or not use an incentive or offer?
• Content Approach
• Emotion (fear, exclusivity of brand/product, fear of missing out).
• Overt versus covert messaging

When you are building a program for reactivation from scratch, testing is crucial. Split-test your program on lapsed customers using A/B tests. Once you have declared a winner, automate it.

Imagine you have reactivated clients who fall into your lapping segment. You can then either remove them from the program or send them the email anyway, since it has been some time since they first received your lapsing-program email.

9. How can I tell if my program has been successful?

Select success metrics that align with your goals. Use revenue-based metrics, such as total revenue, if you want to increase revenue by reactivating lapsed clients. Other revenue metrics such as average order values or revenue per email can serve as barometers to gauge the success of your emails in nudge customers back into buying.

Remember these two things:

To avoid an undercounting of conversions, extend your reporting period. It is good to use this practice with any email you send. After a few weeks, I see many marketers stop tracking clicks, revenue and conversions.

People often click or convert on emails many days after they are sent. You’ll have a better understanding of the performance of your emails if you extend the reporting period. Keep your reporting running for 30-60 days, to see when conversions and clicks start to slow down.

Do not expect conversion rates to be comparable withto the best performing email programs. A reactivation message might only get 1%-2% conversions, whereas your normal emails get 25-30%. Lapsed clients can be difficult to reach. These are people who have bought from you before but not recently. You may find it difficult to reach them.

Beyond opens and clicks, there are 7 important email metrics that you should be tracking.

Reactivation emails examples to inspire you

Adidas

Subject: Have a look – make sure you take advantage of this offer.

This email was chosen because the subject line was interesting. The subject line is unique and uses curiosity to get people interested in the offer.

This email is more like a reengagement email, as it’s an independent program that doesn’t mention the customer’s past purchases. This is also an example where reactivation messages are overt, as it mentions inactivity.

It is important to note that when using overt messages like this, they must be based upon purchase data. This is because the recipient may not be active on their email but still buy online or at a store.

Staples

Subject: Office supplies and more.

Here’s a second email that can be used in both re-engagement programs and reactivation campaigns. Staples promotes its services and offers instead of inviting customers back.

Bulletproof

Subject: Come back and Save (a special deal just for you)

Bulletproof sent us one of the very few emails that we could find in our research. The email was sent exactly seven months after a purchase.

The subject line is also very good. The subject line is a little vague. It mentions an offer, but it doesn’t go into details.

JustFab

Subject line: We’ve Missed You! Come Back for 50% OFF

JustFab is a great example of a subscription brand that has reactivation strategies in place. Many brands are concerned about customer churn. They have implemented data signals to monitor when customers’ interest is waning or they’re ready to click the “Cancel button”. JustFab uses nostalgia and FOMO as a way to remind lapsed customers of what they are missing.

A point of interest: JustFab was probably doing some email testing on the day it sent the email. Mailcharts provided the images for this post. Another account received an offer for a gift card if they signed up for a survey affiliate program.

Office Depot

Subject Line We Miss You

Preheader You haven’t checked your emails!

Other emails in the collection contain overt messages — content that addresses the disappearing customer directly. Covert messaging is evident in this Office Depot email, which arrived more than 60 days after the last date of purchase. Except for the header which may be a bit creepy to some.

The message doesn’t mention past purchases but does arrive 60 days after the last purchase. It’s a great example of retention marketing. It has something for everyone. Whether it’s a happy client who receives a coupon for a positive review or subscription preferences in a layout which makes it easy to interact on a smartphone-sized screen, there’s plenty for everyone.

Final Thoughts

Planning reactivation emails is just as important as planning complex automated email sequences. The results of your email program can be improved with nothing more than a marketing automation system, a CRM, or spreadsheets and lots of current customer data.

Is that too much? The payoff could be enormous. Look for quick wins to fill revenue gaps or retain your most valuable customers.

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