How to Win Back Lost Customers

Even though “it costs 5 times more to attract a new customer than it does to keep an existing one”[1], many companies still believe that getting more new customers is the only way to bigger profits. We’re here to show you that it is not – and how much more money you can make if you reengage those who once were your target. 

Why You Should Care About Lost Customers

Do you know, percentage-wise, how likely you are to sell one of your products to an inactive customer? 60-70%. 

And do you know what the probability is for you to sell to a new potential customer? 5-20%.[2] 

Exactly…

Those two stats alone show you how much money you lose when you focus only on getting more customers and forget about the needs of those who have already invested their time, energy, and resources in your brand. But wait, there’s more!

When you add two more facts to the equation – the first one being that a 5% increase in customer retention can lead to a 25 to 95% boost in profitability [3], and the second indicating that almost 65% of a company’s business comes from repeat customers [4] – you quickly become aware of how important it is to nurture your past customer relationships. Fortunately, there are a few ways you can do that. 

What is a Customer Win-Back Campaign? 

The main purpose of a customer win-back campaign is to bring back inactive customers and turn them into active customers again. It is usually done by offering lapsed customers an incentive for performing a specific action such as making a new purchase, reactivating their subscription, or rejoining the newsletter mailing list.  

However, a win-back campaign can also be just a simple mailing campaign that offers no rewards but shows that there’s added value in becoming an active member of your brand community. 

Your mailings can be either formal and thus mostly include product offers and special discounts, or they can be witty & humorous to show, firstly, that your company knows how not to take itself too seriously, and secondly, that it is actually fun to be part of your brand experience.

The important fact is that win-back campaigns work – a study done by MarTech [5] reveals that 45% of customers who receive a win-back email will open future messages from you. 

According to the Client Winback Benchmark Study[6], not only do 26% of inactive customers become active again thanks to a win-back campaign, but their customer lifetime value (CLV) doubles as a result. Clearly, you don’t want to be missing out on that!

As far as setting up a win-back campaign is concerned, it is easy when you have the right IT tools. All you need is, for example, Comarch’s AI/Machine Learning-powered Loyalty Marketing Platform. With its help, you can quickly identify inactive customers with the biggest potential of becoming active again and create automated, data-driven narratives that, when presented to them, will reignite your customers' interest in your brand.

To find out how it can be done exactly, you can check out a free Loyalty Marketing Platform Demo Video Tour. Hosted by one of our top customer loyalty experts, it shows how you can use our loyalty & digital marketing software to engage customers and boost profits.

Other Ways to Win Back Lost Customers

Customer Segmentation

It will be much easier for you to win back lost customers if you divide them into groups of people who share similar traits, values, and needs. That way, you will be able to build dedicated customer journeys for each group, so that their members will never receive content they may find irrelevant. Identifying groups (or segments, as they are called) is easy when you use an AI/Machine Learning-powered loyalty marketing platform that is designed to analyze your customer data and find patterns in customers’ behavior. With its help, you will know exactly what your customers expect from you – and you will be able to deliver on that.

Personalization

If you want your customers to feel like their individual needs really matter to you, you need to personalize your content. What it means is that your communication with a given customer must be based on past interactions with that exact customer (or a group of customers who share similar preferences and values). Only by reaching the right person with the right message will you be able to build a long-lasting relationship … or rekindle their interest in your products and services. Try sending personalized e-mails to inactive customers and see what happens. 

Send-Time-Optimization (STO)

You will have a much bigger chance to get through to a given member if you send them your message at the right time. Remember, nobody likes to be bothered by “junk mail”, therefore, you must make sure that your mailings will never be labeled as such. Personalization and STO will help you with that. Use the latest AI-powered STO tools to find out what the best time is to contact your customer so that your efforts are no shots in the dark. Believe us, it’s worth it.

Location Targeting

The customer’s whereabouts are just as important as send time. Location targeting relies on geo-fencing and mobile location, both of which help define areas close to your brick-and-mortar stores that – when entered by one of your customers (even an inactive one)  – can be used to inspire them to revisit your premises and consider engaging in the “next especially personalized product offer”. After all, the product is “only a 2-min walk from their current location”, which may be enough to convince lost customers to find themselves back at your door.

CLV Prediction

With the help of AI and Machine Learning, the new loyalty marketing platforms – like the one we provide – can help you monitor, in real-time, all of your digital marketing and transactional operations. However, they can also define Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) for each customer. With CLV Prediction, you can see how much money a given consumer will spend and whether they will buy more or less from you in the future. In other words, you are aware of every active customer’s upcoming loss of interest in your products or services. This will help you develop the right win-back strategy ahead of time and regain their attention before it’s too late.

Tools You Can Use to Get Your Lost Customers Back 

Taking into account all the stats and figures we mentioned in this article which prove that you can earn much more money by nurturing your existing customer relationships rather than by trying to build new ones, it becomes clear that you must develop a sound win-back strategy if you want to drive growth. 

However, to realize your customer win-back strategy, you will need the right tools. By getting yourself an all-in-one, AI-powered loyalty marketing platform – like the one we deliver – not only will you be able to build personalized, data-driven customer journeys that will attract lapsed customers, but you will also have a better understanding of your customers’ needs and requirements. 

To find out how you can use our loyalty marketing software to win back lost customers, you can take part in the aforementioned Loyalty Marketing Platform Demo. Available for free, it shows what’s “under the hood” of our solution and how each of its components can be used to build stronger customer relationships, reduce operational costs, and drive profits. 

[1] www.forbes.com/sites/jiawertz/2018/09/12/dont-spend-5-times-more-attracting-new-customers-nurture-the-existing-ones/?sh=186de2635a8e
[2] www.invespcro.com/blog/customer-acquisition-retention/
[3] blog.hubspot.com/service/customer-retention
[4] www.smallbizgenius.net/by-the-numbers/customer-loyalty-statistics/#gref
[5] martech.org/email-win-back-programs-work/
[6] strategicwinback.com/