"Come Back and Stay" – How to leverage the potential of win-back emails to regain customers

Despite all your efforts to maintain customer satisfaction and turn new customers into repeat customers, some customers will still leave. In this case, all is not lost, because with the right strategy, you can win back even these customers. We give you an overview of the most common reasons for customer churn and show you how to win back lost customers with a successful email marketing strategy and well-thought-out win-back emails.

Identify customers who have left and been lost

Before you take measures to win back customers, it is important to identify lost customers. It is rare for customers to be lost overnight. In most cases, the churn is already apparent over a longer period of time.

You can recognize the impending loss of your customers by various factors. If regular customers have always ordered regularly or frequently and are now placing fewer or no orders at all, it can be assumed that they are at risk of leaving. If you ask customers specifically about their satisfaction and they do not respond, this is a sure sign that they are not currently among your active customers. Another sign that you are at risk of losing your customers is frequent complaints and grievances. If you notice such or similar observations in customer behavior, you should take targeted measures to win back customers. You can take steps to prevent churn throughout the entire email funnel.

Knowing and understanding reasons for leaving

In addition to identifying which of your customers are considering leaving, it is equally important to determine why. There may be various reasons for losing your customers. However, understanding these reasons is essential for developing effective retention strategies. Only by comprehending why a customer has lost interest can you develop appropriate solutions to rekindle their interest. We have summarized everything you need to know about customer loyalty in e-commerce in another article.

In general, reasons for churn can be customer-, company-, or competition-related. Customers may leave due to the following personal circumstances:

• Entering a new phase of life, such as retirement, marriage, or the birth of a child
• Loss of employment or financial reasons
• Death of a customer

The following are among the company-related reasons for leaving:

• Prices too high
• Poor quality
• Dissatisfaction with customer service or complaints
• Poor image

However, competitors can also be a reason why you lose customers. The following factors have an influence on this:

• More affordable prices
• Higher quality
• Better customer service
• Poaching customers
• More targeted or more prominent advertising
• Shorter delivery times
• Wider product selection
• Simpler order completion
• Wider range of payment methods

Take advantage of customer recovery

If you implement measures to win back your customers, you will not only benefit from a growing customer base. The biggest advantage is that acquiring new customers is usually much more time-consuming and costly than winning back existing customers—so you save resources and costs. But their value also usually exceeds that of new customers. Existing or former customers have already had experience with your company and have built up trust and loyalty as a result. You should definitely take advantage of these benefits.

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Examples of different win-back emails

An effective method for winning back lost customers is to use win-back emails. These emails are designed to encourage customers who have left to return to your company. They are sent to customers automatically and personalized if they have not made any purchases within a period of time defined by you. Win-back emails for customer recovery can be implemented in various formats. We have put together a few examples for you:

• The "We miss you" email: This email is sent when a customer has been inactive for a long period of time. It shows them that you, as an online retailer, remember them and reminds them of your company. The company bareMinerals has implemented this type of email very effectively. With their "We miss you" email and the addition of "Can you blame us?", they convey to their customers how valuable they are to the company. In addition, the email contains a discount code as an incentive for the customer to make a purchase.
• Emails with product recommendations for inactive customers: If customers have not made a purchase in your e-commerce store for a long time, it can be helpful to send them product recommendations based on past purchases. ASICS implements this type of email communication very well. They use a slightly different type of recommendation by not providing customers with direct product suggestions, but instead inviting them to take a quiz to find the perfect pair of shoes.
• Social proof emails: Social media combined with reviews have an incredible effect on customers and their purchasing behavior. Therefore, it can be beneficial to integrate positive feedback from your social media channels into your email communications, thereby strengthening your customers' trust in your company. Warby Parker relies on this type of email and convinces inactive customers by integrating customer feedback on social media.
• Customer recovery email with discounts and incentives: Discounts are a well-known and still very effective measure for winning back customers. The well-known beauty brand Glossier implements this in a subtle but effective email. The company offers its inactive customers a free product with their next purchase, thereby promoting engagement.⁴
• The feedback email: Requesting feedback from your customers is another way to win them back. With these emails, you show your interest in their opinion while also gaining important insights into their mindset and reasons for inactivity. The company PROVEN has implemented this by offering customers response options in the email to find out the reasons for not making purchases.⁵

Our tip: You can also use humor that fits your brand. If you use this form of communication in skillfully written texts, you will win back your customer's attention and earn a genuine smile. 

Babymarkt.de also sends "We miss you" emails to show customers how much they are valued and to encourage them to visit the shop again with a "Welcome Back" voucher. (Source: Screenshot of email from babymarkt.de)

Your path to successful customer recovery

To help you successfully win back your customers, we recommend the following steps:

1. Identify your inactive and lost customers.
2. Find out the reasons for the exodus and analyze them.
3. Win back your lost customers with relevant text content and images that match your brand, as well as an attractive offer such as a discount on their next purchase. Missguided provides an excellent example of this, using short and concise text passages, supported by relevant emojis and a code for free shipping, to convince customers to return.⁶
4. Of course, you should always monitor the success of your initiatives and make adjustments to your measures or processes if necessary.

These four steps will help you successfully win back customers. (Source: Own representation)

There will always be a few customers for whom all recovery measures will not lead to the desired result. Therefore, you should offer these customers the option to unsubscribe from your mailing list so that you do not contact them in vain during future recovery attempts and avoid unnecessary costs.

Learn more about email personalization →