Email Marketing 
Are you tired of losing old customers and seeing your sales drop? Well, winback emails can be your solution. They’re a powerful tool for re-engaging with customers who haven’t interacted with your brand in a while, and they can help you regain their trust and loyalty.
In this blog, we’ll go over everything you need to know about winback emails, including what they are, why they’re so important, and how to write effective ones. Plus, we’ll provide you with some awesome winback email examples and best practices to help you get started. So let’s dive in and learn how to convert your old customers with winback emails!
What is a winback email?
A winback email is an email that you send to people who haven’t shopped in your ecommerce store in a while. The goal of the email is to “win back” their business and encourage them to shop with you again.
For example, let’s say someone bought something from your store six months ago but hasn’t returned since. You might send them a friendly email with a special offer or discount code to entice them to come back and shop again.
The email might say something like, “Hey there! We noticed it’s been a while since you shopped with us. We miss you! To welcome you back, here’s a special discount code just for you.”
Winback emails are a way to re-engage customers who might have forgotten about your store or moved on to shop somewhere else. By reaching out and offering them an incentive to come back, you can encourage them to become loyal customers once again.
Why is winback email so important?
Retaining customers
The primary goal of winback emails is to retain customers who haven’t shopped with your store in a while. By reminding them of your store and offering them an incentive to return, you can encourage them to become repeat customers. This is important because it’s much easier and cheaper to retain existing customers than it is to find new ones.
Increasing revenue
When customers return to your store and make purchases, you’ll see an increase in revenue. This is especially true for repeat customers, who are more likely to spend more money per purchase than first-time customers.
Building loyalty
When you reach out to customers with winback emails and show them that you value their business, you’re building loyalty. This can lead to repeat purchases and positive reviews, as loyal customers are more likely to recommend your store to others.
Regaining lost customers
If a customer has stopped shopping with your store for some reason, a winback email can help to regain their business. This is important because lost customers are often lost revenue, and it’s much easier to regain a lost customer than it is to find a new one.
Tracking customer behavior
When you send winback emails, you can track customer behavior and learn more about why they might have stopped shopping with your store. This can help you make changes to your business to better serve your customers and retain them in the future.
Customer winback email examples
Incentive winback email
As the name suggests, this type of email provides customers with something unique, such as a discount code or a free service, to persuade them to make another purchase.
Incentive winback campaigns have been proven to be effective in ecommerce marketing. By providing additional value to the customer, businesses can create a sense of urgency and encourage customers to return to their store.
Offering time-limited incentives is a powerful way to convince lapsed customers to take action and make a purchase. Overall, using an incentive winback email campaign can be a tried-and-true approach for companies looking to bring back inactive customers.
“Hello” winback email
“Hello” email is a classic method of winning back customers. It’s a straightforward approach to reconnect with your audience, and all it requires is a friendly “hello.”
This winback campaign aims to acknowledge loyalty and demonstrate to customers that you value them. It creates a sense of importance for the customer, and it won’t cost you anything.
To achieve the following objectives, this type of winback email should:
- Remind past customers why they initially supported your business.
- Highlight the unique benefits of your best-selling products.
- Acknowledge and appreciate the customer.
- Keep your brand top-of-mind for the customer.
It’s important to keep these winback emails simple, as disengaged customers don’t need lengthy copy or distractions. Sometimes people simply forget about your brand, but a brief reminder can bring them back!
Creative winback email
If you’re looking to boost your winback email campaigns, showcasing your creativity is an excellent way to engage your audience and win back their loyalty. So don’t be afraid to think outside the box and experiment with different formats and content types to create an unforgettable experience for your customers.
An effective strategy to achieve this is to include other types of creative marketing content, such as blog articles or videos, within your emails. This provides an opportunity to offer additional value and ensure that your customers take away something special from the experience.
Feedback winback email
Rather than simply attempting to lure customers back, feedback emails are designed to inquire why customers have become disengaged with your business. This approach serves two primary objectives.
Firstly, feedback emails demonstrate to customers that your business places a high priority on their satisfaction. This alone may be sufficient to encourage them to return.
Secondly, even if the customer is not interested in returning, feedback emails can provide valuable, specific insights into how you can enhance the overall customer experience. This could include changes to your e-commerce shopping experience, more flexible shipping alternatives, or better customer service.
Numerous customers cease supporting a business due to a poor customer experience. If you demonstrate that you care enough to inquire why they have lost interest, there is a good possibility that you will be able to win back those customers and regain their support.
Unsubscribe winback email
It’s common for people to unsubscribe from your mailing list. However, it doesn’t necessarily mean that they won’t be back. Sometimes subscribers may not want to receive emails from you at that particular moment, or they may be unsubscribing from numerous newsletters to free up some space in their inbox.
By sending an unsubscribe email, you have an opportunity to recapture those customers’ attention. Your message could persuade those who are still on the fence about leaving to reconsider and opt back in.
Make the most of your unsubscribe message to provide exceptional customer support, demonstrating to the subscriber that the customer experience you provide is of such high value that they can’t afford to lose it. Be personal, show that you care, and emphasize how much you value them.
Winback email best practices
Engaging winback subject lines
Crafting a clever winback email subject line can effectively re-engage your customers and inspire them to give your brand another chance. Many companies have found success by using language that appeals to the recipient’s emotions and makes them feel like they are receiving a personalized message from a human, rather than a generic sales pitch.
One common tactic is to use language that creates a sense of familiarity or urgency, such as “We miss you,” “Come back,” or “It’s been a while.” Another approach is to tap into the fear of missing out (FOMO) that many people experience by using subject lines like “Everyone’s raving about this” or “Only 5 left of the must-have, celeb-endorsed item!”
To help you get started, here are some statistics about winback email subject lines:
- Subject lines similar to “It’s been a while” have an average open rate of 27%.
- Subject lines similar to “We miss you” have an average open rate of 24%.
- Subject lines containing the word “discount” have an average open rate of 20%.
Remember, you can also use your brand voice to make your subject lines more memorable and unique. For example, Farmhouse Pottery used the subject line “Is This Goodbye?💧” in a winback email. This not only captures the same sentiment as traditional winback subject lines but also feels like a message from a long-lost friend.
Try using multiple winback emails
Determining the ideal number of emails to include in a winback automation can be challenging. While sending just one email is an option, there is a possibility that the recipient might overlook it or decide not to open it, especially if they have not engaged with your emails in a while.
Hence, many marketers conduct experiments with a sequence of winback emails, typically two or more, with intervals between them to enhance the chances of the recipient opening, engaging, and ultimately making a purchase.
Here are a few tips to consider when deciding on the number of emails to include in your winback series:
- Send 2-5 emails to maximize the effectiveness of your winback series without risking your sending reputation.
- Segment your winback series. For instance, you could send a single email to inactive subscribers and then trigger a second and possibly third email to those who have still not made a purchase after a specific period.
- If you observe that the revenue per recipient is decreasing after the initial winback email, it is an indication that you should reduce the number of emails you send.
Craft brand-aligned customer content
The primary objective of winback emails is to encourage inactive subscribers to revisit your website and make a purchase. This necessitates the incorporation of captivating content in your email templates to prevent your subscribers from scrolling past your email.
One way to grab your customers’ attention is by providing discounts or other incentives, such as free shipping. You can experiment with the timing of your offer and consider including it later in your email series if you don’t need to persuade your customer to purchase.
On the other hand, you could ditch the discount and focus on promoting your bestsellers, new products, and user-generated content to entice customers to shop with you again. You could also use A/B testing to try both approaches.
This is an excellent opportunity to address any potential issues by educating customers on how to get the most out of your products, explaining how they can get in touch with customer service, or requesting feedback.
Start creating effective winback emails with NestSend
If you’ve been experiencing a slump in customer engagement, winback emails can be an effective strategy to re-engage your inactive subscribers and prevent them from churning. The key to crafting an effective winback email is to focus on the reasons why your clients originally connected with your brand.
When it comes to creating a winback campaign, NestSend is an ideal platform to get started. Our user-friendly tools allow you to effortlessly design professional-looking emails and automate their delivery to ensure that your winback messages are received at the right time. With our comprehensive marketing tools, you can enhance customer retention and cultivate meaningful relationships with your clients.
Don’t let your inactive subscribers slip away – take advantage of NestSend’s winback campaign features today and start boosting your customer engagement.
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