Getting personalized e-commerce right for more loyalty and sales
Brands are delivering personalized e-commerce experiences to build customer loyalty and drive more conversions. Discover how they're doing it.
Customer acquisition costs are skyrocketing, with some research showing e-commerce businesses paying $86 on average to win new customers. With numbers like this dragging down marketing ROI, many brands have switched their focus from top-of-funnel, one-time sales to both retaining the customers they already have and figuring out how to winback customers they’ve lost.
But what happens when the customers who’ve made that all-important first purchase – or who have been buying regularly – go quiet? How do you win back customers?
Winback campaigns are key to rekindling old flames without starting from scratch. With the right approach, you can remind former customers why they fell for your brand in the first place, show them what they’ve been missing, and tempt them back to your website or store.
With empathy, personalization, and smart use of AI, brands can transform lost connections into loyal fans. Ready to turn “goodbye” into “welcome back”? Let’s get started.
Identify lost customers you need to win back
Every brand’s buying cycle is different. This means that the signals a mattress company uses to identify a lapsed customer are likely going to be very different from those used by a consumable or cosmetics brand. So, before creating a winback strategy, it’s important to ask – what does an inactive customer look like to you?
Some telltale signs that a customer is churning include:
- Lack of recent purchase history
- No recent loyalty program progress
- Lack of engagement with email content
- No web browsing activity
Compare these against your current buying cycle. For example, if repeat customers typically repurchase, on average, every 45 days, and a customer shows the above signals after 60 days, it makes sense to add them to your inactive customer segment.
Now that you’ve identified the inactive customers, here are four key tactics for winning them back.
1. Winback customers: Use feedback to develop a strategy
Whether it was a product issue or a competitor offering more relevant offers, the customer that just churned had a reason for doing so. Understanding that reason is absolutely crucial to winning them back.
Reaching out to customers and asking for feedback shows that you take a personal interest in them, plus it provides valuable insights for stopping other customers from leaving.
To make this happen, craft a short, personal email to customers who haven’t interacted with your brand recently. A simple message like, “We’ve noticed you’ve been away and value your opinion. Could you share how we can improve?” directly engages the customer and encourages feedback.
Alternatively, you could also send a brief survey to inactive customers, and sweeten the deal with a discount or prize in exchange for its completion. The survey questions should focus on identifying dissatisfaction areas, like, “What could we do better?”
Put the feedback to work by making tangible improvements to your customer experience. For example, if slow shipping keeps cropping up, look into faster delivery options. If irrelevant offers get mentioned repeatedly, consider a customer engagement platform to create relevant, personalized offers.
2. Catch their eye with retargeting campaigns
Ever get the feeling you’re seeing the right ad at just the right time? That’s retargeting in action, and it’s your secret weapon to remind customers of what they’re missing.
Retargeting campaigns are a strategic way to re-engage customers who’ve shown interest in your products in the past, but haven’t made a purchase recently.
By running ad campaigns across platforms like Facebook, TikTok and Google Display Network, you can remind inactive customers of what they’re missing and tempt them back.
The easiest way to do this and win them back? Make them an offer they can’t refuse.
Where heavier discounts aren’t a practical for active customers, your winback campaign is the place to bring out the big guns. Opt for greater discount percentages such as 25% off, or offer a time-limited, buy-one-get-one-free deal.
3. Win them back with loyalty program perks
Loyalty programs aren’t exclusively for your gold-star, most active customers. In fact, re-engaging inactive customers could be as simple as reminding them of the exclusive perks waiting in your loyalty program.
Here’s how to make those inactive shoppers sit up and take notice:
- Shine a spotlight on benefits: Send a targeted email to inactive customer segments, shining a light on all the fantastic rewards that are waiting for them in your loyalty program.
- Create custom offers they can’t ignore: Who says no to a personalized welcome-back offer? Tempt them with an enticing bonus, like extra loyalty points on their next purchase or a welcome-back coupon. Make it clear that these offers are handpicked for them, personalized based on their past shopping behavior and purchase history.
- Enrollment made easy: Don’t let a complicated sign-up process be the roadblock to your customer’s return. In your email, outline the steps they need to take to sign up, complete with a link, to make the process smooth and hassle-free.
Customer loyalty programs: How brands can create a virtuous circle
What makes customer loyalty programs succeed? Create experiences that customers love by speaking to their heart, soul, and head.
4. Create personalized offers that bring customers back
American author Dale Carnegie said that everyone’s favorite word is their first name. But to drive real winback success, take personalization beyond first names in subject lines.
Done right, personalization can transform indifference into intrigue and rekindle the spark with inactive customers.
Effective personalization in win-back campaigns requires a clear understanding of who your customers are and what they want. This process starts with data. So, dig into past purchases and browsing habits and use these insights to tailor offers to the individual.
But while data might be the key to customer understanding, the real magic of email winback comes from automation.
Email automation puts an always-on strategy to win back lapsing customers on autopilot. By using email and web engagement data to define churn risks, you can automatically identify the moments where customers are likely to churn and nip it in the bud with personalized offers that keep them coming back.
Wow + winback customers for keeps
As you begin your winback journey, remember – every customer who walks away holds the potential for a meaningful comeback.
By gathering feedback on why customers left, creating personalized incentives, and harnessing the power of AI-powered marketing automation, you can turn goodbyes into long-lasting relationships.
