Reactivation campaigns

  • Updated

Contact customers who recently ignored your promotions. Reactivating inactive customers offers multiple means for increasing revenue while maintaining and cultivating your customer master list.

A reactivation campaign should investigate reasons for inactivity, offer incentives to become an active customer again, and allow those interested to confirm their interest in your newsletter. A recipient who does not respond, that is, does not renew his opt-in, is preferable to a recipient who remains inactive. You may also want to offer inactive recipients an option to receive your newsletter less frequently (for example, monthly rather than weekly) or temporarily suspend receipt.

A reactivation campaign should consider these factors and provide flexible responses that correspond to customer reactions. The point at which a recipient is considered inactive varies depending on the product being advertised in the newsletter. For a travel agency, you can presume a 12-month purchasing cycle. That is, you expect a recipient to make large-scale travel plans once a year and seek suitable offers accordingly. For other business sectors, the cycle may be considerably shorter.

Based on this definition of an inactive recipient, you would create a target group with two qualifiers, one of which should apply in each case:

  • Addressee has not clicked on any mailing in the past 730 days (2 years)

    OR

  • Addressee has not opened a mailing in the past 365 days.

Planning a multi-stage campaign

When planning a multi-stage campaign, several mailings are necessary.

  • Haven’t heard from you in a while. Contains the latest travel offers.
  • How can we serve you better?. Requests that the recipient update his or her user information.
  • Receive our newsletter once a month. Lets recipients switch newsletter frequency to monthly rather than weekly. Another button is Suspend newsletter for 6 months.

    Both buttons are linked to a landing page that confirms the change. You can also configure a preference center with these features.

  • A coupon for you. Recipients who clicked an item during the first reactivation campaign receive a coupon.
  • Thanks for your feedback! Recipients who click the link to the preference center receive this mailing.
  • Please confirm your subscription. Lastly, recipients who responded to none of the previous mailings should be prompted to renew their opt-in. The mailing should include an opt-in link.

Mailings used in conjunction with Marketing Automation must be set up as Transactional mails and be in Send status.

Setting a reactivation campaign

  1. Start with an Advanced node.
    • This node type inquires once a week whether a recipient is in the Inactive recipient target group.
    • In the node, select the qualifier Addressee has never cycled through the campaign, because each recipient should cycle through the campaign only once.
  2. The mailing Haven’t heard from you in a while is sent out, then wait 7 days. The Wait node is assigned the target group has not responded to 1st reactivation, so recipients who click that mailing are directed to the next node.
  3. Recipients who click an offer in the mailing Haven’t heard from you in a while receive a coupon for other compatible offers. The reactivation campaign is over for these recipients.
  4. Recipients who did not respond to the first reactivation campaign (neither opened nor clicked) receive the second reactivation campaign, How can we serve you better?, then wait another 7 days. The Wait node is assigned to the has not responded to the 2nd reactivation target group, so recipients who click the preference center link in this mailing are directed to the next node.
  5. Addressees who clicked the link to the preference center in the second reactivation mailing also receive a coupon for offers suitable to their preferences.
  6. The recipients’ preferences are modified in accordance with their selection: For those recipients who clicked the link Receive newsletter monthly, the frequency recipient list field is set to monthly. A confirmation mail is sent regarding the mailing frequency change.
  7. For recipients who clicked the suspend delivery for 6 months link, the suspend recipient list field is set to true. Insert a Wait node with a value of 6 months. Then, the suspend recipient list field is reset to false, and a Welcome back message is sent to the recipient.
  8. Other recipients who have not responded to a reactivation mailing receive the Please confirm your subscription mailing. Insert a Wait node with a waiting period of 7 days. The Wait node is associated with a target group has not responded to 3rd reactivation, so recipients who confirm their opt-in are immediately directed to the next node.
  9. Recipients who click the opt-in link also receive a Thank you for your feedback mailing, along with a coupon. Other recipients are marked as unsubscribed.

Image: Reactivation campaign