Maintaining long-term relationships with clients and customers is incredibly beneficial to your brand. Not only is it good for current business, it also saves email marketers money in the long-run that they might otherwise spend on expensive acquisition.
Retaining existing customers will always be cheaper than connecting with new ones. Returning customers are already familiar with your brand and will be more comfortable purchasing or working with a company with whom they are familiar. Additionally, email marketers spend less money on targeted marketing and advertising when they already have customer information.
But for the ones that got away, how do you rebuild the connection?
Before you make contact, segment out the non-responders that have not opened email for the past 90 days. Segmenting allows you to take a more personalized approach in reconnecting with your long-lost subscribers.
Once you’ve segmented the list, identify which past subscribers are worth re-engaging. Your time and effort is best spent going after people that have made multiple purchases or interactions in the past versus those who’ve only been involved in signing up to your list or a single transaction.
After you’ve determined which subscribers are worth contacting, send an email that piques their interest and gets them re-invested in your brand. Reach out on a special occasion – like a holiday or seasonal event – or entice them with special offers or an opportunity to provide feedback on your brand.
Whichever time or tactic you choose, make sure your email has an attention-grabbing subject line and is personalized to draw them back in to your brand. Clue in your subscribers that you’ve noticed their lack of communication. Let your audience know that you value their business and your company needs their support. Give your customers a reason to return by playing up what you have to offer and ensuring that the relationship is mutually beneficial.
You can be successful in re-engaging subscribers, but also know when it’s time to let some of them go. If at the end of the day your attempts at reconnecting with a subscriber have not been fruitful, the best choice is to let them go. This cleansing will help decrease your bounce rates and unsubscribes. It will ultimately save you time and resources best spent on your subscribers that matter most.
Let ResponseGenius help take your email marketing to the next level – hello@responsegenius.com