We’ve all heard it a thousand times—it’s cheaper to retain a customer than to convert a new one. Most of the time, though, that adage doesn’t come with any additional guidance on how to retain them. So, what next? At Zaius, we’ve recommended, and watched our clients successfully implement, a winback campaign that runs after a period of dis-engagement. Recently, though, we had some brands challenge us on this recommendation:
“How do I know I’m running my winback campaign to the right people at the right time?”
We heard this a few times, and it really got us thinking. Could we answer this question in a meaningful way that didn’t require a brand to test through their customer base for an extended period of time? What if this answer was different for each brand and each customer in question?
We’ve long been fans of personalization in marketing of all types. So, as a direct result of the question above, we’re introducing personalization in winback, in the form of Zaius Churn Prevention. Our churn prevention model is built unique to each brand’s data and seeks to identify the exact right time that a customer starts to fade and dis-engage—that’s the moment the marketer has the most upside if they can re-engage that customer. For each customer, the time between their last engagement and being identified as a winback candidate is personalized to them, because it’s based on their own unique pattern of engagement with the brand.
For example, let’s look at the most recent history for two (real!) customers, Erik and Elizabeth:
- Erik consistently engages twice a year, with a 4-8 month gap between purchases. We haven’t seen Erik since December.
- Elizabeth consistently engages 3x per month. We haven’t seen Elizabeth since the end of February.
Assuming today is April 1st, which customer should marketers be concerned about?
Most brands are concerned about Elizabeth, but most winback campaigns are set up based on lapsed engagement time, and end up targeting Erik. Zaius’ churn prevention model correctly targets Elizabeth to get her re-engaged before too much time has passed from her usual cadence.
In our charter program, brands have seen an average 2X lift in email engagement and 4.4X lift in any post-exposure conversion. Trychia Borgstrom, Email Marketing Manager at home furnishings retailer Bellacor noted:
“With Zaius’ personalized winback models, we’re truly sending the right message at the right time. This has transformed and streamlined our approach to winback.”
Want to see more? Check out the video below!
This article originally appeared in the Zaius blog and has been published here with permission.
