How to Create a Winback Flow

Overview

We all have customers who have purchased once, or maybe twice, but then failed to become loyal ones. According to studies, this number can vary from 25% up to 60% of the entire database of an online store. Winback emails identify those customers and help you re-engage with them.

In this guide, we'll discuss how to create an effective winback workflow with AVADA.

Understanding your winback workflow

A winback workflow includes a series of emails sent to customers who previously engaged with your brand, but haven't interacted with you for a particular period of time.

Do you know that it's 5 times more expensive to acquire a new customer than it's to retain existing customers and encourage repeat orders? A winback workflow is a critical part of customer retention and lifecycle marketing, and not having one is leaving money on the table.

One of the main points to consider with your winback workflow is when the initial email should go out. Most customers wait between purchases; however, the length of a typical buying cycle heavily depends on your industry and products. For instance, a company selling laptops will have a much longer buying cycle than one selling shampoo.

The flow should only target those who haven't engaged with you for longer than your business's average buying cycle.

Setting up your winback workflow

It's quite simple to build your own winback workflow with AVADA.

Step 1. Select workflow event

In your AVADA account, head to the Automation section on the left-hand side. Next, choose New workflow.




You'll see the section to choose your event. Click the Win Back box. Here, you're able to choose a blank template (where you can generate your own creative flow) or simply go with a ready-made template.




For instance, if you choose a ready-made winback flow, it'll show the preview of the selected workflow. Click Next to continue.

Step 2. Edit your workflow

You can drag and drop items from the left side to the flow.

Please read detailed guides for the following components:

- Edit email
- SMS
- Wait Time/ Certain Time
- Yes/No Splits
- Multiple Splits
- A/B testing
- Exit
- Update contact attributes

Click on the item and condition you want to edit and customize it in the respective right tab of each item.





Once you've done your workflow, click Next button to go on.

Step 3. Get ready!

- Enter the workflow name, add a decription, or tag for the worklow
- Click Launch button
- You can Go live immediately or Keep as draft to finish

Creating your winback content

Winback emails motivate lapsed customers to re-engage with your brand. Offering discounts is an effective way to accomplish this, but the copy of your emails should also strike the right tone and provide the right content.

Best practices of winback content include:

- Let customers know you noticed their last purchase
- Tell them about the lastest updates (i.e., new products)
- Include a discount or incentive
- Create a sense of urgency
- Avoid overloading your customers with too many emails
- Prompt anyone who is not interested to unsubscribe/ change their preferences

We recommend keeping your winback workflow to 3 emails per recipient and considering the following best-practice pattern:

Email #1

The first email in the winback series should be a light touchpoint and the shortest of the sequence. Consider including a select few products, 3 to 6 of either your best-selling products or latest releases. Additionally, it's a good idea to offer an incentive to your lapsed customers. 

Below, you can see we use the Product component to display 3 of the best-selling products. 




Click on each product to change its details, such as the title, price, link to the product, etc. This section is available in the right tab. 

Email #2

The second email should act as a friendly reminder to your customers about the incentive from the first email, while creating a sense of urgency (i.e., by setting an expiration date on the discount). If you previously included some of your best-selling products in the first email, consider adding some of your newest releases in the second one.

This email can be longer than your first one, giving you the opportunity to provide more details. Make your email as engaging as possible. 

To grab the recipient's attention, you can show an image of your staff to make the brand seem more human and your message more personal. Another option is designing your email to portray information in an easy-to-read and visually interesting way.

Email #3

For your third email, you want to include a final call to action for customers to either re-engage, change their email preferences, or unsubscribe. Remind your recipients that this is the last chance to take your offer. 

Additionally, include a prominent unsubscribe link. It's both a legal requirement and the best way to prevent unengaged recipients from hurting your deliverability. It's always better for someone to unsubscribe than it's for them to not engage with your email or mark it as spam.

Optimizing your workflow

You may find it practical to create different winback flows for different types of customers, different categories of products, or different activities.

For instance, you might want to create a special winback flow for your VIP customers, or customers who have spent X amount of money at your website.

You can create seperate branches within the same flow using any of the below properties in a multiple split. Below are a few additional filters you can add:

- Customers who have spent X amount of money over Y amount of time
- Customers who have made X number of purchases over Y amount of time
- Customers who have been active on your website X number of days ago
- Customers who have opened your email X number of days ago

To find the best subject lines, content, and timings, it's essential to test them one by one. A/B testing enables you to optimize these factors and personalize the flow for your specific audience.

Updated on: 09/08/2021