Do the following exercise: go into your database, search for contacts that have not interacted with your brand in the last 6 months… What proportion of your database does this represent? Now divide this list into two sub-lists: existing contacts (who have already purchased but not in the last 6 months) and prospects (who have never purchased your products or services).
These contacts have good potential but are currently dormant. The causes can be multiple, but the important thing is not to let them sleep indefinitely. So, do you have a strategy in place to wake them up and win back their consumer’s hearts? If the answer is yes, how do you do it? If the answer is no, you are missing a good opportunity to make them loyal customers. You just need to know how to go about it and a drip marketing campaign can help you do it.
A drip marketing campaign is a series of automated e-mail messages – triggered by an action or behavior of the user – sent according to a predefined schedule and order to targeted users or subscribers to achieve a specific result. The one for which drip marketing is most often used is lead nurturing, in order to move your prospect through the sales funnel and eventually towards a purchase. However, it can also be used to achieve other objectives such as customer onboarding, educating on a particular product or service, or to re-engage contacts that have been inactive for some time, for example.
The drip principle is to achieve a marketing goal at a slower pace. So each email in the sequence serves to quietly convince your contact to take concrete action. This makes the process smoother and less insistent than with a single one-time email sent for the same purpose.
It can also be used in the context of direct mail or phone marketing but for the purpose of this article, we will only focus on emails.
Sending several messages with high added value regularly creates a brand reminder, you keep a constant presence in the inbox of your contacts, but also in their heads.
In addition, drip marketing allows you to build confidence in your brand. Indeed, most people need more than just one interaction with a company to develop a trusting relationship with it.
Finally, drip marketing campaigns get a click rate 3 times higher than a single email sending. This strategy allows you to engage more and better with your customers or prospects by maintaining the relationship you have with them. This is due, among other things, to the fact that you go at their pace and don’t try to rush things to get what you want.
As we mentioned above, the use of drip marketing is a great way to re-engage with your inactive contacts because if you send, for example, a single message containing a discount, of course, it will work, but for how long? In this situation, drip marketing allows you to win back your contacts quietly but qualitatively for long term results.
Drip marketing can be used in several re-engagement circumstances:
Some of your customers are slow to buy again? There may be several reasons for this. They may have forgotten you exist or they may want to try a comparable product from one of your competitors. Whatever the reason, if you don’t take any action to let them know you’re still there, chances are your client will go elsewhere.
Today’s consumers have more choices than they’ve ever had, and they are only a click away from your competitors. Remind them why your product or service is better than others as well as the advantages of buying your product rather than the neighbor’s. Whether it’s a generous warranty policy, a competitive price, or outstanding quality, just because they’ve already bought from you doesn’t mean they necessarily remember everything you offer.
How to get there?
Suggest products or services related to the customer’s purchase history. The best example is, of course, Amazon, for whom this strategy is very effective. And the more accurate you are in your recommendations, the better this tactic works! Spotify is another good example. They are not only able to suggest music based on your history, but even create a playlist for you every week based on each style you listen to most.
Also, if you have a product that is renewing itself, it would be a good idea to remind the customer that it will soon be due for renewal or replenishment. The more you know about your customers’ consumption habits, the more you can implement this kind of strategy and, above all, the more effective it becomes.
Also, announce them when you release a new product on the market. Use the drip to create a buzz around the launch of the product in question. Specifically, talk about what your product will do for your future customers; why should they buy it? What need will it meet and how? Using a countdown timer in your series of launch emails is also an interesting addition that helps maintain the excitement created by the release of your new product. An introductory promotion can be an interesting incentive as well.
The use of social evidence such as customer testimonials often has a significant impact on consumers’ purchasing decisions. Indeed, people tend to trust a brand more quickly if they see that others have also trusted it and are satisfied with their decision.
Abandoned carts are much more common than you might think, and strategies to catch up with undecided clients are pretty rare. According to Baymard Institute, about 69% of the shopping carts are abandoned… It’s quite incredible to think that out of 100 customers, 69 will leave without completing their purchase. Imagine if you were able to get them back. Well, it’s not impossible! Of course, some optimization work needs to be done to prevent consumers from abandoning their shopping cart in the first place, but once this is done, you can and should do something to make them change their minds about abandoning it.
How to get there?
Send a series of emails to check if they are sure they don’t want to go further with their purchase. Use a friendly tone and don’t put any pressure. You can add an incentive such as a discount or free shipping with their purchase, for example. Inform the consumer that the desired quantity is always available. Also reassure them about the different elements that can slow down the purchase such as the return process, delivery delays, and fees, if an event is coming up such as Christmas or Valentine’s Day, tell them if they can receive it on time if they order right away.
In short, several techniques, each one more effective than the other, can be used to catch up with the undecided. Moreover, according to Hubspot, 72% of consumers for whom these tactics work and who return to complete their purchase do so within 24 hours of abandoning their basket.
Some of your subscribers are less engaged with your content… Maybe the content you send is a little less what these people are looking for. It would therefore be relevant to send them a series of emails allowing you to reassess their interests and focus on your high value-added content. Ideally, the more your content is personalized according to the person’s interests, the better.
Conclusion
Inactive contacts are not to be taken lightly. It’s a mistake to treat them like an active contact and not take care of them and it’s a bigger mistake to think that not sending them emails is the solution. Your inactive contacts are easy to catch up with if you get it right, with the right strategy.
Drip marketing is also ideal for reactivation campaigns given its slower pace and that it allows to install certain confidence in the customer relationship. In any case, an overly expeditious approach can be detrimental to the customer relationship. So it can’t hurt to take a step back from your marketing tactics and re-evaluate your approach.
Do not hesitate to contact us for more advice on how to reactivate your inactive contacts.
