We know that marketing automation works well to drive engagement. But what happens when customers fail to engage, disappearing into the wind, instead? What happens when customers start to lose interest, slowly fading away into the distance?

Before you give up hope completely, it is useful to note that marketing automation can be every bit as powerful as a way to re-engage customers as it is to attract and engage them in the first place.

Each and every year, brands will lose a fair percentage of email subscribers and an equal number of customers. Churn is inevitable to some degree. There are, after all, many reasons that people leave. They may no longer be interested in what you selling. They may have moved across the world. They may long be your target audience. Falling out of love with a brand sometimes just happens for no real reason at all.

While you can expect to have this happen, you can, however, still do your best to re-engage those who have left for any reasons that you can control. For example, if people are leaving your list, not clicking your links, not viewing your offers, not reading your emails, not visiting your website or social pages, or not interacting anymore on any level, you may find that there is a very solvable, simple reason.

It could be something as simple as tired, generic campaigns, a lack of market segmentation, a lack of email personalisation, badly scored leads that are not ready to convert, a tired newsletter that is no longer inspiring or engaging, too many emails, not enough emails, poor CTAs, poor email subject lines, or a combination of all of these things and more.

What do you do to get the love back, you may be wondering? For starters, you can have a look at our marketing automation strategies that help you re-engage customers effectively.

Using Marketing Automation for Smarter Re-Engagement

Some of the simple yet efficient ways to re-engage your audience with the help of marketing automation include the following:

‍Smart Segmentation

‍A huge number of email lists are comprised of customers who are not engaging with your messages. Many email lists are generic, unsegmented, and so broad that you can be sure that customers are all seeing the exact same messages, no matter how different audiences you may be forced into a single list. There are a few ways to use market segmentation to drive engagement. One way is to segment your lists according to the level of engagement – least engaged, semi-engaged and fully engaged.

Another way to segment your lists is to use a combination of behaviour and demographics. For example, you could create unique emails for those who are semi-engaged, according to their last purchase, the previous average spends, gender, and location. This could take the form of a branch-specific limited time discount on items similar to last item purchased. You could also create lead nurturing campaigns targeted at your least engaged list, offering incentives to bring them back. You could include surveys on what they would change, featuring new products similar to those previously viewed or purchased, 'we miss you' type emails or similar offers.

‍Automated Triggers

‍Triggers are a very useful feature in digital marketing – especially in the case of email marketing. Automated campaigns have a far higher value compared to generic email blasts, which makes a lot of sense. Personalising and planning emails according to your audience's behaviour will certainly see more engagement than blindly blasting them with emails that have no real point or purpose other than to sell. Those types of emails can end up putting people off rather than bringing them back. Instead of taking that risk, get strategic with a trigger-based email sequence that is based on audience behaviour. For instance, you could monitor the content and links that are clicks when re-targeting emails are sent, which in turn will determine future emails that are sent.

If a customer opens an abandoned shopping cart email, only to still not complete the purchase, you will be able to add in an extra touch in your next email that may help the process along, such as free shipping or an exclusive discount. This type of email has a very high conversion rate compared to generic emails. As such, trigger-based emails are a great way to re-engage.

‍Re-Engagement Timing

‍Timing is everything when it comes to re-engagement emails. If you wait too long, you run the risk of losing your lead for good. If you rush things too quickly, you may also run the risk of losing trust. Don't wait too long to re-engage. Ideally, you want customers to be primed and ready to be re-engaged. At the most, you can leave it for 90 days. Ideally, you want to re-engage as early as possible, preferably a few days after the last interaction, while your brand is still fresh in mind.

If you wait longer, use prior engagements, purchases, browsed products or pages, click rates, open rates and other memories to target customers in a way that lets them know you have not forgotten about them. From these emails and the interaction (or lack of interaction) you see, you can determine the frequency of the emails.

‍Email Frequency

‍On that note, this is another thing to plan carefully. A number of studies have shown how effectively abandoned cart emails can be for engagement. Those who receive multiple emails of this nature are more likely to complete their purchase compared to those who receive a single email. That does not mean spamming people until they complete their process or blacklist your email address. Rather, what it means is planning a marketing automation campaign that includes a series of emails designed to re-engage customers. You could use scarcity, plan an informative series that shares tips on the product or service in question before getting to a more direct point, or plan a personalised sequence.

‍Specific Value

‍What reason does your customer have to re-engage? Why should they come back to your store? Value can be provided in any number of ways, from one-time offers and discounts to a VIP programme, membership benefits, limited time discounts or specials, or anything else that encourages people to return. However you add value, make sure that the value is specific and time-sensitive, in a way that prompts engagement relatively quickly. If customers have no incentive to engage further, they may end up losing interest completely before they have claimed your offer.

‍Subject Lines

‍You may be surprised at how much potential email subject lines have on engagement and re-engagement levels. These are the first thing that people see when your email lands in their inbox. Numerous studies have been done on subject lines. Some indicate that specific monetary value of discounts was more effective than general percentages, others show that power words may help. If you cannot find a way to bring in power words and you are wondering whether to say something like, “We miss you!”, or “Welcome back”, a good tip is to look at your data. See which words resonate and which do not. This will help you craft subjects that are right for your specific audience.

We hope that these tips help you re-engage your audience more effectively. For more tips and advice on how to re-engage your customers with the help of your marketing automation platform, contact us today.