12 Tastefully Crafted Win-Back Email Examples & Tips You Should Try

No business likes to lose customers. However, the fact is that the average American business loses more than 20% of its existing customers every year.

As a result, companies lose more than 130 billion per year due to customer churn.

Hence, as a business owner, you should take proper steps to stop losing customers to your competitors.

One of the best ways to improve your customer retention rate and increase your revenue is by running a win-back email campaign.

A Win-Back email campaign solves the biggest problem of high churn rate and persuades your customers to continue doing business with you.

Customers are your biggest asset as a business. There is a 70% chance of selling to your existing customers as compared to new customers.

Moreover, the cost of acquiring a new customer is up to 5 times more as compared to selling to your existing customers.

Here are some of the tastefully crafted win-back email marketing examples and tips to bring and recover the lost leads:

1. Google: Use Offers to Win-Back Customers

Google is smart to send offers to existing Google Ads customers and Google Analytics users to reactivate their Google Ads account.

It offers a 2000 INR credit for Indian users and $150 to US users. Customers can utilize the credits to run Google Ads to reach both new and existing customers.

Key Takeaways:

• The email highlights the benefits of the service as bullet points so that people know why they should claim their free credits.
• There is a phone number to help people get started with Google Ads at the earliest.
• The hero image consists of a smiling woman which is known to increase conversions by more than 40%.
• The CTA is bright and clear, along with a link to redeem the offer.

Bonus Tip: Offers are a great conversion booster. If you think the customer is about to churn, send them irresistible offers that are hard to refuse. Do some research on the offers that your competitors are providing and make your offer stand apart.

2. ASOS: Know The Reason Why The Customer Is Leaving And Bring Them Back

ASOS is one of the top fashion and cosmetics retailers. Their win-back email strategy is excellent because it rests on knowing why the customers are leaving their brand.

In most of the re-engagement email examples, you will see brands trying to woo buyers, but few know the reason for customer churn.

Here is an email example from ASOS that presents options to the customer to select the reason for leaving the brand and presents an offer to bring back the user.

Key Takeaways:

• User attention is captured using an image of a woman who looks confused yet innocent, trying to find the reason why the customer is leaving.
• It presents users with four options to click on an appropriate choice and take the next action.
• All the four buttons take the user to a landing page where a solution to the issue is discussed. For example, when you click on the button, “I got treated badly last time I shopped”. It displays the customer care number and a link to contact the customer support team.
• The email message is short, and it also presents the users with a special offer code to get a 20% discount on their next order. This is a great way to persuade users to try ASOS products one more time.

3. Venngage: Leverage Emotions To Bring Back The Users

Venngage is a free infographic maker. It lets users create stunning charts and visuals.

Here is an email example from Venngage that persuades the users to come back to the platform and complete the infographics they have left undone.

Key Takeaways:

• I like the creativity used in the email to convey emotions. The emotional quotient in the image does it best to attract the users to return back to the platform.
• Notice the start of the email. It refers to the recipient as “Dearest” which is a much better alternative to use in place of “Hello” or “Dear”.
• The email body contains links to publish, share, or download. These links make it easier for the users to visit the platform and complete the infographic.

4. Boden: Apply The FOMO Marketing Technique

Boden is a British clothing retailer known to design individual clothing for men, women, and children.

As a part of their customer re-engagement strategy, Boden sent the below email to its inactive subscriber base.

The use of creativity in USP choice and the intelligent addition of a Gif image to mesmerize the buyers, Boden certainly knows what it takes to bring back the customers.

Key Takeaways:

• The email uses the FOMO marketing technique to create urgency. FOMO stands for Fear of Missing Out. The USP of the email “Look At What You Are Missing” triggers the human brain and people can’t help responding because they do not want to miss what others are getting.
• Notice the use of the GIF image. It perfectly accompanies the message and catches the attention of the reader.
• Also, the CTA says “discover what’s new” and not “buy now” or “shop now”. When you don’t force your customers to buy from you and focus on what you are giving to the customers, the chances of action increases.

5. Wayfair: Use Personalization To Trigger Sales Return

There is nothing more impactful than sending your users a personalized email that shows their importance. Wayfair, the American eCommerce major that sells home-goods and furniture, does this type of eCommerce email perfectly!

Here is an example of a re-engagement email from Wayfair that uses personalization to win back the attention of the buyers.

Key Takeaways:

• The email highlights the most important word “You”. One of the most powerful words that convert well is “You”.
• There are two offers in the email. The trick here is to give users options to choose instead of displaying just one offer; they have given two options to the customers. More choices capture the user’s attention and they are more likely to take action.
• Notice the personal message from the founder that highlights the name of the customer. The message informs the customer that a lot has changed since they last visited the store and new brands are added. This gives them a reason to visit the shop once again.

6. Duolingo: Use Tears To Seek Customer Support

The Amygdala is a part in the brain that manages emotions. Images or things that trigger emotional responses are characterized by an intense activity in the brain.

Such activities instantly capture the attention of the user and the brain acts to solve the problem. Hence, images that depict emotion are hard to go unnoticed and they invoke actions.

Here is an email from Duolingo, American language learning website that cleverly captures the attention of the users to bring back lapsed customers.

Key Takeaways:

• The bold text on the email says “we haven’t seen you in a while” to instantly grab the user’s attention.
• The picture of the owl evokes an emotional response and persuades the user to take an immediate action.
• The CTA is intelligently written that tells the users that they are missing something. The text persuades the users to get back on track and restart the course.

Bonus Tip: If you are sending B2B emails to persuade users to join your course then you can include a professional email signature because email signature is known to drive conversions. You can use a tool like Wisestamp to create your email signature. Here is an example:

7. Purina: Use Personalization + Replenishment Combination To Generate Repeat Orders

Purina is a renowned pet food products brand. They understand how important it is for pet parents to keep their pets healthy by giving them nutritious food in a timely manner as well as understanding the costs of pet insurance.

Here is an example from Purina which uses personalization and replenishment combination to target pet parents to reorder products from them.

Key Takeaways:

• The email highlights the name of the pet which is a great example of email personalization because the product will be used by the pet and not the pet parent.
• Notice the text just above the CTA, it says “10 days until the bowl is empty”. Hence, Purina not only tracks the name of the pet but it also calculates the number of days since the last order so that they can send replenished emails just at the right time to get reorders.
• Again, the CTA text repeats the name of the pet and persuades the pet parent to reorder the special food blend for their pet.

Bonus Tip: You can also enable customers to reorder products using Whatsapp. People find it easier to order COD products via Whatsapp.

8. Blue Apron: Keep it Short And Use Copywriting Tricks

Blue Apron is a meal-kit service that currently operates in the USA. The company provides ingredients and suggested recipes to prepare fresh meals.

Here is an example from Blue Apron which is straight to the point and uses cleave copywriting tricks to win-back customers.

Key Takeaways:

• The email is short and simple. The text “Let’s start fresh” is written in bold and it is cleverly used to convey the relationship between the brand and the customer and also the ingredients of the meal-kit that the brand supplies.
• The CTA uses an actionable word “restart” to persuade the users to take immediate action. The action is focused on instant conversion because restarting the deliveries means placing an order.
• The main body text informs the users that there is something new for them since the last time they checked back.
• There is also a $30 off to provide the best deal to the customer. Notice the usage of the words “come back and get $30 off”. They should have written “$30 off”, but they have intelligently used the phrase “come back and get $30 off” because it points the users towards the action to get the reward.

Bonus Tip: Use copywriting power words to accelerate the impact of your win-back email campaign.

9. Dollar Shave Club: Use Testimonials to Bring Back Lapsed Customers

I am a big fan of Dollar Shave Club because their website, ads, and other digital campaigns always makes me learn something. They apply creative marketing geniuses to grow their customer base.

Here is an email from Dollar Shave Club that uses testimonials to win-back customers:

Key Takeaways:

• The bear adds an emotional quotient to the email to invoke a strong response.
• The three testimonials act as a powerful trust signal and the users are more likely to follow the herd mentality.
• The CTA is not used at the bottom of the email, but at the start of it. This is a great way to get the users take action without having them to scroll down at the bottom of the email.

10. Rockin Wellness: Remind the Customers For Refills

Rockin Wellness is a nutritional superfood nutritional shake. Here is an email that they sent to their customers after a few weeks of their first purchase.

Replenish emails like these are excellent to persuade the customers to order again.

Key Takeaways

• The email clearly highlights the need for refill and the text “need a refill” is highlighted in bold. You can change the text with any suitable phrase for products that need reordering.
• There is a clear image of the product so that the user knows the product that needs refilling.
• The CTA text clearly says “buy some more”. It is straightforward and hints towards direct order because this is what the buyer intention would be after reading the email.

11. Zendesk – Always Stay Connected With Your Customers

Customer loyalty is built on trust. If customers trust your brand, they will welcome your emails with open arms and respond to them. But, if you break their trust, it’s likely you’ll lose their business altogether. Hence, it is crucial for a business to ensure trust stays intact.

Here is an example from Zendesk which ensures their email subscribers continue to receive email communications from the brand. They have informed their subscribers about the GDPR regulations and why they require their consent to continue sending them emails.

Notice the three reasons Zendesk gave to continue the relationship. The email not just asks for user consent, it also offers reasons to stay in touch.

Key Takeaways

• The email has a CTA right at the start of the main body in the form of a button to make it easier for the customers to opt in.
• There is another text CTA at the bottom to remind customers to show their consent promptly.
• The email lists the top three reasons why staying in touch with Zendesk is useful. The reasons persuade the customers to continue receiving the communications.

Bonus Tip: Trust can mean a lot of things, but in this day and age a big part of trust is how you manage and protect customer data. Hence, pay careful attention to how to manage customer data intelligently as this can go a long way to win-back the customers.

12. Netflix: Create a Curiosity Gap to Win More Customers

Netflix is one of the most popular OTT content platforms. Since the business rests on the subscription model, Netflix has an automated email marketing drip strategy to send regular emails to their subscribers.

Here is an email example from Netflix that creates a curiosity gap to persuade the customers to restart the subscription.

Key Takeaways

• Notice the headline of the email. It says “Things have changed since you left”. You might think this is an ordinary text, but it creates a curiosity gap which entices the customers to want to find out more as to what has changed. The text ensures the users keep coming back for more.
• The CTA text is also encouraging. It says “restart today” which adds a timestamp in the minds of the users to take action immediately.
• The scrollable movies and shows list at the bottom of the email attracts the users, and they can first see their favorite or new shows added on the platform before they take action. The email asks for a subscription and gives the user a reason to subscribe.

Bonus Tip: You can also add customer reviews and star ratings for movies or products when you are recommending them in your email. This will help to maximize the impact of your message. For example, 97% of the viewers loved this movie, or 98% of people have reordered this product in the last month is a great way to boost sales.

Conclusion

As a business owner, it is extremely crucial for you to bring back the customers who are about to join your competitors. Tastefully crafted win-back emails help to re-engage the lapsed customers and fuel the growth of your brand. Here is a quick recap of the best win-back email examples as an inspiration to power your next email marketing campaign:

1. Use Offers
2. Know The Reason Why The Customer Is Leaving
3. Leverage Emotions
4. Apply The FOMO Marketing Technique
5. Use Personalization To Trigger Sales
6. Use Tears To Seek Customer Support
7. Use Personalization + Replenishment Combination To
8. Create a Curiosity Gap
9. Keep Your Emails Short And Use Copywriting Tricks
10. Use Testimonials to Bring Back Lapsed Customers
11. Remind the Customers For Refills
12. Always Stay Connected With Your Customers

Start leveraging the power of win-back email marketing to reduce the churn rate and gain back the lost leads.

About the Author

Joydeep Bhattacharya is a digital marketing evangelist and author of the SEO blog, SEOSandwitch.com. He has over 9 years of experience in helping businesses make the most of online marketing. Content writing is his passion and he is a regular contributor on sites like SEMrush, Ahrefs, Search Engine Watch, Smartinsights, and others. You can reach him via LinkedIn.

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