WINBACK STRATEGY
Are You Going Back to the Future?
Did you know that there's an ace winback strategy in the Almanac that Marty McFly buys in "Back to the Future"?
“A winback strategy that reactivates your lost customers back to life is the 3rd easiest way to create new income”. Not many people know that it's tucked away in the scarcely read marketing consultancy section.
In the story, Biff steals this Almanac, travels back in time, and gives it to his younger self, profiting from future knowledge.
Could this happen in real life? Let's see.
Imagine if you could revisit customers you've served before but lost touch with for various reasons. Most customers are lost because:
(a) follow-up was lacking (this is the main reason for customer attrition),
(b) they moved without updating you, or
(c) they switched to a competitor due to dissatisfaction.
Now, let's consider your existing marketing strategy. Do you 'try again' with these lapsed customers? Or do you focus your attention on acquiring new customers?
If you are all about the new and are ignoring a winback strategy, you're leaving money on the table. Winning back a customer costs much less than acquiring a new one. That's why a winback marketing strategy is crucial. (For context the Author here is a Yorkshireman born of a Scottish Mother).
A Winback Strategy
Start with your database. Conduct an audit of your data.
A winback strategy is really a simple step by step process. You'll discover individuals who are no longer reachable or have changed addresses. This is like putting money into your bank. An audit is the foundation of your winback strategy.
Customers don't always update you on their moves. They may have moved more than once, too. For example, one of your former customers lived in Clapham in London, then moved to Bristol and now they live in Cirencester.
Using advanced data suppression tools, that leverage joins between addresses, you can track customers across multiple addresses to find their current location.
Imagine you had 10,000 names and addresses to process.
| Process | Volume In | Matched % | Volume Out | Estimated Cost | Total |
| Input Processing | 100,000 | 98% | 9,800 | £2 per ‘000 | £20 |
| Deceased | 9,800 | 2% | 9,604 | £0.50 per match | £98.00 |
| Gone-aways | 9,604 | 5% | 9,123 | £0.40 per match | £240.00 |
| Forward address* | 9,123 | 10% | 8,210* | £0.40 per match | £365.20 |
| £656.00 |
What are the benefits?
Reduced risk of upsetting the bereaved. Avoid bad press.
Save money by not mailing people at the wrong address.
You add back 913 former customers at the address they live at now.
*Forward address matching enables you to suppress the old address and use the address someone lives at now. In the example above, your database finishes up as a cleansed 9,123 records.
This is just the first step to a successful winback strategy.
Get a Reactivation Campaign Designed and Delivered
Talk to me about producing a simple reactivation campaign. More at https://finelyfettled.co.uk/direct-marketing
Winning back lost customers or donors is still the 3rd easiest way to generate income, with active customers first and referrals second.
So investing in obtaining forward addresses makes marketing sense.
At their new address, they may have fewer communication competing for their attention. Being reminded of their relationship with your business, and how important they are to you, is a powerful emotion and often campaigns based on such reactivations achieve excellent returns and perform more like active customer responses than they do cold campaigns.
More maths, sorry!
Imagine you mailed a postcard to each of the 913 ‘reactivated’ lost customers and your active customer conversion rate was typically 10% with an average order value of £100.
Running a 3 postcard sequenced campaign for best results could look like this:
| Process | Volume In | Estimated Cost | Volume Out | Total |
| Data Processing | Assume ALL costs above set against campaign | £656.00 | ||
| Print & Postage | 913 | 75p per postcard | (3X) 2,739 | £2,054.25 |
| £2,710.25 | ||||
If the ‘lost customer’ campaign generated a conversion rate of 7%, or 64 customer buys, at an average order value of £70, then the campaign would (initially) return £4,480 versus a cost of £2,710.25, or a return on investment of 1.65.
But, let's face it, if you are on my site, your AOV is more likely to be in the £'000s, so this tiny hinge will swing your enormous door!
The key thing is these ‘lost customers’ will act like your active customer base thereafter and offer further ROI, through lifetime value.
Biff had the right idea, however sleazy he was.
You can go back to the future too, with your lost customers. Call Graham Arrowsmith at Finely Fettled on 01535 654930 and I’ll tap into your own database Almanac!