How to create a pre-Christmas win-back campaign

Are you feeling the Christmas spirit yet? Christmas marketing starts earlier every year, so if you haven’t planned your pre-Christmas campaigns, don’t waste more time!

In the weeks leading up to Christmas, there are two key campaigns that you should send:

1. A Pre-Christmas Campaign - to inspire all your contacts with gift ideas
2. A Winback Campaign - to bring back lost customers just before Christmas

Let's see how to bring back lost customers with a Win-back campaign! If you want to read all about our Pre-Christmas campaign and see how to get people excited with gift ideas, click here.

Pre-Christmas Win-Back Campaign

It’s important that you run this campaign well before Christmas as these lost-customers could plan on shopping somewhere else, so you need to swoop in with great deals and incentives before this happens.

In order to win these customers back, it’s a good idea to send free shipping offers and discounts throughout the campaign. Then, the first thing you’ll do is create these on the coupons page.

Step 1:

Within this campaign, you’ll send both a ‘free shipping’ offer and a ‘10% discount code’. Head to the coupons page to create both of these automatic coupons.

Step 2:

Now that your coupon codes are created, it’s time to start designing your messaging templates. The first template you’ll create is an SMS to send to your entire win-back list.

This SMS will remind lost-customers about your brand just as they start their Christmas shopping. It will also include a free shipping coupon to further encourage them to do some Christmas shopping on your site.

The tags you should include in this SMS are:

• Site name
• Contact first-name
• Free shipping coupon

Step 3:

The next template to create is an email to be sent to all contacts on the win-back list. This email will remind your lost-customers of your brand just as they start thinking about Christmas shopping and will include some gift recommendations, as well as a free-shipping coupon as an extra incentive.

Include:

• A text box, letting the customer know that you miss them, and announcing the exciting free-shipping offer.
• Three ‘image and text’ boxes, where you suggest products that would make perfect gifts for different members of the family.
• A discount box, which is linked to the free shipping discount you made earlier.
• A ‘follow us on social media’ block

Step 4:

Stay on the templates page and create a new email template. This one will include the 10% discount, which will work as an even bigger incentive to bring back these lost customers for their Christmas shopping!

Send this to all the members of the win-back list who opened the previous email you sent.

Include:

• A text box, where you say something like:

“hey <contactfirstname>! Christmas is coming up fast and we have all your gift-giving needs on our site! To make it even easier for you, we’re offering you a special 10% discount on any pre-Christmas purchases!”

• A discount code box, where you insert the special 10% win-back discount you created earlier.
• Three ‘image and text’ blocks, where you suggest products that would make the perfect gifts.
• A ‘follow us on social media’ section

Step 5:

The final template to create is an SMS. This message will offer the same 10% discount to contacts who didn’t open the email with the 10% discount code.

This SMS should include:

• Text that informs the customer of their 10% discount to use before Christmas
• Contact name tag
• Site name tag
• 10% coupon tag

Step 6:

Now that you’ve created all your templates, create the list of contacts you want to receive these communications. Head to the ‘lists’ page and create a list that segments your win-back customers.

The condition you can use to create this list is: Last made purchase = older than 90 days

Step 7:

Before building your workflow, you should configure your campaign. Head to the ‘campaigns’ page and create a new time trigger campaign. The goal of this campaign should be conversion (so you don’t send a discount code to a customer who has already made a purchase with the free shipping coupon).

This campaign should start on the 9th of December and should not be recurring.

Step 8:

Once you’ve configured your campaign, swap to the workflow tab and design your customer journey!

On this page, all you will initially see is a ‘start’ block. Click the start block and follow these steps:

• First, select ‘action’ and then SMS and find the first SMS template you created earlier with the ‘free shipping’ discount
• From the SMS, select continue, then input a time delay of two days so that you don’t send your customers too much messaging at one time. This time delay also gives your customers ample time to make a purchase using the free shipping discount before messaging them again.
• After the time delay, select action again and insert the first email template you created. This one will also offer customers free shipping, as well as tempt them with suggested products.
• From the email, select continue and then input another 1-day time delay and then insert a trigger. This will separate those who have opened the email from those who haven’t.
• First, select ‘true’ from the trigger and then choose action and insert the second email template you created, with the 10% discount. This means that only those customers who opened your last email and showed some interest in your brand will receive the 10% discount email.
• Finally, select ‘false’ from the trigger and choose action, then input the final SMS template you created. This will ensure that all customers have received the 10% discount offer.

And that’s it! Your Pre-Christmas campaign and your win-back campaign are both complete! Now you should have excited your current customers about your upcoming Christmas sales and have won back the interest of your lost customers just in time for the Christmas shopping season!