"Win Back" Programs: Smart Marketing or Failure of Strategy?

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March 2010, Issue 73

BtoB E-mail Marketing
"Win Back" Programs: Smart Marketing or Failure of Strategy?
EEC

From the Email Experience Council (eec) Blog, posted March 8, 2010. Read more about what the email marketing experts are blogging here: www.emailexperience.org/blog

Building programs to reengage dormant leads is a necessity for many email marketers, particularly those that have not had a buttoned-up strategy for segmentation and targeted communications in the past. List reengagement and "win-back" program strategy was the open forum discussion topic at the February meeting of the Email Experience Council's List Growth and Engagement Roundtable.

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"If you need to do reengagement after a long period of subscriber inactivity, that is a failure of strategy," suggested Stephanie Miller, VP, Return Path and Vice Chair of the eec. "Marketers who are trying to catch up have a steep road. Rather, win-backs should be a consistent part of your segmentation strategy."

Bottom line, Stephanie pointed out, effective email marketers reach out early in the cycle and "shouldn't have a situation in which someone hasn't responded in a long time."

Ultimately, the question of glass half-empty or half-full regarding reengagement may boil down to the buyer. In BtoB, noted Bulldog Solutions' Amy Bills, list reengagement can be an effective way to generate more ROI from an existing database. "A lot of time and money has probably been spent putting together that list. Marketers are looking at making the most of it."

Yael Penn of i360 Marketing reframed the concept of reengagement as an ongoing effort. "In BtoB we're always thinking about reengagement strategies. We're planning reengagement from the start. BtoB purchases are more complex and the sales cycle is much longer. Sometimes a company is only doing the research now and they are not ready to make the purchase decision for six months. In BtoC, the reason to buy is impulse; in BtoB, because the sales cycle is different, reengagement can be more effective."

On the BtoC side, ExactTarget's Nate Romance said, "There is risk to carrying a lot of dead weight. We're hearing reengagement as a drumbeat in reputation management and deliverability. If you're beating on 60% of your list that is not responding, it's costing you something." (Some more on low engagement concerns here.)

A discussion of specific reengagement strategies included:

Ideas for engagement tactics including changing the subject line format, adding interactive elements like polls or surveys, featuring a high-value offer and highlighting exclusive information. Sometimes just asking straight-out can work, too. "We hate spam, too. Let us know if you want to stay on the file," can be an effective approach, Stephanie noted.
Nate described test findings regarding language used to confirm a prospect's interest and willingness to stay on a list. "We did some testing and found that inclusion of the 'No' option caused more 'Yes' responses," he said.
The preference center tactic—asking people to "update their information"—had not been found by the group to be a compelling reengagement tool. "With a true reengagement we typically encourage a strong call to action," Nate said. "Not enough people do a good job of explaining what's in it for the recipient to fill out preferences. It's perceived by subscribers as the marketer's tool, having little value to them, he said.

We hear a lot about engagement being effective and necessary—but the pressing need for reengagement is a reminder that engagement must be earned with every message sent, Stephanie suggested. Nate agreed, "If you want to optimize the value of your email marketing asset, you must keep the file engaged and fresh. That is more than a one-time win back campaign, but an imperative for your content strategy."

Visit us at the eec blog to tell us what you are doing to engage—and reengage. We'd love to feature your efforts in a future blog post or as part of the Roundtable's discussions. Also, check out the List Growth & Engagement Roundtable's 2010 Benchmark Guide to see how your list growth efforts stack up.

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Marketing Watchdog Journal is a monthly newsletter from Bulldog Solutions, an online marketing agency that changes the way BtoB companies define demand-generation strategy, engage prospects and convert leads to customers. We welcome your feedback on this newsletter's content and design, and encourage you to share your ideas for topics you would like us to cover in future issues. Please send your comments or questions about Bulldog Solutions to Amy Bills, director of Field Marketing.