Customer reactivation campaigns are a critical strategy for any company looking to rekindle relationships with inactive customers. Direct mail allows you to deliver personalized, tangible messages that remind customers of their past interactions with the brand and entice them to return with tailored offers and incentives at the right time.

Personalized Offers

Because you’ve had a prior relationship with your lapsed customer, chances are you have more information about them than just name and address. Data on their past purchases can be used to craft reactivation campaigns that build on their personal tastes and shopping habits. Variable data printing lets you easily swap out images and offers on direct mail pieces to customize the mail piece with photos, text, and calls to action. You can send a coupon or include a link to special offers for their favorite items or for accessories and let them know that you’ve missed them.

Exclusive Discounts and Promotions

Everyone likes to feel special and be noticed, and by creating direct mail reactivation campaigns with exclusive offers or invitations to VIP pre-sale events you make your customers feel pampered and valued. Provide early access to product launches or limited promotions that create a fear of missing out (FOMO) with attractive and appealing incentives tied to deadlines. You can also show them what they’ve been missing with discounted offers on products they’ve purchased in the past or use direct mail to reignite interest around the holidays or timed to coincide with special moments in the customer’s life like birthdays or anniversaries of first purchase.

Reminders of Past Purchases

Nudging lapsed customers back with reminders of past purchases can be especially effective with items that might need refills or have time expirations and direct mail reactivation campaigns that offer discounts for refills. You can use personalized and targeted direct mail messaging to recreate emotional connections with your brand and highlight the value of the relationship in terms of savings and/or value. Recommend complimentary products, to demonstrate your appreciation for their business.

Loyalty Program Invitations

Businesses like yours can leverage the past relationship with a lapsed customer that included a loyalty program in direct mail reactivation campaigns. You earned their loyalty once and you can do it again with direct mail reminders about unused points or exclusive member-only discounts and opportunities. Remind them of the value your loyalty program delivers for the items they purchase with rewards and make it easy for them to re-engage with your brand and the loyalty program. Welcome them back with double points or extra incentives that elevate them to higher reward tiers.

Personalized Recommendations

You have a unique opportunity to reconnect with your lapsed customers by using their past browsing and buying history to become their personal shopper and tailor product suggestions that are upgrades or accessories to previous purchases. You can time your direct mail send based on the frequency of engagements, time of year, or around significant milestones to place the focus on the customer and their needs. With the data you have on hand, you can segment lapsed customers and customize the mailing piece with variable data printing to enhance and highlight the relevance of the offer.

Interactive Gamified Elements

Add fun elements and make reactivation a unique enjoyable experience for your lapsed customers by adding gamification that captures attention or introducing digital interactivity though QR codes or PURLs printed on the direct mail piece. These elements add curiosity and make it almost impossible for the customer not to take the next step, whether it’s scratching off a section of the mailer to see the offer or using their smartphone to connect to a digital game where they can earn points or spin a wheel to claim a prize.

Stories and Testimonials

With the data available that you have about your client, you can develop relatable direct mail reactivation campaigns that resonate with them on emotional levels with engaging storytelling, testimonials from satisfied customer who share similar traits, and messaging that supports their lifestyle and reflect their priorities. The physical nature of direct mail immediately creates an emotional attachment that can be enhanced with a compelling narrative, impactful photos and images, and inspire lapsed customers to renew their relationship with your brand. This method of direct mail reactivation can be especially effective for health care products or gym memberships illustrating before and after.

Benefits of Direct Mail for Reactivation Campaigns

A reactivation direct mail campaign ramps up the already powerful impact of direct mail to help businesses get their messaging noticed, read, and acted upon. There are several reasons why you should include direct mail in every lapsed customer reactivation campaign.

• A tangible and physical connection is made with the lapsed customer the moment the mailbox is opened and the direct mail piece removed, held, and scanned and assessed quickly for value. It is at that moment that your brand has the opportunity to create a unique experience with bold colors, crisp messages, and direct mail coating and finishes that convey quality. No other marketing channel can make this impression.
• Direct mail customer reactivation campaigns get results, with higher a high return on investment (ROI) that drives lapsed customers to reengage. The ability to spur action through the use of personal data and direct mail customization provides brands like yours with creative ways to rebuild relationships and increase reacquisition efforts. You can send hyper-targeted discount promotions and special offers that are relevant and valuable.
• The ability to make your reactivation direct mail stand out with different shapes and sizes; to tailor the way it feels in the customer’s hand; and to add interactive elements like scratch off panels or QR codes build on the customer’s brand familiarity. Creating a fuller sensory experience with colors, coatings, and even soothing aromas triggers memories, reminds the customer of the reasons they trusted your brand in the first place and brings them back again.
• A direct mail reactivation campaign can be extremely cost-effective as it builds on your existing relationships and lets you precisely target your message to your lapsed customer based on what you already know about him or her. You can create a highly personalized invitation to your lapsed customer that makes them feel special and appreciated and deliver the mail piece directly into their mailbox where it can’t be missed.

Examples of Effective Customer Reactivation Campaigns

Direct mail reactivation is a marketing channel used by retail and ecommerce brands, businesses in several industries can benefit from a well-planned and strategically implemented lapsed customer direct mail campaign.

Retail

Brick and mortar retailers find direct mail particularly effective for targeting local lapsed customers with personalized coupons and offers that can be redeemed in-store based on past purchases or seasonal relevance.

Ecommerce

Ecommerce businesses can use direct mail to send abandoned cart reminders and include time-sensitive like limited time discounts triggered based on previously purchased perishable products that may need replenishment or replacement.

Finance

Finance organizations can send tailored direct mail pieces based on inactivity periods or anniversaries of products purchased or services rendered. They can use reactivation direct mail to remind customers of uncompleted loan applications or provide special interest rates.

Hospitality

Restaurants, hotels, and other hospitality properties can provide exclusive booking offers and complimentary service upgrades with reactivation direct mail to bring customers back. Personalized direct mail can serve as loyalty point reminders or include incentives to redeem existing points.

Education

Educational institutions can use direct mail to reengage with alumni who have not responded to other marketing communications or have let their annual donations lapse with personalized invitations to celebrations and reunions. They can also send notifications to potential students triggered by missed registration deadlines and campus events

Subscription-based Services

Subscription-based services can send reactivation direct mail after a subscription has lapsed or when a credit card used for payment expires with offers for free trials, extended discount periods, or free subscription upgrades. They can also use direct mail to alert lapsed subscribers to new features or services that can be enjoyed on a trial basis.

Home Services

Because so many home services are contracted seasonally, businesses that provide landscaping, home repairs, cleaning, pest control, and HVAC services use direct mail to trigger relevant offers to prior customers. Direct mail is also an excellent way to reach out to new homeowners with welcome offers and new customer discounts.

Every business is bound to lose customers over time due to lost interest, because they moved, or they had an unpleasant experience. Reactivation direct mail is your opportunity to win some of those customers back with strategies that use personalized promotions, knowledge of past purchases, interactive print mailers, personalized recommendations, and loyalty programs. Contact a direct mail reactivation expert at Marketing.com today and we’ll connect the dots to help you reengage with dormant customers.