An introduction to reactivation and retention – Ometria Success Centre

Customer retention and reactivation are two essential aspects of any marketing strategy.

Retention involves retaining existing customers by providing them with an excellent experience, while reactivation involves bringing back customers who have stopped engaging with your brand.

Both retention and reactivation are critical for businesses as they can drive revenue growth, improve customer lifetime value, and reduce churn rate.

Retaining existing customers is often more cost-effective than acquiring new ones, making it an essential component of any growth strategy.
Reactivating lapsed customers can also be a valuable revenue stream, as it provides an opportunity to win back customers who are already familiar with your brand.

Customer lifecycle

Lifecycle marketing is a customer-centric approach that aims to engage customers at different stages of the buying cycle, sending the right message to the right customer at the right time.

Segmenting your contacts by lifecycle and tailoring the messages for each segment is a strategy that has often been proven successful.

A contact in Ometria can move through the following lifecycle stages:

Lead: The contact has been acquired and has not placed any orders.
Active: The contact has placed at least one order within the past 182 days.
At risk: The contact has placed an order between 182 and 385* days ago.
Lapsed: The contact has not placed an order for at least 385* days.

See also: Lifecycle stages in Ometria.

We know that you might define 'at risk' and 'lapsed' customers differently depending on your business - so how can Ometria help?

You can create your own custom segments in Ometria based on your own definition for each stage
You can request an order gap analysis report from your Customer Success Representative. This graph demonstrates the average length of time between consecutive orders placed by customers based on the data stored in Ometria.

Measuring reactivation and retention

Retention rate = customers who shopped 12-24 months ago, and also shopped 0-6 months ago
Reactivation rate = customers who lapsed in the last 52 weeks who are now active or at risk.

You can also look at the Customer events panel in the Customer insights screen, where you can check your Customers won back and Customers saved:

Both retention and reactivation fall under loyalty, one of the four key drivers we have defined at Ometria.

To help you target customers to reactivate, Ometria provides a range of features that you can implement.

Segmentation

Use the customer filter to segment your customers based on different criteria, such as behaviour, demographics, and purchase history. This will help you target the right customers with the right messages, increasing the chances of engagement and retention.

See also:

Personalisation

Create personalised content that speaks directly to your customers' interests and preferences. Making a customer feel they are receiving a brand communication that is tailored to them increases the likelihood of improving engagement and drives repeat purchases.

Personalisation features:

Subject line builder: create personalised subject lines for your broadcast and automation campaigns based on contact information and other properties.
Personalised product recommendations: provide recommendations to each contact based on the taste profile we've calculated for that contact.
Merge tags: use these tags to add personalised or dynamic content into your campaigns.

Campaign types that target loyalty

Reactivation Automation Campaigns

Win-back At-Risk
Win-back Lapsed

Retention Automation Campaigns

Replenishment
Post-first Purchase
Post-repeat Purchase
Refer-a-friend
Loyalty/VIP Recognition

Automation Campaigns for both

Anniversary
Birthday
Re-engagement

The more immersive your campaigns are, the more likely they will be to produce positive results.

Alternative channels like SMS, app push notifications, and social syncs, can be easily integrated with your Ometria campaigns.

Ometria also partners with some of the best solutions in the business to provide you with the most seamless integration between your marketing efforts and your loyalty structure.

Best practice examples

Campaign type: First-purchase anniversary

Brand: Astrid & Miyu

Why we love it:

Segmentation: one-time (left) vs. repeat customers (right);
One-time version: shows products purchased, adds product recommendations, and focuses on community sentiment;
Repeat version: Astrid & Miyu use merge tags to pull through how many items the customer bought, how many times they have visited and the last product they purchased.

Campaign type: Re-engagement

Brand: Anya Hindmarch