10 winback email examples that convert like crazy

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Every business wants brand-new leads, but did you know that it’s actually easier and cheaper to reengage inactive customers? You can do this by creating persuasive marketing campaigns inspired by the winback email examples below.

The best winback email campaigns add value to the shopping experience by offering incentives, such as discounts, social proof, educational resources, and more. Brands must also establish why the user lapsed in the first place and plug holes in the sales funnel.

In the following guide, we explain everything you need to know about reconnecting with customers — paired with some of the most successful winback email examples of all time.

Table of contents:

1. What is a winback email?
2. 10 winback email examples
3. When should I send winback emails?
4. Best practices for winback emails
5. How to easily create a winback email campaign
6. Conclusion

What is a winback email?

A customer winback email is designed to regain a subscriber’s interest after they have stopped opening or clicking through on your previous messages. Existing customers are incredibly valuable, and too many businesses let them go rather than implementing a strategy to reengage them before it’s too late.

Here’s how to tell when your customers are inactive and need to be won back:

• 90 days of inactivity: The customer is beginning to lose interest in your brand
• 90 – 120 days of inactivity: The customer is at a high risk of lapsing, and you’re about to lose them
• 120 – 180 days of inactivity: The customer has lapsed and no longer interacts with your brand

An effective winback email campaign can substantially decrease your unsubscribe rate, and turn lapsed readers back into loyal customers. Of course, the right tactics for your business depend on various factors, including your typical sales cycle and your audience’s unique preferences.

10 winback email examples

So, what do the most successful winback campaigns have in common? They prioritize incentives, personalization, and clear call to actions. The ultimate goal is to make an offer the customer simply cannot refuse — you must go above and beyond to earn back their loyalty.

Stuck for ideas? Draw inspiration from the following winback email examples:

1. Use visual appeal

Subject: You’ve got Surreally good taste ?

Surreal offers a masterclass in creating gorgeous customer winback emails. The color palette is simple and doesn’t detract from the bold call to action. Plus, the imagery appeals to one of our most basic human urges — hunger. Sent at the right time, perhaps mid-morning or afternoon when the munchies kick in, this would definitely catch customers off guard.

There are a few rules to follow when choosing email images. Most importantly, focus on high-resolution files that are optimized for all devices, especially mobile. Read our email design examples guide to see these best practices in action.

2. Utilize time-limited offers

Subject: Get free delivery and see what’s cooking

Nothing spurs re-engagement like time-limited offers. Why are they so effective? Firstly, they create a sense of urgency — consumers feel like they must take action, or they’ll miss out.

Secondly, they trigger a scarcity mindset. When people believe a product, service, or discount is limited, it becomes more desirable. Consumers will want it simply because it’s difficult to obtain. Uber Eats does this well by generously offering two weeks of unlimited free delivery.

Winback email examples that convert also need exciting subject lines. Our top advice? Tease the customer about the incentive:

• We’ve got something for you ?
• Unlock your exclusive promo code ?
• Shhh… a discount just for you! ?

3. Remind customers of past purchases

Subject: We’ve missed you.

The last thing you want to do with inactive and uninterested users is isolate them further with pointless products and services. Aillea understands this and has designed a clever winback email reminding customers about previous purchases and linking to relevant collections.

We’d go one step further and suggest that brands take advantage of personalization here. It’s especially relevant for skincare marketing because everyone has unique requirements. For example, you won’t reengage a customer who has enlarged pores with a rich moisturizer.

For more insider tips, head over to our library of attention-grabbing skincare email examples.

4. Highlight new features and improvements

Subject: Was Avocode too slow for you?

At the beginning of this guide, we mentioned that there must be a reason why your customer left in the first place. Usually, it’s because a product or service failed to meet expectations. The first step is solving user issues. Then, you can reengage customers by highlighting these improvements in winback email campaigns.

Avocode does this brilliantly. It addresses the main pain point (speed) and explains the solution (new progressive rendering architecture). To sweeten the deal and apologize for the mess, it includes the call to action: “GET A 20% DISCOUNT.”

To generate excitement about new features, you can also use teaser emails. These promotional campaigns build curiosity by drip-feeding information over a series of weeks or months.

5. Offer irresistible discounts

Subject: Hit reboot on your learning with 50% off ?

You need something really good to entice lapsed users back to your product or service, which is where discounts come in. Besides re-engagement, the benefits include:

• Increasing the average order value
• Improving abandoned cart recovery rate
• Tracking conversion performance
• Shifting unsold inventory

If there’s ever a time to use an outrageous discount, it’s now — you’re on the precipice of losing a customer, so what’s the harm in offering 30%, 40%, or 50% off? Busuu adopted this mindset with 50% off premium plus plans for a limited time only.

There is a knack for discount creation, which we run through in our pricing strategy guide.

6. Ask for feedback

Subject: We’d love your help.

Customers love nothing more than feeling appreciated, especially if they’ve had a negative experience with a brand. Basically, accountability goes a long way to rebuilding trust.

Take Scoot, for example — by reaching out to subscribers with a feedback form, it proves its commitment to growth. Showing genuine interest in the consumer will rekindle the relationship and improve the overall shopping experience.

You’ll have more success asking for reviews if you personalize the request, express gratitude, and include a prominent call to action.

7. Include social proof

Subject: Anything we can help with?

Social proof is a psychological phenomenon that plays on our fear of missing out (FOMO). It includes customer reviews, celebrity endorsements, and case studies. It’s effective because it triggers herd mentality — if someone else is doing or buying something, then it must be good.

This winback email from MTHK inspires feelings of belonging and trust. Rather than offering a discount or freebie, it builds an emotional connection with the recipient by indicating they were missed. The five-star testimonial at the end is the cherry on top and reassures consumers of the product’s quality.

If you don’t have any testimonials in your toolbox, revisit your review marketing strategy.

8. Write captivating subject lines

Subject: You made Duo sad ?

Don’t underestimate the power of an email subject line because it can make or break your open rate. With people receiving dozens of emails per day, there’s a lot of competition to stand out from, especially with our super short attention spans.

The best winback email examples complement attractive designs and convincing content with catchy email subject lines that jump off the page. Most use questions, humor, and specificity. Some, like Duolingo, play with emotions and emojis.

Duolingo includes the subject line “You made Duo sad ?” to pique curiosity, then follows with “but then he kept learning Japanese without you.” This creates a sense of FOMO by reminding the customer that even though they have stopped using Duolingo, others are still learning.

9. Focus on customer value

Subject: Come on back – we made dinner easier! ?

Want to earn repeat business? Focus on adding customer value. There are hundreds of ways to do this, including:

• Personalizing interactions so they’re more meaningful and fun (think emojis)
• Rewarding customer loyalty with VIP perks and discounts
• Creating in-depth educational resources
• Offering exceptional customer support
• Delivering products and services that solve unique problems

What does adding value look like in a winback email? Take Blue Apron above — it outlines the main reason why people love its products, i.e., “spend more time not cooking,” and states some of the USPs, i.e., “20-minute meals” and “time-saving ingredients.” The content is geared toward making the customer’s life easier, so why wouldn’t they explore the range?

10. Offer a gift

Subject: Get a free gift just for opening this email!

Last but not least, come with a peace offering. People remember how businesses make them feel, so small gifts as gestures of appreciation significantly boost brand awareness and memorability.

Barista & Co demonstrates this perfectly in its customer winback email. It’s simple, personalized, and interactive to maximize engagement. The virtual opening of the envelope is exciting and acts as a call to action to redirect users to a designated landing page.

Offering a free gift is just one sales promotion strategy that works — try a few to see what resonates with your audience.

When should I send winback emails?

There’s no perfect definition of a lapsed customer, and the right time to target inactive users depends on your approach to sales. Understanding when to start your customer winback email series is critical for maximizing long-term engagement.

For example, you could measure subscriber engagement by monitoring opens, clicks, or purchases. If your website offers relatively affordable items that customers buy frequently, opens or clicks may not be enough to consider someone as active. Blog owners, however, may be satisfied when readers click through to read their content.

In general, subscribers who go more than three months without engaging can be considered inactive. Six to nine months may be too long to wait as some readers will be completely disengaged by then. The longer you wait, the more time you give your audience to move on and forget about your brand.

Best practices for winback emails

Every campaign has room for improvement. Top marketers constantly experiment with new strategies to differentiate their brands from the competition. This section will cover a few of the most effective ways to optimize your winback strategy.

Audience segmentation

Audience segmentation is crucial to almost every campaign and highly effective for re-engagement. Segmenting your email list gives you more in-depth control over your strategies. It also helps you provide more relevant content to each subscriber.

Just as each business has its own definition of an inactive lead, no two customers are exactly alike. Someone who typically makes a purchase every week should be targeted sooner than someone who occasionally visits your website. Similarly, your most loyal customers are worth pursuing for longer than those who have only made one or two purchases.

Personalization

Personalizing your winback emails is a great way to recover lapsed customers. Good personalization should meet the needs of your customers, give them good recommendations, and activate them at the right moment. The great thing about it is that personalization isn’t one-sided — it benefits both you and your customer.

To take maximum advantage of personalized winback emails, you’ll need to get an ecommerce personalization software like Omnisend. Essentially, it lets you use marketing automation — triggered messages that go out when a customer has been inactive for a certain period, making your winback emails much more targeted and personal.

Strong subject lines

The subject line is the first thing readers see when scrolling through their inboxes, and a great subject line can help you achieve a substantially better open rate. It’s arguably the most important element to consider when developing a winback email campaign.

Every subject line should get straight to the point and convince subscribers to open the email and learn more. It needs to stand out from the rest of the messages in their inbox and create a sense of urgency.

Try to edit your winback email subject lines down to 40 characters or fewer.

If the winback email includes a discount or other exclusive offer, make sure to communicate this clearly in the subject line. You can also add personalization by including the recipient’s name or addressing them directly — readers are much more likely to respond to targeted content.

Omnichannel engagement

Some users will lose interest in your content, but others simply don’t want to engage with you via email. Subscribers are interacting with brands on more channels than ever, so providing a cohesive experience across multiple platforms is vital. This is particularly relevant given that most inboxes are already overcrowded.

Instead of expecting readers to match your marketing practices, give them the option to engage with you on their terms. Businesses of all sizes should try to build a consistent web presence across as many channels as possible.

Start by performing customer research to determine the right platforms for your unique audience. Apart from having a website and offering email newsletters, you’ll probably want to consider SMS, push notifications, and social media.

A/B testing

Even the best online marketers can’t always predict which strategies will be successful, and A/B testing allows you to identify your most effective tactics. Split tests should be a consistent part of your approach to digital marketing across all types of campaigns.

Winback email subject lines are a perfect place to start split testing. They’re closely tied to your open rate, so stronger subject lines will almost always lead to better results. Increasing the open rate puts your emails in front of more readers and gives you more chances to bring them back to your brand.

How to easily create a winback email campaign

Now that you have a jam-packed arsenal of tips and tricks for creating winback email campaigns, what’s next? It’s time to put your knowledge into practice with Omnisend’s powerful marketing and automation software.

Creating lead-converting winback emails with our powerful builder couldn’t be smoother. Choose an attractive template from our library, customize it to suit your brand, and then hit send. The intuitive interface is perfect for newbies and professionals alike, and you’ll find plenty of advanced features to level up your campaigns.

For example, streamline the process using our automation workflows, allowing you to create and send emails based on various triggers. In this case, the trigger “inactive for 30 days” could prompt a “we miss you” winback email with a discount code for their next purchase.

Omnisend also delivers some of the best ecommerce marketing tools on the market, including audience segmentation, advanced reporting, and GDPR-compliant forms. You have everything you need in one place to produce persuasive winback emails for unbeatable convenience.

Interested in learning more? Omnisend’s free plan grants access to all features. There’s nothing to lose and everything to gain — it’s a no-brainer for brands that want an all-in-one marketing solution that integrates with Shopify, WooCommerce, Wix, and more.

Conclusion

The best practices and winback email examples in this guide will help you build effective re-engagement campaigns. The main takeaway? You must offer inactive subscribers a really good reason to come back.

Once you’ve absorbed the advice in this guide, join Omnisend for free today and start creating effective winback email campaigns in minutes.