Re-Engagement Campaigns skill

Re-Engagement Campaigns

Overview

Dormant leads and inactive customers are your lowest-hanging fruit — they already know you, and reactivation costs 5-7x less than new acquisition. But re-engagement requires different messaging than new prospect outreach. This skill covers win-back sequences for both prospects and customers.

Authoritative Foundations

• Google and Yahoo — Bulk sender requirements (2024) — Unengaged recipients drive complaints; sunset them before they push spam rates past 0.3%.
• Validity — Sender reputation and list hygiene — Suppress long-inactive addresses and spam traps; re-permission before mailing old lists.
• Patrick Campbell (ProfitWell) — Win-back and involuntary churn — Separate failed-payment recovery from dissatisfied-customer win-back; they need different offers and timing.

When to Use

• "Re-engage dormant leads"
• "Win back inactive customers"
• "Reactivation campaign"
• "Sunset policy"
• "Re-engagement sequence"

Lifecycle Stage

Engagement (dormant users) and Retention (win-back). Index → references/gtm-lifecycle-stages.md.
Metrics → references/lifecycle-metrics-by-stage.md (Engagement + Retention).

Core Principle

The biggest mistake in re-engagement is sending "We miss you!" emails. Nobody cares that you miss them. They care about what's changed since they last engaged — new features, new data, new proof points that make your product more valuable now than when they left.

Step-by-Step Process

Phase 1: Segmentation

Segment by dormancy type:

Dormant Leads (never bought):

• Cold: 3-6 months since last engagement. Standard re-engagement sequence.
• Frozen: 6-12 months. Condensed sequence. "We've changed" angle.
• Dead: 12+ months. One-and-done email. If no reply, suppress.

Inactive Customers (bought, stopped using or churned):

• Lapsed user: Still paying but not using. Usage dropped >50% for 30+ days. Health risk play, not win-back.
• Recent churn: Cancelled <90 days ago. Win-back with "what we've fixed" angle.
• Old churn: Cancelled 90+ days ago. Different product/market by now. Low probability.

Phase 2: "What's New" Inventory

Before reaching out, document what's changed since they last engaged:

• 3 biggest product improvements
• 2 new integrations or features
• 1-2 new case studies from their industry
• Any pricing or packaging changes that benefit them
• New data/benchmarks/research relevant to their world

Phase 3: Re-Engagement Sequences

Dormant Lead Sequence (3 touches over 14 days):

• Touch 1 (Day 1): "Since you downloaded [original asset]..." + mention 1 new thing + soft CTA: "Here's an updated version / related resource."
• Touch 2 (Day 7): New insight relevant to their original interest. "We published new research on [topic] — thought you'd find it useful."
• Touch 3 (Day 14): Breakup. "Closing your file. If [original problem] is still relevant, our [new feature] has been getting great feedback. Here if you need it."

Inactive Customer Sequence (3 touches over 21 days):

• Touch 1 (Day 1): "We've made some changes since you left — specifically [top 2 improvements]. Would you be open to a 15-minute walkthrough?"
• Touch 2 (Day 10): Customer story. "Since you left, [similar company] achieved [result] using the features we've added. Here's the case study."
• Touch 3 (Day 21): Direct offer. "Come back for [incentive: 1 month free, waived setup, etc.]. Here's a link to reactivate in 2 clicks."

Phase 4: Win-Back Offers

For churned customers, consider:

• 1 month free: Low cost, high take rate. Best for recent churn.
• Waived setup/migration: If complexity was the reason they left
• Grandfathered pricing: If price increase caused churn
• Feature unlock: "Come back and we'll include [add-on] free for 6 months"
• No offer: Some churns aren't worth winning back (bad fit, competitor is better for their use case). Let them go.

Phase 5: Sunset Policy

• Dormant leads: After 3-touch sequence with no reply → 6-month cooldown → one more attempt → if no reply, suppress from all marketing.
• Churned customers: After win-back sequence with no reply → annual check-in email only. Don't keep hammering.
• GDPR compliance: After 24 months of no engagement, delete or anonymize data unless legal requirement to retain.
• List hygiene: Remove unengaged contacts quarterly to maintain sender reputation and reduce ESP costs.

Output Format

Re-engagement campaign design with: segmentation criteria, "what's new" inventory, sequences per segment, win-back offer structure, and sunset policy.

Quality Check

Before delivering, verify:

• Dormant leads segmented by recency: cold (3-6 months), frozen (6-12 months), dead (12+ months) — each with a different touch cadence
• Inactive customers segmented separately: lapsed user (still paying, usage dropped), recent churn (<90 days), old churn (90+ days)
• 'What's New' inventory completed before first outreach — minimum 3 product improvements, 2 new features/integrations, 1-2 relevant case studies
• Dormant lead sequence: 3 touches over 14 days, ending with breakup (no infinite nurture)
• Inactive customer sequence: 3 touches over 21 days, with a specific win-back offer on touch 3
• Sunset policy defined: dormant leads suppress after 2 sequences; churned customers get annual check-in only; 24-month no-engagement = deletion

Common Pitfalls

1. 'We miss you' framing. Generic emotional appeals signal template outreach and produce low response. Fix: open with a specific change since they last engaged — product improvement, new integration, industry-relevant case study.
2. Same treatment for all dormancy levels. A 3-month-dormant lead and an 18-month-dead lead are not the same audience. Fix: segment by recency — cold gets full sequence, frozen gets condensed, dead gets one email before suppression.
3. No sunset policy. Contacts receive re-engagement emails indefinitely, damaging sender reputation and burning ESP budget. Fix: hard stop after defined touch count; 6-month cooldown before second attempt; suppress after second sequence failure.
4. Offering discounts to recent churn. A customer who cancelled last month for a product gap won't return for 10% off. Fix: lead with product changes, not price — 'we fixed the thing you left over' converts better than 'come back for less.'
5. Treating lapsed users as churned. A customer who stopped using but is still paying needs a health intervention, not a win-back offer. Fix: separate lapsed-user play (usage recovery, CSM outreach) from churned-customer play (product changes, return offer).

Execution Artifacts

• references/framework-notes.md — Named frameworks and reference tables
• templates/output-template.md — Deliverable shell for agent output
• scripts/check-output.py — Lightweight deliverable validator Canonical lifecycle: references/gtm-lifecycle-stages.md (Engagement, Retention) · references/lifecycle-metrics-by-stage.md

Related Skills

• mql-nurture, churn-prevention, email-deliverability, cold-email-strategy, lifecycle-drips