Running successful retention campaigns is all about knowing a few things: 

Which of your customers need to hear from you? 

When do they need to hear from you?

What products or content types should they be exposed to in your follow up messaging?

RFM Analysis automatically groups your customers based on factors that help you answer these questions! It stands for Recency, Frequency, and Monetary value; if you want the full rundown on RFM check it out here. Or, you can watch this quick video:

We’re going over how to engage your customer segments based on your RFM breakdown with example outreach for each. In part 1 we talked about your most loyal and highly engaged customers; here in part 2, we’ll be focusing on your less engaged customers who may have slipped away from your sales cycle. 

Let’s get to re-engaging and reactivating. We’re covering these segments:

• Need Attention
• About to Sleep
• Can’t Lose Them
• At Risk
• Hibernating

Engage Your Need Attention Group ASAP

RFM Segment name: Need Attention

Who they are: Okay, there’s no confusion here; these customers Need Attention. They’re slipping on recency (scoring a 3), and their frequency + monetary score is only a 1-2. They’ve likely tried your product once or twice, but they’re not exactly the retention marketer's dream. And if you don’t reach out to them soon they may drift too far and make the mountain a little harder to climb.

What to do with them: It’s likely been long enough since they’ve made a purchase to hit them with some new releases. A product-focused email that hits upon things they’ve purchased in the past and see if you can mix it up to get them to learn more about your offerings via content. Try:

• Showing them your latest releases (or telling them when they drop)
• Use part of the email to get them to download your app if you have one or promote a video or blog that might help engage them
• Invite them to join a livestream shopping event if you do that

Example email to Need Attention customers:

These Customers are About to Sleep

RFM Segment name: About to Sleep

Who they are: We equate the lowest scoring customer to hibernation (more on this below); your About to Sleep customers are not quite there, but they show signs of nap time coming a little early. We have to fight against that. 

They’re sitting right in the middle: 3 in recency, so it hasn’t been too long since they purchased, and their frequency + monetary score is also a 3. So they’ve bought a solid amount of your products.

What to do with them: Well-timed and data-backed product recommendations are likely the best way to reactivate your About to Sleep group. Here’s what you can try:

• Cross-selling complementary products based on previous purchases.
• Pitch bundle options if you have them.
• It might be a slight long shot, but let them know about your subscribe-and-save if you have it. 

Example email to About to Sleep customers:

Company Spotlight: Manukora. The purveyors of “Honey with Superpowers” do an incredible job of engaging their customer audiences. From the jump with a not-pictured subject line of “Honey I’m Hosting” they engage the customers and draw them back in with rich content.

In this case, they give you a super easy and delicious looking recipe for hors d’oeuvres using Manukora honey (of course) and a few other fresh ingredients. Perfect content around holiday times when people are typically hosting parties. 

They cap it off with a tantalizing subscribe-and-save offer at the bottom. It’s all about giving you non-transactional value (the recipe) while making a win-win deal available at the end after they’ve delighted you with a great recipe. We’re here for it all the way.

Check out this re-engagement masterpiece:

Incentivize The Customers You Can’t Lose

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RFM Segment name: Can’t lose them

Who they are: Yeah… we’re not beating around the bush here with the name; you can’t lose these customers. They score 5 in frequency + monetary value, meaning they’ve bought a lot over several purchases. The issue is, they’re a 1-2 in recency. Aka they’re high value customers who have kind of ghosted you!

What to do with them: Drop them a big discount. Take the hit on your margins on their next purchase because you need to make a splashy effort to get these customers back into your ecosystem. They’re history suggests that they love your product, so make them an offer they can’t refuse! Some tips:

• Catch their eye with a big discount.
• Deliver value by personalizing where you can (products shown on email, etc).
• Their only issue is recency. So pitch a subscription if you have it; subscriptions take the friction out of getting great customers like this to purchase more often.

This is about getting them back in to purchase so you can revive their interest in your brand and open the door to nurturing them with content and more to increase their affiliation down the road.

Example email to Need Attention customers:

Invite Your At Risk Customers to Return

RFM Segment name: At Risk

Who they are: Another one that gets straight to the point. Your At Risk customers are close to drifting completely from purchasing with your brand. They score 1-2 in recency and 3-4 in frequency + monetary value. So they’re another group that shows potential in how much they’ve bought in the past.

What to do with them: Based on their willingness to spend in the past find a way to sweeten the deal with by offering them one of the following promotions + content:

• But one, Get one (BOGO deal on new, relevant products
• Special bundle pricing, combining products they’ve tried in the past with new complementary products that might hook them to keep returning
• Find a way to revive their interest in the products they purchased through content

This is another group that has shown incredible promise but just hasn’t been back in way too long. 

Example email to At Risk customers:

Company spotlight: Dollar Shave Club. They start their retention email with a catchy play on the BOGO acronym, creating a playful nod to an auction environment: “Bo-going, bo-going, almost bo-gone.” Not only is this fun for the recipient but what does an auction do? It creates urgency. You don’t want to miss out on that great BOGO deal!

From there, they hop straight into the product recommendations and bundles based on their best BOGO deals and what their customers need to be exposed to at the time. This is the perfect example of how you could catch your At Risk customers who may be more price sensitive or waiting for the right deal.

Reintroduce Yourself to Hibernating Customers

RFM Segment name: Hibernating

Who they are: Hibernating customers represent your lowest performing segment. They score 1-2 for recency, frequency, and monetary value. They made a purchase or two a long time ago and never returned. 

What to do with them: They’re really tricky to market to in any successful capacity with promotions or specific products. You’ll likely need to move away from a transactional mindset and just focus on getting them reacquainted with your brand. Share content that’ll grab their attention and pique their interest:

• Share a high level brand video that covers your mission/essence of your brand
• Share a blog post or guide that will help them get a feel for your brand
• A good “meet the founder” or “get to know the brand” piece of content can help hibernating customers get reacquainted.
• If social media is part of your brand experience, definitely give them the nudge to follow you on Twitter, Instagram, etc so they can be reminded of you every once in a while. 

Example email to Hibernating customers:

Company Spotlight: Blueland. They do a great job of letting their customers know exactly what they stand for and what sparked Sarah Paiji’s (their founder) passion for creating a company that sold clean, eco-friendly products.

They include a visual of Sarah with their products, which is always great to connect a human being and their passion with the product that customers are exposed to. People love shopping from real people. 

Then they go on to show some highlight questions that Sarah answers in the article to entice you to read on. This email is simply trying to connect with the customer, pique their curiosity about the company and hopefully open the door to an emotional connection with the brand since this is a passion-led enterprise with a positive impact.

Check out this fantastic example of how to re-engage your customers:

Start Re-engaging and Reactivating Your Customers

The homepage in Peel is built around RFM Analysis for a reason. It's one of our most useful and fastest adopted features by a huge portion of our customers. The DTC brands we work with are loving the ability to hop into the platform and instantly see the breakdown of their customers through different stages in their customer journey. And taking action on them is easier when you don't have to worry about doing all that calculation and segmentation yourself.

You can try out Peel for free for 7 days, with full access to RFM Analysis and so much more!