Reconnecting With Unengaged Customers

Investing in All Your Customers

Many marketing experts point to customized program designs and a more personalized and targeted approach to craft the ideal message to reach the unengaged. A one-size-fits-all strategy might not be best in this case. Segmented, targeted, and personalized communications could help reach the unengaged across industries, from healthcare and financial services to hospitality and retail. Identify the spots or gaps needed to boost or improve performance, and then customize your rewards program or marketing outreach accordingly.

In order to reach the actively unengaged customer and make them feel valued, they must be identified, segmented and a plan to reach them must be developed, whether that’s through email and newsletter marketing, a mobile app or other means. Automation Ninjas notes in its blog, “Top 12 Ways to Reengage Customers,” that re-engaging these customers is often a winning proposition: “Reminding inactive contacts why they signed up to hear from you in the first place is much more effective than igniting entirely new interest. Long-term success is much more viable if you focus your efforts on reengaging the unengaged as opposed to just culling your list or ignoring them.”

Other active strategy tips from Automation Ninjas include:

1. Reengagement campaign: A reengagement campaign is an effective way to strategically reengage customers. Reengagement campaigns are designed to get your lapsed contacts interested again by piquing their interest and pulling them back in with valuable content.
2. Find out what the inactive are after (and give it to them): Gain customer feedback.
3. Segment the unengaged: Segmentation provides a great opportunity to be even more relevant for our customers so segment the unengaged too. Make your copy relevant for them.
4. Start a dialogue: Don’t go in with the hard sell right from the start. Focus on starting a conversation. Encourage rapport and work on rebuilding the relationship.
5. Kickstart reengagement with a discount: People love an incentive. Show them you value them by putting some of your own skin in the game.
6. Personalize the reengagement: Make your contacts feel valid and special.
7. Snazzy subject lines: Make your emails impossible to ignore with subject lines that make all the right noise.
8. Celebrate loyalty: If you’re offering repeat customers a shiny incentive for coming back again and again – your list will sit up and take notice.
9. Give them a soft opt out option: You should find out what they’d like in your newsletter and improve when you can but if they’re not interested then let them opt out of the newsletter without completely disengaging from the rest of your emails.
10. Use social proof: Encourage healthy reengagement with social proof. If a customer isn’t satisfied with how you responded to a complaint, for example, you can use this to improve your procedure and then use this feedback to create transparent social proof plus follow up.
11. Optimize customer service for reengagement: Engage with feedback, check in with contacts and generate fresh chances to exceed expectations.
12. Try new platforms: Maybe your emails aren’t grabbing the unengaged, have you reconsidered your tactics? There are so many alternatives that you could use to persuade them to engage with you again in a balanced and healthy way.

Winning Back the Customer

All Things Insights looked at customer loyalty in “Using Insights to Win Customer Loyalty.” Are your customers staying put, or is your company struggling with retention? Leveraging market research and gaining actionable insights could be the key to building better consumer loyalty initiatives. Sales alone might gain revenue for the company, but the objective should also be about creating customer relationships, developing brand awareness, and to keep customers coming back for repeat sales.

Looking forward to TMRE 2024? The conference, which will be held October 8 to 10, will feature the session, “Diving into the Psyche of the ‘Unengaged’ Consumer,” presented by Christina Speck, Author, Healthcare Fandom & Doctor of Public Health Candidate at John Hopkins University. One Medical, an Amazon company, has been reinventing the health care experience to make it easier for people to get the health care they need. As One Medical continues to strive to make healthcare easy and more accessible for its members, they partnered with Johns Hopkins University Public Health Doctorate Program to understand the mindset of “the unengaged” –people who are avoiding or delaying primary care. This research unlocked the power of human centered insights to understand key decision triggers and how and where unengaged enterprise members get care. To this end, they will share key insights on how behaviors, emotions, and values can be valuable insights tools to influence the care journeys of unengaged consumers in healthcare. Register for TMRE 2024 here.

A Proactive Approach to Consumer Engagement

Engaging with the unengaged consumer—those who are typically not actively participating or interacting with a brand—can bring numerous benefits to businesses. All Things Insights asked ChatGPT to highlight some key advantages:

1. Market Expansion: Engaging unengaged consumers helps tap into a new segment of the market, potentially expanding the customer base. By reaching out to these individuals, businesses can increase their market share and discover new growth opportunities.
2. Increased Revenue: Attracting unengaged consumers can lead to increased sales and revenue. These consumers represent untapped potential, and converting them into active customers can provide a significant boost to the bottom line.
3. Improved Customer Insights: Understanding why certain consumers are unengaged provides valuable insights into their needs, preferences, and barriers to engagement. This information can help businesses refine their products, services, and marketing strategies to better cater to these individuals.
4. Enhanced Brand Loyalty: Successfully engaging previously unengaged consumers can build stronger brand loyalty. When a brand makes an effort to reach out and connect, it demonstrates a commitment to understanding and valuing all customers, which can foster deeper relationships and loyalty.
5. Increased Word-of-Mouth and Advocacy: Once unengaged consumers become engaged and satisfied, they are more likely to share their positive experiences with others. This can lead to increased word-of-mouth marketing and advocacy, further boosting brand awareness and reputation.
6. Competitive Advantage: Engaging unengaged consumers can provide a competitive edge. While competitors may overlook these individuals, a proactive approach to engagement can differentiate a brand and position it as more inclusive and attentive to all potential customers.
7. Product and Service Innovation: Feedback from unengaged consumers can reveal gaps in the current offerings and inspire new ideas for products and services. This can drive innovation and ensure the business remains relevant and responsive to a broader range of consumer needs.
8. Customer Retention: Engaging unengaged consumers can also aid in retaining existing customers who may be at risk of becoming disengaged. By identifying and addressing the reasons for their lack of engagement, businesses can improve retention rates and reduce churn.
9. Enhanced Marketing Effectiveness: Targeting unengaged consumers can improve the overall effectiveness of marketing campaigns. By tailoring messages and offers to meet their specific needs and preferences, businesses can create more impactful and resonant marketing efforts.
10. Greater Social Impact: Engaging a diverse range of consumers, including those who are typically unengaged, can contribute to greater social inclusion and equity. This aligns with broader societal goals of inclusivity and can enhance the brand’s reputation and social responsibility credentials.

Reigniting Consumer Engagement

Engaging with unengaged consumers can lead to market expansion, increased revenue, better customer insights, enhanced loyalty, more effective word-of-mouth, competitive advantage, innovation, improved retention, marketing effectiveness, and greater social impact. By making a concerted effort to reach and connect with these individuals, businesses can potentially unlock significant value and ensure long-term success.

If you’ve neglected inactive contacts, now may be the time to review tactics and develop a win-back strategy. It reinforces how much you truly value your current customers rather than focusing primarily on just chasing new leads. Reigniting that engagement shows that you are committed to your customer base and that you are looking to deliver an effective customer experience for all. It just makes good business sense.

Video courtesy of Client Success