Former users are gone and you've given up on them
Users who left aren't gone forever. A well-timed "we miss you" campaign with the right incentive brings a surprising number back.
When to use
You have dormant users and their email addresses, and you haven't tried to bring them back systematically.
Hypothesis template
If we email users who've been inactive for [N] days with [incentive/update], [target]% will reactivate because many just forgot about us.
Method
The problem: Users stop coming back. You focus all your energy on new users and ignore the people who already know your product.
What Grammarly does: Sends "We miss you" emails to inactive users with their writing stats from when they were active. "You improved your writing by 40% last month. Don't lose your progress!" Also offers a discount on Premium.
Why win-back works:
- They already know your product (no education needed)
- Many left for fixable reasons (got busy, forgot, had a bug)
- Reactivating old users is 5-10x cheaper than acquiring new ones
- A good win-back reason can also fix systemic retention issues
How to run it:
- Define "dormant": No login for 14 days? 30 days? Pick a threshold
- Segment: Different messages for different dormancy lengths
- Email sequence:
- Day 14: "Here's what you're missing" (product updates, their stats)
- Day 30: "We miss you" (personal note + incentive)
- Day 60: "Last chance" (bigger incentive or feature update)
- Track: Which message, which incentive, what brought them back?
Win-back incentives that work:
- Extended free trial
- Feature unlock (try Premium for a week)
- Personal note from founder
- "Here's what's new since you left"
- Discount (use sparingly—trains people to leave for discounts)
Success metrics
- •Reactivation rate
- •Email open/click rates
- •Cost per reactivation vs new acquisition
- •Retention of reactivated users (do they stay this time?)
- •Revenue from win-back
Prerequisites
- Email list of dormant users
- Definition of "dormant"
- Email sending capability
- Something to offer (update, incentive, or personal touch)
Common pitfalls
- •Being too aggressive (daily emails)
- •Same message to all dormant users
- •Only offering discounts
- •Not fixing why they left in the first place
- •Not tracking if reactivated users actually stay
Source: Grammarly. Win-back emails with personal stats drive reactivation.
Suggested ICE scores
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