This article explains how to build an automation that targets customers after six months of inactivity and encourages them to return, using the trigger Scheduled selection.
Winning back inactive customers is essential for maintaining a healthy customer base and maximizing lifetime value. A win-back automation helps you re-engage customers who have stopped purchasing by targeting them with relevant messaging and time-limited offers. By combining scheduled selection, multichannel communication, and behavior-based follow-ups, you can increase the chances of reactivation.
Before you get started
Entry criteria
Define inactivity based on your business model. In this example, customers are included if they have made at least one purchase, but not in the last six months.
You can also control how often a contact can enter the automation, for example once every six months.
Labels
Labels facilitate tracking contacts within the automation and measuring how many are successfully reactivated.
Conditional splits
A conditional split is used to divide contacts based on conditions such as reachable channel. In this automation, it ensures that customers receive communication via email or SMS depending on availability.
Trigger splits and time delays
A trigger split checks whether a customer performs an action, such as redeeming an offer, within a defined time frame.
A time delay simply pauses the automation regardless of customer behavior.
How it works
The automation runs once a day to capture a handful of contacts, and to avoid overloading the automation and keep things running smoothly. As contacts enter, they are labeled for tracking, then assigned a short-validity promotion to create urgency.
With a channel split you can reach customers in their preferred way, and timed follow-ups help you capture late conversions.
Customers who redeem the offer or make a purchase are relabeled as Active customers, making it easy to measure how effective the win-back flow is.
Setting it up
Flowchart
Trigger: Scheduled selection (daily)
Entry criteria: No purchase in 6 months
Track: Set label such as "Inactive – 6 months"
Offer: Assign multichannel promotion (short validity)
Channel decision: Split by reachable channel (email or SMS)
Message 1: Send win-back message with offer
Check 1: Purchase within 3 days
- If yes: Relabel as Active customers
- If no: Send reminder #1
Check 2: Purchase after reminder
- If yes: Relabel as Active customers
- If no: Send final urgent reminder
End: Measure reactivation outcomes
Step-by-step
1. Click Automation in the left-hand menu, hit New automation and select the trigger Scheduled selection.
2. Configure the entry conditions by hovering on the trigger and clicking Edit (the pencil icon). Set a start frequency, such as once per day to avoid overloading automation with too many contacts at once. Then:
- Include contacts who have made at least one purchase.
- Include contacts who have not purchased within the last six months.
- Set entry limits so a contact can enter once every six months.
Consider your type of business when setting the exact criteria. While an apparel customer might shop every couple of months, a furniture brand customer probably doesn’t return as frequently.
3. Click the plus sign below the trigger, choose Activity, and select Set label. This facilitates tracking the contacts that have entered the flow. In this case, it could be Inactive – 6 months.
4. Assign a multichannel promotion (a short validity offer) by clicking the plus sign, selecting Activity and then Assign multichannel promotion. This is your attempt to reactivate the customers.
5. After the promotion, click on the plus sign and choose Condition under Splits. Since this customer segment is urgent to reach, split the contacts on different channels — email and SMS — to make sure you also get through to those who aren’t reachable by email.
6. On the Email branch, add an email informing about the offer and how important the customer is to your brand. Click on the plus sign, then Activity and Send email sendout. On the SMS branch, choose Send SMS instead and add a message with similar content together with a link to your website.
7. Add a trigger split on each branch to follow up on whether the customers redeem their offer after three days. By hovering on a component and selecting Copy, it’s super easy to add repeat activities to other branches in the automation flow.
For contacts that redeem the promotion within three days, remove the first label (plus sign, Activity, and Remove label) and set a new one to imply that they’re now Active customers. For contacts that don’t redeem the promotion within your selected time window, send a reminder via email and SMS respectively.
8. After another two days, close the automation by adding a new trigger split and sending a new, more urgent reminder as a final attempt to reactivate the customers.
Remember to Save and Activate the automation to get it going.
Common mistakes to avoid
Using inconsistent inactivity criteria
Make sure the entry criteria and labeling reflect the same time frame, for example 6 months, to avoid confusion.
Not limiting entry frequency
Without entry limits, contacts may reenter the automation too often and receive repeated win-back messages.
Not creating urgency in the offer
A win-back campaign relies on urgency. Use a short-validity offer and clear messaging.
Ignoring channel availability
If you don’t split by channel, some customers may not receive the communication at all.
Not following up after the first message
Many reactivations happen after reminders. Always include at least one follow-up.
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