Quick summary
A win-back automation reaches out to customers who haven't returned within a chosen time period.
Build it as an order, event, or booking automation – depending on whether you want to count from the purchase or the event/stay.
Use filters to exclude customers who have already returned or have something upcoming planned.
Work with several win-backs at different intervals, e.g., 12, 18, and 24 months.
A win-back automation re-engages your inactive customers after a chosen period of inactivity. Set it up once, and it keeps working in the background to bring your customers back.
Choose your starting point
You can build this automation using three different automation types. The difference is what the waiting period counts from and whether you have a booking or ticketing system.
Automation | Trigger | Organizations |
Order | Counts from the customer's latest purchase | All organizations |
Event | Counts from the customer's latest visit (the event date) | Event organizations (using a ticketing system) |
Booking | Counts from when the customer's latest stay ended | Booking organizations (using Citybreak or BookVisit) |
ℹ️ Note: For these automations, we'll work with smart filters in the Filters you might want section to exclude customers who have already returned or made a new purchase after the order, event, or booking that triggered the automation. Read more in What are smart filters.
Order automation setup
Go to Automations → Create automation, and select an order automation (send an email after their order).
Choose Some time after their order and set the waiting period, e.g., 12 months after.
Select the communication type. If marketing, select one or more subscription types.
In the Add a filter block, select the smart filter Have not re-ordered along with Have no upcoming event (event customers) or Have no upcoming booking (hospitality customers). Change the Match all toggle to Match any.
Design your email and start the automation.
For a full step-by-step guide on how to create order automations, see How to: Create an order automation.
The filter for an order automation excluding upcoming events:
The filter for an order automation excluding upcoming bookings:
💡 Tip: Win-backs can also target a specific purchase. For example, remind season ticket holders to renew 11 months after their last season ticket order. Find more ideas in Inspiration: Order automations to create.
💡 Tip: Including a one-time offer? Change the re-enrollment rule in the Settings tab to Do not allow re-enrollment so each contact receives the message only once. This applies only to order automations.
Event automation setup
Go to Automations → Create automation and select an After-event email automation.
Use the trigger filter to select which events should be part of the automation – all events or specific ones.
Choose when to trigger: X time after the event.
Select the communication type. If marketing, select one or more subscription types.
In the Add a filter block, use the smart filter at the top to select Have not re-ordered along with Have no upcoming event. Change the Match all toggle to Match any.
Design your email and start the automation.
For a full step-by-step guide to creating event automations, see How to: Create an event automation.
The filter for an event automation:
Booking automation setup
Go to Automations → Create automation and select a Post-stay email automation.
Use the trigger filter to select which bookings should be part of the automation, for example, a specific property or all who booked accommodation.
Choose when to trigger: X days after the booking ends.
Select the communication type. If marketing, select one or more subscription types.
In the Add a filter block, use the smart filter at the top to select Have not re-ordered along with Have no upcoming booking. Change the Match all toggle to Match any.
Design your email and start the automation.
For a full step-by-step guide on how to create booking automations, see How to: Create a booking automation.
The filter for a booking automation:
Measure the results
Follow up on your win-backs in the automation report. Open your automation and click View Report in the Send email block to see:
Generated sales – an estimate of the sales and orders your win-back has contributed to.
Opens and clicks – how your message performs, and which links get the most attention.
Read more in About: Automations report.