Roughly 30% of any local business's database is dormant: people who used to come and just stopped. Reactivating even 10% of them is worth more than a month of paid ads.
Define "lost" before you act
For a coffee shop, lost is 60 days. For a hairdresser, 4 months. For an optician, 18 months. Match your reactivation window to your purchase cycle, otherwise you will pester active customers and miss the real ones.
The 3-message sequence
- Day 0, Nostalgia: "We noticed you haven't been by in a while. Here's what's new at [shop]." No offer yet, just a soft re-entry.
- Day 10, Incentive: a real one. A free coffee, 25% off, a complimentary upgrade. Give them a reason to walk in this week.
- Day 21, Last call: explicit. "We'll stop emailing you unless we hear back. We'd hate to lose you for good."
What to never do
- Send the same incentive you give to everyone. They'll feel like a cohort, not a person.
- Apologise for messaging them. It frames the message as unwanted before they read it.
- Make the redemption complicated. Lost customers will not jump through hoops.
- Keep emailing after the "last call". You promised: stick to it.
6-12%
reactivation rate on a well-run 3-message sequence
4.8x
lower CAC vs new customer acquisition
18 months
avg. extra customer lifetime per reactivated contact
"I sent a single "we miss you" message to 600 dormant customers. 47 came back the following month. Total cost: €30 in SMS."
