7 Ways to Improve Customer Retention Campaign Performance

Already sending customer retention marketing campaigns, such as win-back emails or lapsing user messaging? Looking for more strategies you can use to increase your brand’s customer lifetimes and overall customer lifetime value? As a leading customer engagement platform that powers interactions between consumers and the brands they love, Braze offers extensive insights, tips, and tools to help retention teams build and optimize effective retention campaigns.

In 2021, our team conducted an analysis of more than 1,000 companies that use Braze across 54 different verticals to uncover 8 tips for making the most of your customer retention campaigns. Our latest 2023 analysis reveals even more actionable insights your team can implement to optimize for maximum customer retention campaign performance and conversions.

#1: Add Images and GIFs to Your Win-Back Campaigns to Boost Conversions by up to 26X

Reconnecting with customers who haven’t engaged in a while via well-timed, personalized win-back campaigns is a go-to retention marketing tactic that encourages repeat visits and sales among lapsing users. One way to make these win-back campaigns even more effective? Adding attention-grabbing creative assets, such as GIFs and images, to your customer messaging could fuel conversions by as much as 13.5X and 26X, respectively, according to our analysis.

#2: Send Your Win-Back Campaigns via Email and Watch Conversions Soar by As Much as 29X

There’s a reason brands have been using email to win back subscribers for the past decade: It works. In fact, email is the most effective channel for win-back campaigns, achieving a 29X uplift in conversion rates.

#3: Ditch Time-Based “Continue Your Streak” Campaigns in Favor of Triggered Delivery

From learning platforms to health and fitness apps, brands across industries have discovered the positive effect “continue your streak” campaigns can have on fostering continuous repeat engagement among users. If you want to get even more mileage out of your active customer campaigns that celebrate and reward your customers who regularly open your app, visit your website, consume your content, or take advantage of your products or services, there’s one savvy move you can make: Send your “continue your streak” messaging in the moment. This kind of active message delivery can outperform traditional time-based messaging by 64%. When brands send notifications right as customers are using their app—by leveraging automated campaign triggers—conversion rates can jump by as much as 71%.

#4: Send Real-Time Order Tracking and Fulfillment Campaigns to Amplify Conversions

Keeping customers informed the minute an order has been confirmed, a product has been shipped, or a delivery has been completed via transactional messaging is crucial to delivering exceptional customer experiences that strengthen brand loyalty. As with “continue your streak” campaigns, deploying these messages in the moment is key to maximizing engagement. API-triggered and action-based order tracking and fulfillment campaigns can drive conversions by 2.4X and 2.8X, respectively. Triggering messages to send after customers have interacted with a campaign has even more of an impact, showing a 3.8X uplift on conversions.

#5: Enhance Your Milestone and Anniversary Campaign Performance with In-App Messaging (IAM)

If you want to get more users to engage with your campaigns that celebrate a special occasion, such as a customer’s membership anniversary or birthday, the channel you use to send these types of messages can make a difference. Braze researchers have found customers are most likely to engage with milestone campaigns sent via IAM—the channel that can accelerate conversion rates by 6.3X. While you’re exploring in-app messages, consider the impact of the format you use. The most influential type of IAM for milestone and anniversary campaigns is the modal IAM, which can elevate conversions by up to 7X.

#6: Take the Guesswork Out of Retention Campaign Delivery and Maximize Results by up to 4.8X

BrazeAI™ empowers marketers to automate the process of sending the right messages to the right audience segments at the right time via the right channels. For example, brands that take advantage of Braze Intelligent Timing for lapsing user messaging and milestone campaigns have been found to gain a 21% and 4.8X uplift in conversions, respectively.

#7: Lean into Recurring Retention Campaigns to Optimize Outcomes

From newsletter campaigns to win-back campaigns, it can pay to send ongoing updates instead of one-off messages. Recurring retention campaigns have been found to increase campaign conversions by:

• 135% for win-back messaging
• 93% for milestone and anniversary messaging
• 32% for newsletters
• 27% for lapsing user messaging
• 19% for “continue your streak” messaging

The all-new 2023 Braze Inspiration Guide is here and packed with in-depth examples of winning cross-channel retention campaigns your brand can implement ASAP. Discover the most effective customer retention campaigns today.