In today’s business, leads play one of the most critical roles. Companies use email marketing, social media networks, and plenty of other channels to generate more leads for their business and, respectively, have more potential sales. But, the truth is that no matter how many leads you generate, there always will be some lost leads 🤔
There are plenty of reasons that can make your business lose its leads. But, regardless of the causes, it always feels bad to lose them. After all, when losing every particular lead, your business also loses a potential sale.
Is there anything you can do about this?
The good news is that re-engaging lost leads is possible, and Belkins is ready to help you out with this. In our “how to re-engage leads: a simple guide”, you will find:
- A comprehensive definition of lost leads;
- Key reasons why your business might lose leads;
- When you should or shouldn’t bother to reconnect with your lost leads;
- Simple tips on how to reengage a dead lead;
- The best reconnecting with old clients’ email template;
- How to reengage a dead lead: the key mistakes to avoid.
Let’s dive in!
Lost Leads Definition
As was already said, this guide will tell you how to reengage a dead lead and, thus, secure more sales for your business. But, before we get there, let’s get clear on some key definitions first.
So, what is a lead in the first place?
A lead is a prospect who demonstrates some interest in the product or service offered by your business but hasn’t made a purchase yet. Simply put, it is someone who can potentially buy from you. 💰With that being said, leads are among the most significant drivers of every business. And that’s why brands actively invest money, time, and effort to generate more leads and save them.
There are many different tactics used for lead generation. Brands collect new leads through email marketing, social networks, events, paid ads, and other channels. Then, after driving enough leads, businesses focus their efforts on nurturing them. In a nutshell, lead nurturing is a process aimed at pushing leads further through their customer journey until they finally make a purchase.
However, if the customer journey didn't end up with a sale after ongoing lead nurturing, that's what you call a lost lead. Lost leads are those prospects who were nurtured but never converted into customers. Sometimes, such leads are also called dead because even if they stay on your generic marketing list, they are not likely to convert without some extra effort.
But, don’t get disheartened just yet! With a solid strategy, you can regain attention and convert even those leads whose journeys didn’t end up in a purchase. As promised, in this guide, we will give you some practical tips on how to reengage a dead lead the right way! But, first, let’s figure out what causes the “loss leads'' process.
What Causes the Loss Leads Process?
Every time you find a lost lead in your CRM it sure feels bad. And, it is natural if you want to do something immediately to change this. But, before you get your recovery campaigns up and running, it is crucial to understand what brought the lead loss in the first place.
First of all, we want to stress the fact that there are no companies that convert 100% of their leads into purchases. This is nearly impossible. Lead nurturing and conversion are long, tedious, and often unpredictable processes with many unknowns. The thing is that every prospect has their motivations and behavioral patterns that are often hard to forecast to the fullest. Thus, losing some leads is okay. 👌
The good news is that, on many occasions, you have the power to win them back. But, to do this, it is not enough to know how to reengage a dead lead. Apart from this, you should also know what made them get lost in the first place. So, let’s take a look at some of the most common reasons that cause lead loss:
- The lost lead doesn’t need your product or service anymore, possibly because they’ve already made a purchase with someone else;
- Your lost leads have concerns about the prices for your products or services;
- They don’t like the way your brand delivers customer service or communicates with its clients;
- They are too busy to keep in touch with you;
- Your lost leads don’t have contact with you anymore (for example, they changed their phone numbers or email addresses);
- Your ads and campaigns targeted the wrong people who are not interested in what you are offering.
These are some of the most common issues that might be there. However, that’s not all. Apart from these problems, there also might be some mistakes on your side that have caused lots of lost leads. These mistakes include:
- Slow response time from your team;
- Poor targeting;
- Irrelevant content in your ads and campaigns;
- Errors in collecting and organizing leads’ data.
As you can see, there are many different reasons for losing leads. So, before you re-engage with lost leads, you have to figure out what went wrong the first time. One of the easiest ways to discover the reasons is to run a survey and directly ask your lost leads why the communication failed.
By running such a survey, your team can collect lots of valuable insights that will help you generate, nurture, and convert leads better in the future. At the same time, you will figure out if there are any ways to win back your lost leads.
When Do You Know You Have to Do Something With Loss Leads?
So, you’ve already realized that your company has a certain amount of lost leads. And, hopefully, you’ve also determined what made you lose them. What’s next? How do you know when to run re-engagement campaigns and when to let them go instead?
📊 Let’s look at some numbers here. According to Marketing Donut, only 2% of deals are closed when a company reaches out to a particular lead for the first time. And, even for this 2%, it takes at least five follow-ups until a new lead makes a purchase.
So, do you need to re-engage with lost leads? The answer is yes! You do need to connect with the leads you've lost. In the best scenario, you will make their journey eventually end with a purchase. And, even if not, you will at least have a chance of getting feedback and valuable insights that will help you save money and effort on your future campaigns.
But, of course, there are exceptions. In every business, there are some leads that remain inactive for months and even years. They can ignore your messages no matter how personalized and relevant they are. Such “ghost” leads that never show any activity or interest are not wise to put the effort in. Experts suggest deleting them from your mailing list after over six months of no response.
Also, it is important to consider the quality of a lead. If it is a marketing or sales qualified lead, they may still be worth pursuing. However, if that’s a low-quality lead that is very unlikely to become paying customers, chances are that you don’t want to invest time and other resources into winning them back.
Now that you know this, let’s move on and look at some handy tips on how to reengage a dead lead.
How to Reengage a Dead Lead: Dos
So, you already know about the reasons why you lose leads and understand when you should or shouldn’t pursue them. Now you are probably wondering, “How do I contact old customers and win them back?”
The main secret to effective lead recovery is balance. To do things right and have high chances of converting your lost leads into real customers, you will have to find the fine line between reaching out to them to regain their attention and not being too salesy or pushy.
So, if you are wondering how to reengage a dead lead, there are several tactics that you can use. 👀 Let’s look at the most effective ones!
1. Retargeting
The first way to re-engage with lost leads is to retarget your advertisements. Here is how it works:
- A lead visits your website, clicks an online ad, or submits an inquiry via social media (thus, indicating the interest) but then leaves.
- Your brand retargets its ads to remind the lost lead about the value of your offer to bring them back to your website and encourage them to make a purchase.
This strategy works pretty well. According to stats, the average click-through rate for display ads is 0.07%, whereas the average for retargeted ads is 0.7%. That is, ads that were retargeted are ten times more effective than display ads. Moreover, studies show that 43% of people who visited your website once are open to being retargeted, meaning they are likely to click on an ad again and convert. But, it’s important to use this opportunity wisely.
So, here’s what you should do 💡. First, center your re-engagement campaigns on leads who previously interacted with your brand. Ideally, you should focus on prospects who visited your site and browsed through your products or services but didn’t make a purchase.
Then, while retargeting ads, be sure to give your leads an exclusive time-limited offer. For example, offer them a generous discount if they purchase within a short period of time or provide free delivery. Simply put, you should give them another weighty reason to buy. And, as for the time sensitivity, it is needed to create a sense of urgency. It is a psychological trigger that can convince a lead to make a buying decision faster.
So, that’s basically how to reengage a dead lead through retargeting. Now, let’s look at the other tactic that you can try.
2. Multi-Channel and Multi-Device Marketing
Apart from retargeting your ads, there is another effective way to re-engage with lost leads. In a nutshell, the term “multi-channel and multi-device marketing” is used to describe running the same marketing strategy across different channels and devices.
Examples of devices that can be used for this purpose include:
- Desktop computers;
- Tablets;
- Smartphones.
Examples of channels for this purpose are:
- PPC advertising;
- Blog posts;
- Social media advertising;
- SMS;
- Email marketing (with a strong strategy to improve email deliverability)
How can this help with your lead recovery campaigns? The idea is pretty simple. There is no secret that modern consumers use all these channels and devices for various purposes. They all have their preferred channels and devices for interacting with brands. Thus, by leveraging them all in your marketing strategy, you can reach your prospects right where they are and boost the chances of converting them into customers.
So, how to reengage a dead lead using this method, you may wonder? The main goal is to reach your lost leads and give them a choice of which device or channels they want to use to get back in touch with your business. So, if you were previously using only one or several channels and devices, move on to leverage multiple options to have a chance to gain back the leads you’ve lost.
3. Content Marketing
The content your brand offers directly impacts your ability to generate leads and save them. Respectively, if you want your lead recovery efforts to pay off, you need to start paying special attention to your content marketing.
How do I contact old customers with the help of content, you may wonder? The answer is relevancy! If you have leads you haven’t engaged with for a while, one way to regain their attention is to share some relevant and high-value content.
For example, if you’ve recently posted any compelling articles, research findings, guides, or other types of content that might help your lost leads solve the problems they are facing, drop them a line about it. 💎 If they find the content you shared valuable, they might become active again and even convert into paying customers. So, don’t underestimate the power of solid content marketing.
4. Trigger Events
Briefly speaking, a trigger event is pretty much anything new that’s going on in your lost lead’s company. For example, it can be a launch of a new product or service, a move to a new office, a launch of a new website, and any other news. And such news can be a great opportunity to restore your relationships.
The thing is that trigger events give you an excuse to reach out to a lead you’ve lost without any pressure. By using this trick to re-engage, you can show your leads that they matter and that you keep an eye on their business. In return, they will be more likely to respond to such a message than to another marketing email.
Connecting with the help of trigger events is a great way to remind leads about your company. Maybe, right at this moment, your dead leads are still looking for the solutions you offer, and simply congratulating them on some trigger event will be your chance to make a sale. So, be sure to try it as well!
5. Email Marketing
Although we’ve already mentioned the importance of leveraging different channels and devices in your re-engagement campaigns, email marketing is so powerful that it deserves a separate mention. So, let’s take a moment to discover how to reengage a dead lead via email.
📩 An email is a perfect channel for lead nurturing and recovery. However, there are a few rules that you must follow.
First of all, you need to find a purpose for reaching out to inactive leads. Don’t just email them for no reason because this can only make them annoyed. Instead, find a trigger to make your outreach purposeful. For example, you can use these ideas to re-engage with lost leads via email:
- Remind the value of your offer;
- Show how your business and product are improving;
- Ask for feedback;
- Offer an incentive.
Secondly, you can find a re-engaged email template to make things simpler. But, be sure to personalize every email you send. Relevant and personalized emails always bring better results than generic ones. In addition, it's important to take into account email length for a higher response rate.
Also, if you are wondering how to reengage a dead lead via email, try changing the timing. Find a better time to send emails to boost deliverability and open rates. And, lastly, you can also try setting up a drip marketing campaign to boost the outcomes.
Lost Lead Email Template
When it comes to reviving your dead leads via email, selecting the right re-engage email template is the key to success. With the right lost lead email template, you can remind leads about yourself, restore their attention, and, hopefully, make a sale. But, if you get it wrong, you can lose your last chance for lead recovery.
So, what does a perfect re-engage email template look like? This part of our guide will give you a few ideas.
No-Pressure Lost Lead Email Template
If you want to win back your leads via email, the first reconnecting with old clients email template to try is a no-pressure template. This kind of letter is like a gentle reminder that aims to let an inactive lead know that you are still there, waiting to connect with them.
A perfect no-pressure lost lead email template should relate to the lead and use a very conversational tone of voice. Here is an example:
The “Y/N” Lost Lead Email Template
Another re-engage email template you can try is much more straightforward. Yet, it’s no less effective.
The main idea of the “Y/N” lost lead email template is to put a little pressure and get an honest and clear answer on whether a particular lead is still interested in working with you or not. It can look something like this:
The Content Offer Lost Lead Email Template
Finally, one more lost lead email template commonly used by marketers is the one that offers content. Previously, we’ve already mentioned how helpful it can be to offer inactive leads to check out your latest content that brings real value. So, there is not much we can add to this topic.
All you need to do is to find a piece(s) of content that will be of the most interest to a particular lead and use a standard content offer lost lead email template to let them discover your content.
How to Reengage a Dead Lead: Don’ts
We’ve already told you how to reengage a dead lead via retargeting or multi-channel and multi-device marketing. What else should you know?
To achieve the best results, it is crucial to know what you should, as well as what you shouldn’t do in your recovery campaigns. So, let’s take a moment to look at some of the most common mistakes you’d better avoid. ❌
- Don’t use one generic lost lead email template for all inactive leads and always try to find a personalized approach;
- Don’t get too aggressive in your ads and emails;
- If you are retargeting your ads, don’t show too many of them (or too frequently);
- Don’t share the same ad, email, or message repeatedly to the same lead.
Of course, these are not all mistakes that you might make while running your lead recovery campaigns. Yet, these are some of the biggest ones. So, be sure to avoid them in order to reconnect with your dead leads quickly and easily.
Wondering how to reengage a dead lead even easier? Belkins is here to help your business succeed! Find more guides and expert tips on how to generate more leads and save them on our blog. And don’t hesitate to use our smart lead generation and email marketing solutions to take your business to the next level!
