Spend, Experiment, Save: Part 4 (One Key Month To React)

There are three segments of lapsed buyers to consider.

1. SPEND: You can continue to spend marketing dollars on these customers like it was 1996.
2. EXPERIMENT:  Try (test) ideas to see if anything can work that can ultimately expand the pool of reactivation customers that can be reactivated.
3. SAVE:  Stop spending money - your entire goal is to ENGAGE the customer with content, and to document each engagement in your database.

Why document each engagement in your database?

Well, some (most) engagements you cannot record. Any website visit can be recorded. Any interaction with your community platform can be recorded. Any login can be recorded. Other things can be recorded.

When a reactivation candidate ENGAGES with you, the customer moves into SPEND mode for THIRTY (30) DAYS.

I need to repeat that, so you digest the information.

• When a reactivation candidate (save or experiment mode) ENGAGES with you, the customer moves into SPEND mode for THIRTY (30) DAYS.

Here's the thing about ENGAGEMENT. Engagement has a short half-life. Just because I read a review on Headphones.com on August 10 doesn't mean I remotely care about buying something on September 24. In fact, I may have already made my decision to buy something (elsewhere).

When coding this information in the database, I score the customer as SPEND / EXPERIMENT / SAVE and then if the customer engaged with you in the past month, I record a "+" to suggest you have a short period of time to make magic happen.

I'd capitalize on the "+" immediately if I were you.

In other words, you can have a SAVE+ customer ... this means you SPEND money as long as the "+" exists ... once the "+" is gone, you are back in SAVE mode with this customer.

Spend, Experiment, Save ... and the "+" indicator. It's a fabulous framework for managing lapsed buyers, don't you think?