A win-back automation emails WooCommerce customers who haven’t ordered for a while, for example with a limited-time discount. MailerPress finds these customers every day with the Customer Inactive (Daily) trigger, so you don’t need to export lists or tag customers by hand.
Win-back automations require MailerPress Pro 2.1.0 or later and an active WooCommerce plugin.
How the Customer Inactive trigger works
The trigger is the event that starts the automation. This one works as follows:
- Daily check: once a day, MailerPress looks for customers whose latest order is older than the number of days you set. Only orders with the statuses you select count.
- Immediate first check: when you activate the automation, or save it while it is active, MailerPress runs a check within a few seconds. All customers who are already inactive can enter the automation right away, so review your email before you activate it.
- Guests included: customers are identified by their billing email, so guest customers are included.
- Once per last order: a customer enters the automation once for a given last order. They can enter again only after placing a new order and becoming inactive again. A customer already in the automation isn’t added twice.
- Contacts: a customer who is already a MailerPress contact but unsubscribed, or hasn’t confirmed their subscription yet, is skipped. A customer who isn’t a contact yet is created with the Subscribed status and added to your default list. Make sure you are allowed to send marketing emails to past customers before you activate the automation.
Create a win-back automation
- Go to MailerPress > Automations > All automations, click New automation and choose Start from scratch.
- Click Choose a Trigger and select Customer Inactive (Daily) in the WooCommerce triggers.
- Click the trigger and set Inactive After Days and Order Statuses (see the table below).
- Add a Send Email step after the trigger. The automation doesn’t start if the trigger has no step after it.
- Enter the email name and subject, click Create New Email and choose the Win-Back Coupon Offer template.
- Edit the email, go back to the automation and click Activate.
| Setting | Description |
|---|---|
| Inactive After Days | The automation starts when the customer’s latest matching order is at least this many days old. Default: 90. Minimum: 1. |
| Order Statuses | Only orders with these statuses count as purchases. Default: Processing and Completed. You can select any WooCommerce order status. |
Use the Win-Back Coupon Offer template
MailerPress Pro includes the Win-Back Coupon Offer email template. It contains a Coupon Code block with Auto-generate WooCommerce coupon turned on. When the email is sent, MailerPress creates a unique WooCommerce coupon for the recipient with these default settings:
- 20% discount.
- Expires 10 days after the email is sent.
- Can be used once, can’t be combined with other coupons, and is restricted to the recipient’s email address.
- Codes start with the prefix WINBACK.
To change the offer, click the Coupon Code block in the email editor and adjust settings such as Discount type, Discount amount, Expiry (days) or Coupon prefix. The coupons appear in WooCommerce like any other coupon.
Go further
- Send a reminder only to customers who don’t come back: after the first email, add a goal from Goals & benchmarks with the Order received (WooCommerce) event, so the automation waits for an order. Under Goal type, keep the Essential option (wait until achieved) and set Give up after, for example to 7 days. Add a second email on the Timed out path. See Goals and benchmarks in automations.
- Use a longer sequence: the Win-Back Campaign workflow in Automations > Pre-made workflows sends three emails when a tag is added to a contact. Add an Add Tag step to your inactive customer automation to start that sequence.
- Create several levels: build separate automations with different Inactive After Days values (for example 60 and 180 days) and different offers.
For the other WooCommerce triggers and steps, see the automation triggers and actions reference and How to integrate MailerPress with WooCommerce.