While every business is always on the hunt for new customers, don’t forget how positive, and sometimes lucrative it can be to re-engage with your current and former client base. They are the ones who helped you build your business to date, and they could well be worth another shot.

Now that there are green shoots in the economy, developing strategies to reengage with customers can help you come out the other side stronger and more resilient.

While you undoubtedly have a few clients that are repeat customers it’s also very likely that you have past clients who did business with you and then walked away. Consider ways you can re-engage this valuable group.

Take some time to review your client base, see who has used you historically, or seasonally, and who hasn’t engaged for a while.  Keep a look out for any hitherto unnoticed trends that might be there.  

It’s important to identify which past customers are suitable prospects.  Not everyone who did business with you in the past is going to be worth pursuing again.   The most likely candidates will be those who have made multiple purchases previously; or who continue to open your emails

The simplest method is to run a targeted email campaign for re-engagement.  It’s a common gripe by regular clients that all the best priced deals are designed to lure new customers, while those who’ve been captured are not rewarded for their loyalty.  So consider developing a deal for returning or repeat customers.  If that’s not feasible, you can base your comms around a specific event (public holidays, seasonal promotions), or simply an invitation to connect again.   

Once you have analysed and identified trends in email open and read rates, you might consider phone outreach to those customers who are engaging with your content.  Prepare for the call by having some important information to share, or personalise it by giving them reminders of things you have done together in the past.   This is obviously more labour-intensive and requires special sales or interpersonal skills, but it is a worthwhile approach for key prospects. 

You might also want to target formerly lucrative clients by arranging a casual catch up over coffee.  (in those States where that is now an option again) to re-establish the connection.   

At the end of the day, you need to give your customers a reason to come back, or to do additional business with you. The onus is on you, not the customer, to prove value.