Latest / The Retention Marketing Podcast with Fexingo: Email, SMS, and Loyalty for Repeat Customers / How a Protein Brand Uses Email to Win Back Gym Dropouts
Transcript
- Lucas: If you run a DTC brand, you know the pattern: new customer buys, loves the product, orders again maybe once or twice, then… silence. The question is — how long do you wait before trying to bring them back? And what do you say when you do? Luna: Today's case is a protein brand called Ripped Science. They sell whey isolate and plant-based powders, mostly to people who train consistently. But they noticed a clear drop-off around the 60-day mark. Lucas: Right. Not coincidentally, that's when a lot of New Year's resolution momentum fades. Or someone starts a new workout program, finishes a tub, and just doesn't reorder. So the retention team built a three-email win-back sequence triggered at day 60 of inactivity. Luna: And they deliberately chose email over SMS. The thinking was — these are lapsed customers who might already feel a little guilty about falling off their routine. An SMS can feel pushy, like a nag. Email feels more respectful, more like a nudge. Lucas: Exactly. So email number one goes out on day 60. Subject line is simple: 'It's been a while.' Body copy acknowledges that life gets busy, training takes a back seat sometimes — no guilt trip. And it includes a 15 percent off code, no strings attached. Luna: Fifteen percent — not huge, but enough to lower the barrier. They tested higher discounts and found 15 percent actually converted better than 20 percent. The theory is that a bigger discount makes people think something's wrong with the product. Lucas: Interesting. So email one does its job — about 8 percent of recipients click through and buy. But that leaves 92 percent who still haven't reordered. So on day 90, email two goes out. This one has a different angle. Luna: Instead of a discount, it leads with a testimonial from a customer who came back after a three-month break. The subject line is 'How got back on track.' The idea is social proof from someone in the exact same situation. Lucas: And that email pulls in another 5 percent or so. So now you're at around 13 percent recovered after two touches. But then there's the third email, at day 120. And this one is the most aggressive. Luna: Subject line: 'We miss you.' Slightly cheeky, but it works. The offer is a 25 percent code — their highest discount in any triggered email. And the body is a single paragraph, very short, with a bright CTA button. Lucas: That third email recovers another 9 percent, bringing total win-back rate to 22 percent across the sequence. Over six months, that lifted repeat purchase rate by about 22 percent, as in the same percentage. Not a massive number, but consider that these are customers who were essentially dead. Luna: And the cost is just the email send — no extra ad spend. So the return on investment is enormous. The team calculated that each recovered customer generates about 40 dollars in gross margin on their next order. With a 22 percent win-back rate, the sequence paid for itself within the first month. Lucas: That's the kind of math that keeps retention marketing in the budget even when ad costs go up. But one thing I want to highlight: the timing. Why 60 days? Why not 30 or 90? Luna: They looked at their purchase lifecycle data and saw that the median time between first and second order was 47 days. So 60 days is about two weeks past that typical window. It's long enough to be a true lapsed signal, but not so long that the customer has forgotten the brand entirely. Lucas: Smart. And for the second email at 90 days, they're giving a full month for the first offer to sink in. And the third at 120 — that's four months of inactivity. At that point, you're basically trying to re-acquire someone who might as well be a new lead. Luna: Which is why the discount jumps to 25 percent. They're competing for attention against every other brand in the inbox. And it works — but only on a fraction of the list. Most people who haven't ordered in four months probably never will. Lucas: So the sequence is really about recovering the low-hanging fruit. The ones who still like the product but just needed a reminder. And Ripped Science also tracks something called 'win-back velocity' — how quickly a recovered customer places their next order after the win-back offer. Luna: That's a great metric. They found that customers who came back via email one — the 15 percent offer — reordered again within 55 days on average. Customers from email two took 68 days. Email three? 92 days. So the earlier you catch them, the more engaged they are going forward. Lucas: That has implications for frequency cap. If someone comes back via email three, maybe you don't send them your weekly newsletter right away. You ease them in with a slower cadence. Otherwise you risk overwhelming them and losing them again. Luna: And they do that. Recovered customers from email three get added to a 're-engaged' segment with a reduced send frequency — about once every two weeks instead of weekly for the first 60 days. Then they graduate to the normal cadence if they order again. Lucas: That's the kind of lifecycle thinking that separates good retention programs from great ones. It's not just about the win-back — it's about what happens after the win-back. Luna: So we've talked about the emails themselves. But one detail I found interesting is that they A/B tested the from-name. They tested 'Ripped Science' versus a person's name, like 'Sarah from Ripped Science.' The person's name won by a significant margin — 34 percent higher open rate. Lucas: That makes sense. For a win-back email especially, a brand name can feel corporate. A human name feels like a personal note. 'Sarah' is checking in because she actually remembers you ordered before. Luna: And the body copy in the winning variant used 'I' instead of 'we.' So 'I noticed you haven't ordered in a while' versus 'We noticed.' That small shift lifted click-through by 12 percent. It's a one-word change. Lucas: It's almost too simple, but it works. And it goes back to the psychology of win-back: the customer needs to feel seen, not just targeted. Luna: Now, the brand also experimented with a fourth email at day 150. That one had a subject line like 'Last chance for 25 percent off' — basically a final offer. But the open rate was below 10 percent and conversion was negligible. So they killed it. Lucas: That's a good lesson. You don't want to keep emailing someone who's clearly not interested. At some point you're just training them to mark you as spam. Better to sunset them and focus on re-engagement via other channels — or just let them go. Luna: Exactly. And the Ripped Science team says they now use that sunset list as a seed audience for lookalike campaigns on Meta. So the data still has value even when the customer never comes back. Lucas: Alright, so let's zoom out. What's the one takeaway for a brand listening that wants to build a win-back sequence? I'd say: start with your purchase lifecycle data. Find the natural break point — the day when most customers who haven't reordered are probably not going to. That's your trigger date. Luna: And don't lead with your biggest discount. Use the smallest offer that works, and escalate only if needed. The Ripped Science data shows that the 15 percent offer converted well on its own — the 25 percent was only necessary for the truly cold segment. Lucas: Also, personalize the from-name and write in first person. It's a small tweak with a big impact. And test everything — even the subject line length, the day of week you send, the CTA button color. Ripped Science found that a green button outperformed blue by 6 percent on click-through. Luna: You know, speaking of testing and iterating — that's why shows like this one exist. A couple of dollars a month is genuinely what keeps these going. If these marketing conversations have sparked something you've actually used, buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo really makes a difference. Lucas: Yeah, it's small amounts from people who find value — that's what keeps the podcast ad-free and focused on the actual tactics. We don't have sponsors pushing a narrative, just real cases. Luna: So back to Ripped Science — they also shared one more insight. They track a metric called 'reactivation cost per customer.' It's the total cost of the sequence divided by number of reactivated customers. For them, it was about $1.20 per customer. Lucas: Versus a typical customer acquisition cost on paid social that's probably 30 to 40 dollars. So win-back email is roughly 25 times more efficient. That's the kind of math that makes retention marketing a no-brainer, even if the win-back rate seems modest. Luna: And the lifetime value of a reactivated customer tends to be higher than a brand-new customer, because they already know and trust the product. Ripped Science's data shows that reactivated customers have a 30 percent higher repeat rate in the following year compared to new subscribers. Lucas: That's a strong argument for investing in the win-back experience. Not just a single email, but a thoughtful sequence that respects the customer's situation and gives them a reason to come back. Luna: So if you're a DTC brand and you don't have a win-back sequence yet, the bar to start is low. Pick a trigger date, write three emails, test the from-name, and measure the recovery rate. You'll probably see a return within weeks. Lucas: And if you already have one, maybe ask yourself: are you sending from a person's name? Are you testing your discount tiers? And are you tracking what happens after the win-back? That's where the long-term value lives. Luna: Good place to leave it. That's all for this episode of the Retention Marketing Podcast.