Our Lapsed Booker Program template is designed to help you encourage Customers who have visited previously to return.
Before you start, you should be familiar with:
Why set up a Lapsed Booker Re-engagement Program?
The Lapsed Booker Re-engagement Program lets you automate a number of emails aiming to encourage Customers who haven’t purchased tickets in a certain time period to return.
How does it work?
The Lapsed Booker Re-engagement Program works by identifying lapsed bookers and sending them an email inviting them to return. You could also include an Offer in this email as an incentive.
You can choose how you identify Lapsed Bookers. This will vary based on your organisation and the types of Events you hold. For example, you might want to class a Customer as ‘lapsed’ if they have not attended an Event in the last eighteen months, three years or longer.
You can use the following metrics:
- WEEKSSINCELASTVISIT: This calculated metric will let you find Customers that have not attended within a certain number of weeks and the WEEKSTILNEXTVISIT metric can be used to exclude anyone who has tickets for an Event in the future.
- WEEKSTILNEXTVISIT: This calculated metric can be used to exclude anyone who has tickets for an Event in the future.
After you send the first email, you can then send a further email to Customers who open the email and one email to Customers who did not open the email. If the Customer purchases Tickets at any point, they will be removed from the Program.
Before you start
Before you start to build any Dotdigital Program Template, you’ll need:
- A synced address book. Contact Support if you need to set up a new synced address book.
- Calculated Metric Data Fields. To do this, follow the steps in the Calculated Metrics section of the Data Fields in Dotdigital article.
For the Lapsed Booker Re-engagement Program, you’ll need to prepare:
- One triggered email campaign aimed at Customers who have attended in the past but not recently, and have not yet purchased Tickets for an Event in the future. You may want to include an Offer.
- One triggered email campaign aimed at Customers who have not opened the first email and have not yet purchased Tickets for an Event in the future.
- One triggered email campaign aimed at Customers who have opened the first email but have not yet purchased Tickets for an Event in the future.
TIP: Consider using Dynamic Content and Personalisation to make your emails more effective. For example, you could try personalising the subject line based on the type of Event the Customer last attended.
How to set up a Lapsed Booker Program
In your Dotdigital account, navigate to Automation > Programs. Click on the folder named Spektrix Templates.
Find the Lapsed Booker Re-engagement Program template.
REMINDER: When building your Program don’t forget to regularly click Save to save your progress.
1. Set the Spektrix Sync Exit Condition
Follow the instructions in the Dotdigital Program Templates article to set the Spektrix Sync Exit Condition.
2. Add another Exit Condition
Additionally to the Spektrix Sync Exit Condition, create another Exit Condition. From the menu bar at the top, click EXIT CONDITIONS.
- Choose Add an Exit Condition
- Click Create New.
- Drag and drop Data fields into the Include contacts that match all the rules in this group section.
- Click on [click to select a datafield].
- Choose WEEKSTILLNEXTVISIT.
- From the dropdown choose is not empty.
- Click OKAY and then Apply twice.
Any Customers who purchase Tickets will be removed from the Program.
3. Create a Start Condition
Click on the blue start node.
Apply the following settings.
Enrolment Scheduling
- Click on Set Schedule.
- Choose daily.
- Set the time of day you want contacts to enrol.
- Click Apply.
Enrolment Rule
- Click Set Rule.
- Choose Segment.
- Click Create New.
- Drag and drop the Data Fields metric to the Include contacts that match all the rules in this group section.
- Click on [click to select a datafield].
- Choose WEEKSSINCELASTVISIT and from the dropdown choose is more than and then set the number of weeks you would consider to be a lapsed booker.
- Click OKAY and then Apply twice.
- Drag and drop another Data fields metric into the Include contacts that match all the rules in this group section.
- Click [Click to select a datafield].
- Choose the WEEKSTILLNEXTVISIT data field, choose is empty from the dropdown.
- Combine them using the And option.
- Click Apply twice.
Enrolment Limit
- Click Set Limit.
- Choose Enrol contacts in program only the first time they meet the start criteria.
- Click Apply twice.
4. Add an Email Campaign
- Click the green email campaign node.
- Select or create the triggered email campaign you want to send to lapsed bookers.
5. Set a delay
- Click the orange delay node.
- Set the delay node to a minimum of 7 days.
6. Create a Decision
Click on the purple decision node.
Apply the following settings:
Condition
- Click on Select Condition.
- Choose Contact has opened an email campaign.
TIP: Apple's iOS15 and MacOS12 Monterey software updates mean that open metrics are unreliable success measure.
If your emails contain links you might want to consider changing the decision node to Contact has clicked a link in an email campaign as these show an even greater level of engagement. - Click Select Campaign.
- Select the email campaign you added in step 4.
- Click Apply.
Maximum wait time
- Choose Immediately.
- Click Apply.
7. Add an Email Campaign
- Under the No branch, select the green email campaign node.
- Select or create the second triggered email campaign you want to send to lapsed bookers who have not opened the first email and have not yet made a purchase.
8. Set a delay
- Click the orange delay node.
- Set the delay node to a minimum of 7 days.
9. Create a Decision
Click on the purple decision node.
Apply the following settings:
Condition
- Click on Select Condition.
- Choose Contact has opened an email campaign.
- Click Select Campaign.
- Select the email campaign you added in step 7.
- Click Apply.
Maximum wait time
- Choose Immediately.
- Click Apply.
10. Add an Email Campaign
- Under the Yes branch, select the green email campaign node.
- Select or create the triggered email campaign you want to send to lapsed bookers who have opened either the first or second email but have not yet made a purchase.
11. Set a delay
- Click the orange delay node.
- Set the delay node to a minimum of 7 days.
12. Activating the Program
To start your Program click the Activate button.
WARNING: You will not be able to start your Program if there are any validation issues.
Validation issues will be listed under the Validation menu.
You can't edit a program while it is active, but you can deactivate the Program at any time to make changes.
Reporting
We recommend that you test and refine your Program to see which settings are most effective. You can use the Dotdigital Program report to evaluate this Program.
You can also track Customers who have purchased Tickets for an Event by using the WEEKSTILLNEXTVISIT Exit Condition.
-
To do this, follow these steps:
- Once the program is Active, from the menu bar at the top, click EXIT CONDITIONS.
- You will then see a number of contacts that left the program by each Exit Condition.
- The number against the WEEKSTILLNEXTVISIT reflects the Customers who have now purchased Tickets.
- You can click on the number to see a list of the contacts.
You may also want to consider the following:
- Experimenting with your definition of Lapsed Booker
- The number of days in your delays.
- The send times of your campaigns.
If a Customer chooses to not re-engage, you could consider the following options as a way to keep your data tidy:
- You could Tag lapsed bookers and filter them out of your regular Mailings and Reports.
- For Customers who have not engaged in any way for a long time, you could deactivate their Customer Record.
Further Reading
To continue learning about Dotdigital, take a look at the Communicate with your Customers category on the Support Centre.