Automate guest re-engagement emails: building the winback audience
What the answer looks like
Illustrative output on sample data
Illustrative example: how Lexi answers this for a dim sum restaurant group with six venues. It uses POS, reservation and email platform data, matched to one record per guest.
- Includes guests with three or more visits last year.
- Includes guests with no visit in the last 90 days.
- Includes guests who opened at least one email in the last six months.
- Excludes guests unsubscribed or already in a winback journey.
What the data shows
5,300 guests qualify. 1,900 visited monthly or more last year, and 3,400 visited every few months.
What it means
The monthly group is worth about $780,000 a year at their old pace, so they should hear from you first.
What to do
Send the monthly group a weekend dim sum invitation now, and the rest a week later. Set the journey to run automatically each week for new guests who qualify.
Want me to push both groups to Klaviyo?
Why it matters
Winback emails work best on guests who were regulars and still read your emails. Building the audience from visit and email history together leaves out guests who have tuned out, so the re-engagement budget goes to people who are likely to come back.
Frequently asked questions
How do restaurants automate guest re-engagement emails?
Define a lapse rule, such as no visit in 90 days for guests who used to visit regularly, and refresh the audience automatically each week. Connect it to an email journey in your marketing platform, so each guest gets a winback email when they first qualify.
Why include only guests who still open emails?
Guests who still open your emails are reachable and remember you, so they are far more likely to respond. Guests who stopped opening may need a different channel, such as SMS or paid social, so they are better handled separately.
How long should a restaurant wait before sending a winback email?
Base it on each guest's usual visit pattern. A guest who visited weekly is overdue after three or four weeks, while a monthly guest might not be for 90 days. A fixed 90-day rule is a simple starting point for most venues.