You did everything right. You got their attention, they engaged with your product, they even filled out their personal information for you. Things were looking great—the start of a beautiful relationship. But, in the end, they just weren’t that into you. They churned.

While churned users can be fodder for a marketer’s stress dreams, this user pool can actually be a significant asset. In their Product Analytics Playbook, our partners at Amplitude dive into the concept of user resurrection—what it is, why it matters, and where to start.

What is a resurrected user?

According to the folks at Amplitude, a resurrected user is “someone who has returned to your product after being inactive for a period of time.” Ultimately, they’re a part of The Retention Lifecycle Framework (below). Just like a user can churn at almost any point in the cycle, they also have the opportunity to come back to active user or even power user status with the right communication.

So, why should you care?

On one hand, resurrected users come from a pool that has already disengaged. This can seem discouraging when choosing where to expend your resources; however, these users are likely easier to reengage than a brand new user and will cost you fewer resources (be it in ad dollars, your team’s time, or other capital) since they have already been acquired. Resurrection and, ultimately, retention could be as simple as a few well-timed push notifications or emails, but to know that, you’ll need to do some analysis.

What should you look for?

You’ll want to answer two questions:

• How do we get our users back?
• How do we keep them once we do?

Analyzing your existing resurrected customer retention can help you answer these questions. First you’ll want to take a look at how much of your active user pool is resurrected users. This will help you to determine the potential active user growth from user resurrection. From there, take a closer look at what the resurrection journey looks like to the consumer. Are they responding to a certain winback program or a certain type of messaging over others? Are personalized messages winning out over those triggered by events? Once a user returns to an app or homepage, what do they see? What will they engage with once they arrive? How do they behave differently than active users? Answer these questions, and you’ll be well on your way to improving your resurrected user retention.

Ready to improve your user retention at every stage of the lifecycle? No matter what your vertical—from gaming to lifestyle to ecommerce— Amplitude’s Product Analytics Playbook will give you tips, tricks, and best practices for user retention at any stage of growth. Download the full playbook here.