Email Marketing is a key pillar of customer first marketing. Customer First marketing is a strategy that puts the wants and desires of customers behind all experience touchpoints.
Email Marketing Personalization is the key lever for higher open rates and conversions. With the help of email marketing and technology innovation, it is now possible to develop deeper connections with clients. This generates incredible returns on investment, almost $44 for every $1 invested according to a Klaviyo research. Personalization can help reach your relationship with each of your consumers to the next level if you want to gain from email marketing as an ecommerce entrepreneur.
Customer retention emails play an integral role in your retention strategy. If you want shoppers to come back to your ecommerce store, marketers need to develop a robust retention email marketing strategy.
Let’s get into 10 popular, simple to implement retention emails that are not to be compromised on – to ensure you don’t leave money on the table.
A. The Pre-Purchase Series:
i. Welcome Emails
ii. Browse Abandonment Emails
iii. Abandoned Cart Emails
iv. Abandoned Checkout Emails
v. Site Abandonment Emails
vi. Product Recommendation Emails
i. Welcome Emails: This is a crucial moment in the customer lifecycle. It’s your opportunity to introduce new and interested prospects to your brand and products and encourage a purchase for first time buyers. Welcome emails are crucial to consider as they introduce your brand, brand story or founder story and establish the first connect with your target audience. Welcome emails can be sent in a series as a triggered flow.
ii. Browse Abandonment Emails: Browse Abandonment emails are similar to abandoned cart emails but are triggered when an identifiable browser visits a product page and does not start or complete a checkout – a visitor doesn’t have to add an item to his/her cart to trigger this flow. All a site visitor has to do is view an item and move on.
With the Browse Abandonment Flow, a subscriber must already be on your list. This email serves as a reminder to busy visitors and encourages them to jump back and explore more.
Learn more on how to build email lists for ecommerce stores here
iii. Abandoned Cart Emails: The Abandoned Cart series is a sequence of messages sent to someone who added an item to their shopping cart but failed to complete the purchase. One can showcase products left in the cart using Klaviyo’s Dynamic Abandoned Cart Content Block. Add a conditional split for those customers who have received the welcome series discount. Ensure existing customers only receive a single abandoned cart email to avoid unsubscribes. Add social proof to encourage purchases.
Learn more on email marketing strategy examples here.
iv. Abandoned Checkout Emails: Abandoned checkout emails are one of the most valuable emails for any ecommerce business. They’re an email or sequence of emails sent to someone who started the checkout process but failed to complete the purchase.
The Abandoned Checkout Email can be sent to someone already on your list or you can collect their email at checkout. Reminding customers of what is left behind always helps. Educate customers on product features, benefits, what the company stands for and encourage prospects to complete the order and remind customers of what’s left behind in the cart.
v. Product Recommendation Emails: A product recommendation email can also enhance the post-purchase experience by suggesting a product complements a recent purchase made or by offering to upgrade their order to a bundle of products that saves them money in the long run.
Educate your customers on how the complementary product would help both in terms of convenience, added benefits and cost savings. Invite them to a live event or share testimonials or reviews.
vi. Site Abandonment Series:
The Site Abandonment requires a subscriber to be already on your list.
Essentially someone is active on your website but doesn’t view a product, doesn’t add anything to their cart, doesn’t start checkout and doesn’t purchase anything. The email flow can contain content that highlights your hero product, how your product(s) are unique, product benefits or reviews and testimonials of your hero products. You could also showcase your bestsellers or showcase your bestselling bundled offers with a limited time discount.
Learn how to leverage email and SMS marketing to scale DTC here.
B. Post Purchase Series:
i. Thankyou Emails
ii. Replenishment Emails
iii. Order Confirmation Emails
iv. Review Request Email
Thankyou Emails: Thankyou emails post purchase must be automated flows that acknowledge a first-time buyer and help the buyer with introducing your customers to the founder journey, product vision a product demo and additional bundled offers.
Thankyou emails must be triggered within the first 30 minutes of a purchase made.
Review Request Emails: Requesting product reviews shows your customers that you value their opinions and prioritize customer satisfaction. This can help strengthen the relationship and increase trust. It also helps keep your business top of mind with your customers.
Additionally, display all reviews on your website this demonstrates transparency and a commitment to quality. As a result, the credibility of your brand will increase resulting in visitors converting to first time customers and first-time customers becoming repeat purchasers.
Offer incentives for customers to write reviews at the same time explain how reviews help in serving customer needs better introducing new products and services etc.
Learn more on what leading DTC subscription brands have in common.
Order Confirmation Emails: An order confirmation email is a transaction record that includes information relevant to your customer’s recent purchase. This digital receipt is sent to the customer right after they’ve made a purchase. It typically includes order details, shipping and delivery information, and customer service information as well as contact details.
This type of email reassures the customer that the order was received and is being processed. It helps build trust and reduces the number of customer support queries besides also offers an opportunity to cross-sell or up-sell other products or bundled offers.
Personalizing the order confirmation page with name, suggested products based on purchase or browse history or welcoming the customer to join the community go a long way in building trust for the brand. You could also add an interactive quiz to understand their product preferences leveraging Octane AI
Learn more on email list best practices here.
Replenishment emails: Replenishment reminder emails are sent to remind current customers that it’s time to replenish products they are likely running low on. These emails are typically sent to customers who are subscribers or purchase products on a regular basis. This includes items that have a usage cycle, like health supplements, beauty products, groceries, or other consumables.
The ideal email cadence is based on the time it takes to consume the products or the product’s sales cycle.
Learn more on 14 best takeaways for 2023 for ecommerce stores here.
Smarte Digital Inc. is an ecommerce retention marketing partner for modern DTC brands. We offer exclusive pricing offers for our ecommerce strategy consulting services and our lifecycle marketing services such as email marketing, SMS marketing services for Q1 2024.
We are also offering a free martech stack audit for Q1 2024. To identify gaps in your tech stack and optimize your martech stack, lets chat. Strengthen your foundational retention strategy now for growth, book a free 30 min discovery call with us at https://smartedigital/contact-us.
