Increase revenue, boost customer engagement and
reduce overall marketing expenses at the same time.
Despite the mad power, most marketers neglect their post-purchase email sequences.
I’ve seen a small gazillion of brands that send a receipt and little else.
This is crazy, it’s wrong and misses out on a huge opportunity to convert new customers into recurring customers.
As you might already know…
Getting a new customer is 10x more expensive than selling to an existing one – especially when you treat them right.
Better yet, existing customers are 9x more likely to buy again AND spend 500% more than new customers.
(Now you know why Amazon does everything in its power to convince you to buy Prime.)
From a tracking point of view, transactional emails have 200% higher open rate than promo emails.
All in all…
If you want to boost conversions, build trust and increase sales… then it makes sense to send post-purchase emails.
1. The FIRST email should always be the confirmation of purchase
When people click “Buy”, they just trusted you with their money.
So it’s only fair to make them feel safe and let them know everything went through as it was supposed to.
Confirm that you received their order and that you’re on top of it.
eCommerce involves significantly more trust than face-to-face transactions.
A customer is handing you their credit card number with the assumption that you’ll hold up your end of the bargain. They want assurance that you’re not operating a scam out of an internet cafe in Nigeria. ~ David Hoos, Director of Marketing @ The Good
You should send an order confirmation as soon as the payment clears… letting the customer know:
- That their order went through.
- When it will ship and how to track their shipment.
- How they can access their receipt.
- Who to contact if there’s a problem.
- What they should expect next.
Amazon does a great job at this…
Now, you can go further and use the order confirmation email for upselling or cross-selling.
But be careful about this.
If you launch into product pitches too quickly, you can come across as trying to milk them dry… only caring about revenue.
Whether you cross-sell or not, your first goal in the confirmation email is assurance.
Next…
2. The shipping confirmation email
Similar to the order confirmation email, the shipment email is there to nurture customers. You want them to know that you’ve got their back and that if there’re problems, you’ll handle them.
The shipping confirmation order is also an opportunity to provide advice before the product arrives.
3. Check-in on the shipment in the third of your post-purchase emails
Remember that packages arriving late and making you antsy about it?
Or the broken salad bowl?
Shit happens during shipments… there’s not much you can do about it.
But what you can do is to keep the communication going… Don’t be one of those brands that give you the silent treatment when things don’t go according to plan…
Send the 3rd email one week after their shipment should have arrived.
Check-in to make sure everything arrived when it should and how it should.
This doesn’t need to be fancy or complex. It should simply say, “We really value you and wanted to make sure everything was okay.” If there was a problem, you want to be proactive in resolving it.
You want to know:
- Did it arrive on time?
- Did it arrive in good shape?
- Did you have any issues after it got there?
Doing this will propel you waaay above your competitors – I know, it’s not much to ask, but I’ve seen it over and over again.
4. Request a review in the fourth email
When you are researching an item online, what’s the first thing you do? You look at the reviews.
You want to know whether the product is good or will fall apart two months after your buy it.
So do everyone else…
For you, reviews give insight into how you can better serve your customers. It gives you the opportunity to fix the problem and keep a customer from becoming angry.
For customers, reviews give insight into quality, they trust reviews more than your marketing. If what you say in your marketing shows true in reviews – you’re golden.
The review email should:
- Remind customers of the great product or experience you provided, usually using an image.
- Be honest and upfront about how long the survey will take.
- Describe how the review or results of the survey will benefit the customer.
5. Offer a discount to re-order with the final of your post-purchase emails
Your final post-purchase email is a discount offer on a re-order or additional order.
Why?
It’s only logical to do it… They already purchased the product and, assuming the review results were good, you know they liked it. They know they liked it.
This is the perfect opportunity to get them to re-order the product or buy a similar product.
The conversion opportunities here are HUGE.
This final email is crucial for customer retention. Getting repeat customers is massively important – with a 5% increase in customer retention leading to as much as a 75% increase in profitability.
PLUS, repeat customers, on average, spend 67% more than new customers.
You’re already spending the money to get a new customer. You could spend the same time and effort to get another new customer or much less time and money to keep the same one.
Don’t Skip Post-Purchase Emails
A post-purchase email sequence is a terrible thing to waste. You have a unique opportunity to convert a new customer into a recurring customer. And once that opportunity passes, you have to work doubly hard to get it again.
Post-purchase emails are truly underrated and can become one of the most powerful tools in your email marketing toolbox.
They can increase your revenue, boost your customer engagement, and actually reduce overall marketing expenses.
y’all coming for supper or what?
Katja Mokotar
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Katja Mokotar is a professional email Copywriter. She creates email strategies for CPG eCommerce that generate new & repeat customers… and can often be scaled to $1M and beyond.