What is e-mail automation?
With e-mail automation, you take your e-mail marketing to the next level. You don't just send the general newsletter, but tailor your e-mails to your customer's journey. You respond to the needs of your customers. Is he or she still in the exploratory phase? Has your customer just completed an order? Or has the customer been absent from your webshop for a while? For each phase, you set up an appropriate e-mail campaign that you send at the perfect moment.
Why set up e-mail campaigns?
We can be brief about the reason for setting up e-mail campaigns: it simply generates a lot of extra turnover. After all, by setting up e-mail campaigns, you are investing in retention. With retention marketing, you invest in building a long-term relationship with your customers. Why you should want to do that? There are 3 major benefits to lasting customer relationships:
Investing in customer relationships is cheaper than attracting new customers, while delivering more. A good customer relationship increases customer lifetime value and ultimately delivers more than fleeting customers.
Existing customers are many times more likely to make a new purchase from you than someone who visits your webshop for the first time.
On average, loyal customers spend three times more per purchase than new, transient customers.
High time to get started with e-mail campaigns. We explain 10 campaigns that are indispensable for every webshop.
Example 1: giving your customers a warm welcome
A good first impression is always important. For webshops, this is even more important. Because whatever products you sell, chances are you are facing a lot of competition. Therefore, you want to put yourself in the picture with your customer from the very first moment.
As soon as a customer signs up for your newsletter or, even better, places an order for the first time, he or she takes the first step in building a relationship. It is a shame to completely ignore this first rapprochement. So set up a welcome campaign! In your welcome campaign, you send an e-mail in which you (you guessed it) welcome the new customer. Such a welcome e-mail is also the perfect moment to introduce yourself. Who are you, what do you stand for and what can a new customer expect from you? For an extra warm welcome, add a discount code to your e-mail.
You can choose to divide your welcome campaign into several emails. Chances are your new customer will only need a confirmation of registration at first and will then look further on your website. For instance, send the second e-mail of your welcome flow after 7 days to introduce yourself further. You can read more tips for your welcome flow in our manual.
Example 2: encouraging purchases through cross-sell
A good way to encourage new purchases is to set up so-called cross-sell emails. These are triggers that go off as soon as a customer matches a certain rule, such as "last order was 7 days ago". Such an e-mail, aimed purely at sales, works best when it is drafted as personally as possible. How to do that? Filter, for example, by the product, brand or category of the previously bought product. Then place products from a similar category in your mail. This way, the e-mail becomes really useful for your customer and increases the chances of a repeat purchase. Good to know: Reloadify allows you to dynamically add similar products. So you can set up your cross-sell campaigns in no time!
Another example for encouraging a purchase is to target a repeat purchase. This works best for products that can actually run out, such as a shampoo. For this, you set a trigger that matches when the shampoo's order date is, say, 2 months ago. The message of the email is simple: your shampoo is running low, is it time for a new bottle yet?
Example 3: win over departed customers
Maybe it happens to you yourself sometimes. You are shopping online and have already added your products to your shopping cart. Suddenly, something comes up that forces you to drop out. Time passes and the shopping cart, which you were just about to order, has long since slipped from your mind. A lot of webshops face this problem. How do you get these departed customers back? Simple, by setting up an e-mail campaign for abandoned shopping carts. In the e-mail, you bring the shopping cart to the attention of your customer and, of course, make it easy to still order the contents.
A big advantage of emailing based on abandoned shopping carts is that you can be sure your customer is interested. After all, he or she actually added the product to the shopping cart for a reason. Tip: add urgency to your e-mail to reinforce your message. For example, point out to your customer that you do not have infinite stock and that you do not reserve products in the cart. This way, you increase the chances that your customer will still complete the order.
Getting started with an email around your abandoned shopping carts? Then set up a flow right away. Start with a reminder after a short time. If the customer still doesn't take action, you can send a second and possibly a third reminder.
Example 4: waking sleeping customers
Every webshop has to deal with customers who become inactive. These customers once ordered something from you, but - for whatever reason - never came back to you after this last order. Maybe they don't know your product range well enough, have switched to a competitor or have simply forgotten about you. High time to wake up these sleeping customers. You can do this with an e-mail campaign that you set to, say, 9 months after the last order. Then put in your mail that you miss the customer and add a block with the most popular products. For this campaign too, the more personal the better!
Make the most of your campaign and turn it into a flow. Has the customer still not placed a new order after the first e-mail? Then send another e-mail showing why the customer should order from you. Tip: adding a discount code almost always works.
Example 5: request reviews
Did you know that your current customers can help persuade other customers? They can do this by leaving reviews about your products. How a review contributes to winning over new customers? An important factor in the decision-making process of a (new) customer is social proof. Just think about it: as soon as there are several positive (or negative) reviews for a product or company, this will influence your opinion of this product or company.
Put your customers to work for you. As long as you offer something in return, such as a nice discount code, they will be willing to help you.
💡 Tip: make the most of your product reviews and not only show them on your website, but also add them to your emails.
Example 6: refer a friend
A second way to get your customers to work for you is to let them invite their friends. You can do this by emailing a discount code. This code can then be used by 2 unique profiles. Social proof also comes into play in this mail campaign. Because your current customer recommends you to friends, chances are that these friends will also order from you. After all, your current customer recommends you for a reason. He or she is sure to be satisfied with you and will grant a friend the same experience.
Example 7: reward your loyal customers
Expressing your appreciation for your customer is good for customer loyalty. So why not do this more often? Send occasional tokens of appreciation to your loyal customers. Such an e-mail can contain anything. Think of a discount code, exclusive offers or give the loyal group earlier access to the sale. Check with yourself what makes a customer loyal. Is it a high lifetime purchase amount or a large number of orders (where turnover does not matter)?
In Reloadify, it is super easy to look up your loyal customers. You can do this through RFM analysis, for example. In this analysis, you filter on how recently a customer has placed an order with you, how often a purchase is made and how much this customer spends with you. Want to know more? Read our blog on RFM or get started with RFM in Reloadify.
💡 A well-known webshop that regularly highlights its loyal customers is Bol.com. The message of the emails is clear: you are appreciated. Interestingly, nothing is given away in this mail. Yet the message comes across!
Example 8: celebrate your customer's birthday
Regardless of your age, it is still nice to be put in the limelight on your birthday. Do the same with your customers! Congratulating your customer on their birthday is a simple way of showing that you are thinking of them. Do you choose to set up a birthday email? Then actually give a gift as well. This could just be a discount code, but how nice is it to give a tangible gift! In doing so, by the way, don't send unsolicited packages, but send your customers an email first in which your customer can claim the gift.
There are plenty of ways to capitalise on your customer's birthday. An original and unexpected strategy is to mail on the day after the birthday. This way, you won't end up among the rest of the congratulatory e-mails AND you score points by making up for your "mistake".
Example 9: celebrate your customer's anniversary
A creative way of thanking your customer and celebrating your relationship is to pick up on the very first order moment. Make it an anniversary! For example, send an e-mail every year to celebrate your anniversary. In your mail, include the first product your customer bought and finish it off with a personal discount code.
Of course, you can celebrate your anniversary in the same way every year. Do you really want to stand out from the rest? Then go big and celebrate the anniversary differently every year. Send a discount code one year, give away a gift the next year and so on. Of course, you don't just have to look at your customer's very first order. A review of the past year is always a good idea too.
Tip: filter your anniversary mail by your customer's activities and tailor your mail accordingly. Does the customer order from you on a regular basis? Thank him or her for this. Has it been a while since your customer made a purchase? Then remind your customer of what started your relationship and invite him or her to visit you again soon.
Example 10: share interesting and useful info
Picture this: you have just completed your order for a new washing machine. Within minutes, you receive an email from the webshop containing an instructional video on how to install exactly the model of washing machine you bought. How cool!
To set up a campaign like this, you really don't need to sell products that require instructional videos. It's all about showing that your service goes beyond just selling a product. For example, show background information (how is the order packed?) or provide maintenance tips (how do I keep my clothes looking nice for a long time?). By sending these extra mails, you show your customers that you really appreciate them and want to help them. A very valuable contribution to a long-term customer relationship!
These 10 email campaigns will get your email marketing off to a flying start. Of course, all the examples can be applied in Reloadify. Curious about how to set up these triggers? You can read about it in our best practices.
Good luck! 🙌
