Manual for email marketing: how to welcome your new customers
Do you have a client who just signed up for your newsletter? Great! You want to keep this customer 'warm'. Therefore, we have prepared a flow for you in this blog that you can use to make your customer completely familiar with your webshop during the first month.
Welcome your customers
It sounds so logical. And yet we see that many web shops forget this: do you actually welcome your new customers? Immediately after they subscribe to the newsletter, you already have a chance of customer contact: customers often receive a confirmation of their subscription. But what if you actually welcome your customers in that confirmation? It would be nice to do so. Because your customers may well know that you are also pleased that they have signed up for the newsletter. The confirmation of the subscription is also opened the most. So why not make it a party for your customer right from the start? Hey, and if you're really smart: ask for your customer's birthday, for example. That way, when a new customer comes in, you immediately have all the information you want. Ideal, right? The welcome email should not be missing from your email marketing. Looking for the bigger picture? Email marketing is part of your webshop's e-commerce marketing.
Create an onboarding flow for your new customers
After welcoming your customers, it's time to unboard them. On what', I hear you already asking. Onboarding means that you let your customers get to know your webshop. They get to know your webshop, but also your product range. Onboarding is good for engaging your customers. And ultimately, it's good for your open rate. Because those who are familiar with the sender will be more inclined to open the newsletter than those who are not. Something to do with expectation management. But what does an onboarding flow look like?
Email marketing Onboarding 1: who are you and what do you do?
In the first onboarding mail you tell it like it is: who are you, what do you do and what can your customers expect from the content of your newsletter? Imagine, you have a webshop in fashion. Your customers can come to you for the new jumpers, trousers, etc. But can your customers also come to you for inspiration? In short: which content do you offer in your newsletters exactly? When you create a clear picture of your content, you will see that your customers are more engaged with your newsletter. They know what to expect. And because of that, they will open your newsletter faster.
Email marketing onboarding 2: what advantages do you have to offer?
Now that your customer knows what to expect, you move on to the next onboarding mail. In your 2nd onboarding mail, you show which advantages you offer as a web shop. Think about the advantages of ordering and receiving the package, but also the return policy. How quickly do you deliver your products? And at what shipping costs? Or do you have no shipping costs at all? Mention all this! You may know this yourself, but your customer does not. Make it as clear as possible: how can you reach customer service? How does your returns policy work? Is your returns policy free? When all this is clear to your customer, you will see that your customer will hesitate less to order from you. This is because you make it very easy for your customers: they don't have to find out how you work. You explain this to them in great detail.
Email Marketing Onboarding 3: The Social Proof Email
You know yourself to be the best. But: do your new customers know this too? Show them physically by sharing reviews in this email. Share both the individual reviews of your users and your overall average score. Do you also have a quality mark on your website? Like 'best in test' or a web shop seal of approval? Show it off! You can be proud of this and it's best to show it to your new customers.
Email Marketing Onboarding 4: Promote your top products with an incentive
You have come a long way. You have welcomed your customers and they know exactly what they can expect from you and your product range. From your webshop and from your newsletter. Now it's time to turn your new newsletter subscribers into actual converting customers. You can do this by pointing out your top product range (or top categories) to your customers. What are your absolute top sellers that your customer needs? At the same time, give your customer an incentive. Because new customers are entitled to a little discount from you, right? The sooner they order from you, the better!
The order is not forthcoming. And now?
You will always have customers who have not bought anything from you after the onboarding. These customers need an extra push to bind to your webshop. In Reloadify, you can filter whether a customer has made a purchase in response to a specific email. You will see that there are still a handful of customers left who need a little push in the right direction. No problem, you give them that push in the last email before the customer has placed an order. In this email, you play on emotion: why does your customer need a pair of brand X shoes right now? What are the current trends and why does your customer want to miss these trends? Play on emotion, the fear of missing out or on scarcity.
It has been shown that, once your customer has placed two orders with you, he will invariably keep ordering from you. The first (and eventually also the second) order is therefore of crucial importance.
What does your email marketing look like with a new newsletter subscriber?
I can imagine that you have learned many new things in this blog. But when do you send which email? You don't want to look like spam, but you do want your customers to place their first order as soon as possible. To do this, use a flow and draw it.
In this case, the flow looks like this:
- Customer signs up for the newsletter.10 minutes later: welcome mail
- 1 day after customer has signed uponboarding mail 1- who are you and what do you do
- 3 days after customer has signed upOnboarding mail 2 - what benefits do you have to offer
- 5 days after customer has signed uponboarding mail 3 - the social proof mail
- 9 days after customer has signed uponboarding mail 4 - promote your top products
- 11 days after customer has signed upHas an order been placed? If not: last mail with urgency in it
- Is the customer out of this flow?Then your customer joins the flow for the regular newsletter
Go wild with your regular newsletter
Is your customer convinced and has he placed an order? Hurray! In that case, you take your customer out of the onboarding flow and offer your customer the regular newsletter. Only now? Yes, now! Your customer is now ready for the regular newsletter. See for yourself which days, times or deals suit your customers. A/B testing in Reloadify makes it possible to test your subject line, pre-header and even the content of your newsletter. It's so easy!
My customer has placed an order. And now?
Besides this nice onboarding flow, there is much more to be realised in Reloadify. Now that you have engaged your customers nicely with your webshop, you can move on to other tricks to make your customer order more and more with you. You can read how to do this now.
Abandoned shopping cart
Did you know that a lot of customers drop out at the check-out? Reloadify keeps track of which potential customers have left their shopping basket, with which products and the total price of the abandoned basket. Handy, huh! This way, it is easy to respond with a trigger. A trigger is a signal that goes off when your customers meet certain conditions. In this case, the condition will be that your customer has left an abandoned shopping cart. The trigger will then go off and send your customer an email with his or her abandoned shopping cart. You only have to set this up once. After that, our system will work for you. Do you want to know more about the abandoned shopping cart and which marketing strategies to set up? Read our abandoned cart guide.
Cross-sell and Up-sell
Yes, your customer has finally ordered! But, a second order is not forthcoming. That's a bummer! You'd like to keep this customer. That's why you set up an email with cross-sell products. Imagine, your customer has bought shoes of a certain brand. A good cross-sell email for this could be an email dedicated to that specific brand. Maybe your customer didn't notice that you sell so many more of this brand. Or perhaps there are similar items available, such as the same shoes but in a limited edition? Find out if your customer is interested in this. Because: you can't miss a shot!
Personal touch
Customers like a personal touch. In addition to being very busy building up your relationship with the customer and bringing in orders, it is also important to maintain the relationship. Because when you lose sight of your customers, they also lose sight of you. And that is a shame. So be personal. One tip I can give you is to start mailing based on events. This means that you pick specific events to use as a hook for your email marketing. Think of a birthday, the celebration of the first order or a specific event that is planned (Easter, Christmas, or other fun catch-ups). Your customer would really appreciate it if you thought of them.
So, now you have enough inspiration to turn your newsletter subscribers into regular customers in your web shop. A good investment to retain customers is something I recommend. Keeping a customer is easier and cheaper than getting a new customer (think about recruitment costs, advertising costs, etc.). Find out for yourself what your customers are looking for and how they want to be approached. Of course, this differs per webshop and per target group. Good luck!
