Welcome everybody to Omnisend’s marketing tip series, where in roughly 3 minutes or less each day, I’ll give you actionable tips on ways to improve your email & SMS marketing program and help you increase sales.

Yesterday I talked about when to send your abandoned cart emails. Today, let’s talk about re-engaging customers via the right channels. 

One reason email is an extremely effective tool is that it is an opt-in channel. But so too are SMS and web push messages. Brands who are collecting these permissions should absolutely be using them in their abandoned cart automation. 

Last year SMS saw a nearly 260% lift in automated messages sent compared to the year before, while automated push messages increased 700%. Brands are recognizing the value in other opt-in channels.  

If you’re collecting these permissions, you should be using them to re-engage abandoned cart shoppers. Here are some things you may want to consider.

** SMS: Most text messages are read within 3 minutes. This means it’s a timely channel to communicate with consumers on. With the first abandoned cart message sent via email, you may want to also send an SMS at the same time. This gives consumers the choice of how they want to interact.

You may not need to send an SMS with every email. I would suggest starting by using them as bookends — one at the start and one at the end of the series, especially if you offer a discount. That last text message serves as a great reminder and nudge toward the cart. 

Now, this send strategy may change based on other personalization variables that I’ll talk about next week — but to get you started and capturing baselines, this is where I’d start. 

And while it seems like common sense, I’m going to say it — make sure the message links back to the cart to allow for easy checkout. 

I am not going to spend a lot of time talking about push messages today only because it is still a maturing channel, but as you heard me mention earlier, it is seeing massive growth and performance. 

Like SMS, it is a more instantaneous marketing channel. But if you are collecting Push Message opt-ins, I would absolutely use them with abandoned cart messaging. 

In fact, brands I have seen use them have found their highest metrics when used with cart abandonment. I would suggest using them around the second message. Let the email and/or SMS be the primary channel and use Push to complement the middle part. 

So there it is — be sure to use all opt-in channels in the same workflow and create a truly engaging series that recaptures those pesky abandoned carts. Send a text message with messages 1 and 3, and if you use push, send it around the second message. 

Watch your metrics, and adjust accordingly. 

Thanks for tuning into this episode of our marketing tips series. Feel free to let me know if you have any questions and be sure to check out Omnisend and let us prove how we can help you double your conversions. 

Until next time, happy marketing!

Welcome everybody to Omnisend’s marketing tip series, where in roughly 3 minutes or less each day, I’ll give you actionable tips on ways to improve your email & SMS marketing program and help you increase sales.

Yesterday we talked about whether or not to discount in your abandoned cart messages. Today, I want to discuss the timing of your message sends, AND, if you do offer discounts, when exactly you should offer them. 

Choosing the cadence of your abandoned cart emails is another decision that has no wrong answer. And here’s why.

If you are selling a $1,000 product, the decision cycle will likely be longer than when selling a $30 short. 

That being said, there is a standard send cadence I have found to be successful with many brands. Here is what I recommend, at least to start, is to …

Send message 1 one hour after abandonment. Remember, sending a message with a sense of urgency might be all that’s needed to persuade them to complete their order.

Send message 2 24 hours after abandonment. 

By this time, the customer has had time to price shop and consider their purchase. And they may be dying to make the purchase, but just need a nudge. 

Send message 3 48 hours after abandonment.

Here is where you pull out all of the stops. If you offer an incentive, do it now.  

While it is certainly acceptable to offer a discount in earlier messages, the intent is already high and their excitement level for the purchase may be too strong for them to wait to pull the trigger on the purchase. 

Remember, with all messages, be sure to convey  a sense of urgency, showcase value-adds such as free returns, and use social proof. 

Again, this timing recommendation is just a starting. I recommend using automation splits to test timing, incentives, and the number of messages. You know your brand and customer the best. 

Once you see how everything is performing, you can optimize your messages further. 

So there it is — 1 hour, 24 hrs,and 48 hrs after abandonment, with the incentive coming in the third message. 

Be sure to join me tomorrow where I’ll discuss making your workflows even more effective by adding additional opt-in channels and why it’s important to do so.

Thanks for tuning into this episode of our marketing tips series. Feel free to let me know if you have any questions and be sure to check out Omnisend and let us prove how we can help you double your conversions. 

Until next time, happy marketing!

Welcome everybody to Omnisend’s marketing tip series, where in roughly 3 minutes or less each day, I’ll give you actionable tips on ways to improve your email & SMS marketing program and help you increase sales.

Yesterday we talked about message context for abandoned cart emails. Today, I want to discuss the age-old question: should you discount? 

Well, the answer is, it depends. Let me explain. 

Can a discount help convince shoppers to complete their purchase? Yes! But that doesn't mean you should offer one. Each discount means that you generate less profit per order. 

When deciding whether, and when, to offer a discount, there are some things to consider:

First, will you be doing other forms of retargeting, such as paid social and search? 

If so, these come with a much higher cost than sending an email. If you can save money on these other forms of retargeting due to offering a discount via email, it might be worth it.

Second, do you offer a discount for signing up for your emails? 

If you’re willing to offer 10% when you aren’t sure if they are going to purchase but they have some level of intent, why not make that same offer when they’re showing high intent?

Now, if you decide to offer a discount, it doesn’t mean you need to offer it right away! There are smarter ways to incentivize your abandoned cart messages. 

Instead of offering a discount in your first message, you may want to wait until the second or third message — especially if you’ve optimized your messages to feed into their intent. 

OR

Instead of offering a blanket discount, consider using a minimum order amount to qualify for the savings. This can also help you increase your average order value. 

Now, there are some other strategies with discounts, but deciding on a simple form of discount like a percentage (%) off is a great place to start — but don’t be afraid to use workflow splits and test different incentives. — That’s why they’re there!

If you don’t offer discounts, it is especially important to focus on optimizing your messages to build consumer confidence and pique their interest.

When deciding on a discount, understand there is no right or wrong answer. Make a decision that is best for your brand. There are other ways to use more personalized discounts, and I’ll discuss this later in this series.

Now that you have your basic messaging and discount strategy planned, you need to send your messages. But when should you send them? I’ll discuss this tomorrow, so be sure to check back.

Thanks for tuning in to this episode of our marketing tips series. Feel free to let me know if you have any questions and be sure to check out Omnisend and let us prove how we can help you double your conversions. 

Until next time, happy marketing!

Welcome everybody to Omnisend’s marketing tip series, where in roughly 3 minutes or less each day, I’ll give you actionable tips on ways to improve your email & SMS marketing program and help you increase sales.

This week is all about the one problem all ecommerce stores face — the abandoned shopping cart.

While there are some tactical things you can do to help lower the initial abandonment, the fact remains — people WILL abandon their carts.

Knowing this, recovering as many lost sales as possible is instrumental for growth.

Email marketing plays a pivotal role here — not only because it works but because it is less expensive than other paid retargeting channels — which means more money. 

Abandoned cart emails convert 483% better than scheduled promotional emails and nearly 4 out of every 10 shoppers who click on an abandoned cart email go on to complete their purchase. 

Whether you do or don’t already have them sending, I’m going to show you how to optimize them for maximum effectiveness. 

Just like with the welcome series, I want you to focus on Intent.

At this stage in the journey, the customer knows what they want but something is preventing them from making the purchase. It could be:

• Price. Maybe they’re doing price comparison on another site.
• They want to see if you offer them a discount after they abandon. 
  • We’re all guilty of this at some point.
• The cost or speed of shipping
• Maybe they’re unsure about your return policies.
• It could be a lack of trust. After all, maybe they have never done business with you 
• Or maybe they’re treating their cart as a wishlist and are saving the item for later.

No matter the reason, your job as a marketer is to overcome any possible objection they may have and lead them to purchase. Here’s how to do just that. 

FIRST, always promote your value-adds in your messages, such as return policies and free shipping thresholds. This can overcome some of those possible objections.

SECOND, consider using social proof.

Make the customer feel absolutely sure about their purchase by including user-generated content such as product star ratings and customer testimonials. 

If they have hesitations due to customer service or product quality, this can help overcome them.

THIRD, convey a sense of urgency: 

Remind customers that products may not last long. 

Verbiage like, “Get them before they’re gone,” or “It’s not too late” can have a big impact on conversion rate.  

By combining these elements with standard cart content like product name, image, and price, you’ll have messages that reinforce why people should shop, you’ll build consumer confidence, engage their purchase emotions, and feed into their intent.  

Thanks for tuning in to this episode of our marketing tips series. Feel free to let me know if you have any questions and be sure to check out Omnisend and let us prove how we can help you double your conversions. 

Until next time, happy marketing!

Welcome to another episode of Omnisend’s daily tip series, where in roughly 3 minutes or less we’ll give you actionable tips on ways to improve your email & SMS marketing program and make you better marketers. 

This week, I talked about creating a welcome series that ignores outdated best practices and instead focuses on a new subscriber’s purchase intent. Let’s do a quick recap of the week. 

• Create a check to ensure the welcome series is being sent to new subscribers who have not recently purchased. Avoid sending the series to those who opted-in during the checkout process. All purchasers should be directed toward a post-purchase series.
• Create a personalized welcome series based on click-activity within the welcome message. These messages can be tailored to the specific categories of products that the new subscriber is showing interest in. After all, you don’t need to be sending anniversary and earring messages to those shopping for engagement rings.  
• Add text messages to your welcome series for your SMS subscribers and include it in the same workflow as your email series. SMS is a must-have channel and will allow would-be shoppers to return to your store via their preferred channel.
• Create as many messages as is necessary to introduce your products and build consumer confidence — For most brands, this will be 3 or 4 messages.
• Finally, send the welcome message immediately and the remainder of your series on consecutive days. 

We covered a lot this week, but over time, combining this week’s tips with last week’s will have your welcome series generating increased revenues faster than you can say sally sells seashells by the seashore 5 times real fast. 

Or something like that 

I’d love to see your welcome series, so be sure to share them with me on Twitter or Linkedin — or just let me know your brand name and I’ll sign up for them myself — and yes, I will click on them :) 

Thanks for tuning in to this episode of our marketing tips series, Feel free to let me know if you have any questions. I’ll see you next time. Until then, happy marketing!

Welcome to another episode of Omnisend’s daily tip series, where in roughly 3 minutes or less we’ll give you actionable tips on ways to improve your email & SMS marketing program and make you better marketers. 

Yesterday I talked about the importance of adding SMS to your welcome series. Today, let’s discuss the number of messages in your series and the timing of those messages.

FIRST, let’s talk about the number of messages. Have as many as needed to build consumer confidence and help guide their shopping journey. By going back to value-adds, product introductions, intent-driven messaging, and maybe an offer reminder email, my guess is that most brands will end up with either three or four messages. Don’t communicate more than you really need to

SECOND, let’s talk about when to send those messages. 

While there is no hard and fast rule, I direct you back to the topic of intent. If the goal is to guide the customer to purchase, which is their implied intent, wouldn’t it make sense to do that without delay? Here is my advice:

Send message 1 immediately. This is especially important if you offer a discount for signing up. Then send each subsequent message one day apart

Once you start sending, you can monitor your email metrics and see if you need to build in a one-day buffer. Ultimately, looking at your unsubscribe rates will give you an educated answer. 

One word of note: 

While it might be reasonable to expect slightly higher unsubscribe rates for a welcome series, as customers may sign up just to receive a discount or are exploring your brand, a sharp and drastic increase will be your tell-tale sign that you may need to add an “off day” in-between messages. 

Personally, I don’t think you will. 

So there you have it. Create as many messages as is necessary to guide a consumer down their initial path to purchase — likely 3 or 4 — and send one message each day.

It REALLY IS that easy.

Join me tomorrow where we bring it all together and wrap up our welcome series.

Thanks for tuning in to this episode of our marketing tips series, Feel free to let me know if you have any questions. Until next time, happy marketing!

Welcome to another episode of Omnisend’s daily tip series, where in roughly 3 minutes or less we’ll give you actionable tips on ways to improve your email & SMS marketing program and make you better marketers. 

Yesterday we talked about building a targeted, click-based welcome series. Today, let’s discuss the importance of adding SMS to your series. 

Last week I discussed the importance of collecting mobile numbers on your pop-up. Now that you are collecting them, it’s time to put them to use. 

For new subscribers who have chosen to receive text messages from your brand, it’s important to introduce them to your texts just like you do with your emails. Now, you may not need an entire set of text messages like you do with emails, but communicating via SMS IS important.

A great way to start is to send a welcome text just like you do with the welcome email. If you offer an incentive for singing up, provide it in the text as well. This way, if the shopper wants to return to your store later they have access to the promo code and a link via whichever channel they prefer at that time. 

A simple text like, “Welcome to the XYZ community. Here’s 10% off your first order.” may be all that’s needed. If you want to add a visual to the message, otherwise known as MMS — and I would in this case — you can use the same or similar image as in your welcome email.     

The company Black Halo sends an SMS welcome message and generates an earning per message of over $7. It’s all about the right message at the right time via the right channel. 

You may not need to add a text message after each email in your welcome series, but a reminder text after the last message to non-purchasers may be a good way to recapture their interest. 

Now adding SMS to your automated welcome workflow — it’s super easy and takes only a minute or two. But the best part is that all channels are in the same workflow, which makes it even easier to manage. 

Who would have thought adding SMS to your welcome series could be so easy, yet so effective. And that’s good news because in today’s ecom landscape, SMS is a must. More on this later.

Be sure to join me tomorrow where I’ll discuss the number and timing of your welcome messages.

Thanks for tuning in to this episode of our marketing tips series, Feel free to let me know if you have any questions. Until next time, happy marketing!

Welcome to another episode of Omnisend’s daily tip series, where in roughly 3 minutes or less we’ll give you actionable tips on ways to improve your email & SMS marketing program and make you better marketers. 

Yesterday we talked about making sure new, non-purchase email subscribers were the ones receiving the welcome series. Today, let’s continue the personalization theme by going back to the topic of intent. 

Remember last week when I said those traditional manage preference forms in a welcome series were outdated? After all, no one wants to interrupt their shopping journey to fill out forms. Well, if they don’t tell you their preferences, how would you ever know? 

Well, the answer is as old as email marketing itself — the click!

Think about all the things a click can tell you about their interests and intent. Did they click on the “men’s” or “women’s” product link? Did they click on earrings or engagement rings — kind of a big difference. Or maybe they clicked on the “gifts for her” link? What matters here is that each click tells you something about the shopper’s intent.

This type of user behavior is the modern-day preference center. You can use THIS information to determine the next messages the subscriber will receive. 

For instance, if they clicked on men’s shoes in the welcome message, make messages 2 and 3 focus on top-rated or customer-favorite men’s shoes along with a helpful sizing guide, and complete with star ratings and testimonials. 

For those engagement ring shoppers, maybe a series about how to choose the right diamond clarity and cut — you know, things that might HELP a shopper :) 

Creating a welcome series based on click activity will provide them with a more relevant and guided customer journey. 

Write down your primary categories of interest — like those in your nav bar — or other important links currently provided in your welcome message and start listing the content needed to make more specific messaging for each click, like top-rated products from that category, customer testimonials, and related education content—if there is any.  

Start with one split at a time and continue building as you go.

Setting up this automation is as easy as creating a couple of very simple segments or a couple of workflow split rules inside of your automated workflow itself. This can take as little as five minutes in the right marketing platform — like Omnisend!

That’s it. A modern-day preference center and welcome series that is focused on the subscribers’ immediate interests!

Tomorrow, I’ll be discussing the importance of SMS inside of a welcome series, so be sure to check back. 

Thanks for tuning in to this episode of our marketing tips series, Feel free to let me know if you have any questions. Until next time, happy marketing!

Welcome everybody to Omnisend’s marketing tip series, where in roughly 3 minutes or less each day, I’ll give you actionable tips on ways to improve your email & SMS marketing program and make you better marketers. 

This week is the second of two all about creating a revenue-driving welcome series, and I am going to focus on deeper, yet easy to execute, personalization tactics.  Today’s Monday, so let’s start out super easy — although, we are going to get a little nuts this week. 

For today, let’s talk about making sure our welcome series is for new email subscribers who are indeed in a purchase-intent mindset.

To do this, we need to check to see if they are a new subscriber AND customer, or just a new subscriber. After all, how many times have YOU signed up for emails during the checkout process? If you’re like me, tons.  

This one is pretty simple but important nonetheless. After all, you don’t want to send someone a message all about reasons they should buy from you moments after they actually bought from you. Instead, these customers should feed into a post-purchase series — that’s a whole other topic :)  

There are several ways to check the new subscriber’s status based on the email provider you’re using — although Omnisend is the best one. It can be a simple segment check within the automated workflow, or workflow rule itself. No matter how you perform the check, just make sure you have one and that you’re sending the welcome series only to new, non-purchase subscribers. 

Tomorrow, we’ll look at how to use your initial welcome message to have subscribers self-segment so that you can deliver a more personalized welcome series. 

Thanks for tuning in to this episode of our marketing tips series, Feel free to let me know if you have any questions. Until next time, happy marketing!

Welcome to another episode of Omnisend’s daily tip series, where in roughly 3 minutes or less we’ll give you actionable tips on ways to improve your email & SMS marketing program and make you better marketers. 

This week, I talked about creating a welcome series that ignores outdated best practices and instead focuses on a new subscriber’s purchase intent. Let’s do a quick recap of the week. 

• When it comes to your welcome series, ditch the traditional best practices of manage preference forms, your life story, and social media invites. Instead, focus on the intent of the new subscriber. In most cases, that intent is to shop. Use your series to influence their purchase.
• Reinforce your value-adds such as free shipping and returns, product quality, satisfaction guarantees, extended return policies, or any other competitive differentiator in each of your messages. This holds true for all messages, not just your welcome series.  
• Introducing top-rated or customer favorite products to your new email subscribers can not only build consumer confidence but also guide them along their purchase journey.   
• Use customer testimonials in your emails — and even in a stand-alone email. Based on the content of the email itself, the testimonials could be about specific products or about the company and value-adds, such as product quality or exceptional customer service.

By doing this, you could have a welcome series that looks like this:

• A welcome message that welcomes the customer, highlights value-adds and introduces the top categories and new arrivals.
• A second message showcasing top-rated categories or products, complete with star ratings — all while reinforcing value-adds.
• A third message using customer testimonials about products and why the company is great to continue building consumer confidence — and, oh yeah, subtly reinforces those value-adds.

As you can see, we covered a lot in one week, but this is just the beginning. Join me next week where we will continue our welcome series discussion. Hey, you didn’t think I could get through it all in one week, did you?

I’d love to see your welcome series, so be sure to share them with me on Twitter or Linkedin — or just let me know your brand name and I’ll sign up for them myself. 

Thanks for tuning in to this episode of our marketing tips series, Feel free to let me know if you have any questions. See you next week. Until then, happy marketing!