Picture this: You’ve started to collect e-mails on your site and have built up a good amount of volume. You want to send out a promotional newsletter, but don’t know how to start communicating with all those customer contacts. You should consider creating an email Welcome Series.
Most retailers set up a triggered Welcome Series for when a customer signs up for an e-mail list. It’s a way to ease the customer into getting to know you as a retailer, and a chance for you to introduce all you have to offer. Before you set up a Welcome Series, there are 3 key processes you should think about first: Segmentation, Cadence, and Content.
1. Segmentation
You’ll want to give a unique message to different groups of users. This will show them the most relevant content and promotions to maximize their engagement with your e-mails.
> Life cycle – How Well Do They Know You And Your Store?
- New customers: users who have checked out on your site for the first time
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Leads: users who signed up for e-mail to learn more or because of an incentive
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Existing customers: users who you know have shopped in your store before
> Species – What Types Of Products And Categories Are They Interested In?
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Dog: Use dynamic content to show products like leashes and crates or wee pads to users who you know own dogs.
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Cat: Use dynamic content to show products like litter or variety packs to users who you know own cats.
2. Cadence
Don’t underestimate how quickly users can make their second purchase. Our research shows that users are most active in an email list within the first 30 days of their first purchase. Keep these users engaged without blasting them and risking unsubscribes. Be sure to show relevant content that is not overly promotional.
3. Content:
This is the first impression users will have of your brand after visiting your site. Think about what key messages you want to get across and how you can organize them so that no one email is overloaded with content. Rank the most important messages, and determine the order in which you want to tell your story to users.
4. Merchandising
Merchandising is important for any retailer, especially for ones with thousands of SKUs and brands. Think about what product categories your typical users would like to see. Product and category recommendations are a great thing to integrate into a welcome series! There are many plugins in your e-commerce platform’s App Store designed to add this feature.
5. Social Reinforcement
Social reinforcement can go a long way when a user is interacting with you for the first time. Do you have testimonials, certifications, or other proof that your store is a great place to shop? You’ll want to make sure that new customers are aware of the great services you can offer during their shopping experience. What benefits do you give to discovery shoppers? Do you host in-store events? What are your customer service contact details?
Your welcome series is also a great place to make customers aware of things like adoption events, any cause marketing campaigns you have, Refer a Friend Programs, Loyalty Programs, and the services you offer in-store like grooming, training, day care, etc…
6. Engagement
Customers won’t always be looking to shop with you, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t communicate with them during periods between their purchases. Engage users further with your brand by introducing them to your blog or social media channels.
7. Planning Your Promotions
Keep promotions on the lighter side so that you can capture the low hanging fruit. If you segment your promotional e-mails based on a customer’s activity, you’ll be able to activate inactive users with steeper promos later.
We hope this helps you improve your online marketing tactics. Please keep up with this blog for more business tips and tricks!
To learn more about email marketing, read our post Introduction To Email Marketing.