Email marketing is one of the most cost-efficient ways to advertise your products. Once you put in the effort to grow your list, you should plan regular campaigns to nurture your customers and keep them coming back to your store.
Campaigns aren't the only things you should be working on, though. Automated emails that run on the back-end based on buyer behavior can help things running and make you money while you sleep. Here are some automated emails that you should consider setting up:
Welcome Series (spans 1 week):
You most likely have an incentive for people to join your mailing list. A very common one is to offer a discount code that's eligible for the customer's first order. Even if you don't offer a discount code, you may invite site visitors to join your mailing list for store updates. Regardless, you should have a plan for how you will welcome these leads and help nurture them. This is a basic rundown of the welcome series I use:
- Immediately after sign-up: welcome them to the list/brand; give them discount code (if applicable); highlight some trending products.
- 48 hours later: build trust with social proof by inviting them to follow on IG and other platforms and sharing more about your community.
- 48 hours later: find an emotional connection when you share the story of why the brand exists and who it serves; where and how are your products are made; any special brand values or mission.
- 48 hours later: if they haven't made their first purchase yet, remind them of the discount code.
Abandoned Cart and Checkout (spans 1 week):
This is pretty self-explanatory. Whenever a customer leaves products in their cart or at checkout they should be receiving an email reminder to bring them back to your store.
Ideally, this should not be a one-and-done email. Your customer may not complete the purchase after the first reminder, so it is important for you to keep reminding them - without being annoying, of course. Nobody likes a pushy salesperson.
Here is a rundown of how I like to set up automated abandoned series for my clients:
- 10 hours after abandonment: light-hearted email to remind them of the products they left at checkout/cart.
- 24 hours later: an attempt to overcome doubt. Invite them to contact you with any questions; invite them to check out reviews/feedback on your Instagram or on the product pages if you have reviews there. You could also mention the secure payment options you have or if they have the option to buy now and pay later.
- 36 hours later: communicate urgency: highlight any benefits like free shipping and communicate urgency using limited stock call outs.
- 72 hours later: send a final reminder and incentivize them to act now with limited-time-only discount that expires in the next 24 hours.
NOTE: create these as two separate series. One for cart and one for checkout
Thank You and Upsell (spans 2 days):
Shopify will automatically send your customer a confirmation email after their order is marked as "paid". This is good to let them know that you have received it and everything went through ok. You could leave it there, but I have found some success by taking it a step further and implementing a Thank You/Upsell series for my clients:
- 15 Minutes after payment is confirmed: thank them for their support; tell them to check all folders for the automated confirmation email; invite them to send any questions or notes; advise on current processing times.
- 24 hours later: an attempt to overcome doubt. Tell them you're getting the order ready; suggest other products they can order and bundle shipping together; give them a discount that expires in 24 hours to incentivize them to make another order.
NOTE: You can find an endless list of email marketing tools to integrate with Shopify. My favorite to use, however, is Shopify Email. It was created by Shopify themselves and it is my go-to for all my clients. You can find it by searching the app store.
There are a lot more automated emails that you can set up for your online store. As always, I like to keep things simple for you because I know you have a lot going on in your business. Feel free to use the outlines that I laid out but with your brand tone/voice. Play around with the timelines too. Nothing is set in stone.
Need some help with setting up your email flows? Check out my services and see how I can help.