Email Marketing Solutions

How I Worked With A Brand To Curate The Customer’s Journey, Turned One-Time Buyers Into Repeat Buyers, And Increased Customer Ltv.

The first two automated emails flows on the priority list for an ecommerce store are always going to be the Welcome and the Abandoned Cart flows.

That’s because these two flows are typically going to be your highest revenue producing flows and are cornerstones to your email marketing strategy.

But the third automated email flow that you NEED to have set up…

A great post-purchase flow.

Email’s superpower is the ability to convert a first-time buyer into a repeat customer and to build life-long fans.

This starts with the customer’s post-purchase experience.

The better they feel about buying and using your product or service, the higher the chance of them coming back to buy again.

Email is going to play a key role in this. 

I’ve seen brands get it right and the post-purchase journey is on point.

But I’ve also seen brands get it horribly wrong. And even if they have a great product, the email strategy leaves such a bad taste in your mouth that it’s hard to justify purchasing again.

I recently worked with a medium sized brand in the consumables niche to re-work their post purchase flow.

Here are the steps that I went through…

Going Through The Journey As A Customer

I am a firm believer in becoming a customer for brands that you are writing for.

This won’t happen all of the time, but the more that you can put yourself in the shoes of a customer the better copy you’re going to write and the better angles you’re going to come up with.

Walk a mile in their shoes… so to speak.

Best case – actually buy and use the product that you’re working for. Minimum – have the client set up a dummy purchase to send you through the post-purchase journey.

Look at things like…

>>What do the emails look like in your inbox? 

Post purchase emails typically have the highest open rates. Do the current emails have a clear subject line and are easy to identify? 

Most importantly… are they landing in your inbox?

>>Where are the emails coming from?

Are there emails from multiple sources? Shopify, Klaviyo, etc?

How are these emails integrated? Are you getting multiple emails at the same time? 

>>How many emails do you receive on the first day? Within two days?

You don’t want to bombard people with post-purchase emails right away. So if you see 3, 4, or even 5 emails land in your inbox in the first 48 of making a purchase… that needs to be addressed.

>>Does the flow have all of the important touch points?

Confirmation emails, shipping emails, thank you emails, review emails, etc.

All sent at appropriate times? 

Or are there significant touchpoints missing?

The Different Types Of Emails In A Post-Purchase

I just touched on this, but there are almost a dozen different types of email that you can use in a post purchase.

Some of them are going to be standard in EVERY flow that you set up…

• Purchase confirmation
• Shipping 
• Thank you for purchasing

Others are highly recommended…

• Testimonial/Review collection
• Join our Socials

And then you have the revenue generating emails…

• Cross-sales
• Upsells
• Discount for second purchase
• Win-back emails

You could use all of these emails or only some of them.

The emails that you use and when you use them will depend…

How Do You Determine Which Ones To Use?

The emails that you use and when you use them are going to heavily depend on the type of product or service that you are selling.

Are you selling a consumable product that you expect someone to repurchase every 30 days (or sooner?)

Then you’re probably going to utilize a quicker discount email for a second purchase. Maybe upsell into a subscription service.

Or are you selling a bigger ticket item?

Then you’re probably going to delay any discount for a second purchase. Maybe utilize a cross-sale email to market a complimentary product.

How many different platforms are you using to send emails in the post purchase sequence?

Shopify for order confirmation and shipping confirmation?

Klaviyo for thank you emails and upsells?

Another tool like Trustpilot or Yotpo for collecting reviews?

If Trustpilot is sending a review gathering email, then don’t send another one through Klaviyo.

Don’t duplicate where you don’t have to.

Best Cadence For A Post-Purchase

The biggest way to screw up your post purchase flow is to ask for a review or provide a discount for a second purchase BEFORE your customer gets their product in hand.

If it takes you 48 hours to fulfill and ship and order and then another 3-5 days to ship…

Don’t send a review email on day 3.

And don’t send a discount for a second purchase email on day 5.

It’s too soon.

You can get super granular here, or you can keep things basic.

Basic – find the average time between when a customer places an order and when that order arrives on their doorstep.

Build out your post purchase flow following these key timeframes.

Detailed – use conditional splits with your post purchase to account for different shipping methods (expedited vs standard for example).

Build out custom pathways depending on shipping type and distance from your shipping location.

Pro Tip: Assuming you’re using Klaviyo… set up your post-purchase flow to trigger on “Fulfilled Order” not “Placed Order.”

This will trigger your flow to start when the product has been packed and shipped. Use Shopify confirmation emails for the time between placed order and fulfilled order to send your purchase confirmation and shipping confirmation emails.

Biggest key here… use customer data to make sending decisions and build in sufficient time for your customer to receive and use your product before asking for a review or prompting another purchase.

Creating Multiple Pathways

Most high functioning post-purchase flows will have multiple pathways.

One for first time customers.

And one for second time customers.

Maybe a “VIP” flow for anyone who purchases 3 or more times.

When you branch out and differentiate your pathways is up to you.

Here’s what I prefer…

Use Shopify to send every customer the purchase confirmation and shipping confirmation emails.

Then use conditional splits once you start your Klaviyo flows to send personalized thank you messages and special offers to customers at different levels.

The incentive for someone to make their second purchase should be different from the incentive that you’re offering your VIP customers.

As you create different pathways, the number of emails you send should decrease.

Your VIP customers don’t need as many emails after a purchase as your first time customers do.

Make sure you are curating each experience accordingly.

Summary – TL;DR

That’s it. Steps for building out a kick-ass post purchase flow. 

Always make sure to keep testing and optimizing.

>>Go through the journey as a customer

• What do the emails look like in your inbox?
• Where are the emails coming from?
• How many emails do you get in the first day, two days, three days?

>>Multiple different types of emails you can use

• Confirmation email
• Thank you email
• Social group email
• Testimonial email
• And more…

>>Determining which ones to use

• What type of product/service are you selling?
• How long does it take most customers to purchase again?
• Are you trying to convert customers to a subscription model?

>>Best cadence for a post-purchase

• Need an immediate confirmation email
• Thank you email before/right after shipping
• Longer delivery times? Send another email to increase excitement.
• Give time to use and enjoy the product before asking for a testimonial

>>Create multiple pathways

• Everyone needs a confirmation email
• Split following emails between first time, second time, and multiple purchases
• VIP Pathway

What Should YOU do Next?

1. Follow me on LinkedIn for daily email tips and what’s working now
2. Leave a like or a comment on this post to let me know what you thought. What segments would you add?
3. If you need someone to build out a high-performing welcome flow for your brand or business, send me an email at ben@henkenmarketing.com or fill out this form and I’ll be in touch.
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