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- Email/SMS Flows You Need to Implement
The TL;DR:
Let’s Chat D2C: Building out your Email/SMS Flows!
What I’m Thinking about this Week: Setting Up Your First Business.
The D2Z Podcast: In this week’s episode, I sat down with Sammy Tran, Founder and CEO of BMO Media, a Retention Marketing Agency.
App Updates & Highlights: Rebuy Smart Search.
Upcoming Events: I’m headed to Dallas for SubSummit 6/15-6/18, and then I’m off to LA for Gorgias’ Customer Advisory Day until 6/20!
I partnered with Gorgias to bring you an exclusive tutorial guide on leveraging their new product, Convert, to increase conversions by 15%
I’ve already onboarded 3 brands to Convert, including Sofía Vergara’s beauty brand toty, and the results have been amazing:
Reduced bounce rates
Increased AOV
Personalized and engaging shopping experience
The full bootcamp includes YouTube video tutorials, a comprehensive resource pack, 12-page detailed guide, and a 7-day email series with daily tips and tricks!
Let’s Chat D2C - Building out your Email/SMS Flows
So many brands are missing out on additional customer touchpoints by not having all of the recommended automations/flows/journeys built out properly.
Here’s how I would set up a new account!
Lead Capture
You can’t run an effective email/SMS marketing program without having contacts to send to! There are multiple places you’ll want lead capture implemented:
Welcome pop-up: Create one for desktop and one for mobile. Experiment with different intro offers and gamify the process. Spin-to-win is extremely cheesy, but it ALWAYS outperforms the standard pop-ups.
Exit pop-up: Triggered when the site visitor shows exit intent.
Site footer: These typically generate very few signups but are standard.
Checkout: Make sure Shopify is integrated with your email/SMS platform to send over opted-in contacts.
Post-purchase: Set up a post-purchase flow that targets customers who are ONLY subscribed to email marketing and incentivizes them to sign up for your SMS list.
Flows
Welcome
Trigger: Signed up via one of your pre-purchase lead capture units.
Purpose: To get contacts to make the first purchase!
Length: 5+ emails. After reviewing the results, you can adjust the length of your welcome flow. If your fifth email in the welcome flow has low engagement, drop it, but if it has really strong engagement and orders are still being placed from it, consider extending your welcome flow.
Site Abandonment
Trigger: Visited website
Purpose: To get customers to return to the site and continue browsing.
Length: 1 email with 1 text.
Browse Abandonment
Trigger: Viewed product
Purpose: To get customers to return to the site and add the product they were viewing to their cart.
Length: 1-2 emails with 1 text.
Abandoned Cart
Trigger: Added the product to the cart but didn’t begin checkout.
Purpose: To get customers to return to the site and begin checkout.
Length: 1-2 emails with 1 text.
Abandoned Checkout
Trigger: Began checkout process but didn’t order.
Purpose: To get customers to complete checking out.
Length: 2-3 emails with 1-2 texts.
Post-Purchase
Trigger: Placed an order
Purpose: To welcome first-time customers or thank repeat customers for their continued support.
Length: 2-4 emails with 2-3 texts.
Replenishment
Trigger: Typically 30-60 days after an order
Purpose: Remind customers to restock.
Length: 2-3 emails with 1-2 texts.
Customer Winback
Trigger: Typically 90-120 days without reordering, depending on your product and frequency.
Purpose: To win back customers who didn’t purchase in the replenishment flow with a discount code.
Length: 2-3 emails with 1-2 texts.
Sunset
Trigger: Typically 180 days without any engagement with your program
Purpose: Give your contacts one last chance to engage before you move them into a segment you rarely email except during your biggest sales of the year. Eventually, you’ll remove these contacts altogether before they hurt your deliverability.
Length: 1-2 emails with 1 text.
Conditional Splits in Your Flows
Once you have the above in place, it’s time to expand each flow by layering in conditional and trigger splits. Conditional splits mean you branch contacts down different paths based on data you know about them (i.e., new or repeat customers), and trigger splits mean you branch contacts down different paths based on data passed over in the trigger (i.e., checkout value).
I recommend you create the following conditional splits in EVERY flow:
Never Purchased vs. First-time Customer vs. Repeat Customer
One-shot Customers vs Subscription Customers
For example, you probably want to exclude active subscription customers from receiving too many abandoned checkout emails or replenishment reminders (they’re already on a subscription).
What I’m Thinking About This Week - Setting Up Your First Business
When I started Electriq, it was like drinking from a firehose when it came to learning about all of the government requirements and backend systems I would need in place to run a successful business, so I put together the following list to help all of you budding entrepreneurs fast-track your way to launching your first company!
Choosing a Business Structure:
Decide whether your business will be a sole proprietorship, partnership, corporation, S corporation, or limited liability company (LLC). Talk to a tax advisor to figure out the best structure for you.
Registering Your Business:
Name: Choose a unique and relevant business name.
Federal Registration: Register your business with the appropriate governmental body. In the US, you’ll get a federal EIN (Employer Identification Number).
State Registration: In the US, you’ll have to register in your state of incorporation as well, some requiring you to obtain a registered agent as well, which is a person or entity you have appointed to handle necessary government, tax and legal correspondence about your business. If you have employees, you’ll need to register with the
Domain Registration: If you plan to have an online presence, register a domain name.
Financial Setup:
Bank Account: Open a business bank account.
Accounting System: Set up an accounting system to manage your finances, like Quickbooks.
Paying your Team:
If you hire contractors, you’ll have to issue 1099’s yearly.
If you plan to hire employees, make sure you're familiar with employment laws in the state(s) you are hiring in.
Wherever you have employees, you must be registered with the state.
I recommend using a payroll or employer-of-record platform to make this easier.
Insurance:
Obtain business insurance to protect against various risks.
This Week’s The D2Z Podcast
#110 – Strategic Insights on Lifecycle Marketing
🎧 Listen Now 🎧
In this week’s episode, I sat down with Sammy Tran, Founder and CEO of BMO Media, a Retention Marketing Agency. Specifically, we explored the following:
💰 Extending services beyond email to include SMS, loyalty programs, and direct mail among others
📲 His early experiences at a small ecommerce shop selling cell phone cases were transformative, teaching him the ropes of email marketing
😎 Managing rapid growth—both in terms of team size and client base
🚀 The evolving landscape of digital marketing tools and the trend towards platform consolidation
App Updates & Highlights - Rebuy Smart Search
Rebuy's Smart Search empowers Shopify merchants to enhance their Average Order Value (AOV) and revenue through seamless product discovery. With rapid, precise, and personalized search capabilities, Rebuy smart search integrates robust data analytics for comprehensive insights.
Quick View
Quick View Search dynamically presents products, collections, and additional search terms as the shopper inputs text into the search bar, adapting in real-time to additional input.
Results Page
Customize how your search results appear to shoppers.
Keywords
Establish keyword groups to elevate the shopper experience and enhance product discovery. Keywords allow you to create and oversee custom search terms, incorporate synonyms, highlight products, and much more.
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