Aaaaand breathe. You did it. 

Hello Helloo amazing marketers!

Yay, another great BFCM done! 🎉 Bet you're still buzzing with orders. But guess what? The next two weeks? Easy street.

Now, you've got all these new customers. What's next? Once the orders are sorted, how do you keep them coming back?

I've got some awesome tips for you. They'll help you handle what happens after the sale. Also, check out Amazon Q—it's like your business sidekick but AI, powered by smart tech. Plus, we're talking about sustainability, AI, and how marketing is changing.

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8 Advanced Post-Purchase Workflows (That Will Help You Build Loyalty) 💪

Amazon launches Q, an AI-powered chatbot for work 🚀

Sustainability, AI, and the changing face of marketing 🌐

📰 Top Reads - Real-time news right for you. 📰

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8 Advanced Post-Purchase Workflows (That Will Help You Build Loyalty) 💪

In the cut-throat world of e-commerce, it's tempting to prioritize snatching customers from competitors over nurturing existing relationships. Surprisingly, only one in five e-commerce professionals allocate a dedicated budget to customer retention, with a majority favoring acquisition. Yet, it's not an either-or scenario; you can excel at both.

Investing time and budget in retaining customers is paramount. Gorgias' research highlights that repeat buyers, constituting just over a fifth of an average e-commerce brand's customer base, contribute 44% of revenue and 46% of total orders. 

To enhance retention, initiating a post-purchase email workflow is a strategic move. This not only sets expectations early but guides customers toward becoming loyal repeat shoppers.

And the perks of customer loyalty are substantial. Zendesk reports that 52% of consumers actively seek their favorite brands, while Yotpo reveals that 56% of loyal customers willingly spend more, even when cheaper alternatives exist. 🛍️✉️

So, let's agree: prioritizing retention is key, and advanced post-purchase workflows are a potent tool to transform first-time buyers into devoted repeat customers. 

Now, envision what an advanced post-purchase e-commerce email workflow might entail… 🚀📧

Try This 8-Touch Advanced Post-Purchase Workflow for E-commerce (That Builds Loyalty)

Email #1: Order Confirmation Emails

Order confirmations are the crown jewels of the transactional email world, with impressive average open rates of 58+ percent.

Clearly, they’re not predominantly a marketing email. Customers expect order confirmation emails to contain important information like:

• The product(s) they ordered

• The order price

• The shipping method and the address

But provided you give them all those essentials, there’s nothing to stop you from adding a little flair to your order confirmations.

In my first example, razor subscription company Estrid makes the customer feel good about their purchase by explaining that a portion of the sale goes to the brand’s charity partners:

What better way to guard against buyer’s remorse than telling customers that their actions will help support a good cause or two?

Email #2: Shipping Confirmation Emails

Customers anxiously await shipping confirmation after a seamless purchase. Leverage high open rates of transactional emails like Glossier, sparking excitement with an effective copy to boost marketing efforts.

Email #3: Delivery Confirmation Emails

Transactional emails confirm successful delivery and offer a chance for issue reporting. Utilize them, as shown by Bloom & Wild, to set expectations and reduce support queries. Transitioning to the marketing email sequence, focus on delighting customers for reviews, recommendations, and additional purchases.

These emails are all about delighting the customer by providing tons of added value and (hopefully) encouraging them to:

• Write a review

• Recommend you to friends and family

• Buy more stuff

Email #4: Send a Thank You Email

Think of thank you emails as a halfway house between transactional and marketing emails.

On one hand, they provide the type of basic info you’d expect from a transactional email, such as a brief summary of the customer’s purchase.

Canadian pet supplies retailer Homes Alive shows us how that looks:

But this isn’t just another transactional email, because it also shares a little of Homes Alive’s brand story — kind of like you’d get in a welcome email:

Image source

Email #5: Request a Product Review 

Leverage the importance of online reviews, especially for unfamiliar brands, as 93% of consumers read them before purchasing. Timing is crucial—ask for reviews just after product delivery when customers are excited. Remind them of product benefits to ease the review-writing process. Example: Evergreen applauds customers for prioritizing health with its organic wheatgrass juice, encouraging them to share their journey.

Email #6: Share Additional Product Info

Consumers form quick judgments, taking just 50 milliseconds to assess a website's visual appeal. Swift decision-making influences recommendations and repeat purchases. Providing supplementary information, like Rooted's infographic on unboxing plants, enhances customer experience and prevents negative perceptions.

Email #7: Promote an Upsell or Cross-Sell Offer

Timing is crucial in email marketing to avoid being perceived as pushy. Wait until late in the post-purchase workflow for upsell or cross-sell promotions. Relevance is key, as three-quarters of consumers expect brands to understand their unique needs. Follow Ten Thousand's example by encouraging customers to enhance their order with complementary products. Increase conversions by combining upsell and cross-sell emails with a limited-time offer for additional purchases within 24 hours.

Email #8: Ask for a Referral

Referrals can be an invaluable source of revenue, with one study revealing that customers referred by other customers:

• Generate higher profit margins

• Display more brand loyalty 

• Show a higher customer lifetime value

Build customer comfort through brand familiarity, timely upsells, valuable product information, and reviews to increase the likelihood of referrals. Discounts play a significant role, ranking as the fourth-biggest reason for referrals. Keep referral offers simple, succinct, and attractive, providing customers with a compelling reason to advocate for your brand. For example, Italic's referral email offers a $15 discount for both the referrer and the referred customer.

Amazon launches Q, an AI-powered Chatbot for Work 🚀

Ever wished ChatGPT could find a specific file in your company drive? Answer a question about your product? Find the correct guidelines for a process?

Q, Amazon Web Service’s new AI-powered chatbot, will now let businesses and employees ask questions just like that. Announced yesterday, the chatbot will also let users accomplish other tasks like writing code and generating content.

In addition to connecting with a company’s database, Q will also be able to connect to third-party apps like Slack and Salesforce to help users find answers and create content.

Most importantly, Amazon says Q will not use customer data to train its underlying models.

Amazon Q offers a range of benefits:

Task Efficiency: Engages in conversations to solve problems, generate content, and take action, streamlining tasks like summarizing documents and conducting research.

Business Expertise: Serves as your business and AWS expert, assisting in tasks such as bug resolution, code optimization, and other common functions.

Tailored Interactions: Understands your company information, code, and system, allowing for tailored conversations, problem-solving, content generation, and relevant actions.

Personalization: Adapts interactions based on user roles and permissions, ensuring secure access and respecting existing identities.

Security and Privacy: Built with a focus on security and privacy, meeting stringent enterprise needs for a secure and private environment. 🛡️🔐

Get details on additional features and pricing on Amazon Q’s official page here.

Sustainability, AI, and the Changing Face of Marketing 🌐

Marketing in the era of climate consciousness is not just a job; it's a responsibility. Ted Otte, senior manager at Drawdown Labs, emphasizes the need for every job, including marketing, to contribute to sustainability. Google's marketing teams have embraced this ethos, collaborating with experts from Drawdown Labs to develop a framework for sustainable practices. Now, they are generously open-sourcing their insights to foster industry-wide change and the sharing of best practices.

🌱 Here are some actionable tips from the playbook to help your brand embrace sustainability:

• Promote Sustainable Production Choices: Encourage practices that reduce environmental impact, such as minimizing air travel in your production processes.

• Highlight Eco-Conscious Behaviors: Feature emerging eco-friendly behaviors in your marketing visuals, like plant-based eating or driving electric vehicles. These creative choices contribute to shaping a culture of sustainability.

• Focus on Genuine User Needs: Craft marketing stories that address authentic user needs rather than narratives that might encourage excessive consumption or waste.

• Evaluate Ad Impact Across Channels: Consider the environmental impact of ads throughout their lifecycle— from creation and posting to audience consumption across various channels. Your media plans' channel mix and weightings can significantly influence your brand's carbon footprint.

It's a collective effort to advance sustainable practices in advertising and beyond. Let's continue sharing approaches, learning from one another, and collaborating across the marketing ecosystem.

📰 Top Reads - Real-time news right for you. 📰

Innovative eyewear company pitches wide face sunglasses on CBC’s Dragon’s Den and is offered deal with Michele Romanow ~ 24, November 2023, Globe Newswire

Instacart partners with Peacock to offer streaming content to US subscribers  ~ 29, November 2023, Globe Newswire

Sofiprotéol buys stake in France’s Martin-Pouret ~ 24, November 2023, Just Food

Scoop: Juice maker Suja Life has been exploring sale  ~ 22, November 2023, Axis Pro

AWS Announces Amazon Q to Reimagine the Future of Work ~ 28, November 2023, Amazon

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Phew! That was a lot, right? But hey, knowledge is power🌟. We hope this edition gave you some insights and maybe even cleared up a few doubts.

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