Reengagement: Beyond the Shopping Cart
April 30 2012 by Neil Rosen ~ 1 CommentWhile shopping-cart abandonment is well documented as a powerful driver of revenue for online companies, 95% of email subscribers visiting your website never get to the shopping cart. That is the very definition of leaving a lot of money on the table.
Working with over 50 companies who reengage subscribers who visit their website using email, whether or not these subscribers ever visit the shopping cart, we have seen astounding results.
Website abandonment emails typically make up less than two percent of the total volume of email each of these companies send in a month, and yet these emails deliver over 25% of the total revenue driven in direct response from email.
Two percent of the volume of email sent, 25% of revenue. Less email, more money. Less email, fewer inbox delivery challenges, more money.
How does it work?
Marketers identify their email subscribers as soon as they show up at their website; they keep track of the pages they visit. They also track when these customers leave the website without making a purchase.
Twenty minutes or so after leaving the website, the customer receives an email postcard. The postcard lists current sales and offers. If there is a current discount code, it’s included. If there is a current coupon, it’s included. If there is free shipping, the customer is told of that offer.
And it all links back to the website to make a purchase. It’s as simple as that.
These emails include current offers, coupons, and/or discounts. They never offer elevated promotions which might simply train buyers to leave the website to get the company’s best offers.
The opportunity is enormous. Tracking over 50 companies with website abandonment email programs in place, the results are impressive:
- consistently over 50% open rates
- click-to-open rates over 30 percent
- conversion rates (sales) of anywhere from six to 70 times those of the companies’ regular promotional email campaigns, no matter how well they are targeted
- revenue generated is 25% or more of the total revenue the company drives from all its email campaigns
This is truly low-hanging fruit. Website abandonment email reminders to use a discount code or a coupon or to take advantage of free shipping before the offer expires, delivered to customers at exactly the right moment, while they are still online and thinking about your company, adds a new dimension to customer convenience that is appreciated and drives sales.
Website reengagement is an opportunity to reach out to customers from every page of your website, and to send tailored messages based on specific pages the customer visited on the site. A carefully devised and implemented website abandonment strategy immediately isolates undecided customers, gives them the opportunity to return and make a purchase, and improves the marketer’s ability to gain additional return on investment from regular customers.
And that puts it way beyond the shopping cart!
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