A few years ago, when I was still living in the San Francisco Bay Area. My girlfriend (now wife), Tracy, flew over to visit me.
I wanted to plan something special.
Something besides the touristy Pier 39.
Then…
I had an idea.
Tracy’s favorite fruit in the world is… Cherry!
It was early June—the cherry-picking season.
So… one sunny day, I took Tracy on a road trip to Brentwood.
When we arrived, we realized one problem. The cherry-picking season is from mid-May to early June. We were at the end of the season.
This means all the low-hanging fruit was gone.
We had to borrow ladders to hit the high bushes.
(luckily, Tracy still LOVED the trip)
The reason I’m saying this is because…
It’s the same for email marketing.
You start with the low-hanging fruits:
Cart/Checkout Abandonment Flow
The concept is simple.
Almost 70% of shoppers abandon their carts.
This means…
If all we do is “remind people to finish their order”… and we capture 10% of these people… we can potentially increase 7% of conversion.
That is HUGE.
But here’s what I do differently –
When setting up abandonment flows…
Most brands go straight to the “discount code.”
“WHY???!!?! You didn’t buy?! Here’s a 5%, 10%, 15%, 5000% discount code. PLEASSSSE buy? 🙇🙇🙇🙇🙇”
Needy.
I get it.
You want more sales.
But what’s the point when you sacrifice all your margin… and ruin your brand positioning?
Stop it with the cheap discount code.
There is a place and time for discounts… but not now.
Remember, we are talking about “ready to buy” customers who got distracted for a split second. All you have to do is…
*nudge*
“Hey, did you forget this? I kept it for you in your cart.”
(repeat 3 to 4 times—1 day apart)
💰💰💰
**Lesson for business owner**
If you don’t have any flows yet… start with cart/checkout abandonment. But be careful…
If an email marketer wants to add a discount code immediately…
Time to rethink who to hire.
Because it’s easy to make short-term sales by slapping some discount in the face of red, hot, ready-to-buy prospects. Yet –
This turns your brand into a needy discount store and destroys your positioning to sell at full price in the future.
To be continued…
– WYH