We recently discussed how to avoid the most common blunders in email marketing. This week, we’ll discuss now to boost your revenues through the use of cart abandonment messages to your customers.
Why Send Cart Abandonment Messages?
Online shoppers abandon their shopping cards for a number of reasons. Maybe they get distracted by another website, maybe the site times out, or maybe they just get distracted by a video on YouTube. Either way, there are a number of steps you can take to make sure they don’t forget about those products they were thinking about purchasing.
Send a follow-up email.
When a potential customer last abandoned her basket and navigated away from your site, a follow-up email makes sure they remember the products they were looking at. It’s important to make it easy for them to jump straight back into the buying process.
Timing is particularly important here. You don’t want to send a reminder too early and risk annoying the prospect. You also don’t want to leave it too long that they have forgotten all about your products. It’s all about finding the perfect medium. Industry experts have recommended sending a follow-up email within 24 hours of their visit to your site, but a/b testing on your own campaigns will help you to identify what works best for you.
Remind shoppers about the products they’ve abandoned.
It may seem obvious, but when you send the aforementioned follow-up email, be sure to make clear the intention of the message and refer to the actual products left in the cart. Including an image, price and description of each product helps to jog their memory.
Give customers a reason to come back.
Reminder emails can sometimes get ignored by customers. If you fail to provoke a response with your follow-up message, it is possible to reengage their interest by suggesting other similar products. Another effective strategy is to provide them with a coupon that can be used with the purchase.
