Every time a customer buys from you is a significant moment in your business, especially if you’re a newer one just starting. It means someone has taken a look at your brand and trusts you and your product enough to go through with their purchase! Regardless of whether these are new or returning customers, you’ll want to work to create the best possible experience for them once they’ve completed checkout.
What is a post-purchase email?
Any sort of email that you send that’s triggered by a purchase could be considered a post-purchase email. For the most part, these emails typically contain information that the customer would want to know about their shipment, but marketing and promotional emails aren’t uncommon either. Keep in mind that the purpose of these kinds of emails isn’t the same as some of your other flows, like your abandoned cart flow. While those are used to get a customer to complete their purchase, post-purchase emails nurture the relationship between your brand and your customer.
What are some types of post-purchase emails?
In this section, we’ll be listing some examples of post-purchase emails and going over the benefits of each.
Order Confirmation
At this point, customers will always expect some sort of transaction confirmation, and this should be something that you consider implementing if you haven’t already done so. Since you’re just providing your customer with the details of their order, the content of this email is fairly simple. For example, you can provide them with shipping information, a receipt for their purchase, an order number, and contact information for customer support in case they need help with anything. Don’t be afraid of being too concise in your email! Remember that the long-term value an email like this provides them far exceeds any information that you could be relaying to them within the actual email. It gives them peace of mind and helps to build your customer’s trust in your brand.
Shipping Confirmation
Sending customers a shipping confirmation email is just as important as confirming their order. Not only do they want to know that their order went through, but they also want to know how and when they’ll be receiving their product! By providing a way for them to track the status of their shipment, they’ll be more at ease knowing that their package hasn’t gotten lost in transit somehow. Even though the point of the email is to let your customers track the progress of their order, feel free to use this email to incorporate a little bit of your brand voice or to share advice or tips about the product before it arrives.
Delivery Confirmation
It’s not uncommon for customers to be eagerly awaiting the delivery of their package, especially as the estimated delivery date approaches. By setting up delivery confirmation emails to be sent out, you’re able to satisfy their desire to know the instant their package arrives at their doorstep or mailbox. Consider using this email as a follow-up to ask how their package was when it was delivered or if there were any issues upon arrival. By giving your customers a place to express their annoyances easily, if they have any, you’ll be able to minimize the frustrations they would have developed if they thought you were an unresponsive company that didn’t care about them after their purchase. Let them know how much you value their business and that you want their experience with your brand to be as convenient as possible. If on the off chance, there was a problem, you’ll want to be as proactive as possible to help them resolve it.
Customer Appreciation
This is a great way to communicate with your customers just how much you appreciate their loyalty or, if they happen to be first-time customers, their willingness to try out your product. Spend a little time talking about what makes your brand stand out from your competitors and remind them that they made the right decision to purchase from you. If you’d like, you could also offer a discount code for whenever they decide to purchase from you again as a thank-you to them. It takes a lot of time and money to acquire new customers, but it takes much less to retain existing ones with discounts or loyalty programs. Keep each customer’s lifetime value in mind!
Review Request
Whenever a new customer is visiting your website for the first time, they’ll likely want to see reviews from previous customers to see what they have to say about the product they’re looking at. After your product is delivered to your customers and you’ve given them ample time to use it, ask them for a review! Not only will you gather some insights to improve your product, but you’ll also gather real reviews that could help future customers as they browse your site. Not every customer is going to want to go through a survey to give you a review, so reduce the amount of “work” they’ll need to do on their end by limiting the number of clicks that they have to go through and be upfront with them from the start about how long the survey is going to take to finish. Even if a customer doesn’t have good things to say, it’s better that you’re made aware of it because leaving the problem unaddressed could lead to other future customers being turned away from your brand over the same issue without you realizing it.
Post-purchase emails are a great way to nurture the relationship that you have with your customers and are fairly simple to set up. They can boost your engagement and ultimately increase your revenue if you keep the customer’s experience in mind! Hopefully, these examples can help you get started and get your customers even more excited about your brand and the products you offer.