You always hear that customer reviews are important for businesses, but this doesn’t necessarily mean anything unless you see the data proving its importance. So we’ve gathered the data.

A Canvas8 and Trustpilot study tells us that nine out of ten (90%) consumers read online reviews before making a purchase. 33% (that’s one-third) of US consumers look to product reviews to find out information about products, second only to a Google search. And 62% (almost two-thirds) of US shoppers state that online reviews are very helpful in making purchase decisions.

The fact of the matter is this: If a potential customer is looking at two products—yours versus a competitor’s—and you have no product reviews but your competitor has several, they’re going to go with your competitor.

This is because customer reviews have become an online word-of-mouth marketing staple. They act as an endorsement, even if it’s not from a close friend or family member.

Throughout this article, we’re going to discuss how brands can utilize the customer reviews they’re already getting to increase their word-of-mouth marketing and bring even more customers in through the door.

Why are reviews and testimonials important

Likes, shares, and rating stars are great, but they’re not always enough to trigger action from potential customers. Viewers want to know the good and the bad about your product. (And even if you say there’s no bad, there might be for some customers.)

Reviews and testimonials build trust in consumers—just like how referrals are dependent on trust between the advocate and whoever they’re referring the product to. Furthermore, customer reviews are a great form of social proof, proving to interested shoppers that your product is worth buying.

All in all, reviews and testimonials sell your products. A Bazaarvoice study found that just a single review can increase purchases by 10%. So if you want to build a successful business and convince your audience to buy your products with little to no marketing, you need to get more reviews.

5 ways to amplify word-of-mouth marketing with customer reviews

Organic word-of-mouth marketing occurs authentically when someone genuinely loves a product so much that they tell people they know about it. This is useful because 92% of consumers state they trust word-of-mouth recommendations over advertising.

Amplified word-of-mouth marketing is when a brand takes existing WOM content and reviews and turns them into a marketing campaign so that more potential customers see it.

So we want to talk more about how to amplify your word-of-mouth marketing content as a way to help customers feel better about buying your product—even if they’re doing so due to advertising.

Here are five ways to start amplifying your word-of-mouth marketing to reach even more of your audience.

Get your customers to talk about the pros and cons of your product

There’s nothing wrong with asking for reviews. But it’s better if you can offer guidance to your customer on how they can easily leave a review. 

Only 8-10% of consumers nearly always leave a review, with close to half of shoppers saying they sometimes leave reviews of a product. This means that the vast majority of your customers aren’t well-versed on the best way to review a product.

So if you offer some sort of guidance as you ask for the review, this can increase the number of reviews you end up getting altogether. One great way to do this is by having your customers lay out the pros and cons of your product in their review. It provides them with a format—but it provides you with a great marketing message to use to amplify said review.

Turn your review responses into an opportunity to showcase how much you care about your customers

Your customer expects you to respond when they leave a review or feedback on your products, especially if they’re having a negative experience. Using your responses to (a) turn around the issue, and (b) showcase the level of care you have for your customers is a great way to make people feel better about working with your business.

Let’s take a look at these Twitter responses from luxury suitcase company Away. Their social support team does a great job of responding to questions, concerns, and other mentions in a way that shows they genuinely care about their customers.

This level of customer service then earns the company accolades like the following:

Tweets—and responses—like these are the perfect content to then share on other social platforms. Away could take a screenshot of these conversations and use them to create an Instagram or Facebook graphic as a way to prove to potential customers the level of care they can expect from the company.

Create animated or video testimonials to share on social media

Show off your positive reviews by sharing them on your social media channels. You can do so with a basic graphic like the one we see below:

Or you can go a step further and create a video testimonial or animated graphic (gifs) that grabs attention and share even more information about your customers’ positive feedback.

Video testimonials can be recordings of real-life customers talking about their experiences, or you can simply use a written review and turn it into an animation. This is a creative way to amplify your customer reviews and help more people feel comfortable and excited about buying from your brand.

Incentivize customers to leave a review

If you’re going to be building up a word-of-mouth strategy that leverages customer reviews, you’re going to need a lot of customer reviews. So one of the first things you’re going to want to figure out is how to increase the number of reviews you’re getting.

And one great way to do this is by incentivizing your customers to leave a review after they make a purchase. Offer a 15% off discount code, put their name into a hat for a free product giveaway, or something else that will entice more customers to review your products. This way, you have even more content to work with in your amplification strategy.

Build a referral program

Building a referral program allows existing happy customers to receive compensation for referring others to your products. 

Referral programs can vary in how they work, but for the most part, you’ll provide a custom link to customers who apply for your program. They’ll then share that link with their friends and family, and if anyone makes a purchase, the original customer will receive a portion of their purchase.

You’ll be able to provide guidelines for your referrers, but one great way to get the most out of a referral link—both for the customer and for your brand—is to share a review online alongside their link, letting viewers know they’re getting a cut of the purchase.

This helps get the word out about your brand while still providing an incentive for your existing customers.

5 brands that leverage customer reviews to build their word-of-mouth marketing

Want to see more ways to leverage customer reviews and increase social proof and referrals to your business? We’ve put together five awesome, real-life examples to give you even more inspiration for how to use your customer reviews to bring in even more customers.

LAY LO

LAY LO is an ecommerce dog bed brand with several styles to choose from to keep your pups comfortable and fashionable. Their homepage is structured with a great flow, seamlessly moving customers down the page.

And one great piece of formatting they included has to do with their customer reviews.

As we scroll through their website, we come across this full-screen widget that shows us a slider full of happy pups and five-star reviews.

If you scroll one more full-screen down, you’ll see even more perks—including their 500+ 5-star reviews boast—along with a link to their referral program.

Not only does this show new website visitors that LAY LO’s products are well-loved, but it also includes a call-to-action for existing customers to invite their friends to make a purchase—with $20 off for both of them.

Almost every single page of your ecommerce website should include some allusion to your customer reviews. And if you’re able to create a seamless flow that also highlights your referral program, it’s all the better.

A Box of Stories

A Box of Stories is a mystery book box subscription where the company curates a box of four surprise books—some are a complete mystery while others are based on a specified genre.

On their homepage, they’ve also included a slider of reviews, although these aren’t exclusively five-star reviews. Of course, as a brand, you only want to showcase your top reviews, but being transparent about your four- and three-star reviews helps build even more trust.

With a button below to view even more reviews, A Box of Stories makes it easy for interested customers to see what even more people are saying—even the bad reviews.

Again, plaster reviews all over your ecommerce site. Make them as accessible as possible because seeing honest feedback from past customers is a proven way to get more people to make a purchase.

Edloe Finch

Edloe Finch is a boutique online furniture store that ensures their customers feel as confident as possible when making a purchase. They do this by providing as much customer feedback as they can on every single product page.

Let’s say you’re looking to buy a brown leather chair, but you want to see what it would actually look like in your room, rather than their professional product photos.

As you scroll down, you’re greeted with a compilation of user-generated photos that show off real-life customer photos that match the product page you’re on. So you’re able to see authentic photos of the piece of furniture in an actual person’s home.

This can help customers make sure the product looks like how it’s supposed to look and make sure it would match their existing decor.

Then, as users continue to scroll, they’re able to see reviews of a variety of Edloe Finch products, further proving that customers are satisfied with their purchases.

Ritual

Vitamin company Ritual amplifies their word-of-mouth marketing by strategically placing customer video testimonials right on their homepage. As a health-related company, they made sure that they’re not only including customers but medical experts as well to further help customers feel secure in their purchase.

Website visitors can scroll through the videos and watch the ones that are in the medical field or that work in a similar role/industry to see what the feedback is and if it could fit well in their own lives.

DayDesigner

DayDesigner is a yearly planner company that included a Reviews page right in the footer of their website. This page gathers all their website reviews into a single widget, making it easy for potential buyers to sort through and see what past customers have said.

However, one of the best features of their review widget is the ability for reviewers to “recommend” the product or not. And the widget collects those responses to provide viewers with a single statistic at the top of the page: “96% of reviewers would recommend these products to a friend.”

This is a great way to use data to prove how much your customers love your product. The only thing better would be to further amplify this number on social media or other parts of the website.

Start leveraging your customer reviews

Reviews create social proof by showing potential consumers the sentiments towards your brand and products. Word-of-mouth marketing—like referrals—reinforces this social proof, creating that extra layer of trust as potential consumers can see that many others also love this brand.

Work on getting more product reviews so you have even more reviews to amplify and even more ammo for bringing new customers in through the door.

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One of the most daunting parts of running a marketing agency can be the work to generate new clients. What if you’re not able to keep up with client acquisition? What if you’re not bringing in enough and the agency goes under?

All reasonable questions, but we’re here to quell those fears. Yes, customer acquisition is crucial for agencies—we’ll discuss this more in just a moment—but it doesn’t have to be difficult.

Throughout this article, we’re going to cover eight essential strategies to help get more clients for your marketing or ecommerce agency in 2022. Let’s dig in.

Why customer acquisition is crucial for agencies

According to HubSpot’s 2018 Agency Growth Research Report, 60% of agencies report that finding new clients is one of their biggest pain points.

And it’s hard. We’re not going to sugarcoat it. However, with a proper client acquisition strategy—and by employing several of the tactics we cover below—you can start to feel more comfortable about consistently bringing in new clients.

As a part of your client acquisition strategy, you also need to consider the best type of clients to bring in: project-based versus retainer.

Project-based clients come to you for a single project (like website design, marketing strategy creation, rebrand, etc.), whereas retainer clients sign a contract with you and pay you a set rate each month for consistent deliverables.

At first glance, it seems like retainer clients are the best type to get because they tend to remain with your agency longer. However, retainers could always be canceled or renegotiated.

So having a healthy top-of-the-funnel ensures that you always have new leads coming in the pipeline, ensuring you have a solid number of project-based clients and retainer clients at the same time, diversifying your client portfolio and helping keep your agency afloat.

Now let’s get into the important part: the eight best ways you can go about finding more agency clients and consistently closing sales.

8 ways to get more agency clients in 2022

Client generation is the backbone of any agency, so having processes in place that consistently bring new leads in through the door is key. Let’s go over a few of these different processes and ideas you might consider setting up to get more agency clients this year.

1. Building your online presence

It’s the universal rule: it’s easier to market anyone else’s company before your own. However, as an agency, you still need to create your own marketing strategy and stay active on social media. This helps to expand your online reach and brand awareness.

A few tactics to include within your agency marketing strategy are:

• Social media marketing: With an emphasis on platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn
• Content marketing: Use your website and blog to create SEO content that ranks and increases your reach
• Email marketing: Grow an email list of potential clients and nurture them through educational content

To ensure your agency’s marketing remains consistent, employ a dedicated marketing manager that focuses heavily on your own strategy. Having a consistent online presence helps potential clients know (a) you’re still in business and (b) you practice what you preach.

Plus, through a combined effort of social media, content, and email marketing, you should be able to generate a consistent flow of new leads.

2. Cold outreach

Cold outreach—whether via email, phone, or social media—is no one’s favorite. But it’s effective. In fact, according to LinkedIn’s 2020 State of Sales Report, 39% of sales professionals plan to leverage more cold outreach for their sales strategy.

Cold calling can be an effective way to reach out to local business owners, but the majority of your cold outreach will likely be through email and social media sites like LinkedIn. We’re going to discuss LinkedIn and its lead generation prowess in more depth shortly, but for now, we’ll focus exclusively on how to use it for cold outreach.

Your first step is to identify a list of people you want to reach out to. Research brands that appear like they could use your agency’s help, or put together a list of companies within a similar industry—bonus points if it’s an industry that your agency has proven results in.

Next, you’ll want to put your outreach email together. A good formula for a professional email is:

• Salutation
• Personalized introduction
• Your pitch/ask
• The evidence/results
• Sign-off

Here’s a great template from HubSpot that can help you put together a cold email or LinkedIn message that gets responses:

Subject: 10x [prospect's company's] traction in 10 minutes

Hello [Prospect Name],

I have an idea that I can explain in 10 minutes that can get [company] its next 100 best customers.

I recently used this idea to help our client [SaaS company/competitor] almost triple their monthly run rate.

[First name], let's schedule a quick 10-minute call so I can share the idea with you. When works best for you?

-[Name]

f you plan to conduct your outreach via email, you can use a site like RocketReach or Hunter to help you find contact information. Or you can do a quick LinkedIn search and send your outreach message alongside your connection request or right after they accept your request.

3. Lead magnets

A lead magnet is a piece of valuable, educational, or otherwise useful content that your agency creates and distributes in exchange for an email address. These are helpful for lead generation and building a pipeline of potential clients you can nurture through outreach and email marketing.

A few lead magnet ideas include:

• Ebooks
• White papers
• Checklists
• Cheatsheets
• Swipe files
• Reports

For example, with over 6000 apps in the Shopify app store, it can be difficult to evaluate and pick the best apps to power an online store’s tech stack. This ebook from Alloy Automation teaches readers how to choose the right tools to scale the business with valuable insights from major industry players.

You can also create content upgrades that are additions to your blog content as another way to generate more leads.

Include a signup form alongside your lead magnet with all the information you prefer to gather from leads, like their name, email address, and maybe even their phone number and company information.

Here’s an example from the LinkedIn State of Sales 2020 Report referenced earlier:

Gathering all of this information upfront helps you to qualify your leads before wasting any time reaching out to them. And it’s a great way to fill up your pipeline full of sales-ready leads.

4. Build links

Link-building is a great way to build up your website’s authority, making it easier for you to rank for difficult keywords and making it easier for companies to find your agency. And isn’t it always so much nicer when leads come to you rather than you having to reach out to them?

However, there are good link-building tactics and there are sketchy link-building tactics. Some of these tactics to avoid are paying for links (which includes offering discounts or free products in exchange for a link) and spamming backlinks in online forums like Quora and Reddit.

A few link-building tactics that we recommend help build links much more organically and help position your agency as a well-respected thought leader in the industry.

Try these:

• Use HARO (Help A Reporter Out) or Help a B2B Writer to get notifications when a writer or journalist is looking for quotes or experiences about a topic you have in-depth knowledge in. If the reporter chooses to include your quote, you can get a mention by name and a link back to your website.
• Reach out to marketing companies to guest post for their website. Most sites allow guest writers to include a link back to their website in their author bio.
• Create original data/research, like the reports linked earlier. Because you’ve found real data and numbers, many writers and content marketers will reference and link to your study/survey from their website’s blog.
• Put together a high-quality content marketing strategy. The more content you create—and the better that content is—the more likely it is that other content marketers will link to it as an additional resource for their readers.
• Stay active in online communities (i.e., LinkedIn groups, Facebook groups, Slack communities) in your industry as many writers will go to those spaces to get insight and quotes for their articles, giving you yet another way to get a link back to your website.

5. Referrals

Your customers are your best advocates, so why not use that to your advantage? If you have a happy client, offer them some sort of incentive to refer you to anyone in their network who also needs an agency.

The incentive could be something like X% or $X off their next project or next month’s retainer. It could be a cash gift. Or it could be a physical gift, like an iPad or a TV.

Check out some examples of B2B referral programs to get an idea of how you can put yours together. Enlisting the help of past clients is a great way for new clients to feel good about working with you.

Moreover, recommendations can also come from your partners whom you have close partnerships with. It’s always a two-way street.

6. Online communities and directories

Another great way to get more agency clients is through online communities and agency directories. Online communities like Facebook groups and Slack communities can be a great place to interact with potential leads and offer up your services if anyone is looking for them.

For example, if you run a web design and development agency, joining and having an active presence in groups related to website creation, conversion rate optimization, lead generation, and even general marketing is a smart way to find new leads. 

Check-in on these communities daily to see if anyone has a question you can answer. You want to start simply by offering advice. If they ask for additional help, you now have the perfect opportunity to position your agency and its services as the solution.

In another vein, you can also check out online agency directories in an attempt to get your own agency listed. Some examples are:

• Klaviyo Agency Partner Directory
• Credo
• BrightLocal
• DesignRush

Getting listed in a directory can be a great way to get free leads. Be sure to fill out your entire profile so interested parties can see if your agency will be a good fit for them or not.

7. LinkedIn

We’ve talked about LinkedIn a bit when it comes to social media marketing and cold outreach. But LinkedIn, as a B2B social media platform, is a great tool in itself for expanding your network and finding new clients.

First, consider running LinkedIn ads to help put your agency in front of your target audience. LinkedIn’s ad targeting parameters are perfect for B2B companies looking to target founders and decision-makers.

Next, make sure to keep an active LinkedIn profile regardless of whether you use the platform for cold outreach or not. Consistent LinkedIn posts—and even articles—can help you show up in the feeds of connections who might be looking for an agency.

Here’s an example of an educational post you could emulate in your own LinkedIn strategy:

Repurpose blog content, share lessons learned, hype up current clients, and more. But make sure you stay consistent in your LinkedIn messaging to increase the chances that a potential client finds you.

8. Events

Last, but not least, event marketing is yet another fantastic way to get more agency clients. As an agency, you should always be on the lookout for networking events, trade shows, and conferences to attend.

Check out pricing for event sponsors to see if you can get your own booth. This is a great way to meet potential clients and provide upfront information about your services and how you can help other companies grow.

And as your agency grows, you can even start booking speaking engagements to further showcase your knowledge in your industry, the proven results you’ve gotten for your clients, and other expertise.

Get more agency clients today

Don’t make getting more agency clients more stressful and overwhelming than it needs to be. Create a strategy that helps ensure your team can continue to grow, replacing clients whenever a project or retainer has finished.

Plus, we have one more great tip for you: offer special services that your competitors don’t. For example, by becoming a ReferralCandy Agency Partner, you can provide an easy referral program set up for your clients—all with the help of a ReferralCandy representative.

Having these additional options helps sell your services over a competitor’s, so consider signing up today and adding referral program creation and management to your list of offerings.

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To any ecommerce brand that thinks they've sealed the deal once customers have made their purchase, you’re gravely mistaken. The opportunistic moment after purchase is pivotal, it’s key and it’s what ecommerce brands know they should do something about, but they aren’t exactly sure. The way you handle the post-purchase experience greatly affects whether you become a trusted go-to brand or merely a one-time purchase. 

And to bridge that gap in knowledge of how to create the best post-purchase email campaigns, we’ve spoken to experts who have already done so. Here’s what these experts have to share.

Post-purchase flows should drive retention and brand authority

“After-purchase emails are the best approach to build brand loyalty and customer retention”, says Rohit Arora, Founder, and CEO of Mavenwit. “Since email marketing is becoming a major priority for our customers, post-purchase emails have played a significant role in our email marketing strategy”.

Jean Pascal Charles, Founder of Ecommerce Boost also shared that the best post-purchase campaign they’ve done was for a brand in the pet niche. Said campaign increased the brand’s lifetime value by 600%.

“When our team was planning the structure of the customer’s journey and communication through automated flows, we were conscious of what would drive retention and brand authority; we also had this constantly at the back of our minds when we planned for post-purchase campaigns.”

4 key elements revolved around their post-purchase campaign:

1. To create excitement in customers
2. To address tips and product care
3. To remove buyer’s remorse 
4. To cross-sell other products

“One cool cross-sell that we offered was a subscription which gave customers a discount on their future order, first access to product launch, and exclusive live Q&A access,” said Jean Pascal Charles of Ecommerce Boost. 

Ecommerce Boost’s suggested post-purchase email flow: 

1. Email 1: Thank the customer
2. Email 2: Address FAQs, cross-sell offers, and mention the brand's mission
3. Email 3: Educate with product use cases and helpful blogs
4. Email 4: Request a review, product feedback, and suggestions for improvements
5. Email 5: Cross-sell reminder

Thinking outside the box of the usual post-purchase emails, for Michael Trang, Managing Partner at SKU Agency, the most successful campaign they’ve headed was for a client in the men's grooming industry. The campaign succeeded in the objectives of brand advocacy and customer retention by fusing an influencer campaign into an email campaign and promotion opportunity.

The campaign generated over $25k in revenue across email and SMS. It also had a strong click rate of 4.5% and a conversion rate of nearly 1%. With all things equal, this campaign averaged 2-3x better than the general campaigns for this client. 

“The (ecommerce) brand itself carries a lot of authority but double down on that with the power of a respected influencer and you have a good recipe for success.” - Michael Trang, Managing Partner at SKU Agency

Post-purchase flows should increase the frequency of when a user comes back to make their next purchase

The ideal scenario for any ecommerce operator is to make sure that customers come back to their store wanting more. And that’s what the post-purchase flow is supposed to help with. 

For Ben Zettler, Digital Marketing and Ecommerce Consultant, many clients that he worked with had post-purchase automation to prompt customers to repurchase within a relatively short time from their most recent order. Particularly merchants that sold products with a high repeat purchase rate or a wide product offering.

The post-purchase automation that his team implemented for ecommerce brands usually served 1-2 days after a user's first order. And it provided an offer for a timed fixed-price discount for their next purchase. 

Here were a few key details in their suggested post-purchase flow:

• Offer fixed amount discounts (like $10 off) since they tend to work better compared to percentage discounts (10% off).
• Offers should be based on a minimum purchase threshold just above the average order value (AOV).
• Stick to a 2-week expiry window for the offer, or at most 30-days. But, experiment and test.

Ben shared that the main goal for post-purchase flows was to increase LTV quickly, and this tended to be especially impactful for businesses with high acquisition costs. He suggested that ecommerce operators should think of offers like $10 off $50+ or $20 off $100+, etc. And, just like with welcome automation, serve subsequent messaging to users that have yet to complete a purchase in the lead-up to expiry.

“The goal is generally not to increase AOV, but rather frequency for when a user comes back for the next purchase. For some brands, this tactic has doubled 30-day lifetime value for 5% of customers after making their first purchase.” - Ben Zettler, Digital Marketing and Ecommerce Consultant

Post-purchase flows should nurture new customers to become loyal raving fans

“For some businesses, driving a customer to the purchase line—and driving a conversion—is the ultimate success. But it shouldn’t be.” - Caroline Campbell Marketing Manager and Team Lead at Email Broadcast.

She shares that it’s just as important to follow up with customers after a sale as it is to nurture prospective customers. 

For one of their clients, they’ve created a follow-up campaign in a two-message series. In the first message, they aimed to preemptively answer frequently asked questions about the product purchased—with an added invitation to reach out to customer service to talk to someone live. This reassures the customer, “Hey, you’re not on your own. We know this can be confusing to navigate at first, and we’re here for you.” While the second message requests feedback about the customer’s experience. 

This after-purchase email strategy proved to work well for their customers with the right message at the right time—and they have data to prove it. Of all the messages sent in 2022, the average open rate between the two messages was 69%, which was over 160% higher than their industry average, and the click rates were over 5x the industry average. 

Why was this post-purchase campaign successful? 

It’s the combination of every element in an email being optimized for post-purchase. Here were some tips that Caroline shared:

• Create an email marketing strategy that supports your business goals.
• Know your audience and their behavior, as well as your brand voice. 
• Craft well-written subject lines, preview lines, copy, and CTAs that engage readers and prompt them to take action.

• Design custom-coded templates to drive visual appeal and engage readers whether they’re on a desktop, tablet, or mobile device with responsive coding. Include a navigation bar to direct customers to important landing pages.

• Analyze data to determine the effectiveness and adjust the messaging quickly to maximize success.

As mentioned earlier, while turning customers into loyal, raving fans, there’s also a word-of-mouth marketing opportunity here. Post-purchase flows can also include referral request emails as they target the moment where customers are likely satisfied and happy to share their purchases with people around them. 

Post-purchase flows should be well-segmented, well-structured, and timely 

Like any other email, it should be targeted to a specific audience at the right moment. Or else it’ll just be treated as spam. 

Lucie Simikova, Email and PR Marketing Specialist at Rainfactory mentioned that a well-structured and timed email communication strategy in combination with list curating & pruning had proven to be an effective and profitable tool for their clients. 

“We've been working for this client (professional skin care product) for a couple of years. We created regular campaigns & flows for product launches, up-sell automations plus flows that incentivize customers to give feedback & leave reviews. These flows were highly segmented and we left the smart sending feature on to avoid sending too many emails in a short period.”

Here’s what’s in their post-purchase flow:

• Abandoned cart & thank you flow—create a positive customer experience and serve as gentle reminders.
• Nurture series—provide the recipients with valuable & educational content, answer their questions & help them make the right decision when it comes down to their skincare routine. 

People appreciate being lightly educated as opposed to being heavily sold to. 

The tip here was to segment the audience. Lucie explained that they typically create one flow for purchasers and another for non-purchasers. With years of experience, they believed that providing the customers with high-quality content emails builds up brand reputation and positions the brand as trustworthy (in this case, skin care specialists). 

Post-purchase flows should be personalized

Elizabeth Jacobi, Founder at Mochabear Marketing observed that there’s been an upward trend of businesses wanting to better connect with customers through post-purchase emails. 

“I have several clients thanking customers for purchasing and providing valuable information even before the item has arrived.” Jacobi shared how an online wine business sent out tasting notes which allowed the customer to prepare for the arriving shipment. And a pet company provided details on using the product. 

While these brands sold different products, the one commonality that remained was that the business personalized the email. It helped to set the stage immediately after the purchase to build a long-term customer relationship.

Will Tickle, Director at Social Nucleus shared a similar sentiment regarding the need for segmentation and personalization of after-purchase emails for Core Med Science. 

“After starting with a welcome series and abandon cart series, we identified that customers tended to purchase more often if they received product refill emails. Based on this insight, we devised a pair of brand loyalty campaigns.” 

He goes on to explain that they crafted an add-to-cart discount pop-up that appeared at checkout, incentivizing customers with 10% off an additional product of their choosing. The second campaign was a two-tiered VIP series that rewarded customers who spent more, where members achieved Gold or Platinum discount rewards depending on the amount spent.

Do post-purchase email campaigns have to be of a fixed flow? 

Not entirely. There’re various ways to trigger post-purchase email campaigns. Once a customer is on your subscriber list, even a holiday campaign can be considered a post-purchase flow. 

And that’s exactly what Jennifer French, VP of Strategic Partnerships at NP Digital, and her team did for a German clock company. The catch was that the brand believed its audience was a one and done considering the hefty price tags of their products—someone who had previously purchased a cuckoo clock wouldn’t consider buying again.  

But in actuality and after great research, NPA convinced the clockmaker to utilize the power of email marketing and have these previous customers learn about the story behind each clock. This was an attempt to retarget their existing customer base and tell the story behind the clock-building art.  

The team experimented with various elements, here’s what they did: 

• The date

NPA recommended using the holiday season (November & December) to prompt customers to purchase clocks for friends and family. 

• The discount

Next was the offer of up to 40% off,  encouraging the audience to cart out quickly. A CTA of “BROWSE ALL CLOCKS” was also chosen for its meaning to find the right holiday gift.

• The story and subtle CTA 

The team leveraged the story behind these black forest clocks to educate the audience about the unique and vast history of these clocks over the past 300 years. 

Emails in this post-purchase campaign had a clear CTA like “Click Here”, “View Collection”, or “Shop Special Deals”. This reassured customers that they didn’t need to spend hours on the website, to find what they wanted because the link was already provided for them. In every email, there’s a subtle “expiry date” for the promotion. If the customer missed it, then the discount opportunity was gone. 

• The promise

Their email came with a promise, a confidence guarantee offered from a German-made clock company on the quality of their product and delivery. This served to strengthen the level of trust between their customers and the brand. 

The first purchase is just the start

“Email marketing is about connecting with subscribers at the right time, with the right message. It’s even more important in post-purchase email campaigns. When we think of them, we think of order, ship, and delivery confirmation emails. While those are critical, post-purchase emails also significantly impact long-term email engagement and revenue.” - Elizabeth Jacobi, Founder of MochaBear Marketing

There are various ways to mix and match types of emails into your post-purchase flow. Do the research, and find out what matters most to your customers. Not every customer will react the same way to your post-purchase flow, if they’re new customers, product education might be the way to go. If they’re already fans of your product, a simple referral email or loyalty email might do the trick in getting them to bring onboard friends and family. 

There’s a lot to weigh, but also a lot of opportunities to scale with post-purchase email campaigns. 

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