The most successful businesses in the world are the ones that cultivate long-term relationships with their customers. If you run an e-commerce store on WordPress, WooCommerce follow up emails are one of the best ways to do this.
WooCommerce follow up emails are automated messages sent to customers after they perform a certain action. Some common actions that trigger follow up emails are:
- Cart abandonment
- First purchase
- The purchase of a specific product
- Purchases within a specific product category.
There are already some great articles on the MailPoet blog about abandoned cart emails and first purchase emails. In this guide, I’ll show you how to create effective follow up emails to send after a customer purchases a specific product or a product from a certain category in your WooCommerce store.
Why WooCommerce follow up emails are important
Many marketing guides focus on how to increase your audience, but what you do with your audience is equally important. You want to transform them into customers and keep them coming back for more. After all, it costs five times as much to gain new customers as it does to retain existing customers.
WooCommerce follow up emails can help you strengthen customer relationships in a variety of ways:
- Solicit feedback. People love to share their experiences. Surveys or invitations for reviews and testimonials help people feel like their opinions matter to your business.
- Reward customers. What better way to tell your customers that you appreciate them than by rewarding their commitment to your brand? Coupon codes are great for this, as they also accomplish the next potential goal of a follow up email.
- Promote products. Follow up emails can also be used to market specific products. For example, you might use a follow up email to recommend products similar to something a customer has already purchased.
- Convert customers into brand ambassadors. Ask long term customers to tell others about your products on social media or to link to your products on their websites. You can use rewards like coupons or even payment through an affiliate marketing program to reward them for their help.
Best practices for WooCommerce follow up emails
There are a few rules you must remember if you want to create successful WooCommerce follow up emails:
1. Use a customer-centric approach
Focus on how your emails can provide value to your customer rather than how they can make money for you. Recommend products your customers will actually find useful. Offer them meaningful discounts. Listen to their feedback and suggestions.
This approach should also extend into the language you use in your emails. You want to keep your tone friendly and helpful, to make customers feel welcomed and valued. This will encourage them to stick around and eventually become the brand ambassadors who propel your business to the next level.
2. Keep it brief
Treat your customers’ time as a precious commodity. Get your point across in as few words as possible. Ipsy does a great job of this in the email below:
Most WooCommerce follow up emails can accomplish their goals in a couple of sentences. One sentence to thank your customer for the action they have taken and another to suggest how they can continue interacting with your business. If you are trying to sell a product, you may also want to include some details about what the product does.
3. Always include a call to action (CTA)
Every email you send should include a CTA instructing them to interact with your business in a specific way, such as by purchasing a product. This holds true for both WooCommerce follow up emails and regular email marketing campaigns.
Make sure that your CTA gives people the tools they need to complete the desired action. If you want them to purchase a product, link to the appropriate page. If you want them to send in a testimonial, give them a link to the contact form where they can do so. Make it as easy as possible for the customer to follow through.
4. Personalize, personalize, personalize
A full 91% of consumers are more likely to buy from online stores that recognize them and make suggestions based on their previous behavior.
You can personalize follow up emails in several different ways:
- Use the person’s name in the subject line
- Address the customer by name in the body of the email
- Send product recommendations based on customers’ previous purchases
- Send emails to remind customers about products they looked at but didn’t purchase
- Offer customers discounts on products similar to things they have purchased before
You can use the MailPoet plugin to automate personalization for all of your WooCommerce follow up emails.
5. Pay attention to aesthetics
Use high-quality photographs and illustrations to make your follow up emails more pleasing to the eye. Your email designs should catch customers’ attention and hold it. BarkBox does this really well:
You also want your emails to fit with your overall brand aesthetic in order to give customers a consistent experience. Give your logo prominent placement at the top of your email. Use your brand colors in the header and footer of your email.
If you’re not sure about the best layout to use, MailPoet has a selection of ready-made email templates that you can customize with your own branding.
6. Measure your success
Pay attention to how people interact with your follow up campaigns. Are they opening your emails? Clicking on your links? Purchasing your products? Posting reviews or sharing your brand on social media?
If a specific email isn’t performing the way you had hoped, take a closer look at that email and ask yourself some questions:
- Is it possible to write the copy of this email in a more enticing way?
- Can you add images to make the email more appealing?
- How can customers who have completed the trigger action be helped by the contents of this email?
- Is there any way to personalize this email further?
Use the insights from your answers to modify the email and begin the process again.
How to set up WooCommerce follow up emails with MailPoet
Now that I’ve established the best practices for WooCommerce follow up emails, here’s a detailed look at how you can automate these emails with MailPoet.
Setting up MailPoet
If you haven’t already installed MailPoet on your site, you will need to add the plugin to your site by signing up to a plan. If you have 1,000 subscribers or fewer, you’ll be able to use the Starter plan for free!
Creating WooCommerce follow up emails
When your MailPoet account is set up and you have the MailPoet plugin installed, you will be asked to accept MailPoet cookies. This permission must be granted in order to use all WooCommerce-related features.
To create your first WooCommerce follow up emails, head to Emails > +New Email and scroll down to the WooCommerce section. Here, you will be given the option to set up your first WooCommerce emails:
MailPoet allows you to create four types of WooCommerce follow up emails:
For the purposes of this article, I’ll look at how to create an email that triggers when a customer purchases a specific product. You can use the exact same process to create an email that triggers when someone purchases a product in a specific category.
To get started, you will need to choose “Purchased This Product” from the email choices on the WooCommerce page.
You will then be taken to a page where you can choose the specific purchase that will trigger the email you’re creating. Use the text box to find the product and the dropdown menu to choose when the email will send. You can choose to delay the email by hours, days, or weeks.
When you are satisfied with these presets, click on the “Next” button. This will take you to the MailPoet template library, where you can choose from dozens of email templates. This includes several specialized WooCommerce email templates.
Selecting an email template will take you to the MailPoet email designer. Here, you can customize the email with content blocks, including WooCommerce product blocks.
When you’re finished with the design, you can move on to the “Send” page, where you will confirm the criteria for your automated WooCommerce follow up email. You can also choose to activate Google Analytics for the email on this page.
Final thoughts on WooCommerce follow up emails
WooCommerce follow up emails can be powerful tools, especially when automated with an email plugin like MailPoet. To make the most of them, remember a few simple rules:
- Use a customer-centric approach
- Keep it brief
- Always include a call to action
- Personalize, personalize, personalize
- Pay attention to aesthetics
- Measure your success
If you want to learn more about how to boost e-commerce sales with MailPoet, check out our complete guide to WooCommerce emails.
