In 2022, 333.2 billion emails are estimated to be sent and received each day worldwide. That is no small number! With such a large volume of emails hitting inboxes every day, the importance of Customer Retention in eCommerce is reaching new heights. By definition, Customer Retention is a measurement of the number of customers a company keeps over time. This is calculated as a percentage of the company’s existing customers that remain loyal.
According to Forbes, retention is one of the most important factors for business owners to consider. Repeat customers are more likely to spend more per order (resulting in increased average order value), leave testimonials on your website and social media, and subscribe to your other marketing channels. Additionally, businesses have more opportunities to cross-sell and upsell other products with a strong retention strategy in place.
PCR’s Retention Email Marketing Audit is a deep-dive investigation into your current email and SMS outreach strategy. PCR analyzes a variety of metrics from your site and user journey to determine a comprehensive strategy aimed at acquiring new customers, increasing engagement with your existing user base, and converting all purchasers into loyal, lifelong customers, with the ultimate goal of boosting revenue serving as an undercurrent for all of our recommendations.
Our Approach
PCR takes a holistic approach to the user experience by evaluating key areas of opportunity to grow business revenue through your audience. Ahead of creating the audit, we start by asking pointed questions to help inform our analysis and recommendations. Our questions focus on a variety of aspects about your existing Retention strategy and app ecosystem, your targeted goals, and how you measure success in terms of customer engagement and revenue.
We first dive into your current email service provider and evaluate its effectiveness in both execution and tracking. Based on our findings, we will make recommendations surrounding possible third-party app migrations, or how to fully optimize the ESP you’re already using. We then dive into the current state of your email and SMS marketing outreach by analyzing customer engagement from pre- to post-purchase, focusing on email and SMS deliverability through Open Rates, Click Through Rates, Unsubscribe Rates, Bounce Rates, and more. We also look at overall revenue, revenue per recipient, conversion rate, and deliveries for both email and SMS flows and campaigns.
Pre-Purchase User Journey
We investigate your email analytics and benchmarks related to your current pre-purchase outreach strategy, also known as the Welcome Series Flow. From there, we look for ways to automate the flow and increase customer opt-ins through optimizing subject lines and preview text, targeted CTAs, pop-ups, discount offers, strategic sending cadences, and design functionality.
Based on our findings, we then determine how to optimize the flow’s deliverability and conversion rates. In addition to the Welcome Series, we also analyze customer metrics as it relates to Browse Abandonment, Cart Abandonment, and Checkout Abandonment to determine how to best maintain customer engagement in the pre-purchase user journey. For example, Browse Abandonment generally has about a 1% conversion rate, so implementing a Browse Abandonment flow could turn 1,000 viewers into 10+ purchasers.
Because all of our recommendations are data and results-driven, we also look for A/B testing opportunities to solidify a strategy implementation that drives the most impact in terms of customer relationships and revenue.
Post-Purchase User Journey
In terms of the post-purchase user journey, we look for ways to automate emails that encourage customer nurturing and reactivation. This typically occurs through implementing specific Transactional and Customer Reactivation flows that are time-triggered and can incorporate reviews and social proof. We offer solutions to re-engage customers who may have dropped off, such as Winback Campaigns that provide incentives for these users to opt back into your email marketing services.
Audience + Segmentation
In addition to evaluating the content and cadence of your email marketing flows, we also dive into the state of your outreach lists and propose segmentation strategies to increase conversion. We look at the audiences in your current segments and determine users who are suppressed or inactive. Essentially, we utilize life cycle stages to implement targeted messaging aimed at reducing churn and maximizing conversion and revenue. If you’re interested in learning more about audience segmentation, check out PCR’s other insights, Why You Should Segment Your Email Automations.
Campaigns
We also analyze your campaigns and introduce opportunities to cultivate functional design, increase engagement, hone in on customer feedback, and optimize content. We focus on marrying commerce to content and frequently recommend specific CTA linking to reduce clicks to commerce and further pull users in.
App Ecosystem
In terms of your app ecosystem, we analyze opportunities to either optimize your current platforms or introduce new apps for subscriptions, product recommendations, loyalty and reviews, customer service, and more. We evaluate cost, ease of use, and your goals to ensure we recommend the most efficient and price-effective apps. The utilization of these apps allows for heightened email personalization and automation, which increases ease of use for both your business and customers alike.
Post-Retention Audit
After we create and present the Retention Audit, we work to break out all of our recommendations into digestible tasks organized in line-item form. We also include a clear timeline and level of effort + impact for each task. This is called the Retention Roadmap. From there, we begin implementing your business’ new Retention Strategy. After implementation, we closely monitor the results and share wins and opportunities on a rolling basis.
Ready to increase your Customer Retention and Boost Revenue?
We take the time to really get to know your business, your team, and your overall goals so that we can recommend strategies that will have a hard-hitting and lasting impact. Whether you are a large retailer or small business, we have the tools to help. If you’re interested in enhancing your user experience, increasing customer relationships, and boosting sales across the entirety of the user journey, please reach out!
Sources:
- https://www.forbes.com/sites/theyec/2022/08/04/how-to-improve-your-retention-rate-and-save-lost-sales/?sh=3903210519ca
- https://www.statista.com/statistics/456500/daily-number-of-e-mails-worldwide/
- https://rawww.com/a-guide-on-how-to-improve-your-customer-retention-strategy-with-email-marketing/#:~:text=The%20benefits%20of%20email%20marketing&text=The%20most%20significant%20benefit%20of,than%20keeping%20an%20existing%20one.