Hi Reader,

I've got a quick one today! It's common for the brands we work with to have twenty to forty email marketing automations (Klaviyo calls these Flows) to send just the right messaging at each stage of the customer journey.

Which of these are you using?

Pre-Purchase

Welcome Series
Back in Stock
Low Inventory Alert
Price Drop Alert

Purchase Recovery

Abandoned Cart (Checkout)
Browse Abandonment
Added-to-Cart Abandonment

Post-Purchase

Customer Thank You
Post-Purchase Nurture / Cross-Sell
Review Request
Repeat Purchase Reminder
User Generated Content Request

Loyalty / Retention

VIP / Milestone Flow
Winback
Happy Birthday
First Purchase Anniversary
Sunset Unengaged Subscribers

Advocacy

Affiliate / Influencer Invite
Loyalty Program Invite

Brands end up with 20-40 flows because there can be many versions of the post-purchase flows for different product categories.

These dozens of emails are working for you while you sleep, shop for groceries, and grow the rest of your business!

Please grab our rate sheet or reply to this email to find out more about our email marketing services. These projects pay for themselves, as long as you have a decent number of subscribers.

P.S. This article describes our Klaviyo email marketing service. This one lets you know when it makes sense to hire pros (us!). And this one shares a bit about our SMS (text message) marketing services and results.

Q&A

Here's a reader question about free shipping offers, from Suzy, as answered by Helen, Ecommerce Strategist on our team:

Q: For the past 1.5 years, due to increasing costs, I haven't provided free shipping. Do you have any best-practices thoughts on how to approach free shipping? When to provide provide free shipping? Is it important for a small biz? Should I mark-up my other goods to help balance the free shipping?

A: Customers hate to pay for shipping, and this is the second biggest reason for cart abandonment. Free shipping thresholds, like free shipping over $100, work very well to reduce hesitation and boost Average Order Value (AOV). Many shoppers would rather spend more money to win free shipping even if that results in spending more overall. They would rather spend more to have more tangible things.

However, this needs to work out for you as a merchant so that the boost to AOV makes up for eating the shipping costs. A rule of thumb for a free shipping threshold is 25% higher than your current AOV. We also like to take that number and compare it to competitor sites and adjust it to a nice round number that fits within the industry standard (but never lower than your current AOV!).

The next best thing to a free shipping threshold would be a flat shipping rate. This is challenging for sites that sell a diverse array of product types with wide-ranging sizes and weights. The idea behind this strategy is that shoppers can mentally prepare for the shipping cost. As they are adding items to their cart, they already know (if your site displays it prominently) that the final cost will be $7 more, for example. That way, they don't have a surprise at checkout that causes them to re-evaluate the purchase all over again. When choosing a flat rate, you will win some and lose some. Ideally, the flat rate feels generous to most shoppers but averages out to cover an acceptable chunk of your total shipping costs.

Question: Answered

Our team includes experts in branding, design, development, email & SMS/text marketing, search engine optimization, copywriting, conversion optimization, ecommerce strategy, business growth, and more. Have a question for us? Email back, and I'll consult one of our experts and share one weekly response over email.

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