Post-purchase marketing flows are one of the most important ways to communicate with your customers. And yet, many brands don't do it or know how to do it well.
What strategies are you working with to bring customers back to make repeat purchases?
You may not have put a ton of thought into the messages you send to newly-acquired customers before, but post-purchase communication is extremely important to ensure every new buyer has a positive experience.
Messenger and SMS marketing is your ticket to reaching a high customer retention rate. How? Through the post-purchase messages that you send to every customer. Let me explain how.
What is post-purchase marketing and why should you optimize this experience?
The definition of post-purchase marketing is exactly how it sounds: it’s about the ways you continue conversations with customers after they’ve made a purchase.
Post-purchase marketing is an important part of the customer experience because you can continue to provide value after purchases to ensure a positive customer relationship.
Businesses use this opportunity to continue marketing towards customers in hopes of bringing them back for another purchase in the future.
And in reality, it’s a really effective way to keep your brand relevant in customers’ minds. In fact, 80% of consumers said that consistent post-purchase communication from a brand is fundamental to their desire to make another purchase.
Why your business should use Messenger and SMS for post-purchase marketing
Most brands will think to use email first for all their post-purchase messages, but the truth is Messenger marketing leads to a 70% better open-rate than email marketing. To top it off, SMS marketing sees open rates as high as 98% compared to the 20% email has.
Your store should prioritize Messenger and SMS to trigger post-purchase behavior, along with still using email since it's continued to be the most popular channel.
Offering an omnichannel marketing experience is one of the best ways to leverage customer engagement.
Research shows that companies with strong omnichannel customer engagement retain an average of 89% of their customers. That’s a significant increase compared to companies with weak omnichannel customer engagement, which only retains an average of 33% of customers.
The gist? Use Messenger, SMS and email for the best results.
Want to see how one brand saw an additional $155,000 in revenue using just Messenger and SMS?
5 messages you should send to help you win post-purchase marketing
According to a survey conducted by The Manifest, roughly 96% of people choose to interact with brands they follow on social media.
There are a lot of ways you can reach out to customers to help drive the sale, but the biggest mistake is to think communication stops at the point of purchase.
To keep the momentum of the buyer decision process, here are the types of messages you should be sending customers after a sale.
Purchase confirmations and thank you messages
Order confirmations may seem obvious—of course, you have to let customers know that you received their order and give them an order number. But are you thanking every individual customer for their purchase? Are you writing something a bit more personal than just “Thanks. Here’s your order number.”? What about giving customers the option to be notified about shipping updates directly through Messenger?
All of these messages create a positive customer experience.
When you show customers you’re thankful for their sale and give them updates about their order, you’re offering a direct line to important communication so that they know exactly what to expect from your business.
For example, DOYOUEVEN uses Messenger to thank customers, give them their order number, and allows them to opt-in to all shipping updates with the click of a single button.
In an article by econsultancy, they found that post-purchase issues like poor delivery communications are responsible for 74.4% of all 1-star reviews on TrustPilot. This is why you must update your customers. Messenger and SMS are the perfect channels to reach them because they’ll get your notifications within seconds.
Feedback or product reviews
After you’ve ordered something online, you may receive an email asking about your experience shopping with that brand.
Not every customer will respond, but the ones that do show their interest in your products. And usually, they'll have great advice to share.
Offering to give feedback allows customers to feel important and part of your brand; it shows them you’re genuinely interested in their feelings and experiences.
Here’s an example of how Pandora asks for feedback over email.
If you follow up with customers through Facebook Messenger, you’ll have an even better chance at getting a response and a review. This is because your customers will get the message instantly, and it’ll be easy for them to respond through this channel.
You can then use these reviews to help drive the sale in other promotional messages. For example, Ella + Mila ties in their product reviews to their Messenger cart abandonment reminders.
Want to learn how Octane AI can help you set up conversational automation that customers will appreciate? Book a demo to find out!
Product recommendations and product launches
Did you know that 73% of customers prefer to make purchases from brands that actually use customer data to make the shopping experience personalized?
When you collect key data about customers to create accurate buyer personas, you can use those personas to send messages containing relevant products to every customer.
Think about it: if a customer previously purchased moisturizer for oily skin, a good product recommendation would be skincare products for oily skin that complement that moisturizer.
Based on previous purchases, you'll know what styles your customers are most interested in. DOYOUEVEN did this well when they restocked their HYPERFLEX collection. With a Messenger notification, they were able to let people who were previously interested in the product know that there’s a chance to purchase it again.
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Discounts, coupons, or early sales access
Everyone loves a good sale or discount with the brands they love. This is one of the biggest reasons people choose to opt-in to marketing automation in the first place! They want to know when the best deals are coming, and they’ll be ready to shop.
It’s true that consumers redeem SMS-delivered coupons 10 times more than other types of coupons. Since Messenger reaches customers almost as instantly as SMS, it’s another channel where coupons are redeemed at a high rate. This is why Skinny Mixes sends sales updates through Messenger.
Sharing these updates to customers through Messenger and SMS is beneficial because your customers will feel like they got the first opportunity to shop your sale compared to those that have only opted-in to email notifications.
This is why brands like The Swank Store use messaging like “secret sale” in their opt-in pop-up, and then they message customers with all the hype through Facebook Messenger.
Did you know that Skinny Mixes increased their monthly revenue by $280,000 with Messenger automation? We shared their full strategy in a recent case study that you can download for free.
Reminder to restock items that need replenishing
Don’t forget about your customers who purchase items that will eventually need to be restocked.
For businesses that sell these types of products, it’s especially important that you ensure a positive post-purchase experience. In fact, there is a 60% to 70% chance of converting a repeat customer, but these chances drop if customers aren’t satisfied.
Let's say you sell toothpaste. If you know how long it takes for a customer to use up the full tube of toothpaste, you can send them a reminder a week or so before that date that they should restock their toothpaste.
For any consumable product, there's an opportunity to remind customers to make another purchase.
Valuable post-purchase messages are essential to drive repeat revenue
Now that you see the strategy, it's time for your brand to connect with its customers on Messenger and SMS.
Without conversational Messenger automation, you're missing out on reaching customers through an untapped channel.
Right now, Messenger and SMS aren't cluttered by other businesses, giving you a way to stand out and not be drowned out by other promotional messages.
Give customers the attention they want. For your loyal ones, they'll appreciate the direct communication.
To learn more about how Octane AI's customers increase revenue by 10% to 30%, book a demo right here!
