Do follow-up emails work?
Yes, follow-up emails work, and they can be a viable part of your email marketing strategy. Often, you can increase your response rates and have more meaningful interactions with customers if you follow up after the initial email.
Statistics do vary, but some studies have found that an initial marketing email often has a reply rate of just 9%. Simply by following up, however, the reply rate rises to 13%.
In other cases that targeted experienced email users, the initial email had a reply rate of 16%. Just sending a single follow-up email then increased the total to 27%. In other words, you can almost double the response rate, in some cases, if you follow up after that opening email.
How many messages should you send?
There are diminishing returns. Some have experimented with sending numerous emails, such as sending the same user 20 emails in a row. This does not seem to be nearly as impactful.
Often, the sweet spot is right around two or three emails. Your initial email opens communication with the potential customer. You can then follow up once, drastically increasing your potential response rate. If this still is not effective, a third email may be in order. But after that point, it is not worth chasing down those leads anymore. You are typically better off focusing on new customers and expanding your search.
Abandoned cart emails
A similar tactic to consider is when people abandon their carts. The user has already navigated to your website, added items to their cart and simply failed to check out. A follow-up email can help to remind them about this process, and some users will then make a purchase.
After all, there are many reasons for a potentially abandoned cart. It may be that the user was simply checking out some products on their lunch break, but then they had to go back to work or otherwise became distracted. They forgot to finish the transaction, but they will be happy to do so with a reminder.
In other cases, people abandon their carts over the total price. Maybe the products cost more than they realized, or perhaps they are unhappy with the shipping and handling costs.
This is why follow-up emails will sometimes offer a limited-time financial deal. You remind the potential customer about the items that they put in their cart, for example, and offer them 20% off if they complete the transaction in the next 24 hours. This helps to create a sense of urgency and can get them to take action. If they were concerned about the overall price, it also provides them with a discount to get over this hurdle.
A complex email marketing plan
As you can see, there is far more to think about with email marketing than simply sending promotional emails to your mailing list. That is where you start, but you need to know what next steps to take to get the most out of your email marketing campaign.
Here at Content Customs, we have years of experience with email marketing, social media marketing, search engine optimization, on-site content creation and much more. Do not hesitate to get in touch with our team to learn how we can help with your online commerce and marketing plan.
