by Jeanette LeBlanc
Wouldn’t it be great if you could increase your revenue without having to go out and find completely new leads? Good news, my friend: One of the best places to find new revenue is in the people who almost bought but didn’t.
If you are selling online, abandoned shopping carts are not an issue you can afford to ignore. Whether a customer was distracted, had second thoughts or encountered technical difficulties, a simple reminder email, or even a promotional offer to entice them to complete the purchase, may move many of these almost purchasers to become loyal customers.
Did you know that, according to Salescycle, almost half of abandoned-cart emails are opened—and over 30 percent of clicks resulted in purchases? Even more exciting, the average value of these purchases was 19 percent higher than typical. You don’t want to give up on these leads.
A great way to follow up and get those leads to convert is to send follow-up emails to people who don’t complete a purchase. The easiest way to do this is to automate it with email marketing software, because then you won’t have to do a thing yourself.
Here are 10 email techniques to use to get people to purchase:
10 Proven Abandoned Cart Techniques
- Include a reminder of limited inventory of the desired item or time-sensitive urgency (such as a sale or coupon ending soon).
- Offer a limited time discount to encourage the purchase.
- Don’t ignore the importance of branding, subject lines and images—stay on brand and use compelling copy.
- Include a short and simple survey to discover why the cart was abandoned in the first place.
- Include a visual or text description of the items in the cart to remind would be shoppers of what they wanted (and quite likely, why they wanted it).
- Include multiple links back to the cart to maximize the likelihood that your email will lead to a desired return to the abandoned purchase.
- Offer to help. Include customer service contact information in case technical difficulties were behind the original abandonment.
- Remind the reader of compelling advantages, such as money back guarantees, free shipping, or high product ratings from past purchasers.
- Let the customer know you’ll reserve or hold their purchases for a specific amount of time (but only if you can guarantee this).
- Time is of the essence—don’t wait too long before sending out your email. Within 24 hours is best.
