Thank Your Customers

When your customers make a purchase, it’s a big deal. Sending a follow-up email to show your thanks lets customers know that their business is recognized and appreciated.

Post-purchase email campaigns represent an opportunity to build additional brand loyalty, foster engagement on social media outlets, and recommend additional products.

In this guide, we focus on the most important post-purchase campaign, the First Purchase Series.

The First Purchase Series consists of multiple emails that can launch over a set period of time like 15 days, one month, or even longer.

The goal is to guide your customers’ behaviors and shape perceptions of your brand after the first purchase is made.

In terms of conversions, First Purchase Series emails are one of the highest revenue-driving messages you can send. Because of this, these campaigns are critical for converting one-time shoppers into repeat buyers.

Winning campaigns are crafted to not only express thanks, but to also highlight practical reasons why the recipient should return to your site and purchase again.

Windsor Circle provides the data integrations and services that a growing number of eCommerce businesses rely on to power their post-purchase thank you campaigns.

We do so by connecting a merchant’s eCommerce platform (for example, Magento) to their MailChimp or MailChimp Pro email marketing account.

Our “Thanks” MailChimp Playbook includes:

• A client case study of a successful first purchase email campaign

• Instructions for setting up first purchase campaigns

• Best practices, tips & examples …so you can rock the post-purchase!

Case Study: Kate Somerville

Kate Somerville is a skincare company that aims to renew skin, restore health, and deliver results for their customers.

Kate Somerville implemented a post-purchase series that has phenomenal engagement.

This email is triggered shortly after a customer makes their first order. It clearly communicates the company’s mission, accompanied by a photo of their founder to drive the point home for new customers.

They thank new customers by offering a free gift that can be applied to the next purchase, encouraging them to shop while also securing more loyal buyers. Additionally, the message highlights several of their top products to give a sample of what else is available in their store.

Results:Open Rate: 68% Click Rate: 11%

Creating a First Purchase Series

When a customer makes their first order, an important step in building a solid B2C relationship is to greet them with a First Purchase Series. 

The key time to strengthen customer relationships is immediately after their first purchase, while the brand is at the forefront of their mind. To cultivate this relationship, it is important to touch base with customers regularly with messages that have a personalized and engaging tone.

Start nurturing repeat buyers by including reasons to come back and shop again, but do not make this your primary focus since they just recently made a purchase. 

After logging into your MailChimp Account:Navigate & click on “Automation” located on the dashboard menu bar

Next click the icon to the right that reads “Create Automation Workflow.”

Select the list you want to use in this workflow from the dropdown menu.

Windsor Circle clients will set up this automated First Purchase series to send to the subscriber list that begins with “WC_”.

Otherwise, select the list that you believe will be most relevant for this message. You'll have the option to segment recipients later.

Windsor Circle clients benefit from advanced segmentation options and should choose the “Custom” workflow to take advantage of the features our software provides.

Other users can feel free to choose the workflow of their choice and continue to follow the steps in our guide as they apply.

Workflow Options: Choose “Custom”

First Purchase Series: Getting Started

Note: If a New Subscriber Welcome Series is enabled, exclude subscribers who have also made a purchase from this list to ensure new customers who subscribed and purchased will not be enrolled in both email series.

For tracking purposes, Windsor Circle clients should begin the Workflow name with “WC_FirstPurchase.”

Set the name & email address that will appear to your subscribers in this workflow.

Check “Send activity digest email” to receive a daily reports on this workflow’s performance.

First Purchase Series: Configuration

In the next section, we will walk through configuring the trigger options. Triggers work behind the scenes and signal your workflow to begin based on actions your subscriber takes, such as meeting the segmentation criteria to become a best customer.

Note: Because of the flexibility offered, triggers must be manually set in any custom workflows. Some triggers require more information from you, but note that they only need to be configured once.

Up Next: Triggers

First Purchase Series: Trigger & SetupIn the next step, we will determine the criteria to trigger the “First Purchase Thank You Series” workflow.

The “When” option determines the action(s) that must occur to begin launching emails from this workflow. Click on “When” and then choose the “Specific date occurs” option from the drop down menu.

To launch your Thank You Series after a subscriber makes their first purchase, choose the “WC_First_Order_Date” option to properly segment that particular group.

Next, you’ll want to create individual emails for your campaigns.

Select “Add Email” and complete the fields to begin configuring the email in your First Purchase Series workflow.

These fields are only relevant to the specific email you are editing, not the entire workflow.

You can name your email ”First Purchase” and include a number to represent its order in the email series, like “First Purchase #1.”

Once you have welcomed your new customers, take this opportunity to remind them about your customer service, brand, products and what makes you the best. The aim of this email series is to remind the customer of the value you offer, and to remain top of mind and relevant in their inbox.

To drive engagement we recommend sending a 3-part Post-Purchase Thank You series at 5, 10, and 15 days after a first purchase is made.

First Purchase Series: Timing

Email #1: 5 days after purchaseTypical content should include a message from the President or CEO thanking customers for making their first purchase and reminding them of the advantages of buying from your store again, like that you have the best selection, great customer service, lowest prices, etc.

Email #2: 10 days after purchaseThe goal of this email is to encourage customers to connect on social networks like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, etc.

Email #3:15 days after purchaseThe third email should gently nudge customers towards a second purchase and include specific product recommendations.

For design ideas, we have a detailed guide with successful examples of First Purchase Series emails.

On the Template step you can choose your email layout from the following options: Basic Templates, Themes, Saved Templates, or Code Your Own.

Click “Select” next to the template you want to use and then click “Next” to design your campaign in the Email Designer.

When you're done creating your email, click “Schedule” to determine when it will be sent.

You can choose to send this email everyday; however, we recommend unchecking the days that your normal newsletter is sent out to avoid customers receiving two emails in one day.

First Purchase Series: Design

Configure segmentation by checking “Choose segmentation conditions.” Next, select “Subscribers match the following conditions.” Windsor Circle clients will choose “WC_Frequency_Actual” from the first drop down option and then type in “1.”

This configuration will only include first time purchasers in the workflow. So if new customers makes another purchase after receiving one of the First Purchase Series emails, they will be removed from this group.

For example, one advanced segmentation option is to target first-time buyers that make a big ticket purchase from a specific product category. Check “Choose segmentation conditions” and choose “Subscribers match the following conditions.” From the drop down menu, select “WC_Purchase_Category” and add whatever product category you’d like, such as Shampoo.

You can also target customers who recently engaged with your emails, by choosing “Campaign Activity” then “clicked” on “Any of the Last 5 Campaigns.”

Then Windsor Circle clients can choose “WC_Segments” is one of “WC Biggest Tickets” to find customers who made high value orders.

Now, the message will be sent to a select group of first-time buyers who are more likely to have a higher customer lifetime value and drive more revenue for your eCommerce business.

If you have a MailChimp Pro account, you have access to Advanced Segmentation that allows you to combine any and all logic to create complex segments based on purchase history, email and website activity, demographics, and more.

First Purchase Series: MailChimp Pro

MailChimp Pro takes powerful features normally reserved for large enterprises, and makes them accessible to small businesses.

With MailChimp Pro, retailers have access to 50 additional merge fields and enhanced customer support. They can also use the Time Warp function to schedule automated campaigns to go out at the same time in different time zones. Also, with the Stop Delivery tool, users can see a campaign’s sending progress, and cancel an email after it’s already begun this process.

Design: Anatomy of a First Purchase Email

•Write a text header explaining purpose of the email

•Have a clickable logo and menu choices

•Display a prominent ”Thank You!”

•Use a simple, clean photo with a clear message

•Create a first purchase promotion to encourage a return visit

•Have clear call-to-action buttons highlighting popular products

•Display social icons and contact information

•Incorporate a preference center to give subscribers control of email frequency

First Purchase Series: Examples

Every communication with your customers is ultimately an extension of your brand, so your brand identity should be emphasized throughout each message. In this email, eCreamery expresses the spirit of their brand by showcasing the variety of products they offer, explaining what makes them unique, and even suggesting multiple occasions when their products would make appropriate gifts.

But the first thing they do in the message is thank the customer for their purchase. As an added token of gratitude, eCreamery offers a discount incentive in their post-purchase emails to encourage repeat shoppers. They also include a buyer testimonial in the email to show that customer feedback is valued and appreciated.

First Purchase Series: Examples

Engaging shoppers with your brand is a proven way to retain customers. The post-purchase email from GLO Skin Body highlights the brand’s presence on four different social media platforms, along with a brief description of what content and value they provide through each channel.

The email also includes a personal invitation from Sarah, GLO’s Skin Center Director, for customers to engage with the brand by joining the conversation on these social media sites. Providing added opportunities for engagement in this way increases the likelihood that the customer will interact with the brand more often and, in turn, purchase again.

First Purchase Series: Examples

Post-purchase emails provide a fantastic cross-selling opportunity for retailers. In their first purchase email series, Peacock Alley includes product recommendations triggered by the customer’s order history. The email design is visually appealing by showcasing images of popular items they offer (along with a brief description) that are related to the customer’s last purchase.

Product recommendations based on individual customer’s interests create an engaging buying experience and increase brand loyalty. By including product recommendations in the first purchase series, retailers can see increased engagement and conversions earlier in the customer lifecycle.

• Thank Your Customers ProfessionallyIn this type of messaging, you're looking to earnestly, but formally, express gratitude.  The imagery should evoke a sense of premium quality and of class.  Whereas other types of emails might be more fun and whimsical, the effect you're seeking here is one of conveying politeness, formality, and etiquette.  These are particularly geared towards products and brands with an upmarket price tag.

• Thanking Global CustomersIf you have a culturally and/or geographically diverse customer base, your customers are likely to appreciate multicultural sentiment.  A popular implementation of that preference is to use a word cloud with the words “thank you” in many different languages.  Even better if it contains international character sets from Asia and the Middle East.

• Clever Thank You MessagingIn this style, you're looking to have fun with your customers.  This style plays particularly well for retailers with festive, colorful, and youth-oriented inventory.

First Purchase Email Tips & Tricks

They are many different approaches you can take to the tone of your First Purchase messages. Here are three examples of how to engage with new customers in your First Purchase Series: