Thank You Emails
Learn how to send automated thank you emails to customers after a purchase using Retainful
What are Thank Your Emails?
Thank You Emails are a must-have email campaign for eCommerce stores. Sending an enticing thank you email after a purchase can increase customer loyalty and boosts customer retention rate. Also, you can spice your thank you emails with next order coupons to drive repeat purchases and increase the Lifetime Value (LTV) of a customer.
Why are Thank You Emails Important?
Every eCommerce business spends tons of money on Google and Facebook Ads to acquire visitors / traffic to their store.
Let's say, you are paying $10 per click for your ads, you would have spent $100 to get 10 visitors to your store. If your conversion rate is 10% (which is the industry average), your Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) is $100 per customer.
What if the customer bought products worth $50 in his first purchase and he never returned to the store? Your loss per customer here is $50
What if 100 visitors clicked and only 1 customer bought? Your CAC increases to $1000. That means your loss is $950 (assuming that 1 customer spent $50)
As you can see, just aiming for a single sale / purchase per customer will bring more revenue loss to your business.
This is why a "Repeat purchase" becomes important. And a repeat purchase process does not really cost you. You have already acquired the customer. If at all, there is a cost, it will be 1/10 of your acquisition cost.
Best Practices
A perfectly timed series of Thank You Emails and Follow-ups can help you drive repeat purchases and increase customer loyalty, the following best practices will help you achieve just that.
Number of Emails
While no answer fits every business, our merchants see the most success when creating a series of 3 to 4 emails. This approach engages customers at crucial moments and can increase your repeat purchase rates by as much as 50%
Order of Emails
A successful and effective Thank Your Emails Workflow should consist of at least 3 emails. The recommended order of the emails can be:
Email 1: Thank them for the purchase
This email can be sent anytime between 10 minutes to 1 hour after the purchase.
Use this email to thank the customers for their purchase and tell them that you are giving a coupon code for their next purchase, as a token of appreciation and a goodwill gesture.
Do not use this to promote your other products.
Email 2: Remind them about the waiting coupon.
This email should be sent 10 to 15 days before the coupon code expire.
While it serves as a reminder about the waiting coupon code, make sure to inform the customers about the expiry. example: "Your coupon will expire soon. Use it as soon as possible".
You can include best-selling or popular products from your store.
Email 3: Urgency
This should be sent 2 days before the coupon expires. Highlight the urgency as the coupon is only valid for the next 2 days.
Create a Thank You Emails Workflow
Retainful lets you create your own Thank You Emails Workflow with the easy-to-use automation workflow editor. Also, Retainful comes with a pre-built Thank You Emails Workflow template, it will help you to configure and set live a Thank You Emails Workflow in a few minutes. It allows you to focus on other tasks and become more productive.
Follow the below steps to create the Thank You Emails Workflow:
Login to your Retainful dashboard
Go to ‘Automation’ -> Create Workflow -> Choose ‘Thank You Emails’
Give a ‘Name’ to your Thank You Emails Workflow and click ‘Continue’.
Now, you will be redirected to the automation workflow builder.
Trigger - You can find the ‘Trigger’ on the top of the workflow. The trigger lets you determine when a customer can enter into the workflow. By default, the trigger is set to allow anyone who makes a successful purchase at your store to enter into the workflow.
Note: To start the trigger for new customers in the workflow, we can set the rule Order placed from today onward. This means any orders made before today won't be included.
If you would like to set up any custom trigger rule or customer rule for the workflow, you can set it up on the right side. You learn how to configure the trigger here.
Wait - The ‘Wait’ block allows you to set up a time delay before the customer moves forward in the workflow.
The wait condition can be set for 10 minutes, so you can have the thank you email to be sent 10 minutes after a customer has made a successful purchase. (You can customize the wait condition if you want)
For example, if a customer makes a successful purchase at 10:00 AM, the customer will get the next order coupon email at 10:10 AM.
Coupon Settings
The ‘Coupon’ block is the core element of the Thank You Emails Workflow. You can click on the coupon block to find the coupon settings on the right side.
Here are the steps you need to follow to configure the next order coupon:
Click on the ‘Coupon’ block
Select the ‘Generate a coupon code based on rules’ option
Configuring coupon: Select the coupon type, enter the coupon value, and set up the coupon expiry (Optional: You can enter a minimum order value if you would like to set up a minimum order value required for using the coupon)
Save
Now, you’ve successfully configured the coupon block.
Email Settings
As you have configured the coupon, it’s time to set up the thank you emails.
You can click on the 1st ‘Email’ block to configure the email subject line, preview texts, and email content.
Subject Line: The subject line should be interesting enough to get the customer to open the email.
Preview text: You can set up a captivating preview text to motivate the customers to open the email.
Edit Email Content: Click on the "Edit Email Content" button to edit the contents of the email. This will bring up the visual drag and drop email editor.
If you would like to change the email template, you can click on the ‘Change template’ button on the left top and select a template of your choice.
Change the Logo: Click on the placeholder logo. On the right side of the panel, you will see the option to change the logo.
Editing the email content: Just "double-click" on any content section to edit the default text on the email. You can use the following shortcodes to personalize the email,
{{billing_address.first_name}} - The First name of the customer.
{{billing_address.last_name}} - The last name of the customer.
{{customer_name}} - The full name of the customer (the first and the last name)
Configuring coupon block: You can click on the coupon block {{retainful_coupon}} to configure the coupon.
Make sure to select the ‘Use the coupon code generated by the coupon step’ in the coupon settings.
Click the "Save" button once you have added the desired content and changed the logo in the email template.
Email components in Editor
Retainful provides a few special components / blocks in the Email Editor for your Thank You emails. Here is the list of components,
Coupon Block: When the coupon block is included in the email, it will display the coupon you have configured for the block.
You can use the coupon block {{retainful_coupon}} - Unique coupon codes will be dynamically generated when the coupon block is used in your email template.
Call-to-Action Button: Retainful generates a redirect URL for each thank you emails. When the email is sent, customers can click on the "Shop Now” button to come back to the store and make another purchase at your store.
The Call-to-Action button in the default email templates are linked to your shop using the shortcode: {{retainful_shop_url_with_coupon_code}}
Testing Email
Once you have completed editing the email template, you can test the email.
With an email customized, return to the top of the email editor and click the ‘Send Test Email’ button to make sure all of the content displays as expected in your inbox.
Click the "Save" button once you have added the desired content and changed the logo in the email template.
Creating a Series of Emails in the Workflow
Followed by the 1st Email block, we have the ‘Wait’ block in place to let the customer wait for 14 days before moving forward to the 2nd email block.
You can edit and customize the wait condition based on the expiry days you’ve set for the coupon.
Also, make sure to edit the 2nd email block and select the ‘Use the coupon code generated by the coupon step’ in the settings. And, you can customize the email subject line, preview texts, and email content if you want.
You ‘Save’ the email template once when you’re done with editing it.
Similarly, you can set up the 3rd wait condition based on the expiry days you’ve set for the coupon.
And, edit the 3rd email subject line, preview text, and email content. Most importantly, make sure to select the ‘Use the coupon code generated by the coupon step’ in the settings in the email template.
Click ‘Save’ when you’re done editing the email template.
Going Live
If you are ready to set live the Thank You Emails Workflow, you can click on the ‘Start Workflow’ button on the right top to set live the workflow.
That’s it. You’ve successfully set live your Thank You Emails Workflow in Retainful.
How to Test Your Thank You Emails Workflow
This article will let you know how you can test the Thank You Emails Workflow in your store
Requirements
Make sure you have set live the Thank You Emails Workflow at your Retainful dashboard -> Automation (The status of the workflow should be ‘Live’)
Testing Steps
The recommended way to test your thank you emails workflow is by placing a successful order in your store. You can consider choosing a low-value product in your store for placing this order
Open your storefront (your online store front) in a Private / Incognito window (so that you can test like a customer)
Place a successful order You should receive the first Thank You Email based on the interval you’ve set.
You should receive the first Thank You Email based on the interval you’ve set.
Example
By default, a customer will enter into the thank you emails workflow as soon as he/she placed a successful order
If you've set the 'Wait' condition as 10 minutes before sending the first email, then you should receive the first thank you email 10 minutes after placing the order
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