underground secret of Automation sell Funnels Are More 24 Than You Think 4

Introduction 5 1. Welcome Funnels 6 2. Abandoned Cart Reminders 8 3. A Simple Post-Purchase Follow-Up 11 4. Transactional Post-Purchase Funnel 13 5. Personalized Product Recommendations 14 6. Re-Engagement Funnels 17 7. Product Feedback Request 19 8. Customer Retargeting 20 9. New Product Launch 22 10. Happy Anniversary 23
Automation Funnels Are More 24 Than You Think

4

If you work in eCommerce, then high ROI from email marketing is no doubt your Holy Grail — a tangible, though seemingly mythical marketing realm that manages to elude most businesses.
No, high ROI from email isn’t mythical at all.
It’s very real.
Successful eCommerce brands are seeing 30%-40% of their monthly revenue coming from email.
And what does every single one of those brands have in common?
Automated marketing funnels.
From successful small brands like Pura Vida, Moment Lenses, Solo Stoves, and BeardBrand to high-end eCommerce stores like West Elm, Target, Wayfair, Old Navy and so on.
All of them use automated marketing funnels — predominantly email funnels with cross-channel capabilities.
If high ROI from your eCommerce email marketing feels as though it’s eluding you, then it’s time to explore how to better equip your brand with the right automations.
At Sendlane, we’ve sent billions of emails. And hundreds of millions of those messages are automated eCommerce emails sent for brands just like yours.
These funnels are working. They work for us. They work for our customers. They’re working for other brands. And they can work for you too.
We have rounded up the top automated funnels that have both proven high ROI and are simple enough to start implementing today.

5

If you don’t have an automated welcome email funnel for your brand, then take this as a sign — you NEED one. When I hear from brands that don’t have this set in place, it’s the first thing I tell them to add because of how overwhelmingly beneficial it is for eCommerce. Not only do Welcome emails have an 83% higher open-rate than the average newsletter, but they also generate 320% more revenue(1) per email than promotional emails. To add to that, they can positively impact other important things like deliverability and your email sender rating — that thing that keeps you out of the Spam folder. New leads and potential customers who show a real interest will sign up for your email list. But if you let that interaction fall silent on your end then it doesn’t leave a good impression or any impression at all. These are vital, so much so that it’s the first on the list just for that reason. Thankfully, this funnel doesn’t need to be complicated. Simply let your brand voice shine through when you say thank you/ hello, and use it to mark the start of a new relationship. The standard is three in a Welcome Funnel, but you should adjust it to fit your needs. The first email should be sent immediately after someone either subscribes to your list or purchases from you. Welcome Funnel Template 6

Here a few more important things to consider including in your welcome emails: Your story Your mission Social proof Asking for a referral (ex. “Have a friend who might find this interesting? Feel free to share this with them”) Keep the tone of these emails warm, inviting, or even fun if that fits your brand. But be especially thankful. A warm welcome and a “thanks for joining our list, it means a lot to us,” goes a long way. Remember, people are human. Warmth in your tone can leave the impression that your brand is personable as you go about building a loyal customer out of a new contact. Your first email sent can do more than say thank you. It can explain how to get started with a product via an instruction video. Or it can show how to explore your brand further by joining you on social media. If doing so doesn’t hurt the bottom line, use these welcome messages to offer a coupon or free shipping to convert your automation into sales. These emails are all about starting things off on the right foot and nurturing a good relationship. Be creative and let these emails go with the flow of what makes sense to share during this first interaction with your brand. Don’t worry about the number of emails or waiting until you think you have everything perfect. Done is better than perfect, and this particular funnel is too important to not have running on your website. 7

Abandoned Cart Funnel Template At just under 70%, abandoned cart rates are at the highest they’ve been in the past five years. Cart reminders save an average of 12%-15% revenue that would have been lost without them. And by adding personalization to your automated funnel, it can increase that average by a long shot. For your store to thrive, you — quite literally — cannot afford to go without automated cart reminders as part of your marketing strategy. Effective Abandoned Cart Reminders can have as many as four to five messages in the sequence, and can look something like this: The first email in your sequence should be clear and to the point. Use their name and images of the products they’ve left in their cart to personalize the email. Try to use a large, bold button that will take them back to their cart. Don’t add much more than that. You want the direction to be one way without other distractions. The second email is equally important because it gives a sense of urgency from a fear of missing out on something they’re interested in. And if all else fails, you can use the third email to offer a discount. Another important note is to set the automation goal for a purchase so that if a conversion happens anywhere in the funnel, the automation will end. That way, you’re not sending emails even though they’ve purchased the items in your cart. 8

Cart reminders don’t have to be email-based only. If SMS marketing is available with your ESP, you should also be able to weave SMS into your automation. Studies show that SMS messages have a 99% open-rate(2) — yep, you read that right — making them perfect for cart reminders as they can increase the chances for conversion. And, finally, don’t be afraid of being playful with the subject line and main headings in your emails. Something like... “We noticed you noticing us” via West Elm’s cart reminder emails “Uh, oh. Did you forget something?” via TOMS shoes’ cart reminders “Is Your Wi-Fi Okay?” via Adidas shoes “Your shopping bag has abandonment issues” via Dote apparel brand Take a look at your audience to get an idea of how playful you can be with your tone and voice. Eliciting emotion is all part of the puzzle, and playfulness can add yet another layer of personality to your brand. It seems small but it goes a long way. 9

Repeat customers are where the money’s at. Just consider a few stats(3) to back that up: It costs 5% more to acquire a new customer than compared to keeping a current one. It’s 16x more expensive to bring a new customer up to the same level as the current one. The probability of selling to an existing customer is 60%-70%. The probability of selling to a new prospect is 5%-20%. 80% of your future profits will come from just 20% of your existing customers. I think it’s safe to say that maintaining a constant focus on current customers is vital for an eCommerce business. But that one-to- one personal touch can be a tough thing to execute in a digital world. However, this automated funnel takes the aim to help Personalize communications based on purchase history to humanize your marketing, build up customer loyalty, and encourage repeat purchases. There are many ways to build out Post- Purchase Follow-Up Automations — which I’ll cover in more detail below. But, as the name suggests, all of these funnel types are triggered only after someone makes a purchase. Simple Post-Purchase Follow-Up Funnel Template 11

A simple post-purchase funnel that you can easily get started with are as follows: That first “Thank You” email is vital. Always say thank you. It’s polite and humanizes your brand. However, customize this email to your brand. Perhaps you can include setup instructions in this email to add to the customer experience if that applies to the product purchased. The second and third emails are important to encourage additional sales. You could offer free shipping, a free gift with a purchase or just a simple discount. Whatever works for your bottom line. 12

As mentioned before, there are different types of post-purchase funnels that you can create. The automated funnel listed above gives you a basic funnel you can build, but this one is like the 2.0 version; it definitely takes it up a notch. This type of Transactional Post-Purchase Funnel is an email automation triggered by a purchase which then heavily communicates the order-to-delivery process while encouraging repeat purchases. It does include types of transactional emails like those mentioned above, but not every single one. It gives your brand the advantage of giving a one-to-one feel to each customer, only it’s fully automated. This funnel type has other advantages too. For instance, this funnel would include order confirmation emails that tend to have open-rates as high as 70%. And 64% of customers(4) view this type of email to be the most valuable they receive from brands. The tricky part with this funnel type is figuring out how to get your marketing toolset to execute this funnel correctly. If you use Shopify for your online store, then order confirmation, shipping, and delivery emails can be handled through other integrations with your platform, while the other emails can be handled through your ESP as a basic post-purchase automation. If that’s the case, run tests to get the timing right so that your funnel flows well and isn’t choppy. Transactional Post-Purchase Funnel Template

While Amazon seems to have pioneered profitable recommendations, you don’t need to be Amazon to send these Personalized Product Recommendations to your customers. These types of emails are another great way to gain sales from previous customers. Studies across multiple industries found that product recommendations accounted for more than 30% of eCommerce revenue(5) making these a MUST- HAVE for eCommerce brands that plan to survive a highly competitive marketing world. There are two main ways you can send these recommendations: You can build out a single automation that uses a couple of product recommendation emails in the automation funnel You can include these product recommendation emails in another funnel type, such as a post Both should be fairly easy to execute if your ESP or marketing automation tool has an easy way to create these recommendation emails. For the first example, you could create a funnel that triggers once someone subscribes to your list. Then, a few days later, if they haven’t purchased anything, you can send a product recommendation email. Contact subscribes → Wait 3 days → Send Product Recommendation Include reviews about your products and user-generated content to boost your perceived value to your contacts. You can add this email type to a welcome or post-purchase funnel to test how it affects the ROI of your automations, too. Don’t worry about these being perfect right off the bat. Give them a try for 1-2 months to benchmark your current standing and then tweak areas in your funnel and test again to see how it impacts ROI. 14

Personalized Product Recommendations Funnel Template 15

Sometimes, love fades. Those once active, loyal customers might stop opening your emails or buying products from you. It happens, but what should you do? Just scrub your contact list of these ones and call it good? Sure, you could, but only as a last resort. These people already know your brand, they bought multiple things from you. Reigniting that brand love is still going to take less money and time than trying to replace them with a new customer. According to Experian, re-engagement emails have an average ROI of $28.50 for every $1 spent.(6) On the flip side, the average cost to gain a new subscriber costs roughly $55.24 per contact. So the math is simple: Better retention = better profits. That’s why a Re-Engagement Funnel is vital because it addresses the inactive subscriber issue head-on — and on autopilot. The purpose of this funnel is two-fold: To win back inactive subscribers or customers to become active and loyal again To get keep your list clean or anyone who really isn’t interested anymore The first one positively impacts your ROI and the second positively impacts your email health score and deliverability, so it’s a win-win on all accounts. You should have an automation set up to trigger after a subscriber hasn’t opened and/or clicked through your campaigns for that last 3-6 months. When they hit that mark, send them an email or SMS message encouraging them to come back. If you have their phone number, using SMS is a great way to get attention quickly. Your subject line here needs to grab attention. Tell them you miss them, use an emoji or two (not more though), and keep the length short. 17

Inside the email, keep things to the point and offer them a special discount for coming back to you. If they don’t open, click or purchase, send another email in a week. If the same thing happens, send another email 20 some days after that one. If they don’t respond to your efforts, then that’s when it’s good to scrub your list of them. Keep the people engaged with you and refrain from annoying those who aren’t. This funnel will help you do that while increasing sales. Re-Engagement Funnel Template 18

Asking someone’s honest opinion about something close to your heart isn’t an easy thing to do. One of two things can happen: They say something that makes you feel really good, or They tell you the truth and it’s less than stellar The latter scenario tends to be so uncomfortable that we avoid the topic altogether. But that avoidance tends to leak into running an online store. Product Feedback or Review Requests are important, but fear of a bad review or poor feedback makes many store owners shy away from asking. But, trust me, you really shouldn’t avoid this. Feedback is super powerful for your business if you analyze it correctly. You can learn what customers like, what they don’t like, and gather information on improvements to make to your products or customer service to improve in areas where your competition is failing. And gathering product reviews are also important since 95% of online shoppers look at reviews (7) anyway. There are numerous other benefits such as increased trust from transparency, better social proof, impact to SEO, better visibility in Google Shopping and much more. There are different ways to craft a funnel and at different stages of the customer’s journey. You should have feedback request automations triggered for events like these: • 3 days after their order was delivered • If they buy but then cancel before it’s shipped • If they return an item • If they leave a poor review Product Feedback Request Funnel Template Depending on your toolset, exactly how you execute these automation funnels will change but they’ll help you gather valuable data on how to improve your customer experience and business decisions in the long run.

Automated funnels don’t need to be solely email-based. Good marketing mixes in the various channels that work for your brand is what helps you to grow your business. Customer Retargeting Funnels are exactly that. They give you a chance to mix your email marketing with SMS and retargeting ads to turn casual shoppers into customers. The capabilities of this funnel-type becomes even more powerful if you utilize a marketing automation tool that tracks user behavior since they can personalize the retargeting for a better one-to-one approach. Retargeting alone is powerful — people who see a retargeting ad are 70% more likely to convert.(8) But mixing it together with your highest ROI marketing channel (email) and personalization efforts amplify the effectiveness of your marketing as a whole. A tracking pixel on your site would retarget customers with ads on social, while your email and SMS work to get in touch with them personally and on autopilot. However, they’re all working together to make the sale. Test your email’s subject lines and any discount offerings. Keep the copy to the point. Does free shipping convert better than a discount? Does conversion rate change if a holiday is coming up? Test SMS and look at conversion metrics in your funnel to see if they help increase sales. Don’t be afraid to test something new. The best results can come from unexpected places but you won’t know unless you try. Customer Retargeting Funnel Template 20

New Product Launch Funnel Template Announcing new products is nothing new. Brands like Kickstarter have built entire businesses around giving people a platform to launch new products to the world. But launch a new product to your eCommerce store can be a big deal for companies that craft or create products themselves. If you’ve been gathering feedback on your products —hopefully, through the use of feedback funnels — then you’ve likely learned that your new product will resonate with some or all of your customers. Building anticipation around a new product and helping it sell is what the New Product Launch funnel is all about. Before you launch, use your website, social media and email to tell your audience that you’re working on something new and invite them to opt-in to a segmented VIP launch list. This can help build anticipation around your launch and make your customers feel like they have the inside scoop. As you near the day of your launch, tease your customers with a scheduled email telling them to keep an eye on their inbox in the coming days for the VIP Launch. Schedule your Launch email to go out your list and give them a chance to pre- order your new product, even offering an additional incentive for them to do so. For all the people who didn’t opt-in to buying your new product, trigger an automated feedback request email to learn why they didn’t. For all the people who did, trigger a feedback request to learn what they liked about the new product and what they think about it. 22

Anniversaries are important to remember in any relationship, including the relationship you have with your customers. Automated Anniversary Funnels not only show that you haven’t forgotten about your dear loyal customers, but they also help you gain new repeat sales and added customer loyalty to boot. In fact, these types of emails produce 7x more revenue(*) than email promo blasts do, so there’s certainly a good reason to use them! As the name suggests, this automation is designed to go out on the month, week or day that marks an important event. It could be on their birthday, the anniversary of the day they signed up to your list or the day marking their first purchase from you. Granted, each of those would need its own segmentation/automation. But they all play a role in recognizing something important — which usually is why they’re so effective at generating income. The easiest way to get started is to focus on the anniversary of their first purchase. Depending on your ESP or marketing automation tool, the way you can execute this will be different. But the basic idea here is that you should set up a way to track the first purchase of each person through your ESPs and then six months or one year later, automatically send a Happy Anniversary email or SMS to each person. If you can’t find an exact way to do this with your ESP, there could be a workaround such as segmenting your list based on purchases made between certain dates or adding a tag that then triggers that automation. This may be possible to execute through your eCommerce platform too. But dig through your toolset to see what’s possible. If there’s a will, there’s a way. Happy Anniversary Funnel Template 23

There are more than a few that you can start using as soon as you wrap up reading this final page. While automated funnels need time and attention from time to time, that shouldn’t keep you from using them. Just to emphasize their place in your marketing strategy, here are a few benefits to what marketing automation and automated funnels can offer you: They can automate more of your one-to-one and personalization tasks better in a digital landscape They collect more soluble data that can prove powerful for your growth They give you more time to focus on marketing methods that work and to test new things is areas that are working for your brand Those three things cannot be oversold, not today in a world where every brand is competing for people’s attention. The brands that keep in touch, show they care and who make an effort to stand out the right way in customer’s inboxes are the ones that are winning now and who will outpace the competition in the years to come. These 10 automated funnels, when backed with personalization and user behavior data, can help you do just that. Take them. Use them. Make them your own. They’re designed to help eCommerce stores thrive. We built Sendlane to help eCommerce store owners like you make the most of your email marketing automation efforts. If you’re interested in Sendlane or have questions about our platform, feel free to reach out at any time. Again, thank you for downloading this ebook. I hope it helps you have an awesome marketing year! Catch you next time, Jimmy Kim & The Sendlane Marketing Team 24

1. https://www.wordstream.com/blogs/2017/06/29/email-marketing-statistics 2. https://www.redeye.com/insights/blog/sms-marketing-vs-email-marketing-who-wins 3. https://smallbiztrends.com/2016/10/customer-retention-statistics.html 4. https://chamaileon.io/resources/order-confirmation-email-best-practices/ 5. https://www.barilliance.com/personalized-product-recommendations-stats/ 6. https://www.pinpointe.com/blog/ultimate-email-subscriber-re-engagement-guide 7. https://learn.g2.com/customer-reviews-statistics 8. https://www.cmo.com/features/articles/2013/11/20/15_Stats_Retargeting.html *http://www.marketingprofs.com/charts/2010/3751/birthday-anniversary-emails-generate- more-revenue 25

Attract the special someone.or ex partner back into your life? -RESULT A...