You know how essential email marketing is in today, but did you ever feel like you’re in a Groundhog Day movie when you send out a welcome sequence to a new subscriber, only to realize they’ve already purchased the product or service you’re offering at the end of it?
Yup, I’ve been there too. You can avoid this embarrassing faux pas by using automations and the magic of segmentation. Intrigued? Let’s dive in!
Understanding the Relationship between a Lead Magnet and a Welcome Sequence
A lead magnet, is a valuable resource you offer for free to attract subscribers, like an e-book or a discount code. When someone opt-in to get this lead magnet, you have a set series of emails you send to deliver the lead magnet and then introduce them to your brand — that’s your welcome sequence.
The Problem with the Typical Welcome Sequence
With a standard welcome sequence you’re assuming that the customer hasn’t bought what you’re offering at the end of the welcome sequence. You might be wondering, “So what, so they get the offer, they can just delete the email.”
The rebuttal is simple: customer experience. You don’t want to annoy your subscriber by trying to sell them something they already own. Instead, you want to use the welcome sequence to nurture the relationship, build trust, and eventually, convince them to make additional purchases.
Using Automations to Do the Work
Before you start to panic, you don’t need to manually sift through your subscribers’ purchases. The power of automations has got you covered!
Sidenote: you would need to update existing email subscribers with tags for their purchases. This can be done with an excel file of customer email addresses and purchases that can be imported into your email list platform.
Most email marketing platforms offer automations and by using these features, you can automatically tag subscribers when they make a purchase and tailor the subsequent content they receive.
Let’s see this in action.
Say, for instance, Mary purchases your course on “How to Boost Your Business’ Online Presence.”
Once the purchase is made, your ecommerce platform sends a signal to your email marketing platform and tags Mary with “Purchased — (the name of the product).”
This way, you can create an alternative welcome sequence specifically for buyers of the “product” that does not include the same offer at the end.
How Can This Be Done?
Now I said simple, but simple isn’t always easy. It’s time to check with your ecommerce platform, such as Gumroad, Etsy, WooCommerce, Squarespace etc. to make sure they have an integration that connects them to your email platform.
Scenario 1
I setup a welcome sequence for a client that sells online lectures. Gravity Forms is being used on a WordPress website to take the registrations and MailerLite is the email list platform.
When a subscriber or existing customer purchases a lecture, they are tagged with the lecture series they purchased such as “Fall 2023”.
Because MailerLite has an integration not only with WordPress but with Gravity Forms, for every sale that’s made, a tag is sent to MailerLite to either add the new customer to the email list or update an existing customer. In both cases the tag is attached to their record.
Any any further launch or reminder emails for this series, excludes people with the tag assigned. And any emails with specific lecture information is sent only to people who are tagged “Fall 2023”.
Scenario 2
Let’s take Brenda who purchased a lecture series and she’s been tagged “Fall 2023”. As she’s reading blog posts, there is an opt-in on one of them and she’s really interested in the topic for the lead magnet, so she signs up.
A typical welcome sequence for that opt-in would deliver the lead magnet in the first email, then the next series of emails would be to introduce the subscriber to the brand, share value and lead up to an offer, which is to signup for a lecture series.
In this case, that’s a poor user experience, since Brenda’s already bought the lecture series. It’s likely going to leave her confused.
So What’s the Solution?
Using the Power of Segmentation to Deliver the Right Content: Segmentation goes hand-in-hand with automations.
Segmentation is all about organizing your subscribers into different groups or segments based on their behavior or interests. Using the tags you’ve added through automation, you can segment your email list and ensure each subscriber gets the content that’s most relevant to them.
In our example, Brenda, along with all other buyers of the “Fall 2023” lecture series, can be grouped into a segment. Then craft a unique welcome sequence for this segment, perhaps offering a complimentary webinar or a special bonus instead of the one they’ve just purchased.
Essentially, your welcome sequence for that lead magnet will take two paths. One without the tag and one with the tag.
- This guarantees that your subscriber that hasn’t purchased, gets a welcome sequence that will make an offer at the end
- And a for the customer that’s already purchased, they will get a different welcome sequence and offer at the end, tailored only for customers of that specific lecture.
The Magic of Personalized Marketing
By using automations and segmentation, you can create personalized welcome sequences that speak directly to your subscribers’ needs and interests, without offering them something they’ve already bought.
Improving the user experience, and increases your chances of conversions in the future.
Wrapping it Up
At this point, you’ve confirmed that your website/ecommerce platform has an integration with your email list provider. Now it’s time to review every welcome sequences to ensure they’re still aligned with your lead magnets and offer, and to come up with an alternative offer for subscribers who have already purchased the offer.
Even though I typically sing praises for simplicity, in this scenario, it’s the little things that matter. Sweating the small stuff can mean the difference between having a grumpy customer and a delighted one!
Until next time, stay inspired!
Gisèle
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