Your goal as a marketer is likely developing first-rate experiences to build awareness and engagement, and ultimately converting people into paying customers. This means delivering tailored messaging across channels to move individuals along the customer journey and make a purchase. But what happens after they’ve purchased something?

The next must-have email in our ongoing series is the post-purchase email campaign. While they may not be as high a priority for your marketing team, these emails can make or break your relationship with customers. Keep reading to learn more about why post-purchase campaigns increase customer engagement and loyalty.

Why do you need post-purchase emails?

It’s not enough to get someone to make a single purchase; you want to communicate with them consistently enough to encourage additional transactions. In fact, it costs five times more to acquire a new customer than it is to keep an existing one.

When a person makes a purchase, they’ve shown interest in your brand and made it easy for you to gather details about their demographics and interests－a gold mine for marketers. Post-purchase emails are a way to use this information in order to keep the conversation going and develop a loyal relationship.

3 tips for effective post-purchase emails

Consider these best practices when strategizing your post-purchase email campaigns.

1. Choose which type of post-purchase email(s) you want to send

You can follow up with a recent customer in a variety of ways, including the following:

1. 1. • Thank you email: Show appreciation for the purchase, creating product-specific messaging (tips for use, assembly, etc.) and encouraging social shares.
      • Confirmation emails: Let the customer know when their order has been processed and shipped.
      • Review request email: Ask for and incentivize a review for the product purchased, via various review channels (on your website, social media, etc.).
      • Product recommendation email: Suggest similar or supplementary products for upselling and cross-selling opportunities.
      • Replenishment reminder email: If you sell products that will need to be refilled or replaced, like perfume, candles, food items, etc., notify customers after a sensible period of time when it’s time to replenish.
      • Referral email: Offer a discounted price on a future purchase when a customer refers a friend, family member or colleague to your brand.
      • Non-promotional email: Provide ideas and tips based on what the customer purchased (e.g., if they bought a kitchen tool, send recipe ideas or best practices for use) so your audience sees you as a trusted resource.

2. Segment and personalize

In this day and age, every email correspondence you send should be personalized in some way. Instead of delivering a broad, generic post-purchase email to all customers, send different emails to different customer segments based on the criteria you’ve set. You can segment based on when they last engaged with you, whether they opened or clicked within a specific email, or transactional attributes such as what was purchased, when it was purchased, how many purchases a person has made, or the average amount spent per purchase.

3. Timing is everything

Consumers receive dozens of promotional emails every day, so it’s important to get yours to them at just the right moment. Whether you decide to incorporate one or all of the post-purchase emails listed above, make sure the timing of each is as personalized as its content. Features within your email service provider should allow for you to deploy emails to recipients’ inboxes when they are most likely to engage with it. Also, be sure to space out the emails to avoid coming on too strong.

The marketing emails you send to a customer after he or she has made a purchase are equally, if not more important than the emails you send before. Loyal customers are what helps your brand flourish and grow.

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