If you’re on my email list, you’ve learned about the “revenue leaks” tons of online businesses suffer… without even knowing about them.
And as a result, these businesses are “leaking” thousands to tens of thousands in pure $$$.
One of these leaks is browse abandonment.
Browse abandonment occurs when someone on your store’s site clicks on a product, looks at it…
But closes the window without adding it to their cart.
That right there is a lost sale… unless you’re tracking your web visitors and using browse abandonment flows.
These flows go out to web visitors who look at products, gently nudging them back to the site to make that purchase.
The result?
You recover some of those lost sales. You plug those “revenue leaks.”
The best part?
These aren’t hard to write. You could do a 3-email flow in 1-2 hours and let it make you money forever.
In that spirit, this post will look at a browse abandonment sequence that’s short and sweet, but, in my opinion, fairly effective.
About The Carnivore Bar
The Carnivore Bar sells animal-based snack bars. It was founded by Phillip Meece, a US Army combat veteran who served in Afghanistan (we love our vet-owned companies, don’t we folks!)
As Mr. Meece says on the brand’s site, he entered the military healthy, but returned rather unhealthy.
Mr. Meece states that he healed by following a carnivore diet after reading/researching/trying numerous diets and lifestyle choices.
While carnivore, he noticed how hard it was for carnivores (and low-carb and keto people) to find convenient, on-the-go snack foods. Can’t exactly cart around a portable grill and a ribeye everywhere.
So Mr. Meece founded The Carnivore Bar to serve this market (there’s a marketing lesson in there, my dear reader.)
Mr. Meece then launched a Kickstarter in 2019 to move from a “kitchen-table business” (he literally made the bars in his kitchen) to a production facility so he could scale.
I proudly contributed $60. The Carnivore Bar sent me a sampling of their bars (they’re great) and a black t-shirt that says “Eat Meat.” above an image of a buck (the deer) inside a triangle.
Today, they sell a few different types of bars. The brand offers them as small sample packs, boxes, and large “ammo cans.” Oh, and those neat little t-shirts.
Their products are not cheap. But that’s the price you pay for high-quality, animal-based snacks. Definitely worth it if you have the budget.
The Email: Their Browse Abandonment Sequence
In this post, we’re looking at a full email sequence. The sequence in question, as I said, is a browse abandonment flow.
This aims to target website visitors who look at specific product listings on the online store.
I clicked on the “Carnivore Ammo Box” product because the name caught my curiosity… and was pleasantly surprised to receive this browse abandonment flow for the next 3 days.
Let’s take a look at it:
Email 1: Remind Them Of The Product They Viewed
First, the Carnivore Bar needs to stand out in the inbox and remind the reader they were looking at something in their store.
Email 1 Subject Line: “Like What You See?”
This subject line revs up curiosity for two reasons.
First, the reader isn’t sure exactly what the subject line is talking about. They want to open the email to alleviate that curiosity.
Second, the subject line is “intensely personal.” It’s addressed to the customer themselves and feels conversational. “What was I looking at that this person is asking about?” the reader might think to themselves.
The first browse abandonment email needs to grab the reader’s attention first since they were simply looking at a product (vs. adding it to their cart and forgetting to check out)…
And I think this subject line does it well.
Email 1 Body Copy: The Product They Browsed… Plus Benefits
I’m not a huge fan of graphic-heavy emails that lack in the copy department. But that’s usually because those brands do nothing but run discounts with those HTMLified emails.
I think the visual focus here is more of a branding thing, and it’s paired with good copy anyways.
First, The Carnivore Bar reminds the reader that they were checking out a The Carnivore Bar product.
Plus, there’s a link to the product and a Shop Now button.
The button works well if it leads to the same product instead of the entire product catalog.
Personally, I’d erase the price in the email to potentially increase the CTR. It’s not unethically “hiding” anything since the price is on the product page…
While also getting the customer to make a “micro commitment” a la Robert Cialdini’s Influence.
Next comes some “about us” copy + some features/benefits of The Carnivore Bar’s products.
The “about us” is good for browse abandonment since buyers just browsing may be less familiar with the brand and its products.
The benefits do the same while helping pull in buyers looking for what The Carnivore Bar offers.
The Carnivore Bar rounds out Email 1 with some urgency.
I like how they have a genuine reason for the product scarcity. This makes the urgency feel real…
And offers The Carnivore Bar a chance to position itself against the big guys/explain what makes them different.
Once again, I don’t know where the Shop Now button goes — but I assume it leads straight to the specific product I browsed.
Email 2: A Second, More Direct Reminder
The reader’s not thinking about The Carnivore Bar day and night, but it’s in their mind a bit more after Email 1.
That causes The Carnivore Bar to be more direct in Email 2:
Email 2 Subject Line: “Your Favorite Flavor Is Waiting!”
Here, we have a benefit-drive headline that also stokes a bit of curiosity.
The customer may be wondering if they, say, won some sort of prize. Or they may be curious what this brand thinks their favorite flavor is.
Either way, this one’s a bit more direct. The word “flavor” is marginally more relevant to the email’s content.
Email 2 Body Copy: Benefits and Action-Oriented Language
The 2nd email in this browse abandonment sequence nails it by listing the product’s benefits without forcing it.
We start with some well-placed imagery and a warning of “Don’t forget your Carnivore Bars”:
Using the word “your” is a subtle bit of persuasion that primes the customer to think about themselves owning the product already. It’s a bit stronger than the word “these.”
After that, a bit of cheeky, adjective-driven copy infuses brand personality and puts the thought of buying in the customer’s head.
This section is followed by one of the primary selling points of The Carnivore Bar: the convenience and portability, allowing customers to eat animal-based products on the go.
Why is this so powerful?
Simple: No one wants to lug a portable grill and a ribeye around. Carnivore Bars let you eat all-meat products on the go.
And speaking of that, The Carnivore Bar highlights its selection of flavors:
Ideally, they’d only push one product. That Shop Now button may do so.
But including the names of the other products does show that customers have choices if they don’t want the exact product highlighted in the sequence.
Email 3: Add Urgency to Close the Sale
Browse abandonment typically shouldn’t go beyond 3 emails since buying intention isn’t super high.
The Carnivore Bar offers one last chance. They cut to the chase with urgency, but also with a twist…
Email 3 Subject Line: “Save 10% off your first order (24 hours left)!”
If a customer hasn’t bought by now after merely browsing a product, throwing them a limited-time discount could increase the chance you land the sale.
The Carnivore Bar is clear with their subject line. This is bound to catch the reader’s attention once more.
Email 3 Body Copy: Straight to the Point
The Carnivore Bar wastes no time: You have 24 hours to score 10% off this order, so move NOW:
They’ve got the countdown timer, discount code, and a link to the product.
Again, I’d cut out price… but it makes a little more sense here since the reader can now calculate how much they’d save.
Then, we’ve got more clarifying copy with a dash of extra urgency:
It never hurts to reiterate the details of the limited-time offer and the urgency several times. The reader won’t get annoyed or anything if they’re this far. If anything, they’ll appreciate you spelling out how much they save and how to get the savings.
Takeaways
Browse abandonments won’t make you millions, but they’re easy to write and set up.
You start with curiosity and personality to secure the open, then remind the customer of the product they were viewing…
Alongside the top 1-2 benefits of the product (or your overall brand).
Each subsequent email gets more direct and urgent until the last — when you can consider offering a slight discount.
See? Pretty simple way to add another small revenue stream to your business.
If you already have abandoned cart flows, consider writing up some quick browse abandonment sequences for your business next. You won’t regret it.
What to Do Next
- Get on my email list.
- Reach out to me if you want help writing emails like this one.
- Go buy some delicious bars from The Carnivore Bar!