Email flows never cease to amaze me.
You bang out some simple, fun emails. You stitch them together into a sequence, separated by time delays. Maybe add a split or two…
Then you set that thing live and it makes money forever.
It’s why flows are the first thing I tackle with any brand.
Further…
When you’re doing 8 figures, a few flows can literally mean $100k+ a month.
That describes one of my past clients. In this case study, I’ll show you how we did this with 3 simple email flows.
The Challenge
Huge company. Huge traffic. Huge sales figures. Huge list. Great positioning. Solid reputation.
And yet, under the surface…
Their margins were slimmer than they had hoped for.
They knew there must have been some way to make more without directly spending more (i.e. lead generation).
The Solution
One of the lowest-handing fruit for big brands is customer abandonment.
Think of it as a funnel. At every stage of the buying process, a few customers fall off:
- Browse Abandonment: People who view a product on the website but never add it to cart.
- Add to Cart Abandonment: People who add a product to cart but don’t reach checkout.
- Checkout Abandonment: People who reach the checkout page but don’t complete their order.
Building an automated email flow that targets each stage can scoop up easy sales, adding a big chunk of change to your revenue.
The client had sequences at each stage, but they were minimalistic — 1-2 emails max, without much copy.
It was more like “Hey, get this product!” The customer did not feel a reason to buy.
So the brand was “leaking” a lot of sales. Our goal was to replace the existing sequences with new ones, recovering lost sales and raising automated revenue.
Hence, we built a “Customer Abandonment Complex” of 3 abandonment flows.
Results:
In case those are hard to see:
- Browse Abandonment Flow: Implemented May 3, 2024. $69,272.91 in 26 days.
- Add to Cart Abandonment Flow: Implemented May 16, 2024. $45,475.89 in 13 days.
- Checkout Abandonment Flow: Implemented May 20, 2024. $10,609.64 in 9 days.
In total, ~$125,000 additional revenue per month… or ~$1.5 million additional revenue annually.
Let’s go over what we did for each.
Abandoned Browse Flow
RESULTS: $69,272.91 in 26 days
At the Browse Abandon stage, the customer is in a “browsing” mindset. They have not shown a strong commitment to buying anything.
Now, ALL abandonment flows MUST sell. However, the goal here is to educate the customer about the brand and product…
Encouraging them to explore that product again.
So our emails did just that:
- We explained our USP
- We set ourselves apart from the competition
- We showed why the right products enhance their space (and the wrong ones can ruin it)
Toward the end, we offered a small discount with an urgent expiry.
The thinking here is that most browse abandoners are first-time customers. If we can get them in the door and wow them, they’ll come back to buy more blinds or shades.
Overall, we wrote 7 emails. You might think that sounds long, but it’s not. It helps cover objections, overcome any missed emails, and educate them into buying.
Lastly, this brand had a LOT of products. Thus, many emails contained product blocks recommending similar products to the one viewed.
Such a tactic works best in an Abandoned Browse Flow since the customer has not committed to a specific product(s) via adding to cart.
Abandoned Cart Flow
RESULTS: $45,475.89 in 13 days
Customers who reach the Cart Abandon stage have shown much more interest in the product compared to browsing.
Abandoning at this stage means they were unsure about the product and possibly comparison shopping.
Our emails here addressed product-related objections, such as quality and variety.
We also used social proof about the products, including customization and ease of installation.
One of the client’s strong points is their guarantee:
If the blinds or shades don’t fit right, contact them within 60 days, and they’ll remake the products correctly for free… even if the customer measured wrong.
Like with the Browse Abandonment, we offered a discount toward the end. We figured most abandoners are new customers and thus unsure.
Losing some margin now to get them over the edge is worth it for this client.
Many customers are repeat buyers — once they get one set of blinds, they fall in love and outfit more windows in our products.
Abandoned Checkout Flow
RESULTS: $10,609.64 in 9 days
Customers who reach Checkout Abandonment were on the precipice… but got cold feet at the last second.
Here, objections are more often about price, shipping, and so on.
Everything is more urgent, too.
We warned them we’d empty their cart out of respect for other customers — some items go out of stock and we have to be fair to other customers.
(Pro tip: That’s an excellent, subtle proof point. If things are in high demand, that means you have a good product.)
We used a discount toward the end, even after we cleared their cart, so they could buy something else.
Again, they are THIS close. We don’t want to beat around the bush. We want them to CONVERT.
We also invited them to call customer service since many prefer to cut the Gordian knot of figuring things out by speaking to a human.
Other Notes
- Social proof: We stuck a testimonial at the bottom of every flow to boost customer trust. We carefully selected testimonials to highlight specific benefits, objections, etc.
- Imagery: Each email used dynamic images of their products to remind them about what they were considering.
- Timelines: Again, we implemented flows in a staggered fashion. Browse Abandonment, then Cart, then Checkout. That’s why the number of days doesn’t “add up to” a month. We did Cart, for example, a few days after Browse.
Capture the “Low-Hanging Fruit” Today
This brand liked shorter emails with some images and design elements throughout, so each flow was fairly similar.
But as you may have noticed, each spoke to customers at different stages of the buying process.
The results — $125k/month in revenue — speak for themselves.
And as long as this brand leaves those flows alone, they make that money in perpetuity. Even though we no longer work with them.
I have these flows down to a science. I can knock them out within a week, from idea to Klaviyo implementation…
If that tells you anything about just how easy it is to raise your “passive revenue floor” with these three flows.
If you’re hunting for ways to boost ROAS and pad your profit margins, look over your existing abandonment flows and build any that don’t yet exist.
Reach out if you need help. Happy to help you implement these FAST.
What To Do Next
- Share this article with someone who might find it helpful (or entertaining).
- Get my free eBook using the form below to learn the 5 things stopping you from turning “one-and-done” customers into repeat buyers.
- Reach out to me if you have a sizable email list and make less than 20% of your revenue through email.