The holy grail of business is, well, repeat business.
Getting one customer to pay you 10 times is cheaper (and, when done right, easier) than getting 10 customers to pay you once.
Well, in consumables, that is.
What about non-consumable items?
You could just design it to be low-cost and flimsy. But then, customers won’t want to do business with you.
So you have to design a quality product that lasts.
Puts you in a dilemma — how do you get repeat business from customers who bought your durable item and won’t need another for multiple years?
You have to get a bit more creative.
I mean, it’s hard to sign your customer up for a “subscribe & save” or even encourage repeat purchases manually when your offer isn’t something like food or supplements.
This narrows your options… but doesn’t eliminate them.
In fact, it helps you focus more efforts on what you can do — cross-selling.
About Rounded
Rounded is a handgun holster manufacturer that manufactures tons of holsters for over 150 handgun models. The company sells many other firearms-related products (belts, handgun accessories, etc.) and apparel.
Rounded was founded (I’m a poet lol) as Concealment Express in 2014 by Ben Jimenez. According to Rounded’s About page, Mr. Jimenez wanted a high-quality holster so he could carry in order to protect his family.
He ran into a problem when he ordered a holster and it took 8 WEEKS to arrive. So he took matters into his own hands. He prototyped a holster in his garage and, after manufacturing it, sold it online.
Business grew fast. The garage became a shed… and the shed soon became a full-on factory in Jacksonville, FL. That’s right — Rounded makes these holsters in the USA. Rounded goes out of their way to recruit military veterans into the company as well.
They started with KYDEX holsters but expanded into other materials and types of holsters. Overall, it’s quite a success story.
Now how about that email…
The Email: A Very Short, But Worth-a-Look Winback/Cross-Sell Hybrid Email
Holsters are not consumable products. So it can be tough to get repeat purchases in this industry.
Traditional winback emails won’t work. Rounded takes a better approach:
A hybrid of a cross-sell and winback email.
Context:
A magazine holster holds 1-2 extra magazines (the thing that lets you feed bullets into the gun). This lets someone carry extra rounds concealed if they must employ their firearm in self-defense.
Thus, this would be a great next purchase for the customer.
Let’s look at the subject line and email…
The Subject Line: “touching base with you…”
Rounded knows how to start a winback email. Take a look at this subject line:
It’s personal. It’s curiosity-provoking. The first letter is lowercase, grabbing my eyeballs.
I haven’t heard from this brand via email in a while, and the sander name was “Rounded by Concealment Express” (I vaguely recognized it), grabbing my attention even more.
I had to open it to find out why they were contacting me.
The Body Copy
Our body copy here is quite personal from the get-go:
Trianna is talking to me — not just “Rounded customer service” or anything.
She’s also thanking me personally for buying the holster. Adds more of the personal touch. Makes it feel less like yet another sales email.
Just enough buttering me up for the pitch:
Oh, a discount, you say?
I didn’t buy because I wasn’t in the market for a magazine holster, but it’s a pretty good and straightforward offer for someone who is.
Wait… where’s the coupon code?
That’s where this next little bit of genius comes in:
Encouraging replies boosts deliverability since email providers see that people actually interact with you. It tells the provider that people want your emails.
But further:
It makes the customer “micro-commit.”
Sure, providing them the discount upfront reduces the steps needed, but it also reduces the chance of securing the sale.
However, if the customer has to take a simple action to get the discount, psychology says they’re more likely to use it.
Not to mention that people who reply are the types who wanted the sale anyway.
Once Trianna provides the coupon code, the customer can click the hyperlinked “magazine holsters” to shop. No need to navigate elsewhere.
Oh, and another thing: If you can’t get a coupon to auto-apply from the tech side of things, this method of “reply for the code” helps you skip that.
Wow. Lots packed into a simple line!
Let’s finish this email off with a nice little personal signoff:
Varying the job title is something I like to do with clients to add personality and humor. For example, “Professional Discount Dealer” instead of “Sales Rep”.
Similar concept here, although not quite as zany as some I’ve done. Head of Customer WOW Is definitely better than “Head of Customer Service”.
Takeaways
Here are some big takeaways:
1. The Copy Mechanics
The email uses no visuals. It’s entirely copy — and it sounds like Trianna is talking to you.
I read these kinds of emails much more often. They stick out because it feels like a human being just quickly wrote up this email and sent it to me. They didn’t put in a bunch of fancy schmancy marketing gimmicks.
So the big copy takeaway is to write like a human, regardless of company size. It’s okay for emails to “come from” different people at the company, too.
2. The Email Structure
The email starts with a thank-you to show gratitude, establish good feelings, remind the customer that they bought the product in question, and reacquaint the customer with Rounded.
That single line is necessary for the pitch, which comes right after.
The big structure takeaway here is that if you’re sending a cross-sell/winback hybrid email, you need to jog the customer’s memory. Otherwise, they might dismiss the email as some random person or spam.
3. The Overall Strategy
“Why do you need so much ammo for your handgun?”
Let me answer with a question… Have you ever had to shoot accurately under stress?
I have. Against a paper target moving towards me at moderate walking speed. In a controlled training scenario supervised by an instructor.
(I can shoot stationary targets almost dead on the bullseye at further distances with a handgun).
And yet it was a struggle to train the firearm on center mass at just a few feet while backing up and making sure I didn’t trip over anything.
Now, imagine that paper target is a 6’2”, 220-lb guy coming at you with a knife. Or has a gun and is shooting at you. Or you even hit your target once or twice and they don’t stop coming at you.
I’ll take the extra ammo.
Better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it.
Also, most people carry a compact or subcompact. Some have up to 12 rounds in a magazine (a true miracle of engineering), while others have 7-8.
This is not to go on a gun debate rant but to show you why a magazine holster can be an easy sale.
It’s the perfect offer to present to someone who has the holster. It complements what they bought from you.
That’s the big strategy takeaway here.
Sell someone the next thing they will need. If you’re in an industry that doesn’t sell consumable products, cross-sell in a winback email.
Costs you much less than trying to acquire new customers for your primary offer.
And that brings me to one other takeaway: Develop complementary offers.
For Rounded, there are tons of opportunities:
- Magazine holsters
- Different holsters for the same firearm (a classy leather one vs. a more utilitarian KYDEX one)
- Specialized handgun holsters for particular attachments (optic, weapon-mounted light, etc.)
- Accessories
- Apparel
Do you have complementary offers? Might be worth developing.
What to Do Next
- Get on my email list using the signup form below.
- Reach out to me if you want help writing emails like this one.
- Share this post with someone who would find it helpful or insightful.
- Check out Concealment Express for all your handgun carry needs!