Email remarketing can be an extremely effective revenue-generation channel. Use it to capture visitors who browsed, but did not book, as well as convert abandoners with an eye-catching subject line.
Today’s customers expect and reward companies that deliver hyper-personalization. One way of providing customers with this personalized experience is using data-driven emails.
1. Social Proof
Social proof can be an effective way of encouraging customers to complete their purchase, tapping into conformity and FOMO (fear of missing out) as motivation for completion. Furthermore, this technique acts as a heuristic, shortening the decision-making process by providing relevant data that validates consumers’ choices.
Dollar Shave Club’s email contains a compelling call-to-action button labeled, “Try Us.” This powerful CTA creates an emotional response by showing customers who are already enjoying using their product or service.
Email copy also mentions social media channels where customers can leave more positive reviews about their experience with the business, providing further social proof that it is legitimate, trustworthy and will offer customers high-quality experiences.
Emails also contain a link for customers to review their cart, an often-overlooked feature which can increase cart recovery rates. This feature is especially valuable in increasing rates at stores offering multiple products or variations of one product (such as hotels). An easily searchable list of the items added to a cart helps customers recall why they had intended to make the purchase and aids recovery rates.
Moment’s email utilizes personalized sender field to make it seem more personal, which may also help boost open rates. Aside from its subject line, Moment provides concise but focused communication designed to address customer pain points; in particular, in its body text they outlined common reasons for cart abandonment as well as encouraging customers to reply if any problems occurred during checkout process.
2. Money Off
Provide customers with money off as an added incentive or reminder, whether it be an extra push or immediate reminder. Google’s abandoned cart follow up email offers customers a chance to save 10% when booking via this email with its clear call to action and clear details such as destination and flight details; providing this extra information removes roadblocks for booking, increasing their motivation to complete it and making their experience better overall.
This email takes a personalized approach by showing a screenshot of their cart, showing that you care and invoking their sense of urgency by saying, “going, going (almost) gone”. This email embodies all the key components for an effective abandoned cart follow up – great copywriting, personalization, an alluring offer and an incentivizing call-to-action that leads to quick booking.
SmartrMail enables you to easily add product recommendations in your abandoned cart email automatically using website triggers or webhooks – another fantastic feature of these emails! Personalized recommendations in abandoned cart emails can increase average order values while also driving additional sales from customers who may have been searching for something they weren’t finding before abandoning their carts.
Be sure to conduct tests of both email subject lines and CTAs prior to making your final selections. Furthermore, testing one element at a time allows you to observe which elements work together effectively to generate action.
3. Risk Reversal
As in the previous example, FOMO and scarcity work well to generate urgency and entice users to convert. But this email utilizes another psychological tactic which is especially relevant in hospitality: risk aversion. People tend to avoid risks when it comes to spending their money; offering guarantees or free cancellation can help mitigate this risk and encourage bookings.
One of the leading causes of hotel booking cancellation is cost concerns. Companies have discovered that offering free shipping in abandoned cart recovery emails is an effective way to overcome this barrier to conversion – proven to increase conversion rates by over 40%!
Hotels should use this opportunity to remind their guests about their generous refund and return policies, with 55% of surveyed shoppers preferring stores with clear return policies over those without. This tactic can be especially important given that hotel chargeback rates are among the highest across all verticals – these chargebacks occur when guests experience issues during their stay, such as no-show charges, incorrect room rates or unexpected minibar or dining expenses that incur charges backs from credit card companies initiated by guests themselves.
To address this problem, hotels are encouraged to communicate their return and cancellation policies across all channels of sales – including the abandoned cart recovery email – in a clear and understandable manner. Furthermore, robust systems should be in place that detect errors resulting in unnecessary chargebacks; otherwise they risk facing high volumes of disputed transaction refunds and cancellations.
4. Scarcity
Ecommerce businesses that utilize scarcity can create a perception of limited supplies that drives customer behavior. This can be accomplished by advertising products as limited-time or exclusive offers with bold or red colors to draw customer’s attention, using text overlays or icons to emphasize exclusivity, countdown timers or progress bars to demonstrate urgency, as well as social proof to enhance conversion scarcity.
Scarcity can be an effective tool when emailing cart abandoners, but it must not come across as exploitative or manipulative. Overusing or inappropriate implementation of scarcity cues may damage consumer trust and your brand reputation.
Le Puzz, an online puzzle and games retailer, leverages playful branding to establish an emotional bond with their customers in their abandoned cart emails. Furthermore, using an individual’s first name in their subject lines enhances the experience and encourages recipients to open them rather than skip or mark as spam.
Include images or videos of the product as another way to make an abandoned cart follow-up email more appealing, especially if they highlight its value such as discounts or free shipping offers.
Add links to live chat or telephone numbers so your customers have immediate access to help; this may help drive conversion. Partnering with technology solutions that display dynamic urgency messages is also an effective way of keeping messages relevant with real-time demand and availability; for instance Hotelchamp Convert notifies shoppers when one or more rooms they have selected are going fast based on actual booking rates and selected dates for stays.
5. Urgency
Urgency may be a well-known conversion strategy in eCommerce, yet hoteliers appear to neglect its application in hospitality. This is unfortunate, as urgency could serve to shorten booking lead times and deter guests from shopping around on competing websites. As long as urgency is used sparingly and not for manipulative gain, every hotelier should incorporate urgency into their cart abandonment email strategy.
Key to using urgency successfully is making the email feel personal to its recipient. By including their name in the subject line of cart abandonment emails, you can increase open rates while creating an intimate experience where customers feel like someone from your brand is speaking directly to them.
Ugmonk’s abandoned cart recovery email shows how personalization can create an emotionally engaging message and encourage recipients to take action. Furthermore, their email features a note from their founder that further emphasizes the craftsmanship and personal touch that goes into their products.
An integral component of an effective cart recovery email is creating a sense of urgency around time-limited offers that prompt customers to make quick purchase decisions. Offering discounts or free shipping are great, but for true impactful offers that drive purchases quickly you should also consider timed incentives like cart expiration dates or a one-time price reduction offer.
Scarcity can be an extremely effective tool in increasing cart abandonment conversion rates when combined with social proof. Just be sure that all emails come across as genuine and don’t come across as spammy!