Sharm Tank Vol. 42

Nik Sharma
September 13, 2024

Happy Friday!

Before we dive into today's email, a quick heads-up! There's been a lot of buzz lately around the changes coming from Google and Yahoo regarding verified sending domains. If you’re feeling lost or need help with the migration, don’t hesitate to hit us up. We're happy to walk you through it. I’ll also put together a handy guide and share it on our socials soon, so stay tuned for that.

Alright, now onto the good stuff! Let’s talk about something near and dear to every brand's heart: email flows. If you’re not fully leveraging these flows, you’re leaving serious money on the table.

Here’s the lowdown on the must-have email flows and other tips every brand needs to set up ASAP. This will help automate your marketing, build better relationships with your customers, and ultimately drive more revenue—without you having to lift a finger once they’re up and running.

First things first, before you can send any emails, you need to capture those emails! It all begins with a high-converting popup on your website. Every dollar spent driving traffic is wasted if you’re not turning those visitors into leads you can remarket to later.

We love using Amped for our clients. The software is designed to get email capture rates to over 40%, which is pretty much the gold standard.

When setting up your popup, here’s what we recommend:

Ask for the basics: name, email, and phone number. This gives you two channels to reach people.
Offer value: Whether it's a discount, a gift with purchase, or a lead magnet, make sure you're offering something worth their email. Here’s an example from The Skinny Confidential (a Sharma Brands client).

Set Up Your Post-Purchase Email First

This might surprise you, but the post-purchase confirmation email is one of the most important flows to set up, even before the welcome series. This email ensures your customer immediately feels reassured and valued after making a purchase.

What should it include?

A Thank You Note: Personalize it with their name and a warm message.
Order Details: Recap what they bought, total cost, and order number.
Delivery & Shipping Info: Let them know when to expect their order and provide tracking details once it ships.

Not only does this reduce customer service inquiries (“When’s my package arriving?”), but it also builds trust early on.

Welcome Flow

Once you’ve got the post-purchase email squared away, your next priority should be the Welcome Flow. This is your big chance to introduce your brand, share your story, and build trust with new subscribers. We think of it as your brand's first “date” with a potential customer.

Here’s how we like to structure it:

The Icebreaker: Introduce your brand, share your mission, and set expectations for future emails. Timing: Send this right after someone subscribes or makes a purchase.
Why We’re Different: Highlight your unique selling points and offer a small incentive (like free shipping or a discount). Timing: 48 hours after the first email.
Product Showcase: Introduce your best-selling products with social proof, like testimonials or user-generated content. Timing: 72 hours after the second email.
Social Proof: Bring in customer reviews, press mentions, or influencer shoutouts to build trust. Timing: 72 hours after the third email.
Last-Chance Offer: If they still haven’t purchased, hit them with a strong offer to seal the deal. Timing: 1 week after the fourth email.
Trust Builders: Direct them to trusted retailers or marketplaces where your products are sold if they need more convincing.

Winback Flows

Cart abandonment is a huge missed opportunity—research shows that nearly 70% of online shopping carts are abandoned. But don’t worry, winback flows can help you recover a chunk of that lost revenue.

Here’s what you need:

Browse Recovery: Target visitors who browsed but didn’t add to cart.
Cart Recovery: Remind visitors who added items to their cart but didn’t complete checkout.
Checkout Recovery: Nudge shoppers who started but didn’t finish checkout.

Pro tip: For cart and checkout recovery emails, we always recommend offering a discount or free shipping to sweeten the deal. For browse recovery, a friendly reminder is usually enough.

Post-Purchase Upsells

After someone has made a purchase, don’t just sit back and wait. A post-purchase upsell email, sent 1-5 days after their order, can increase your average order value by recommending complementary products. This can be fully automated using tools like Klaviyo, which will dynamically recommend items based on their previous purchase.

Promotional Emails & Templates

Always have a few go-to promo templates ready for when you need to boost sales. Whether it’s for a sitewide discount, product-specific promo, or new product drop, being prepared means you can move fast when needed.

Back-in-Stock Alerts

If your brand frequently runs out of stock, back-in-stock emails are a must. Notify your customers as soon as their desired products are available again, and watch the orders roll in.

Holiday Campaigns

The last thing you want is to be scrambling right before a holiday. Build out holiday email templates in advance so you’re ready to capitalize on key moments throughout the year. Whether it’s BFCM, Mother’s Day, or Christmas, planning ahead pays off.

Referral Program

Word of mouth is one of the most powerful (and cost-effective) growth strategies. A refer-a-friend program is an easy way to tap into that potential. Use a tool like Superfilliate to automate this.

Here’s how it works:

Customers get a unique referral link they can share.
Their friends get a discount on their first purchase.
The referrer earns rewards for every successful referral.

Customer Feedback & Surveys

Want to know what your customers really think? Send a customer feedback survey 2-3 weeks after their product is delivered. We love using KnoCommerce for this. Keep it personal, and even consider sending the survey as a plain-text email from the founder for that extra personal touch.

Segmentation

Segmentation is where email marketing gets truly powerful. Use RFM (Recency, Frequency, Monetary value) to target specific customer groups for more personalized emails.

For example, you can segment based on recent purchases, engagement rates (like opens or clicks), or even how much they’ve spent in the past. The possibilities are endless, and the more targeted your emails, the better they’ll perform.

I’ve shared this before, but here’s a quick example:

T1 - engaged last 4 weeks - receives every email
T2 - engaged between 4-12 weeks - receives every email
T3 - engaged between 12-18 weeks - receives every other email
T4 - engaged between 18 - 24 weeks - receives every other email
T5 - engaged between 24-52 weeks - receives 3-4 emails a month
Sunset - over 1 year
Suppress non-engaged after 12 months

If you need help setting up any of these flows for your brand, don’t hesitate to reach out!

At Sharma Brands, we handle everything from strategy and design to copywriting and automation. Just fill out this form, and we’ll take it from there.