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How to Engage with Consumers Through Personalized Emails and SMS

In the bustling and competitive world of Shopify ecommerce, keeping your customers engaged and coming back for more is the secret to success.

Did you know that personalized emails generate 6X higher transaction rates than non-personalized emails? Or that SMS messaging has a jaw-dropping open rate of 98%?

With personalized emails and SMS notifications, you can sprinkle hyper-personalized product suggestions in your notifications to give your average order value (AOV) a little bit. 

Not to mention increase customer retention, post-purchase bills, and increase lifetime customer value (LTV) to create lasting, loyal relationships.

In this article, we’ll take you through a journey of the world of personalized emails and SMS to help rescue abandoned carts and rekindle the spark with reactivation campaigns. We’ll also share best practices and examples to inspire your data-driven customer retention plan. Let’s begin!

Send unique promotional emails to individuals based on their purchase history

LimeSpot’s data-driven personalized algorithms enable Shopify merchants to create several types of personalized promotional emails for every single customer.

By analyzing customers’ browsing and purchase history, LimeSpot can generate targeted recommendations to improve engagement and drive sales.

Our intelligent algorithms help Shopify merchants craft perfect product recommendation emails, using a variety of grid layouts for improved function.

Example: A clothing store sending different email product designs

Let’s say your customer prefers darker clothing items over lighter items. You can set up a recommendation box to embed into each customer’s email, showing them darker clothing product suggestions they’re most likely to buy based on previous purchase history.

Send promotional emails to groups of similar customers based on their segment

In addition to sending unique recommendations for each customer, which could be time-intensive,  you can group your customers into smaller segments to make sending out email batches faster and more efficient.

Example: Online bookstore promoting new arrivals and bestsellers to different segments

Using LimeSpot, merchants can segment customers based on their reading preferences and purchase history. For example, you can split customers into mystery fans or self-help fans to receive different sets of product recommendation emails.

Send out-of-stock emails with additional recommendations

Out-of-stock notifications are great for collecting customer emails and maintaining their interest in your store’s products.

But did you know you can also include product recommendations in out-of-stock emails? 

Instead of just sending them an update that one product is available, you can send multiple product suggestions based on the browsing/purchase history they explored when they encountered the out-of-stock item.

Example: Fitness store sends out notifications for out-of-stock shoe

Imagine a customer signs up to receive notifications for a popular running shoe. When the item comes back in stock, they’ll receive a notification email with that shoe, as well as other running shoes and related accessories. 

Abandoned cart emails and SMS reminders

When shoppers abandon their carts, which will happen about 79.8% of the time, it’s crucial to re-engage them with targeted abandoned cart emails and SMS reminders.

Abandoned cart emails

For emails, create a recommendations box based on your customer’s shopping cart using the “Frequently Bought Together” or “Cross-sell” option. Then add to your auto-generated abandoned cart emails.

Abandoned cart and past browsing SMS reminders

Set up a new SMS campaign to show customers their most recently viewed products or items in their cart to show them what they left behind.

Example: Jewelry store sending SMS reminders of the same ring or necklace the customer previously viewed

A jewelry store could use SMS campaigns to send reminders to customers highlighting the specific ring or necklace the shopper last viewed, as well as similar items they may enjoy.

Send post-purchase emails with targeted product selections

Sending post-purchase emails is necessary for retaining customers and promoting repeat business.

You can incorporate LimeSpot’s personalized product recommendations into post-purchase emails sent through an email marketing platform such as Pantastic App’s UpOrder, which is a transactional email template builder.

Using LimeSpot, you can set up which type of recommendations you want to include in post-purchase emails, whether they’re upsells or cross-sells based on your customer’s previous shopping history.

Example: Fitness store sending post-purchase emails with new product recommendations

Imagine your customer just bought running shoes from your store. Using the post-purchase email feature, you can incorporate new suggestions such as running socks, athletic wear, and more, to compliment your new running shoes.

Reactivation emails for reaching lapsed customers

These emails re-engage customers who haven’t purchased from your store in a while. 

By segmenting your customers based on their shopping history, you can quickly identify which shoppers haven’t purchased from you within a set period, for example, over a month.

Example: Book store sending out reactivation emails

Bookstore owners can segment customers to find shoppers who haven’t purchased in over six months to send them a new reactivation email.

Shopify merchants can then sweeten the deal by including special, limited-time discount codes to encourage them to make a purchase and reconnect with your store.

Send bestseller emails 

Sometimes it’s easier just to promote your best-selling items to streamline the process — this is where bestseller emails come in.

LimeSpot lets you create recommendations based on many factors, one of them being “bestsellers.”

You can set up a bestseller recommendation box to embed into your outgoing emails to showcase your top-selling and highest-converting products in your store.

Example: Cosmetics brand sending out bestseller emails

Suppose you run a cosmetics store and want to promote your best-selling items, whatever it is at the time.

You can create a recommendation box based on “Trending Items” or “Most Popular” to auto-generate the bestselling products without any additional research into your inventory. 

Birthday SMS campaigns

Why not send your customer a birthday text with a special product suggestion just for them?

Example: A beauty brand sending a “free gift” offer on a customer’s birthday

A beauty store owner can send out a customized “free gift” text message on a customer’s birthday that showcases a particular product they’re shown interest in, giving them a “free gift” the next time they complete a new purchase at the store.

SMS upsell and cross-sell notifications 

You can use SMS messages to send messages immediately after purchase or at a later time when it makes sense for your customers.

The upsell and cross-sell notifications will use your customer’s shopping history to generate new upsells and cross-sells recommendations for your customer’s next purchase, whenever it may be.

Example: A cosmetic brand sending upsell notifications

For example, a cosmetics store may send an SMS notification immediately after purchase thanking the customer for their order and giving them a 10% discount off their next order when they bundle the recommended products together. 

Download LimeSpot today!

Ready to level up your ecommerce game? 

LimeSpot is your new best friend, helping you create ultra-targeted promotional campaigns that will make every customer feel like VIPs.

With real-time audience segmentation, dynamic curated collections, and tons of personalization features, you’ll be able to serve up product recommendations, upsells, cross-sells, and tailored content that speaks to the hearts of your customers.

Download your free 14-day trial of LimeSpot today and increase conversion rates by up to 28% and average order values by 5%!

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