Post BFCM Customer Nurturing 101

Alright, so when I think about how to nurture customers, the general answer is to engage with them more and in a way that makes you stand out. Everything here is a thought starter in that vein, and I encourage you to take it down whichever paths feel natural to your brand.

Here’s what I think you should do: 

1. Send several thank you emails: 

You should have one from the brand, one from the founder, and maybe another one that lands 2 weeks after the product arrives. Don't do it if sending more than 1 or 2 feels unnatural for your brand. Through these emails, you want to ensure you’re channeling the brand — what does the brand feel like, smell like, sound like, look like, etc? Incorporate all this through copywriting and imagery.

If you need any inspiration, see how the large alcohol companies do it — they cannot show any consumption, so everything about the ad has to be channeling vibes.

2. Send a plain text email from the founder: 

It shocks me that more brands don’t do this. My favorite one comes from Matteo, the founder of Eight Sleep. If you buy an Eight Sleep, almost immeditetely, you get an email from Matteo thanking you for the purchase and a prompt to reply if you have any questions or concerns about your order. 

 It’s such a small lift, but it goes such a long way. Plus, with a plain text email, you’re going to see a higher open rate, and if you can get a reply, you can move your emails to the primary inbox.

 You can even send one more plain text email, this time from the Head of Customer Experience or something similar, asking for any feedback, or just their overall thoughts on the product. If it’s positive, you can ask them to leave a review. If it’s negative, you create an opportunity to build rapport with (if this is interesting, read about the Service Recovery Paradox).

 3. Share content: 

 After you sell during BFCM, especially if these people are net-new customers, you need to spend the next few months nurturing them with value-add content. You can do this with emails, blog posts, social posts, and ads targeted to this cohort with:

• Showing how the product fits into different lifestyles
• Demonstrate how the product works, or how to take care of it (i.e., cleaning your cookware, washing your weighted blanket, etc.)
• Social proof as to why hundreds or thousands of others love the product, reinforcing WHY someone bought it in the first place
• Content that shows WHY your brand does what it does — ideally leading to a social cause
• Anything that reminds people if they’re running out of product that they can/should reorder

Even outside BFCM, you should have a plan for this and several emails and texts lined up in an automated sequence that helps nurture every new customer you gain.

 4. Push them to participate in other brand assets: 

 This could be your SMS list, Facebook group, Discord server, local events, etc. Whatever assets you can add them to that’s not just an ask for another purchase is great. These should also be sprinkled in your evergreen flows, between value-add content, as well.

Side tip: To build the SMS list, you can leverage dynamic banners in Klaviyo, which display graphics encouraging subscribers to join the SMS list, when you know a subscriber hasn’t signed up to the SMS list.

5. Offer an exclusive discount for next time: 

If you notice someone hasn’t made another purchase from you 30 days after purchase, and you sell a consumable product, offer a discount to return and buy. This clip from Jon (the guy from Bar Rescue) always plays in my head — see it here.

You should check the data, but I would imagine that your probability of someone becoming a high LTV customer maximizes once someone has purchased 2 or 3 times.

 6. Promote your loyalty program: 

 I’m not the biggest advocate of loyalty programs because I don’t think everyone needs one, nor does every brand need to push these programs onto customers. 

You know when you go to Best Buy and buy a pair of AirPods, and they ask you 3 times if you want to purchase insurance and then donate? That annoying feeling you get is the same feeling you give to customers when you push your loyalty program on them.

If you have one, you can invite them to join your rewards program, pushing them to the landing page describing the benefits. Make it enticing for someone to want to participate on their own… don’t force it on them. Here are two pages we created at Sharma Brands, one for a loyalty program and one for a community:

• Salud’s loyalty program, built on Okendo
• The Skinny Confidential’s community, built on TYB

7. Recommend complementary products: 

 If your customer bought the 12-piece hybrid cookware set from HexClad, recommend they purchase the knife set afterward. You can match what you recommend to the AOV range that a customer bought. If they had only bought the Apartment Bundle (one of my greatest ideas), then you should push the HexMill pepper grinder.

 8. Ask for a review: 

 30 days after the product has arrived or shown delivered, ask for a review. You can set this up within your reviews app to be automated like this. Try to encourage your customer to send a review with a video or a photo — those always get more engagement on your product pages.

 If you get a really good review from a customer, you can offer to buy it off them and run it as an ad, or a part of another ad.

 9. Surprise them with a digital gift:

 45 to 60 days post purchase, you can send a digital gift, which costs you nothing but still creates a positive brand experience. I’ve seen brands do this with a downloadable guide, a Spotify playlist, and a gift card to another digital service.

 When I was at Hint, I originally had the idea to do this with Postmates or Spotify. If someone subscribed to 3 cases of Hint, I wanted to give them 3 months of Spotify or 3 months of Postmates on the house. For the customer, they’d get a gift with a perceived value of $30 (at least), we got higher conversion rates, and Postmates/Spotify got new customer acquisition from it. 

Today, brands are doing this with meditation apps, exercise apps, recipe apps, etc. Figure out what you can offer, that is also a win for these apps, and form a partnership that makes sense. 

 10. Send replenishment reminders: 

 If it’s a consumable product, remind them when it’s time to restock. This really depends on what you sold but this could land as an email or SMS text or both 30-60 days post purchase. 

 11. Offer early access to upcoming sales:

 If you have a new promo happening (say a January/New Year promo), give them early VIP access to that sale.

 12. Send a survey: 

 Ask how they heard about you, what they liked/disliked about your product, what future products they’d love to see from you, etc. This is valuable info for you as a brand, and it’s not an ask to get them to buy again, but can get them thinking in that way.

 13. Follow up via direct mail: 

 I also like to follow up with a direct mail campaign when you have another offer to push. The perceived value of receiving physical mail from a brand is huge. Random eCommerce brands don’t send physical mail, so if you get to their mailbox with a beautifully designed postcard, they know you’re legit. 

 It’s similar to seeing a brand on TV… not just any brand can make it to TV (well unless you’re using Roku’s self-service platform).

 14. Good luck!

 This isn’t a tip, but good luck to you, your team, and your spouses this week. Considering you’re reading this during BFCM week, I know you will dominate with sales.

 Shoot me a reply with how your BFCM went!

That's all for this week