Today’s episode is inspired by a question that came up during a recent group coaching call inside the current live round of Email Badassery. This student has a bunch of customers who have never actually opted into their email list. Now that they’re focusing on their email strategy and building out a kick-ass suite of automated flows, they figured it was time to intentionally focus on getting those existing customers officially on their list.
This was a great question and honestly… even I haven’t talked about this publicly nearly enough. So we’re gonna walk through a few ways to do exactly that. How to get your existing buyers to opt-in for your emails.
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Strategy #1 – Make Sure Your Pop-Up is Targeted Toward Non-Subscribers
Most email pop-ups are set to show to people who aren’t in your email platform at all. If you’re using Klaviyo, that’s the setting of show to don’t show to existing Klaviyo profiles. Now, back in the day when klaviyo didn’t have an email opt-in status, that was the best targeting option – but now you can target your form to exclude certain people based on segment membership. So I’d create a segment of people who have opted in to receive marketing and then just exclude them from your form.
Depending on how comfortable you are with email forms and the targeted made available to you through your email marketing platform you can always get a little extra intentional and layer in exit intent forms, showing different forms based on what they’ve added to their cart, and even what pages those forms appear on.
Yes, the majority of your sign ups will come from that initial welcome pop-up, but tailored offers to more specific groups of web visitors can increase your overall signup conversion rate.
Strategy #2 – Add a Call-to-Action to Your Order Confirmation Email
As you probably already know, the order confirmation email is one of the highest opened emails you’ll ever send as an eCommerce business. What you might not know though, is that 20% of your transactional emails can include a bit of marketing content. Please check you local laws before implementing.
So you could drop in a quick line that says, want to be the first to know about our next sale or product drop? Click here to join our VIP list. Link that to a landing page on your website with an embedded sign up form. This is great for customers who didn’t subscribe during checkout, but are still excited about their purchase.
On Shopify, you can set this message up so it only appears for customers who aren’t already subscribed. If you don’t know how to do this on Shopify, sign up for my email list and get access to the Free Resource Library. Search for “Add Conditional Messages to Your Shopify Order Confirmation Email” and I’ll walk you through it step-by-step.
Strategy #3 – Send Them Something in the Mail
Yes, good old-fashioned snail mail still works… especially if you have a product people tend to reorder or collect.
If you’ve got their shipping address from a past purchase, send them a postcard or flyer with a QR code that links to your signup page. Sweeten the deal with an incentive. Could be a discount, free shipping, or even just a bonus gift.
Direct mail stands out because it’s tangible. People can hold it, stick it on the fridge, and it’s a lot harder to ignore than another email in a crowded inbox.
This is a great way to reengage anyone, even existing email subscribers. Especially if you’re heading into a busy shopping season like Q4.
Learn More About Direct Mail for eCommerce
Increase Customer Lifetime Value with Direct Mail. This episode specifically covers the platform Ignite Post, but there are plenty of strategy-focused ideas that don’t necessarily require the platform. I also talk about direct mail in this post, Underrated Marketing Ideas for Your eCommerce Business.
Strategy #4 – Run Paid Ads to Your Past Customer List
If you’re running Facebook or Instagram ads, you can upload your past customer list and target those people specifically.
Just keep in mind, your results will depend on match rates. Match rate is the number of people whose purchase email matches the email they use for their social media accounts. B2C brands usually have higher match rates than B2B, so your mileage may vary.
If the match rate is low, you’re better off focusing on those pop-ups and direct mail campaigns we just talked about.
Your Next Steps
You don’t have to do all of them at once. Start with the one that feels easiest, get it running, then layer in another. And remember… these are people who already bought from you. You’re not trying to convince them you’re worth it… you’re just reminding them why they loved you in the first place.
Listen to this Episode
Episodes Mentioned
279. Underrated Marketing Strategies for eCommerce
207. How to Increase Lifetime Value and Reduce Customer Churn with Ignite Post
