Today i’m going to talk to you about the importance of your Amazon automated email follow up strategy.
A good email can be a great boost to your fortunes on Amazon but there is plenty of debate about the best email strategies.
If you’re going to succeed on Amazon, you’ll have to get your head around email marketing and more specifically, automated email follows up strategies.
Every sale you make should be backed up with an effective series of automated email follow-ups.
These emails can serve to deepen your engagement with customers, improve the chances that they will purchase from you again and increase your Amazon feedback score.
Email Follow Ups: The Basics
It can be tempting to send several emails to a buyer, especially if you are trying to encourage a particular action.
But you must resist…
Anything more than two or three emails may become irritating to the buyer, rendering them completely ineffective.
Generic marketing emails can also be the kiss of death.
People need a reason to open an email, so anything you send must have value.
Amazon has strict guidelines about how and when sellers can contact buyers so make sure that you are fully up to date on Amazon’s terms before sending any communication to a buyer.
Amazon has also introduced an opt-out option.
This means that buyers can opt out of everything but crucial and critical communications from you.
Contacting these buyers is a waste of your time.
They are unlikely to respond to any requests you make and they may even lodge a complaint against you with Amazon.
The most fundamental thing to remember when drafting an email follow up strategy is your intention.
Intentions are usually based around the following:
- To improve your reputation
- Deepen customer engagement
- Provide important product information
- Encourage product reviews and feedback.
Whatever your goal, you need to tailor everything in the email towards that goal.
What Open Rates Should You Expect?
Considering the basics mentioned above, and applying some of the tips discussed below, should improve your open rates.
But the rates you can expect to see will depend on the product(s) you are selling.
If you are selling large or more expensive items, you are more likely to see higher open rates and more product reviews.
These items require a financial investment and are more likely to have a significant impact on the buyer.
In other words, they stay on the buyer’s mind for longer periods of time.
In general, though, you could expect a healthy open rate to be somewhere around 30%, and expect between 1% and 2% of people to leave a review.
While it doesn’t seem like much, it takes a lot of emails to generate those sorts of numbers so anything you can do to automate email follow ups and increase the likelihood of an email being opened will be more than useful.
How to Write Follow Up Emails That Get Opened
Here are some best practices to keep in mind when crafting your Amazon automated email follow up strategies.
1. Subject lines are your first impression
Subject lines are one of the most important parts of successful emails.
It is the first thing a customer sees and may be the deciding factor in whether or not the email gets opened.
The best subject lines are short, personalized, and contain a sense of urgency.
Use proven title that increase your chance for a better open rate.
Tell them, in the shortest way possible, what the message is about.
For example, try subject lines “Re: Your Amazon Delivery [[ORDER_ID]]”.
2. Timing is everything
The timing of your follow up emails is important.
You do not want to send a prompt for a product review before the buyer has had a chance to use the product and you do not want to wait so long that the product is no longer fresh in the buyer’s mind.
Sellers often have their own preferences around how they schedule these emails and what works for one seller, may not work for another.
It will depend on what you are selling and the goals you hope to achieve from the email sequence.
You may need to experiment a little to figure out what works best for you and your buyers.
Generally speaking, customer engagement drops off after the third email.
So, plan your follow up strategies with 3 emails in mind.
Here’s how a typical schedule might look:
Confirmation of the order: When you make a sale, it’s a good idea to send a confirmation to the customer. This reassures them that the item has been shipped. This builds a sense of excitement and anticipation as they wait for it to arrive.
You might also include tips for product use as well as tracking information.
This lets them see where the package is and could be helpful if there is a problem with delivery.
First follow up: While the product is fresh in the buyer’s mind, it’s a good idea to send a quick follow-up. You could schedule the automated email to go out anywhere from a day or two to a week depending on the product. Customers will take longer to form a complete impression of some products than others.
This is also a good time to provide a polite but subtle prompt for the buyer to leave feedback or a product review.
Amazon will not allow you to ask for a favorable product review so be careful with your wording.
Simply ask the buyer to take a moment and leave an honest product review.
Include a link to your review page and customer service contacts so they can follow up with you if there are any problems.
Final follow up: In some cases, you might want to try a final follow-up. This email could come at a much later date. It can serve as a check in to make sure that everything is okay and that the buyer is still satisfied by their purchase. If the buyer has not yet left a product review, this would be a good time include one final gentle reminder to do so.
After the third email, you should probably stop. If a buyer has not yet left feedback, another email is not going to convince them to do it.
And remember, even if you don’t see a payoff by way of feedback, your emails may still have bolstered your relationship with the buyer, setting them up to purchase from you again in the future.
3. Create a winning design and template
Once you’ve persuaded the buyer to open the email, you will want them to follow through on your desired call to action.
The layout and design of the email may help to influence the buyer toward your desired end.
A simple, concise layout will be pleasing to the eye and help you avoid unnecessary confusion.
It will also help to draw attention to your key message.
The email content should be polite, friendly and to the point.
Don’t overload the buyer with information or ask for too much.
You only have a few seconds to grab the reader’s attention so you need to get the message across in the shortest time possible.
The last point to consider is the color scheme.
You may be tempted to simply pick what looks nice but there is more to consider than just aesthetics.
Colors can have a considerable amount of influence over people’s actions and their feelings about a brand.
While reactions may vary, there are some colors that consistently evoke particular emotions.
If you have a clearly defined brand and/or logo, you will obviously want to use the colors associated with it.
But for accent colors or for people who do not have clear brand colors, here’s a little run through of how some colors might be used to influence the decision-making process:
- Red: conveys passion and desire – it’s the buying color.
- Orange: Striking and a little bit irritating. This helps certain areas to stand out.
- Green: Relaxing and natural – one of the more passive colors.
- Yellow: The eye sees yellow before it sees other colors – this is a great way to grab attention.
4. Track your metrics
The only way you can know if your emails are working is to track your metrics.
With email automation, you can schedule your sequence to go at the perfect time, track your open rates and A/B test your subject lines to maximize your efforts.
Paying attention to these numbers will help you better engage with your buyers by giving them more of what they want.
They do not want to be bombarded or harassed with information they do not need.
The strategies listed above are the best practices for automated Amazon follow up emails.
If you start here, you are bound to see your open rates climb, your feedback score increase, and your Amazon profits skyrocket!
Your ability to email customers through the Amazon platform should be taken advantage of but NEVER abused….
Your email follow up campaigns can be as valuable as your product packaging and insert strategy.
I really hope you have found this article useful, if you have any questions let me know below!
