A one size fits all basket abandonment campaign won’t deliver the impact that multiple personalised campaigns will. To a time poor marketer this might seem like a lot of effort, however the extra love you put in today will drive a much higher rate of return for the future. With a little forethought they aren’t too difficult to curate and to set up in your marketing automation tool. And with the right planning, a good personalised email shouldn’t feel like an intrusion on privacy, but be the right useful messages at the right time to the consumer.
Why?
A basket abandonment campaign is one of many triggered emails you could be sending. Triggered emails are personalised messages that get triggered by specific actions the customer takes online. Hyper relevant and timely they are designed to nudge the customer to take the next best action. The reason why they perform better than usual BAU newsletters is because the consumer is actively engaged with your brand. Engagement is coupled with intent, they are browsing your site and adding to a basket, with an intent to purchase – you just need to give them an extra push to make that purchase now.
Often triggers are designed on mass and based on the behaviour, however they are even more powerful when the content is designed to be different according to the product and persona.
Done well they can increase site revenue buy over 10% – the ROI can be huge with many brands seeing over 1000%!
4 steps to planning your email triggers:-
- Before you start curating it is important to scope the use case. What do you want to achieve, document what you want the consumer to do next.
- The next step is to define your KPIs. What does success look like for these particular triggers? This enables you to measure effectively and optimise the campaigns to deliver better results.
- Once you have defined these you need to define the different journeys with the appropriate content
- Remember that in some systems (like the Pure360 Marketing Platform) the integration is front end, relying on your website – this makes life much easier!
The 3 basket abandonment email journeys
In this scenario we are using the example of a bike specialist business.
Journey 1 – The anonymous
What do we know? We don’t know the user, however we know they abandoned a bike from the website 
What this product says about them: Their product is pretty generic and doesn’t fall into any key category – so we know very little
What content should we consider? Generic – we need to tick as many products as possible
The journey:-
Email 1 – 30 mins post abandon
You’ve left this in your basket – Remind the customer what they have left behind. Deliver the main brand proposition message.
Email 2 – 1 day after abandon
We are still saving your basket – Remind the customer. Include social proof like generic reviews of your website
Email 3 – 2 days after abandon
Last chance – Create a bit of urgency to push the customer over the edge. As we don’t know the right levers to pull, you could add an incentive.
Journey 2 – The fanatic
What do we know? A male customer, he abandons a high value trail bicycle from the website 
What the product says about them? They are most probably a high spender. They will also spend more on accessories if they are buying a higher spec for more serious riders.
What content should we consider? Related to gender, Bike spec. Specific to product category. Other high end products.
The journey:-
Email 1 – 1 day after abandon
Newsletter style: – Because this purchase is more considered we will want to tackle this differently by delivering more newsletter style content. Talk about which professionals ride the bike, the extra power you can get from these bikes and so on. The CTA is to remind them to purchase the perfect bike for Trail fanatics.
Email 2 – 2 days after abandon
Gear he needs – As the product is higher spec, often this means the price tag is high too. Talk about the best accessories that should be bought with the bike, the helmet, the kit and the extra wheels! Ensure your key proposition reminder is about the why – sell the dream!
Email 3 – 3 days after abandon
Who he can be – This is the aspiration email. Show them how happy the bike makes other riders by using social proof and imagery. Create scarcity and urgency to close the purchase. And don’t forget to remind them why they should buy from you – what other value do you deliver?
Journey 3 – The Eco Traveller
What do we know? A female customer has just abandoned a mid tier electronic bike that is positioned to replace unnecessary car journeys. 
What this product says about them? They are most probably eco aware and a potential commuter, they have other common lifestyle factors that go hand in hand with eco choices.
What content should we consider? Related to gender, bike type, eco related.
The journey:-
Email 1 – 1 day after abandon
Newsletter style – Again this is a lifestyle purchase so a newsletter style feels best. Content around why ebikes are the future and use strong female commuter imagery.
Email 2 – 2 days after abandon
Gear she needs – The customer could be purchasing a new to market product, so education around the right accessories is important. Should they be purchasing just a helmet or other products to keep them safe on their commute.
Email 3 – 3 days after abandon
Who she can be – As it’s an aspiration product, it is important to articulate how happy other ebike riders are after purchasing their product by using social proof, create scarcity and urgency to close the product sale.
Testing
It’s important that you test different scenarios to ensure your campaign is designed to deliver the best results for your business. Here are the some of the elements you could be testing:
- Timing
- Subject lines
- Content
- Imagery
- Offer