Email Abandonment Series

The Background:

An often overlooked element of the marketing mix is retention strategy. Many claim that email marketing, specifically, is “over” — and choose to set their sights on more emerging platforms, like SMS. However, the email marketing team at BaubleBar saw an opportunity to win customers over (or back again) using an abandonment email strategy and enlisted my help. At the time, our abandonment email series — which is what’s automatically sent to customers when they abandon a page, cart, or checkout — wasn’t driving significant conversion or meaningful brand awareness. But the team knew it had potential, so they decided to devote the time required to revamp it.

The Challenge:

Not only was the series not driving what we needed it to, it also just didn’t align with our brand voice or larger brand strategy. At all. We needed to figure out a way to solve both inconsistencies in order to offer the customer a seamless brand experience and encourage them to shop again.

This was the most in-depth email marketing project I’d ever worked on. Abandonment email series are complicated: they’re automated, there’s a list of criteria that different types of customers need to meet to receive certain messages, and what seems like one million different flows to pay attention to. Getting to know each flow and deeply understanding where the customer was in their journey was essential to making this project worthwhile.

The Solution:

The email marketing team and I worked together to completely overhaul the current abandonment email series. I met the challenge of ideating copy strategies that aligned with our larger brand voice, but also addressed essential email marketing needs. The result was punchy, creative writing that enticed customers to click through the entire email experience. I incorporated references to pop culture, calls for urgency, and enticing offers where relevant.

Once the new copy strategy and content changes were put into place, we saw pretty immediately that our work drove increased CVR and, as a result, daily demand.

Below, I’ve included some examples of high-performing subject lines and few full-experience flows.