Posted on 1 Nov 2022
Install Formtoro so you can ask multiple questions related to the customer journey.
Questions should be the following:
The key question is when are you looking to purchase.
The answers choices should always be:
This keeps things consistent.
After the form is launched, let it run for 14 days depending on traffic.
For the vast majority of stores this will be enough time for data to come through and start developing a trend.
The first thing to look at is Time to Purchase by Percentile.
This is the time it takes for people to purchase based on the subscribe to conversion ratio.
Across most accounts the numbers look similar, pay attention to 90% as the percentile, this means that 90% of all subscribers that signed up are likely to have purchased before that date total.
In the case below that number is 7.3 days, but 75% of all the sales happen within 40 minutes.
This tells us a few things, one is people sign up and buy quickly which means the data provided has a high intent behind it when it is provided and can be used to understand trends across other subscribers.
But more importantly, it means those people were likely to convert anyway. They get the first email from the welcome series and convert.
In the above example the subscription to conversion rate stands at 25% which for 14 days is fairly solid.
The goal is to improve the amount of subscriptions to conversions and have some impact on them.
The next thing to look at is the breakdown of the question around timing.
It’s likely your results will look something like this where the dispersion of answers will show a hierarchy related to timing. With a natural distribution related to the timing of the signup.
Today will likely always rank highest in terms of answers, revenue, and conversion.
This tells you what part of the journey people are in when they singed up.
The drop in conversion rate for the other answers though is the more important part.
This lays out the opportunity at hand.
Anyone that writes, “in a few days” or “in a few weeks” is in a high intent consideration phase and can be influenced.
The fact that only 30% of people that answered “Today” have converted also means they are in a very high intent phase.
The first thing to do after seeing that 7.3 days accounts for 90% of all sales is to make sure that our Welcome Series of emails or SMS happen at a much greater frequency.
There is no need for a 7 day or 14 day welcome series drawn out if 90% of everyone that was going to convert has already converted by that point.
The first thing we advise is to increase the frequency immediately while a brand is fresh on the mind of someone.
In fact we see the greatest conversion within the first few hours.
Make sure your popup puts the coupon code on the screen and doesn’t force someone to leave.
People that do two step opt-in for SMS discounts force the user to go to another device or worse to another app to locate a coupon, just provide it on screen.
In our example above, 50% of the conversions happen in the first 10 mins from signing up.
Make it easy for people to convert.
Now that we’ve narrowed down that it’s all a matter of speed, there are two main things that we need to do, increase the frequency of emails in the welcome series to every 8 hours or sooner and personalize based on the answers provided.
The foolproof way to make this happen is to focus on the things that are hard for people to see from a user experience standpoint.
Reviews are everyone’s achilles heel and they don’t realize it.
Reviews have great insights that speak to and about the very things that matter to people.
Before this point, we haven’t had information, so we blindly pick reviews to present to people in emails.
If we follow the questions about categories, products, what matters to them, and potentially any activities that want to use the products with, we can literally mine the reviews to highlight ones that directly speak to the reason the person signed up in the first place.
Remember, 70% of people that said they were looking to buy today, didn’t pull the trigger.
There is a huge difference between blindly picking some reviews and personally selecting a few reviews that speak directly to what the subscriber told you they were interested in and what mattered to them.
Personalize the subject line, personalize the secondary line, pick reviews that directly speak to the journey the customer is on.
Follow up regularly based on the highest intent time period.
To do this effectively you need to segment, knowingly and willingly to understand where your existing messaging is hitting and missing.
We do this by creating filters across all the answers to look for opportunities and gaps.
All things considered equal, no matter the answers someone provides the conversion rates should be roughly the same.
If they aren’t then we need to look at the journey being presented.
When we see a discrepancy we need to work on either leaning into is or isolating and improving what to do next.
When we filter by Briefs we look at other answers to understand where we can fill a gap.
By selecting briefs our values dynamically update and we’re able to see where our largest opportunities lie, in the above example the most answers come from “No, but I’m interested,” yet they convert at a lower rate than “Yes, they’re the softest.” We’ll look at another question now to determine what matters to this person.
When we narrow down the results and click on “No, but I’m interested” we see a clear trend where people care about “Super Soft Fabric” but of those that say it, no one converts.
The same is true for people that said, “I don’t know what that is” which confirms there is a gap worth filling to the tune of easy conversions.
We’re not building out a power segment via a gap to identify and build a strategy to convert more people through a combination of education and reviews directly referring to either the fabric of micromodal or how soft the material is.
Additionally, people that said they didn’t know what it was clicked “Support” the most, yet there are no sales for that, weaving in that messaging to this segment would also make sense.
Segmenting your list in this manner allows you to better prepare customer journeys likely to convert. Remember above how we said that all things equal conversion rates should be similar across the board, this is how we find gaps and prioritize what to fix.
In Formtoro, we’ve done this for you, providing you with dynamic suggestions based on the answers selected. They look something like this:
They tell you where there are gaps and also provide suggestions on what to market more of because the messaging is clear and out performing.
It’s in these combinations that we can start to sketch out opportunities and determine where to prioritize action.
Condensed they look something like this:
Overall
TOP OPPORTUNITIES FOR TRUNKS
#1 TRUNK OPPORTUNITY
People that answered Support are a potential email/sms opportunity. They convert at 12.8%, below the average of 25.9%: there is room for a 13.1% improvement. We recommend segmenting your welcome series for people that answered Support and leveraging their other answers.
#2 TRUNK OPPORTUNITY
People that answered L (37-39" waist) are a potential email/sms opportunity. They convert at 13.9%, below the average of 23.6%: there is room for a 9.7% improvement. We recommend segmenting your welcome series for people that answered L (37-39" waist) and leveraging their other answers.
#3 TRUNK OPPORTUNITY
People that answered In a few days are a potential email/sms opportunity. They convert at 17.0%, below the average of 24.2%: there is room for a 7.2% improvement. We recommend segmenting your welcome series for people that answered In a few days and leveraging their other answers.
TOP OPPORTUNITIES FOR BOXER BRIEFS
#1 BOXER BRIEF OPPORTUNITY
People that answered In a few days are a potential email/sms opportunity. They convert at 10.0%, below the average of 22.9%: there is room for a 12.9% improvement. We recommend segmenting your welcome series for people that answered In a few days and leveraging their other answers.
#2 BOXER BRIEF OPPORTUNITY
People that answered No, but I'm interested are a potential email/sms opportunity. They convert at 15.0%, below the average of 26.1%: there is room for a 11.1% improvement. We recommend segmenting your welcome series for people that answered No, but I'm interested and leveraging their other answers.
#3 BOXER BRIEF OPPORTUNITY
People that answered Waistband that doesn't flip are a potential email/sms opportunity. They convert at 16.3%, below the average of 23.2%: there is room for a 6.9% improvement. We recommend segmenting your welcome series for people that answered Waistband that doesn't flip and leveraging their other answers.
All of the above opportunities should have reviews data mined to correspond to the gaps and included liberally throughout the welcome flow.
The goal is that when someone signs up and says they prefer boxer briefs, what’s most important to them is support, they don’t know what micromodal is and they are looking to buy today, you can respond with a tailored email.
Subject: Meet the Boxer Brief that combines Support and Softness
Secondary: Upgrade your underwear with coupon enclosed
So as the email marketer you’ve used my answers to parrot back to me the only things that I care about in the product I just signed up for. This will get you to an open.
Next is your job to get it to a conversion.
Make my life easy as a subscriber and customer.
If I’m part of the 75% that doesn’t convert in the first hour, what can you provide to build trust and make my customer journey easier?
Start with why this product is going to be a good fit for the things that I’m looking for.
Show me a review or collection of reviews that explain someone that has been through my buying process before, if someone was skeptical and had an amazing experience, use it.
If someone describes the things that matter to me the most, use those reviews, use those quotes and words.
Make it easy for me to purchase.
Ecommerce is all about getting product in hand. If you can properly lay out a scenario where someone with HIGH intent is spoon fed the things that matter to them so you can overcome any objections, better off doing so through other peoples’ words, you stand the best chance of winning.
Take the data you collect, looking at gaps and also make changes to your product pages to make it clear about the benefits that people say they are interested in but have lower conversion rates.
This is where success comes from, mini-improvements leveraged from high intent customers.
Combine the above strategy into your segmented campaigns, product launches, and other sales offers and you’ll see your revenue incrementally rise across all your emails and sms.
Give yourself the best chance of personalizing relevant content to people that willingly signed up.
