How to improve your flow strategy?
The answer: start with gradual improvements, test their success, and then iterate on what works. Watch the video below to learn how a real brand increased revenue by nearly 40% with small but impactful improvements to their welcome series flow.
Build a separate welcome flow for each channel
Unlike most other flows, you must set up a distinct welcome series for emails, text messages, and mobile push notifications. That way, subscribers can sign up for each channel at different times and still receive each welcome flow without being skipped.
In the gallery below, view the recommended flow setup for each channel, plus access crucial tips for success. Then, customize your own welcome flows to align with your unique brand strategy.
Structure:
- Trigger:
Once someone joins your main email list (i.e., list-triggered). - Email #1:
Send immediately, include any promised incentive, and welcome subscribers. Promote your social media accounts or wider brand community. - Email #2:
Send after 3 days and include additional brand details (e.g., your mission, brand story, and best-selling items to spur a purchase). - Email #3:
Send after 4 days to remind shoppers about your brand’s value; for instance, offer a new deal to motivate shopping, showcase best-selling or trending items, or encourage those who have not done so to opt into text.
Best practices:
- Display best-selling items or eye-catching offers that spur a purchase.
- Use a clear and direct subject line that includes the recipient's first name.
- Set expectations around what kind of messages they’ll receive (e.g., company announcements, promotions, seasonal offers, etc.), and even how often you’ll message them.
- Create distinct pathways for first-time vs. returning shoppers.
- Highlight your text messaging program to anyone who has yet to opt into text as well.
Note: If you acquire new leads via social media (e.g., Facebook lead ads), you should create a unique welcome flow pathway for those who opted into email via a social media ad to align with promised incentives.
Learn more about creating an email welcome series.
Text
Structure:
- Trigger:
Once someone consents to text message marketing. - Text #1:
Send immediately and include any promised incentives, such as a direct link or coupon code. - Text #2:
Optional: For brands in the US and Canada, you can set up a virtual contact card via MMS, so recipients can save your number as a trusted contact. Send this within 24 hrs of them subscribing. For RCS, contact cards are not supported; instead, automatic brand identifiers are included within this message type. In that case, use this second message to encourage them to place a first order (see next bullet). - Text #3:
Optional: A day later, send to those who have not yet converted since the first message, encouraging them to shop with an extra incentive.
Best practices:
- Keep the series between 1 and 3 messages to avoid overloading your subscribers.
- Keep messages short and to the point.
- Highlight your mobile push program to anyone who hasn't yet downloaded your mobile app.
Note: You can optionally turn off quiet hours for text #1 to send immediately. If you do this, you may need to remove any marketing copy, including coupons, from the message.
Learn more about creating a text welcome series.
Push
Structure:
- Trigger:
Once someone signs up for notifications via your app (i.e., metric-triggered). - Push #1:
Send immediately, thanking someone for subscribing to push alerts. - Push #2:
Send after 1 day; if someone needs to take action (e.g., continue setting up their app profile) encourage them to do so, otherwise send along a relevant deal or CTA. - Push #3:
Send after 3 days as needed, including any follow-up content that adds direct value to an in-app shopper or asking for app-related feedback. If not needed, keep your series to 2 messages instead.
Best practices:
- All push notifications should contain relevant and actionable information that directly relates to your mobile app.
- Avoid overusing emojis. Multiple repeating emojis are often associated with spam. Moreover, not all emojis are accessible and some don't appear as desired on certain devices.
Learn more about creating a push welcome series.
Structure:
- Trigger:
Once someone consents to WhatsApp marketing. - WhatsApp #1:
Send immediately and include any promised incentives, such as a direct link or coupon code. - WhatsApp #2:
Optional: A day later, send to those who have not yet converted since the first message, encouraging them to shop with an extra incentive. - WhatsApp #3:
Optional: Within 1-2 days of the second message, follow up with a conversational WhatsApp. For example, you may start an automation of recommended items based on their interests (we’ll cover automations shortly!), or showcase trending products in a carousel with buttons to buy.
Best practices:
- Keep the series to 1-3 messages to avoid overloading subscribers.
- Add a conditional split between messages, and only send your next WhatsApp if someone has engaged with the prior message. Meta monitors engagement, and you want to ensure you do not get flagged or held back from sending if engagement is low.
- Keep messages concise and action-oriented.
- Introduce your brand and clearly set expectations.
- (Optional) Highlight your mobile push program to anyone who hasn't yet downloaded your mobile app.
Learn more about creating a WhatsApp welcome series.
Why add mobile messages to your flows?
Mobile messaging (i.e., text, WhatsApp, or push) has a place in every email flow. The question you have to ask yourself is where and how you want to implement it into the existing structure.
Let’s review some examples that show the true benefits of adding text and push to your core automations.
Spur immediate action
By adding text messages and push to your flows, customers will receive automated messages directly to their phones. Since flows are built to send at just the right moment following a customer action, this can help enable message recipients to act fast.
For instance, if someone signs up for back-in-stock or price drop alerts, by sending them a text or push notification, someone can quickly shop the item they were interested in before it sells out or while the offer lasts.
Improve ease of use
A mobile-first marketing approach also speeds up the shopping process and can provide crucial and timely information to a subscriber. Let’s use an order updates flow as an example. By sending text and push alerts, someone can easily track their order and know once it’s arrived, as most people will check their phone messages more often than their email inboxes.
This is especially crucial for more time-sensitive updates, such as restaurant businesses alerting diners that their order is ready to pick up. Similarly, SWAK Cosmetics uses text to alert people that their order has officially been delivered.
Add exclusivity
Use conditional splits to offer exclusive deals to push, WhatsApp, or text subscribers in flows, thus adding extra value to these channels. For instance, in your post-purchase flows, you may offer a more enticing incentive via text rather than email, since text message subscribers are a more loyal audience.
Be clear that this deal is exclusive to them for being loyal text subscribers. You can also market to non-text subscribers that, by subscribing to text, they will have access to additional deals and discounts in the future that they would not get solely through email.
What's next?
Now that we’ve covered how to effectively build a welcome series for each core channel, you may be wondering what’s next. How do you get truly bespoke in your other flows?
Your next steps to make a strategy that is both omnichannel and tailored to each customer’s unique interests are:
- Add a variety of channels to your other flows, strategically splitting them by channel preference.
- Identify opportunities for expansion in your typical customer journey.
Rest assured; we’ll cover both of these tasks in the next few lessons.