Order Confirmations for Upselling & Conversion (Mailing List Content)

According to Receiptful, the average open rate for order confirmations (which are essentially receipts) is over 70%. That is the single highest open rate for any type of email. To put this significance of this into perspective, note that other marketing emails are known to have open rates that are roughly 3 times lower.

In short, order confirmation emails offer a superb, extremely cost-effective opportunity to upsell and covert other (new) leads into buying customers. In fact, email marketing usually surpasses social media in rendering an ROI for marketers. 

Here are different examples of how order confirmations can be used strategically in ecommerce. Since there are several approaches from which to choose, be guided by your business' most pressing needs, especially as this relates to your sales funnel. However, before proceeding with any of these marketing strategies, remember to 1) thank customers for the order and 2) ensure that the 'order confirmation' message is the first prominent thing customers see and that it feels central to the email message.

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A. Incentives for Product Reviews for Higher Lead Conversion 

Since reviews increase lead conversion, the email illustrates how an order confirmation can encourage reviews. If your business is relatively new, you might consider the vast number of your market as being at the 'awareness' and or 'interest / desire' stages of your sales funnel, especially if the converted customer is unlikely to buy anything other than 'awareness' level products and can not yet generate high profit levels. However, take this approach only after your business has already figured out how to deliver very well on its promises in order to secure excellent reviews. Consequently, company reviews, especially as they relate to some key aspect of your unique selling point, like customer service can be ideal.

Since purchases are usually sincere votes of confidence and a positive experience, send this email immediately after the sale. 

Incentives may involve  

• the much like 10% discount code for future sales. This has proven very successful in encouraging customers to return.
• a chance to win something your customer will value

***
Company name

________________________

A huge thank you

for shopping with Company name

We enjoy hearing from our customers and will love to get your feedback.

If you can spare 2 minutes, we would be very grateful.

________________________

Complete this quick survey before Jan 1st and become eligible to win a ....

Winners will be notified on ......
***

B. Use Order Confirmation Emails to Upsell Highly Relevant Products 

Do not flood the message with noise, ie lots of irrelevant products. Select only a few highly relevant upsell products to be most effective. As a rule of thumb, do not exceed 5 product recommendations.

Notice how the upselling attempt appears in the right column, ie where its prominence is secondary to the more central placed information directly related to the order confirmation.

Hi Jo,
Thank you for ordering from website.com. Here is a summary of your order.

You can also use the fact that the items have not yet shipped as an excuse to upsell with some of the following messages. 

• 'Confirming your next shipment'. If you increase your order beyond $x00.00 before we ship OR before Jan 22, we will pay for shipping. This is much like the sweets and magazine stand at the retail cash register.
• 'Save on your next sale'. See incentives as those in the earlier strategy. 

C. Use Social Media to Promote Your Website 

Social media is second to email in rendering the highest possible ROI for all ecommerce marketing efforts. Essentially, buying decisions are influenced by other people, 'social media influencers'. Consequently, social media are a worthwhile element to integrate into the abovementioned approaches. Determine about 1 to 3 of the best forms of social media that will add most value to your target market.

The rules above still apply regarding the prominence of the key message of thanks and order confirmation. However, it has become acceptable for social media to be incorporated within the main body of the message.

Here are some examples:

• Contests: Encourage product reviews or company reviews, especially with video posts to social media. This can also be part of user generated content (UGC) campaigns using campaign-specific hashtags (for Twitter and Instagram) or 'page shares' (for Facebook). Customers can do this for a chance to win something that your target market values. Ultimately, this is excellent for promoting word of mouth brand awareness in your sales funnel.
• Some user-generate content (UGC) ideas include:
• Un-boxing video requests accompanied with the image of a partly opened box and the message that "we'd love to see you un-box your #BRAND order with the #UNIQUE_BRANDUnbox tag. Perhaps we'll give you something else to un-box".
• Ensure your calls to action (CTAs) offer clear benefits for subscription like 
• members-only exclusive offers on products
• tips

E. Customer Referrals Program 

Referrals help to generate new leads and paying customers because their referrals have some level of trust. 

Ask paying customers to encourage others to shop with a promotional code. All even people who do not use social media to refer others also. 

Here is a simple tagline (that can be placed after the central order confirmation message) 

• "tell your friends and earn .........." as shown in the example below from Dollar Shave Club.

D. Develop the after-sale relationship. 

Customer relationship marketing (CRM) can help to convert buying customers into repeat customers. CRM is concerned in going beyond having one-off sale transactions by encouraging repeated sales. This is an ideal aspect of the sales funnel. 

Some ways of doing this is focusing on helping customers to use the product. 

• Instructional content is an example of this content. However, you can suggest related upsells.

CONTENT RELATED TO ORDER CONFIRMATIONS

• Sales funnel