Do you smell that?

Fall is in the air.

This week my oldest son, Max, went back to school to start 1st grade.

I really love this time of year. The weather starts to cool off, football is back on the menu.

But it also means that Q4 and BFCM are right around the corner.

Which means it's time to start getting your shit together.

This far out, there's nothing better than taking a good long look at your automations. Especially checkout abandon.

So today I want to go behind the scenes and break down exactly how we set up high converting checkout abandon automations that consistently pull anywhere from five to seven figures a year on autopilot.

Let's get into it.

1. Add More Emails 

The biggest problem I see almost every eCom brand is that they don't send enough emails. 

And checkout abandon is no different.

Most people drop 2- 3 emails in the automation and call it done.

If that’s you, you’re leaving a lot of cash on the table.

My bare minimum is eight emails total Split by prospect and customer. So each path gets four emails

That’s the starting point. From there you can gradually add more

I've built checkout abandons that run 7 or 8 emails per path. It depends on your conversion rate, and it depends on whether you're selling something with a high AOV where people need more time to make the call and you’re trying to optimize for acquisition.

Here's the rule I use. Look at the conversion rate on your last email.

If it's still doing 0.2% or 0.3%  add another email.

I wouldn't stretch the automation past 30 days. 

But short of that, adding emails is almost always the highest leverage thing you can do in this automation.

2. Split the flow into two paths

This is by far the most common problem I see when auditing accounts.

There is only ONE path for everyone.

We need to split this automation into two paths.

One path for prospects who have never bought. One path for returning customers.

Here's the strategy behind why we do that:

Quick caveat before I get into it.

This mostly applies to brands selling consumables or apparel, where you've got a real repeat purchase rate. If that's not you, the split still helps, but the discount math is different and you should check your repeat purchase rate before you take any of this at face value.

For a prospect, your job is one thing. Get them to buy for the first time.

That's the whole battle in ecommerce. Most brands break even on that first order, or lose a little money on it. The profit shows up on the second, third and fourth purchase. That's where you actually make it back.

So the prospect path gets optimized for exactly one outcome. That first purchase.

Which is where a discount usually makes sense, and where the copy has to do a lot of heavy lifting. More on that in a second.

Now your returning customers.

They already bought from you. If they’re coming back again they already like and trust your product. You don't need to sacrifice your profit margins and give them another 15% off to get an order you were probably getting anyway.

Those repeat purchases are your bread and butter. That's the margin the entire business runs on.

Splitting the flow is what lets you protect it.

3. Put On Your Copywriting Hat

Ok, I'm gonna turn into a copywriting nerd for a second here.

We're going to take this back to copywriting GOAT Eugene Schwartz and his classic principle of awareness levels.

In case you haven't run into this before, here’s a crash course.Schwartz says every customer sits in one of five levels:

Unaware. They don't even know they have a problem yet.

Problem aware. They feel the problem, but they don't know a solution exists.

Solution aware. They know solutions exist. They just haven't picked one.

Product aware. They know your product. They're not convinced it's the right one for them.

Most aware. They know your product and they're just waiting on a reason to buy today.

The whole point is that your copy has to meet somebody where they actually are.

With checkout abandon, your prospects are usually going to land somewhere in that solution aware to product aware range.

Your returning customers are most aware.

That's the other big reason we split. Two awareness levels, two different sets of copy.

For prospects, a picture of their cart might work fine for the first email.

But by email 3, 4, 5 and beyond, you can't keep leaning on a picture. You've got to do some actual work:

→ The incentive, if you're running one
→ Proof. Reviews, UGC, ratings
→ Risk reversal. Your guarantee, your return policy, free shipping
→ Encourage them to reply for help or call customer service directly
→ How the product actually works, and how the problem actually works

For returning customers, it's much simpler. They're already most aware.

→ Remind them what's sitting in their cart.
→ Then remind them of the big benefits, the reason they buy your products in the first place.

That could be one really good review. It could be a line about the outcome they got last time.

Once you’ve got all these in place then the fun begins. You can start AB test. But we’ll talk about that another time.

Aight, That's it for this week.

Got something you want me to cover? Hit reply and tell me what you want me to break down next.

If you need some help tuning up your email marketing before we get into the maelstrom that is Q4, this is the perfect time. Just reach out below.

Catch ya later on down the trail.

Ben

💸 If you’re running a 7–8 figure eCom brand but it still feels like nothing’s working book a free strategy call​ with me Here.

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