Lapsed-Purchase Messaging with Naked & Famous
06/30/21 • 58 min
On the surface, the term “lapsed buyer” seems relatively straightforward.
But the concept turns a little murky when giving thought to what it really means.
First off, there are any number of reasons that someone has not purchased from your brand in a while. The customer might not be ready. They could have had a bad experience. Perhaps something changed in their life and your product has lost relevancy.
And defining the moment of transition to the “lapsed” side is debatable, too.
Despite all nuances, email marketers should not ignore these customers. Messages targeted at lapsed purchasers experienced a click-through rate of 13% last year, accompanied by a 21% conversion rate.
Naked & Famous Denim is one such company that employs lapsed-purchase email automation. The company’s chief denim otaku, Bahzad Trinos, shares the strategy behind these emails, which are sent to customers who often go a year before buying again. Denim enthusiasts are encouraged to wear the high-end jeans day after day, without washing in between, until the fabric molds to their liking.
Though Trinos doesn’t expect repeat purchases within a certain period of time, he sees value in engaging and maintaining an open line of communication. The three-part series produces a 16% conversion rate. The revenue-per-email (RPE) lift ranges from 580% to 793% over typical promotional emails.
He talks through his approach, which includes gathering customer feedback and utilizing Omnisend’s product recommender. Also joining the show are this season’s podcast co-pilot, Lucas Walker, and an Omnisend customer success manager who discusses her process for steering clients through creating the lapsed purchase series.
We dig into a number of questions about lapsed purchase email automations:
- How do you determine when a buyer becomes a lapsed purchaser?
- When is the right time to send a lapsed purchase message?
- What is the one element you should incorporate to prevent subscribers from tagging you as spam?
- How do you decide on the right content for a series, especially if you don’t know the reason for a customer’s inactivity?
- Why is it advantageous to ease in with a customer feedback slant?
- Is it better to create a multi-message series one email at a time, or all at once?
About the Guests
Bahzad Trinos, Chief Denim Otaku, Naked & Famous Denim
Trinos is obsessed with fabric, its history, how it’s made, and the way it ages. As the company’s first employee, he has been instrumental in its evolution every step of the way. Trinos serves as general manager, develops the product collection, and leads the company’s branding and marketing efforts.
Danielle Heck, Senior Customer Success Manager, Omnisend
With experience in digital and email marketing, Heck’s key focus is on providing excellent customer service and proactive communication to her clients. She loves analyzing her customers’ business strategies and progress to help them realize their marketing goals and gain the most out of Omnisend.
Lucas Walker, Founder, Rolled Up Podcast Network
Walker is a serial entrepreneur. He has started three successful businesses in the software, ecommerce and media spaces. Lucas’ experience also includes marketing for an internationally-recognized sales trainer, where he launched the Make It Happen Mondays podcast, oversaw partners around the world, and reviewed over 10,000 ecommerce websites.
On the surface, the term “lapsed buyer” seems relatively straightforward.
But the concept turns a little murky when giving thought to what it really means.
First off, there are any number of reasons that someone has not purchased from your brand in a while. The customer might not be ready. They could have had a bad experience. Perhaps something changed in their life and your product has lost relevancy.
And defining the moment of transition to the “lapsed” side is debatable, too.
Despite all nuances, email marketers should not ignore these customers. Messages targeted at lapsed purchasers experienced a click-through rate of 13% last year, accompanied by a 21% conversion rate.
Naked & Famous Denim is one such company that employs lapsed-purchase email automation. The company’s chief denim otaku, Bahzad Trinos, shares the strategy behind these emails, which are sent to customers who often go a year before buying again. Denim enthusiasts are encouraged to wear the high-end jeans day after day, without washing in between, until the fabric molds to their liking.
Though Trinos doesn’t expect repeat purchases within a certain period of time, he sees value in engaging and maintaining an open line of communication. The three-part series produces a 16% conversion rate. The revenue-per-email (RPE) lift ranges from 580% to 793% over typical promotional emails.
He talks through his approach, which includes gathering customer feedback and utilizing Omnisend’s product recommender. Also joining the show are this season’s podcast co-pilot, Lucas Walker, and an Omnisend customer success manager who discusses her process for steering clients through creating the lapsed purchase series.
We dig into a number of questions about lapsed purchase email automations:
- How do you determine when a buyer becomes a lapsed purchaser?
- When is the right time to send a lapsed purchase message?
- What is the one element you should incorporate to prevent subscribers from tagging you as spam?
- How do you decide on the right content for a series, especially if you don’t know the reason for a customer’s inactivity?
- Why is it advantageous to ease in with a customer feedback slant?
- Is it better to create a multi-message series one email at a time, or all at once?
About the Guests
Bahzad Trinos, Chief Denim Otaku, Naked & Famous Denim
Trinos is obsessed with fabric, its history, how it’s made, and the way it ages. As the company’s first employee, he has been instrumental in its evolution every step of the way. Trinos serves as general manager, develops the product collection, and leads the company’s branding and marketing efforts.
Danielle Heck, Senior Customer Success Manager, Omnisend
With experience in digital and email marketing, Heck’s key focus is on providing excellent customer service and proactive communication to her clients. She loves analyzing her customers’ business strategies and progress to help them realize their marketing goals and gain the most out of Omnisend.
Lucas Walker, Founder, Rolled Up Podcast Network
Walker is a serial entrepreneur. He has started three successful businesses in the software, ecommerce and media spaces. Lucas’ experience also includes marketing for an internationally-recognized sales trainer, where he launched the Make It Happen Mondays podcast, oversaw partners around the world, and reviewed over 10,000 ecommerce websites.
Previous Episode
Post-Purchase Messaging with Baking Steel
If you have optimized your online shopping cart and the checkout page is seemingly flawless, you might assume little or nothing else remains for improving the customer purchase experience.
Not so. The best ecommerce merchants know the experience doesn’t stop when an order is placed. They nurture that customer relationship beyond checkout.
One of the most successful—yet typically underutilized—vehicles for doing so is the post-purchase email. This message type converts at 18%. That’s a 180% lift over the average promotional email.
They’re useful for keeping customers content when orders are delayed, as Craig Hastings of Baking Steel has discovered.
As culinary director and Baking Steel’s go-to marketer, Hastings established a series of emails delivered after anyone buys the company’s hallmark product, a steel pizza stone. He later created versions for both griddle and accessory customers.
Hastings explains how the series helped customers bide their time during the height of the Covid pandemic, when demand from stay-at-home cooks outstripped product supply and created backorders of six to eight weeks. He discloses the types of content the series employs to espouse the notion of treating customers like family, and why authentic content of good quality is important.
Lucas Walker, ecommerce veteran, also shares his views on why the post-purchase message might be the funnest of automations for email marketers.
We contemplate the following questions about post-purchase emails:
- Why is post-purchase messaging our podcast host’s favorite automation type to discuss?
- Should the message be aimed at driving sales, or is it more about reinforcing the brand?
- Why should you consider lacing in an affiliate partner?
- What makes for a great post-purchase message?
- What do merchants overlook when crafting a post-purchase message?
- How can post-purchase messages prompt better customer service?
About the guests:
Craig Hastings, Culinary Director and Marketer, Baking Steel
When Hastings isn’t developing recipes at Baking Steel, he’s involved with email marketing, product fulfillment, and other fun endeavors to keep customers happy. His culinary background includes working for famed chefs James Beard, as well as Tony Maws of Craigie on Main. Hastings is the founder of Served Meals, a non-profit organization in Massachusetts serving food-insecure people while slowing the amount of food waste in the world.
Lucas Walker, Founder, Rolled Up
Walker is a serial entrepreneur. He has started three successful businesses in the software, ecommerce and media spaces. Lucas’ experience also includes marketing for an internationally-recognized sales trainer, where he launched the Make It Happen Mondays podcast, oversaw partners around the world, and reviewed over 10,000 ecommerce websites.
Next Episode
SMS Marketing with Divatress
The data all points in the same direction when it comes to SMS: it’s becoming a standard marketing channel. This time next year, marketers who don’t embrace it will find themselves well behind the game.
In 2020, ecommerce merchants sent 378% more texts to customers than they did the year prior, resulting in a 102% year-over-year increase in conversions. We’re confident numbers will only rise in 2021.
Regardless of the stats and indicators, many marketers remain hesitant to dabble in SMS. Asking for an email address? No problem. But a cell phone number—that’s getting a little too invasive.
Divatress, a wig shop, jumped into SMS in 2020. They’re now close to the 70,000 subscriber mark, which constitutes 40% of their email subscribers.
Owner and founder Rob Lin discusses why he felt it was time to make the move. He explains how the messaging channel was a natural evolution for his audience, the ways he is utilizing it to spread the word about the brand, and why it is exceeding his expectations.
Also joining the conversation are an Omnisend customer success manager and this season’s Cart Insiders Podcast co-pilot, Lucas Walker. They share their perspectives on ways SMS can be used to build relationships, and how merchants can move past the insecurities of getting started.
Tune in for these SMS considerations and more:
- What compels the marketing pros to sign up for a brand’s SMS alerts?
- What role can data play in determining a company’s strategy around using SMS?
- How can customer support through SMS help make a sale?
- How can SMS be used to establish a level of comfort for the customer?
- From a marketing standpoint, what is the most important thing to know about SMS?
- Is there an ideal time to send SMS messages?
- What are the SMS don’ts?
About the Guests:
Rob Lin, Owner & Founder, Divatress
Lin launched Divatress.com in 2009 with the goal of reaching more people after starting several retail stores. Over the last decade, he has grown the business while “navigating all the craziness of small business.” His goal is to grow large enough to open multiple warehouses around the country and also create as many jobs as possible. In his spare time, he loves spending time with his children, playing ping-pong, and grilling.
George Moser, Manager of Customer Success, Omnisend
Moser has over eight years of experience in the digital marketing space, primarily in ecommerce. He helps brands drive retention and revenue via omnichannel marketing automation.
Lucas Walker, CEO & Founder, Rolled Up
Walker is a serial entrepreneur. He has started three successful businesses in the software, ecommerce and media spaces. Lucas’ experience also includes marketing for an internationally-recognized sales trainer, where he launched the Make It Happen Mondays podcast, oversaw partners around the world, and reviewed over 10,000 ecommerce websites.
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