Post-purchase automations target customers who have previously purchased from your shop and can serve different purposes depending on your goal.
With a loyalty offer automation, you can automatically lay the groundwork for the customer's next purchase by offering a coupon or linking them to your rewards program.
How Loyalty Offer Automations Benefit You
- Create a positive post-purchase experience that continues to nurture the relationship with the customer and sets them up to make their next purchase with your shop.
- Target customers with loyalty offers based on their purchase history. You might invite first-time shoppers to join your rewards program or offer a more enticing discount on their next order, whereas with a VIP of brand enthusiast, you might set benchmark offers (i.e., celebrate their 5th order or send a coupon when they've hit the $500 spending mark).
Choose the Automation Triggers and Filters
Every post-purchase automation should start with the basics: Automation Trigger as Order Created and Cancellation Trigger as Checkout Started.
From here, you'll add a User Filter, which lets you specify the characteristics of customers who should receive this post-purchase automation.
If you want to create a general loyalty offer that sends to all customers with each purchase regardless of their purchase history, then you don't need to define a user filter.
- Select Order Created from the Automation Trigger drop-down.
- Select Yes from the Cancellation Trigger drop-down.
- From the Cancel automation if drop-down, select Checkout Started.
- Select Save & Continue to Messages in the bottom-right corner of the page.
A loyalty offer based on the total number of orders comes in handy if you want to celebrate a specific order milestone (e.g., 5th or 10th order) or if you wish to create a different loyalty offer for first-time customers versus returning customers.
- Select Yes from the User Filter drop-down.
- Select Number of Orders from the criteria drop-down.
- Choose your refinement criteria.
- If you are creating an offer for a specific order milestone (e.g., 1st order, 5th order, 10th order, etc.), select Equals.
- If you are creating an offer for an "X or more orders" or a returning customer, select Greater than or equal to.
- Enter your value in the final field.
- Select Save & Continue to Messages.
A benchmark loyalty offer allows you to celebrate or send a special offer to a returning (or in some cases, first-time) customer who has reached a certain spend amount. You can dress this loyalty offer up as achieving a VIP status or something suitable to your brand.
- Select Yes from the User Filter drop-down.
- Select Total Spent from the criteria drop-down.
- Choose the refinement criteria of Greater than or equal to. This ensures that customers who hit at or a little above that level with their most recent order receive the automation.
- Enter an amount in the final field.
- At the top of the page, enable the Once Per Subscriber toggle.
- Why? You want this message to include a one-time offer to celebrate this total spend benchmark. However, since the criteria is Greater than or equal to, you don't want this automation sending for additional orders that add to the customer's total spend.
- Select Save & Continue to Messages.
Create Your Message
With loyalty offer automations, you can include more than one message in the series and set send delays between each message. Many brands use the first message at the initial offer, then follow a day or so later with a reminder.
The content of your loyalty offer messages will differ depending on your goal. We review a few different strategies below, and you can try out or use which ones work best for your brand.
- Include an image or GIF. Consider including a fun or branded image or GIF with your first message. It can help showcase your brand's personality and create excitement for the offer.
- Add personalization with message tags. Add dynamic tags such as {first_name} so that the sent message populates with the customer's first name. It's a simple and effective way to build rapport and trust with your customers.
- Create a sense of urgency. Use your message copy to create a sense of urgency around your offer. This will encourage the customer to make their next purchase soon. Popular examples include This offer expires at midnight! or Use this coupon in the next 24 hours!
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Offer an incentive. Most loyalty offers will include an incentive to encourage the customer to order again. However, you can vary the kind of incentive you offer based on customer data:
- For example, for first-time customers (i.e, number of orders = 1), you could offer a larger incentive to convert them into returning customers.
- For returning customers, you could try out a free shipping offer on their next order.
- For benchmark customers or brand enthusiasts (i.e., VIPs or those with a large spend), a larger discount might encourage them to place a large-value order.
- Link directly to your store. Add a link to your store so the customer can click right back into your shot from the text message.
Extra Resources
- Fantastic Texts. Need some inspiration? Check out some real-life shops and how they interact with their customers.
- Postscript's Video Learning Library. Level up your SMS skills with our quick walkthrough videos of Postscript features and tools.
- Create a Custom GIF. Learn how to create a custom GIF that showcases your brand's products and personality.
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