R3 for Email - Stage 2: New Customer
R3 for Email I guardianmarketing.substack.com I ExperienceR3.com
All of your marketing efforts, your advertising, your offers, your selling, it's all come to this point.
Your prospect has given you money,
And become a customer.
Now what do you do? Well,
Most completely drop the ball.
This is Stage 2 of R3 for Email. Before we dive in, you may wish to begin with Stage 4:
From R3: Retentions, Referrals, and Raving Fans, Stage 2:
Stage 2 lasts from the moment they give their credit card until they become familiar with your brand. This is typically where the biggest black hole is because companies put so much time, effort and energy before the sale, that after the sales is a relative low point.
The new customer stage has three psychological phases the customer will go through:
1. The sale or the transaction
2. Buyers remorse
3. Delivery
As always, in Stage 2 the fundamentals presented in R3 can be applied to Email as well as any environment/medium. Here I'm going to unpack tactically how you can move your customers through Stage 2 effectively using email. You'll see in R3 that the foundations are in impression management, emotional management, and expectation management.
Someone has just purchased.
What happens next?
This is the most stark transition point that a customer is going to go through with your business. They have just gone from being a prospect to now being a customer. They have gone from having control over their money, to putting it in your hands and initiating a transition of power and leverage.
Often times this happens at a height of emotion, and inevitably following the purchase there's a fall of emotion.
All of these things are happening suddenly, and walking through R3's steps you can see how to manage that transition.
Through email, rather than handle each step separately, we're going to knock them all out with one critical move.
The Tactic
It's obvious when you look at it, but this is one of the clearest applications for an automated email series.
We know exactly where our prospect is going to be right after they become a customer, we know the shift in perspective, we know the exchange of leverage, we know the expectation that they are looking to meet, we know the questions they are going to have, we know the direction they are going ...
And we can answer everyone of those questions, concerns, and guide them forward with Allegiance Capital1 using a well crafted automation email series to do the heavy lifting for us without leaving any gaps for our new customer to fall through.
I'll walk backwards through the steps of R3 and explain how you can use email to serve each.
Delivery
Delivery should be obvious. This is the literal delivery of your product or service. If it's a physical product which you can't deliver by email, you can use the automation (typically the first email) as a mechanism to simulate delivery by simply letting them know their order is being taken care of, and how they can expect that to resolve.
Ecommerce is an easy example. Take Amazon. Whenever you place an order you immediately get an email acknowledging the order and that it's being prepared for delivery, and then when it's being shipped you get a notification and tracking, etc. It's all expectation management and control for the customer.
Obvious, yes?
How about with something non-physical?
Again, if it's not something you can deliver immediately, first, before buying, your customer better already have a clear expectation that they aren't going to get something immediately, and then through email you set the expectation of how delivery is going to be completed.
There are too many variations of possibility here, it depends on your business.
If they are buying into a live event, give them all the detailed explanation of when that will happen, what emails for them to look out for to get into the event, the link if you already have it, how they can participate, whether they'll get a reply, etc
If they are buying into coaching, be as detailed and clear as possible in the schedule and expectations, where they can find all the information they need, etc.
If they are buying something which will be completed in the future ... I'm sure you can see already where this is going to go. Be as detailed and clear as possible in the schedule and expectations they can set for themselves in when the final product will be completed.
It’s all expectations. Even if they cant consciously articulate an expectation, because they have just given you money, they have them. It’s therefore your job to catch those expectations and reset them with email.
Of course, if you are selling something non-physical that can be delivered immediately, such as a digital course, not only can you deliver the course, but you can build on the delivery with forward moving communication - such as for example, walking them through key steps to getting started and getting an immediate result and return on their investment and efforts.
The transition when you become a customer naturally introduces questions.
What's going to happen next?
And then what?
And then what?
All the way until the point they receive the return on their investment that they expect (whether that's a literal monetary return, or utilitarian return, or even a happiness return).
You want to be aware of the experience they are having and look out for any point in the delivery of your product/service where they might feel uncertain. Those are the places where a simple email, or components of an email or a series can serve you well.
The more you can put yourself in your customers shoes and understand their experience, the better you'll be able to envision how to craft the experience from your end to make the transition as smooth and enjoyable as possible.
NOTE: One thing noted in the base R3 in the section on Delivery is the idea of adding dimensionality to the deliverable. If its a digital product, add something physical, if it's a physical product, add something digital.
I'll add onto this by saying that if you have a physical product, and you can add on a digital component to it, that will make it much easier for the customer to feel like you are delivering them something immediately by email. This is especially effective if they aren't expecting the digital component, but rather you provide it to them after the purchase as a bonus or augmentation.
As a simple example from one of my coffee roasting clients, what I'd include as part of their delivery emails was a series on how to store and prepare their coffee well (sort of a mini-masterclass). It was a nice little extra (which most roasters surprisingly don't do), which gives the feeling of something being delivered immediately while they wait for their coffee to be freshly roasted before shipping to them.
A small effort, but one which endears the roaster to the customer much faster and more reliably than waiting for them to get the coffee and hoping they enjoy it enough to keep buying.
A Post-Purchase Example
An example of an automated series that handles delivery along with a number of these unsure questions can be illustrated with a project I did for my Yoga client.
In this case one of the first products that people purchased was an online version of their yoga teacher training program. It was also something which could be delivered immediately.
For this product I wrote an automated series of emails designed to hand hold the new buyer into the program one step at a time. Being that it was a 200 hour program (literally 200+ hours of video, with a lot of that being guided yoga sequences), the series didn't take them through the whole thing, but rather was designed as a sort of onboarding ramp, giving them clarity and understanding for how to simply integrate the program into their everyday life.
(Swipe files will be included with the R3 for Email book)
The initial onboarding series ended up being just 7 emails, but the effort resulted in twice as many people sticking with the program consistently after 7 days, along with unsolicited testimonials in the form of positive feedback as people went through the program.
(This particular project I built a long term implementation series, since the "course" was so relatively dense and lengthy, most customers took 6+ months to complete)
One of the most notable immediate benefits of the way I handled the post purchase phase is that a much higher percentage of recent buyers went on to essentially "upgrade" to the in person program at 4-6x the price (I tracked about 10% over 90 days, and historical data prior to my effort showed less than half a percent, but the data was limited)
Point is,
When you recognize the experience and expectations of your customers, and handle all of that positively, it translates to a lot more consistent business and growth.
Buyers Remorse
This is, by far, the largest black hole. The harder you work to make the sale, the bigger this black hole. Remember, on either side of a peak is a valley. The greater the emotional peak you manufacture on the front end, the greater the emotional valley will be on the other side of it.
When a business doesn’t take the time to build its systems and processes to counter feelings of fear, doubt and uncertainty, their new customers grow distant very quickly.
Oh the things I can say about Buyer's Remorse ...
But let's get down to business.
Almost all the work in managing / dealing with Buyer's Remorse is going to come *before* they ever purchase something from you.
My perspective, my advice, and my belief is that the strongest position YOU can be in, which reduces Buyer's Remorse as much as possible and creates the greatest long term affinity for your business ...
Is to avoid selling to people in an emotional high.
This is tough to do, and has nothing to do with email. Most people selling things want to take the route of leveraging as much persuasion as possible. Lean into the emotions and push people to a height where they are far more likely to make a decisions whether it's right for them or not.
I prefer to take a different road with my communication where, rather than tipping people with emotion, I just make it as obvious as possible when the purchase is the right next best step for the person considering the buy.
I'll even go to lengths of telling people not to buy if they are unsure. To simply watch and see how other people who do buy experience the thing.
(This is part of a different strategic implementation -- “Let Them Watch”)
But, regardless of how well and clearly you construct your front end so as to minimize the possibility of Buyers Remorse being created, the decision to buy is still an emotional action.
That cannot be escaped.
Choice happens in the emotional part of the brain (which is why flooding people with emotion is such an effective tool for manipulation into choice).
So,
We want to be cognizant that right after the sale, no matter how well you construct your systems, how intentionally you avoid spiking emotion, it's highly likely that your customer is going to have some kind emotional rise into the buy, and then they will experience the inevitable fall.
Buying something is a peak.
And on either side of a peak is a valley.
Rather than let them fall all the way down into the valley, we want to think about how we can catch them.
(And if possible not even give them time to fall before they benefit)
Tactical implementation I discussed in delivery goes a long way. When you meet people right after they buy before they have a chance to even wonder "well now what," you can effectively catch them right before the fall, and then slowly guide them down to earth, changing their trajectory to now focus on the new forward moving path that they are on.
If you're selling education information about, let's say becoming an email copywriter, they may purchase thinking that they are now going to have all the freedom in the world, they are going to make more money than they ever have - even if you didn't make any of those claims.
We want to catch them right away and get them going on the path that matters - doing the work (because a big vision like that takes time). And we might think about taking them on a path that gets them a quick win (let them feel the return on their investment before they have a chance to feel the fall from emotion).
A great example of this is Laurel Portié's Ad Coaching for 72. Even though it's only $7, Laurel has still done a great job to honor all the steps people go through in each of these Stages. There can still be buyers remorse with such a small purchase (because no matter how much money you spend, people don't want to feel like they've been tricked to waste their money).
That's one of the reasons the very first thing you see when you get in her program is the first 7 day journey, which gets you making your first ad quickly and clearly. You are immediately started down the right long term track while getting a quick short term win. If you've been in that program you probably didn't even realize how much that initial experience just hijacks your fall down into the valley.
Again, tactically through email, automations (both single emails and series) are the way to execute on this.
If you don't have the ability to run email automations post-purchase, you're either going to have to make the switch to allow yourself to do so, or you're going to have to do it manually (which I'd estimate could only be possible if you were batching small groups of people into whatever you're selling, and even then it'd still be a nightmare and you'd open yourself up to significant gaps and lack of met expectations from delays and miscommunication).
We're talking about the same email series as I discussed in "Delivery." Remember, every step of Stage 2 is going to be handled by this one tactical component.
(Caveat: it doesn't HAVE to be one, but unless you have significant experience with these kinds of strategic email systems, along with an intimate knowledge of your best customer's experience, you're best served just creating a single series and making it as long as it needs to be to get the job done)
Ask yourself, what is my customer feeling?
What are they expecting?
What are they hoping?
What did they really buy? (Think about The Benefit of The Benefit of The Benefit, etc)
You know exactly where they are, what they desire and expect right at the point of purchase. Take advantage of that and immediately guide them forward.
The Sale
Hopefully this is sounding obvious by now.
The sale is the transaction. We want to reaffirm their buying decision immediately.
What should happen within seconds of them completing a purchase is confirmation and the next steps into your world and the product/service they just purchased.
The beginnings of that automated email series which does everything that we've discussed thus far.
This is also the moment to transfer BACK to them their leverage.
Point is, this is the most vulnerable they will be with you in their entire experience. This is your opportunity to affirm that risking their money was the right choice. If you don't bridge this gap, you will lose them. If you do bridge this gap, every transaction from this point out is done with the evidence of who you really are.
This is your opportunity to create a HFM (see the R3 book) for your customer, and set them on the right path to being a raving fan.
Why an automated email series?
If you're wondering about why an automated email series ...
First, check out my explanation for an email series in Stage 3.
To quote a short section from the article:
Why a series? Expectation management and event relevancy.
Event relevancy is basically the reason why someone might open and read your email. It's got to connect with some level of relevancy to an "event" that is happening in their life - but *really* this means that is has to connect with relevancy to the expectation that they have set around what is happening in relation to YOU.
I'll add onto that for Stage 2.
Most of the time, I have observed that if a business has any automation emails following a new customer purchase, they are limited to 1 or 2 emails only, and those emails are primarily transactional (here's your thing, thanks for buying, talk to you soon, etc).
(And don’t get me started on response to repeat customer purchases, which is usually little to none)
Hopefully by now you can see that it's not enough to just give your new customer what they have purchased.
That is obviously the bare minimum requirement.
To recap Stage 2's overarching goals, we want to Reaffirm their Buying Decision, Mitigate the Emotional Valley, and Deliver in a way that moves them forward and sets new expectations for them with momentum into our world.
Can you do all that with 1 or 2 emails?
In my observation, human behavior is too complex and nuanced to be handled with one thing. We're taking people in a place of vulnerability, where the wrong move, the slightest bit of uncertainty, can completely destabilize their trust and faith in you, your business, your products, your services.
So take the time.
Take the time to walk them through a new experience and to transition their expectations well.
Each email you send should have ONE job.
Using a series allows you to accomplish many jobs, to do so in a way that sets, meets, and often exceeds their expectations (in a positive way). You leverage the event of the email series to move them through each step of Stage 2, and then hand them off to Stage 3 for them to grow into your biggest fans.
NOTE -- As with the other stages published on Man Bites Dog, I'll note that the R3 for Email book will contain specific examples, swipe files, and detailed breakdowns of tactical application from the work that I have done.
Be Useful. Be Present. Love the Journey.
, CMO Man Bites Dog
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