The best email she’s ever received.
Those were the words on the message that interrupted my last-minute Christmas shopping.
To be honest, I was glad of the distraction.
Having just fought my way along Piccadilly and into Fortnum & Mason, past the crowds of tourists and harried-looking present purchasers, and successfully grabbing the last box of Salted Caramel Hot Chocolate my Father-in-Law loves (and to replace a box of biscuits on behalf of his wife after hers had bounced down every step at Marylebone station 😖), my thoughts were quickly moving towards “I wonder if it’s too early for a cocktail.”
Which was quite apt, considering the message was from one of my clients who sells a range of premium cocktail shakers and barware.
I was intrigued.
Which of the two dozen or so emails I’d written recently had got such a glowing response?
I scrolled through the message history and saw that it was a fairly unassuming—but key—message.
A short, 5-line email from the co-owner of the brand that goes out to every customer when they buy.
The gist is, “Thank you.”
There’s a bit more than that, of course.
I dialled up the emotion a little, reminding the customer that they’re a small brand and how much they value their customers. That sort of thing, but all genuine and heartfelt.
It seemed to hit the spot.
I wrote it as I was fed up with seeing the standard Shopify template that so many brands rely on.
You know the one.
“Thanks for your order. We’ll let you know when it ships” message, with maybe even a map of your house—I’ve yet to figure out why I need to see that.
It serves a purpose, but it looks like what it is—a template. The same as every other brand your customer buys from.
And when you’ve spent as much time and effort to acquire customers, is that the feeling you want to leave them with?
That you’re one of many? That they’re one of many?
Thought not.
Especially if you want them to come back and shop again.
In my view, you should put just as much effort, if not more, into retaining a customer as you do in acquiring them, or else you're ploughing all your profit into Meta and Google’s coffers, running ad after ad.
And this doesn’t just apply to eCommerce.
If you’re a course owner, a coach, a B2B brand, or a SaaS company, or you’re a copywriter who writes for them, do a bit of mystery shopping and dig into your post-purchase messaging and maybe show it some love.
In the case of my client, we doubled the number of repeat purchasers in six months. Not just from this email, clearly, but it was one part of a big strategic jigsaw.
It’s more than worth the effort.
And if you want similar replies from your customers, drop me a line, and let’s chat.