The hard part is over!
Well… not exactly. Now that you’ve built your store, do you know how you are going to get people there?
You could write content, start a newsletter, or spend money promoting your brand on Instagram to drive traffic.
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But before you do any of those things, you need to make sure your store is ready to:
That’s where most ecommerce businesses struggle to grow.
There are an estimated 12 million online businesses in the world. But only 8% will sell more than $1,000 this year.
At Privy, we talk to hundreds of small and growing ecommerce brands every day about this problem. And over the last 5 years we’ve discovered there are a few very successful tactics in converting new visitors into buyers and driving repeat business with those buyers. We call these tactics “plays.”
And today we’re launching our top 10 plays for ecommerce brands to grow sales on their Shopify store.
We’ve organized the plays by type:
And by the way – all these plays are all possible with Privy’s three products: Privy Growth, Privy Email and Privy Text. In fact, we even have templates for these plays in our products. We'll tell you how to use Privy for each play and which product you'll need below 👇
Play #1 - The New Customer Magnet
Build a massive list of future customers by asking new website visitors to join your email list in exchange for a 10% discount on their first purchase.
Who doesn’t want a coupon to make that first purchase? It incentivizes a faster first-time purchase. And that’s the beauty of this simple yet powerful play: it increases the speed of turning a visitor into a buyer!
On average, 98% of website visitors won’t convert into buyers on your store. Convert more with this play.
What you need to build this play:
You can use Privy Growth to build the popups, coupon and Privy Email to send the automated email.
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Play #2 - The Paid Traffic Converter
Spin-to-win is one of the most engaging offers you can put on your website. Who doesn’t want to spin? It’s just fun.
But because it’s so engaging, we recommend using it with a select audience. For example, if you’re running a specific campaign (like sponsoring a newsletter), the spin to win offer is great. Paid promotion, ads or newsletters, it’s harder to convert people once you’ve driven them to your website. Spin to win increases your chance of converting them.
What you need to build this play:
You can use Privy Growth to build a popup, target visitors with utm_parameters, create the coupons and Privy Email to send them the coupon in an automated email.
Play #3 - The Birthday Gift
Who doesn’t like a birthday gift? If you sell something you think makes for a great self-birthday gift, you should try this play. It’s a great offer to get people to opt-in to your email list.
What you need to build this play:
You can use Privy Growth to build the popup and collect email addresses and the coupon that can be redeemed in Shopify stores.
Play #4 - The Cart Saver
Here’s the truth: most exit intent popups aren’t used in the right context and with the wrong offer. Like on a homepage, asking someone to subscribe before they’ve even browsed your website or shown interest in your product.
But this play is different. It has context and a great offer. If someone has added something to your cart and is about to abandon, a discount offer can be very high converting.
One of the most common reasons people abandon their cart is they see the final cost. Often it’s the cost of shipping that triggers someone to rethink purchasing. So offering a 15% coupon (or the equivalent of shipping cost) can save the purchase.
What you need to build this play:
You can use Privy Growth to build the popup, create the coupon that syncs with Shopify and display the coupon code in the thank you message.
Reach every one of your contacts that abandoned their cart with a high converting cart recovery email.
While Play #2 is about saving someone before they’ve left your store, this play is for people that have left your store. For contacts you've already identify, you can email them to drive them back to your site to complete their purchase.
But here’s the trick: don’t just send them one email. Instead, you should have a sequence of 3 emails, separated by one, twenty-four and forty-eight hours. Here's what I mean:
Email #1 - one hour later, this email should be from the founder of the business, and simply remind them they forgot to complete the purchase and offer to answer any questions they may have. Don’t offer a coupon yet.
Email #2 - 24 hours after the first email, send another and remind them again but this time offer a 10% discount. The coupon is only good for 24 hours though. Make sure you create a unique coupon, so each recipient has a unique code and set the expiration for 48 hours.
Email #3 - Okay, now 23 hours after the coupon has been offered (and 47 hours after they abandoned their cart) you can email them again and remind them their coupon expires in one hour.
By the way, I learned about this sequence from Privy CEO, Ben Jabbawy.
What you need to build this play:
You can create this play using Privy Email. In fact, it’s a template so all you have to do is add your content and coupon.
Play #6 - The Text Reminder
Text or SMS marketing is new. And that’s why it’s so exciting. It gives you an edge over your competitors.
But to be effective, it has to be used the right way. For instance, a cart abandonment text is a great use-case. If they’re opted into texts with your brand, text them to remind them they left something in your cart. It has higher open rates than email.
What you need to build this play:
You can use Privy Text to send these texts and create the coupon that can be redeemed in a Shopify store.
Play #7 - The Upsell
And the screenshot above is the perfect example. Nature Reflections sells jewelry. So when you’re about to buy a pendant – which is sold without a chain – they let you know you can buy the chain from them as well. A great upsell opportunity for Nature Reflections.
What you need to build this play:
You can use Privy Growth to build the flyouts and link to another item.
Play #8 - The Brand Builder
After you’ve converted your visitors into buyers, a newsletter is one of the most popular ways to keep those buyers engaged and coming back for additional purchases.
What you need to build this play:
You can use Privy Growth to build your popup or landing page for people to sign up for your newsletter and Privy Email to send your newsletter.
Play #9 - The Repeat Shopper
This is perhaps one of the most underrated plays by ecommerce brands. After someone has made the purchase, doesn’t mean you stop marketing to them. Actually we encourage the opposite: now win them over for life.
So for this play, show your brand’s personality. If you are a small family owned business, like Old Try (the email example above) show your customers that! For instance, Old Try lets you know you're supporting their family with a family photo.
What you need to build this play:
You can use Privy Email to send the automated confirmation email, in fact it’s a template so all you'll need to do is add your content.
Play #10 - The Thank You Text
This play will help you drive repeat purchases. You could send a discount, or you could just send a thank you message. Either way you're meeting your buyers where they are: on their phones.
What you need to build this play:
You can use Privy Growth to build the pop up and the coupon.
Play #11 - (A Bonus Play) The List Builder
Turn your existing Privy contacts into textable contacts instantaneously with one email.
Okay so if you read Play #6 or #10 and thought, “I don’t have anyone to text yet” then this is the play for you 😀
This play involves an email, a landing page and a text. The email offers a discount if the person opts into text messaging, the landing page is where they submit their phone number and the text is sent out as confirmation with the discount when they submit their phone number.
What you need to build this play:
You can use Privy Email to send the email, Privy Growth to create the landing page and Privy Text to send the text with the coupon.
First of all: I don’t recommend you go set up all 10 of these plays right now.
These are the top 10 plays, not 10 plays you must have running. Some of these plays won't be a good fit for your business. But a few of them are perfect for every online store.
So here’s where I’d start: if you don’t have any of these, set up Play #1 - The New Customer Magnet, Play #4 - The Cart Saver and Play #5 - The Abandoned Cart Reminder.
Once you have those up and are measuring the impact on your bottom line, you can expand and try the other plays.
And by the way, if you want to try these plays for 15 days for FREE, you can sign up for a Privy trial today. You might be surprised by how fast these plays can help you sell more stuff.