Browse Abandonment campaigns are an integral part of a smart “set and forget” email marketing strategy, bringing you significant revenue gains. It’s aligned with what you know to be a key success factor for email marketing: sending the right message to the right person at the right time. Forget sending mass promotional newsletters to your entire list and praying for sales.

What is Browse Abandonment?

Imagine a person visits your site, views a tour or rental but doesn’t add it to their cart or purchase. Browse Abandonment allows you to automatically send them an automated, targeted email that does two things. First, it serves as a reminder of items your subscriber expressed interest in and second, it offers a way to tempt them to make the purchase.

I thought it was called Cart Abandonment

Browse Abandonment campaigns focus on activity further up the funnel: on visitors who have viewed your product pages without purchasing (for whom you have an email address). 

Sending a campaign higher in the sales funnel means you are sending this email to more people than you would with just Cart Abandonment – obviously a much more powerful way of luring leads back on-site.

In fact, studies tell us that 88% of shoppers don’t even get to your cart: on average 39% of shoppers look at products but only 12% cart any! If you focus on cart abandonment, you leave revenue from 27% of your warm leads on the table.

SmartMail tell us that product abandonment emails outperform cart abandonment emails by over 200%!

What the data says

Still wondering if it works? Let’s look at some studies from several reputable sources.

On average, a general email blast campaign for a company that sells something online (tickets, rentals, tours, etc) will average an open rate of 5-20%. That means about 20% of the people you send an email to will actually open it. And of that 20%, about 2% of people will click through on the email to your website.

With Browse Abandonment, the numbers are staggeringly higher.

Open rates average about 52% and click through rates average 26%. WOW! Now, you’re not sending it to the same number of people…but you are sending it to warm leads who are…wait for it…the right people, getting the right message at the right time. No wonder it works so well.

And while those numbers are industry average, we have clients seeing open and click thru rates as high as 77%! It’s easy to see why this type of email campaign should be in your tool box.

Your Email Campaign

Let’s say you buy into Browse Abandonment. What should that email say?

Subject Lines are the most important, as they work to grab your prospect’s attention and get them to open the email. Here are some examples:

  • Did you see something you like?
  • We noticed you checking us out!
  • Recommended just for you….
  • This experience would take you vacation to the next level
  • Book [tour name] before we’re sold out!

And what about the body of the email? What do you share?

First, remind them of what they were last looking at on your site – the exact product. Share a photo and a description, and by all means, include a conspicuous Book Now button.

Second, you might also show them other tours that could interest them, and social proof to ease their mind about purchasing from you.

Notice we didn’t suggest that you send a coupon code. Don’t start the engagement that way – you work too hard for that money.

Skip a discount as a lead magnet.

Skip a discount in your first Browse Abandonment campaign.

If you want to use a discount, offer it in the second (or subsequent) email from your Browse Abandonment email series.

Don’t forget these points

Here are a few more best practices to keep in mind as you implement this process:

  • Statistically, best results come from sending the first email 2 hours after they last view the product on your site. The second one should come about 24 hours later.
  • Before you send any emails, be sure to check on the purchase history of that person. Did they just purchase tickets from you last week? If so, they are probably looking at your site because they are excited; don’t frustrate them by sending a sales email for a product they just purchased (especially if it includes a discount.)
  • Browse Abandonment only works if you have their email address, which is why a FANTASTIC lead magnet is another essential component.
  • While a generic “one size fits all” browse email will work, you will generate significantly more revenue if you create one for each product you offer. Start with the highest revenue producer and work backward.

Including Social Media

What if you want to include social media ad spend with your email marketing efforts? How do you make it work?

First, it has to be a “set and forget” process. You barely have the time to set it up, you certainly don’t have the time to manage it.

Take advantage of a system that will automatically add your Browse Abandonment prospects to a custom Facebook group, so you can hit them with your website…hit them with your email…and hit them with social media. The marketing trifecta.

Be sure that once they purchase (be it from the first email or the last email you send) they are automatically removed from that custom audience. You don’t want to waste money on marketing to someone who just purchased.

How do I do this?

Browse Abandonment is not easy…unless you have the right partner.

TourAdvantage’s integration with FareHarbor, Browse Abandonment functionality, seamless integration with social media, and campaigns and workflows to jumpstart your efforts make it easier than ever to increase your bottom line.

TourAdvantage is a new turnkey email marketing solution designed just for small to mid-sized for experience providers.

Be the master of big marketing efforts, maximize direct bookings, and position an advantage over other local attractions with larger marketing budgets with:

  • Real-time email and e-commerce integration with FareHarbor
  • 40+ easy to follow video tutorials tailored to the tour operator experience
  • 30+ accelerator workflows and email templates

Watch a demo, and try it free for 30 days.

Email marketing will increase your bottom line – and it’s no longer hard or expensive.

Lesli Peterson
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