This is what an average automated email flow looks like these days:
Fake urgency, generic messaging, usually ending with a discount.
Let me tell you a quick story…
The other day, my partner was shopping online for some skincare products.
A brand caught her eye. She clearly liked what they were selling.
She added an item to her cart, clicked the checkout page, and left.
“You didn’t like it?” I asked.
“Ohh yes I did, but if I check out right now, I won’t get a discount, right?”
I laughed out loud.
And guess what…
3 days later, she received an email with 10% off her cart.
Like. Clock. Work.
Now, for the team running the email show, it’s a success. The dashboard records a sale. Revenue is coming in. No one questions whether the 10% discount actually drove any incremental revenue.
I’ll tell you right now why this is a terrible strategy…
Lazy Discounts Condition High Intent Customers To Wait
Discounts are like band-aids to poor messaging. You’re essentially telling high intent customers who are ready to empty their wallets to WAIT.
Truth is, just like the example I gave you, these customers would happily buy regardless of the discount.
That same user who abandoned their cart didn’t need 10% off, nor did they want to hear about your brand’s founding story for the 10th time. They probably had a question about shipping, payment, or just needed some social proof.
Not only are you cutting into your margins, you’re putting the conversion at risk altogether by delivering irrelevant content.
Leave the storytelling, brand updates, and flash sales for weekly campaigns. Use flows to identify targets based on the action they take (e.g. viewed a product), and re-target them with hyper-focused messaging.
How To Use Discounts In Email/SMS Flows Strategically
1) Conditional splits
When a customer views a product or abandons their cart without buying, I like to use a conditional split in Klaviyo to separate new and returning customers.
To those that have never bought, don’t offer a new discount. Simply remind them of your welcome offer.
Normally, this is the same offer you use to get them on your email list. Or the offer that’s on your product page. You can also re-frame it as a mystery discount inside the email and increase click rates.
More on this, and how to optimize your cart abandonment performance in this article.
2) Attach a deadline to your post-purchase discount
I’ve said this many times on this newsletter, and I’ll continue to do so:
Make your post-purchase offer the best offer your customer sees.
Mention the offer in the order confirmation email. Then attach a deadline to it.
Realistically, you have about 60 days to re-convert a customer. For most brands, it’s 14-30 days. A deadline creates immediate urgency and ensures you’re actually incentivizing the action you want them to take, which is to buy more right away.
3) Limit winback offers to VIP customers
If a one-time customer never buys from you again, chances are they just didn’t need your product again, or the overall experience was underwhelming. A discount isn’t going to magically make them want to come back.
On the other hand, if a regular VIP customer shows signs of churning, it’s worth finding out the reason, and try to win them back with an automated plain text email sequence.
The question is… do these discounts actually work?
Maybe.
Your Klaviyo dashboard will never tell you the whole story.
If you want to know whether your winback discount drove an actual incremental lift, you need to conduct a holdout test outside of your ESP.
What’s Next
Optimize your flows to deliver more relevant messaging, and stay away from lazy discounts.
If you need help setting up your flows, apply to work with me here.
