If you’re a business with consumable or subscription-based services, a replenishment campaign can be the difference between disappointing results and a happy, engaged customer base. A well-timed, relevant replenishment campaign can help you drive sales, including cross- and up-sells, as well as boost buy-in to your subscription service.

What is a Replenishment Campaign?

A replenishment campaign is an email, or series of emails, aimed at reminding customers who purchase consumable goods that their product is about to run out. The goal of a replenishment campaign, make sure the customer orders from you instead of stopping by the nearest store on their way home. Here are four things you need to keep in mind when creating a replenishment campaign.

1. Make Re-Ordering Easy

Replenishment campaigns are supposed to make your customers’ lives easier by reminding them of essentials they may have forgotten. Your customers lead busy lives and a replenishment campaign can not only make their lives easier it can help grow their confidence in you as a trusted partner. When creating a replenishment campaign, one of the most important things to remember is to make the re-ordering process simple. Things like one-click ordering and routing people to the checkout page with the product already loaded into the cart are great examples of making this process seamless. At the end of the day you want to make sure your customers can easily get what they need and get back to their very busy lives.

2. Use Data to Time Your Campaign

Where possible, you should use data to power your campaigns. If you’re collecting product, purchase, and customer history you have access to the average usage rates of a product for your entire customer base. Additionally, as your customers purchase from you over time, you can actually start to understand each individual buying patterns and their individual usage rates of certain products. Having access to this data in an actionable way allows you to create relevant, timely replenishment campaigns to send to your customers. By the way, WhatCounts has an algorithm to produce a predicted replenishment date to trigger campaigns. Learn more here.

3. Get Your Subject Lines Right

This sounds like a no-brainer, but it’s important that your subject lines are on point. You want people to understand the value you’re bringing them through these reminder campaigns, but in order for your customers to see the value, they need to open the email. Make sure you’re A/B testing your subject lines and play around with including product names or other personalization tokens in the subject line to truly grab their attention.

4. Drive Your Customers to Subscription Sign-Up

This may only apply to a subset of business owners, but for companies who have a subscription service, replenishment campaigns can be a great way to drive customers who are on the fence towards signing up for the subscription. If you’re employing a replenishment campaign, make sure to include an email about your subscription service (and its benefits) as part of your series. Have fun with the creative and show your customers how much easier and more efficient their lives will be if they sign up – no more reminder emails, no more running out of soap only to realize it while you’re already in the shower, etc.

Whatever the reason you’re interested in a replenishment campaign – this type of email series can help boost retention and foster goodwill between you and your customer base. To learn more about replenishment campaigns or how we can help, just reach out.