Everything you need to know about our onboarding campaign project

Why should businesses onboard new customers?

How you onboard a new customer paves the way for everything to come. It provides the first real WOW (or AHA) moment. Henceforth, your onboarding campaign is of crucial importance. 

The problem is, businesses often forget that the buying cycle doesn’t end at the purchase. And, as a result, onboarding simply doesn’t exist.

If you want happy customers with great Customer Lifetime Value (CLV), you must pay attention to the fulfilment stage.

90% of customers think that companies could “do better” when it comes to user onboarding (Wyzowl)

This is the challenge we are helping to solve through our onboarding campaign project. 

We like to refer to the post-purchase experience as the ‘Second Moment of Truth’ phase. It’s where the customer goes from buying the product to using it. Moreover, it is where their opinions of the product, and your brand, are formed. 

It’s important to get your customer to use their purchase correctly and successfully and to make it their own. That’s where the onboarding comes in. It supports that process.

Done well, this will lead them on to the most important part of their purchase - enjoying it!

The buyer’s consumption journey looks something like this:

1. Research - what are others doing with their purchase, reading user guides, etc.

2. Implementation (using) - first time trying out their product.

3. Proving - does it do what was promised? Was it worth the investment (cost)?

4. Optimisation (owning) - finding own way to use it, refining their opinion. 

5. Enjoying - feeling good about the purchase, likely showing it off to others/talking about it.

Related content: How an onboarding strategy can reduce your customer churn rate

What does an onboarding campaign achieve?

As mentioned above, in the first instance, onboarding helps your new customers to make the most of their purchases. It’s a brilliant strategy to reduce the likelihood of post-purchase apathy. There’s a lull during the time after purchase where the customer considers “Did I make the right decision?”. 

Buyer’s remorse is a killer. They may look for a refund, leave a bad review, shop elsewhere, even spread negative opinions to others - all of which will damage your rep and impact your revenue.

Second, onboarding provides the opportunity to bolster your relationship with the new customer. Welcoming them and thanking them for choosing you/your product, will give them greater reason to stick around and spend more in the future. 

Loyal customers are five times more likely to purchase again from the same company and
four times more likely to refer a friend to the company (Forbes)

Retention is incredibly important. Many businesses aim to reduce customer churn rate but don’t realise it all starts with how the customer was onboarded. Instead, figuring that something has gone wrong at a more immediate point in time.

A strong first impression will stick. Delivering the core value a new customer expects will be something they carry forward into longer-term retention. 

As a bonus to your business, your onboarding campaign can also offer the opportunity to upsell or cross-sell products. But, you must approach this with a little caution as not to put the new customer off with overselling, or products not relating to their wants/needs.   

Satisfied customers are 87% more likely to purchase upgrades and additional services
than unsatisfied customers (MyCustomer)

Not a new lead welcome campaign…

Just to be clear - as we often talk about the importance of welcoming new leads/subscribers - this campaign is not a ‘new lead welcome’, that’s something you should have done already. 

This is for new customers - those wonderful people who’ve handed over their hard-earned cash for your product or service. We love these people - and this campaign will allow you to show them that.

If you’re interested in the new lead welcome/indoctrination, take a look at some of our related content:

• What is a welcome email campaign?
• What should every welcome/indoctrination series contain?
• Everything you need to know about our welcome campaign project
  

How does the onboarding campaign project work, and what are the objectives?

The project aims to get you up and running with an automated campaign that welcomes each customer when they purchase from you for the first time.

Our goal is to help you WOW them. Ultimately, we’ll be providing content to support their Second Moment of Truth phase and increase their CLV.

The project is designed so we can make it all happen for you. We take our out-of-the-box solution and adapt it to fit your business - making it pretty bespoke. 

We will be using our tried and tested structure to create your campaign content. And, whether you are B2B, B2C, or even B2G, we have templates in place to suit your audience type. 

The content will be produced by us, with your input. With this in mind, we will draw out the information required through questionnaires and calls, sometimes setting you ‘homework’ tasks. Our job is to take all your insight and expertise and turn it into an incredible onboarding experience.

Furthermore, we can design the look and feel of your campaign, plus implement (build) it in your email marketing platform, using trigger tags and segmentation. 

If you’d prefer to be more hands-on, you can opt for an out-of-the-box package. To clarify, we provide the templates, alongside the strategy, for you to go off and do everything yourself. From copywriting to design and implementation. Get in touch if this sounds more like what you’re after. 

What happens when you sign up?

We will get in touch to book a strategic call. At the same time, we’ll send you some important questions to help us outline the level of project you require.

On the call, we will chat about strategy, make a plan and go through a proposal. You can ask as many questions as you can think up and we’ll make sure you are completely clued up on the project.

Once you have signed off the proposal and contract we can begin the hard work! This means getting all the information required to create an awesome onboarding campaign for your business.

The project usually takes around 4-5 weeks to complete, depending on what’s involved, how many emails, and how quickly we get your input.

Who is the project a good fit for? 

Do you sell products or services? Yes, well then this project is for you. 

Every B2B, B2C, or B2G business should onboard its new customers. Whether selling cars, clothing, SaaS, consultancy, training, beauty treatments, commercial printing, gym memberships - you name it. 

Product-wise, you want to make sure they get the best out of using it. This means you’ll need to be more flexible with your onboarding emails template. By allowing for the most relevant product information to be provided, you create a bespoke onboarding campaign that is true to purchase. 

Cross-selling and upselling can easily come into play in eCommerce onboarding. Moreover, offering an exclusive discount as a thank you for choosing to purchase, can work wonders for a second sale. 

Service-wise, the customer must understand all the steps to be undertaken for that service to be delivered. How you will deliver it, what’s expected of them etc. You’re less likely to cross/upsell here. That’s something to perhaps save until nearing/at the end of what they signed up for. 

Who is the project not a good fit for?

If you have a very hands-on sales process, or perhaps account managers who are super involved when it comes to onboarding a new customer - you might have a slightly different requirement for onboarding.

This doesn’t mean we cannot support you with this project, but it will look a little different and the out-of-the-box option won’t suit you. 

Another thing we have often come across, which isn’t necessarily a ‘non-starter’, is when you haven’t developed an understanding of the benefits your product/service or company offers the customer. 

Why do we think this is important? Getting across the benefits to the customer, and focusing on what they will gain from the solution, in a personal sense, strengthens your message so much more. Our templates have been designed around showcasing that to the customer, so it’s ideal to have the raw information ready to go. 

Are your solutions bespoke, e.g. different for each customer? And are you missing an overall process of how you work with customers? If so, this will probably not suit the project. However, we can offer advice and help you create a strategy & process to onboard these types of customers. So, if you fall into that category, please get in touch so we can chat more about your needs. 

Finally, ideally you need a marketing automation tool in place. You can choose to utilise the onboarding emails without one, but you won’t be able to track in detail. Tracking means you can measure engagement. When you know which customers are engaging you’ll have more clarity on who’s likely to be a great lifelong customer.

What results can you expect from the project?

• Happier customers with better lifetime value

• Increased ROI - especially through upsells/cross-sells

• More positive testimonials, reviews, and recommendations 

• Improved reputation for providing quality customer service

• Higher engagement with future email or social content 

• Better brand loyalty with more advocates

Why you might not see the results you hope for

Unfortunately, we cannot promise you a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow if certain things aren’t already in place, or put into action during and after the project.

For example: 

Your onboarding process is not aligned to your strategy, or you don’t have a process in the first place.

Having a process mapped out means you can stay really focused on the end goal and what you need to do to get you there. Don’t panic if you don’t have one, we can help with that. However, it will be down to you to stick with it 🙂 

You don’t deliver what you promise in the onboarding emails.

This is a no-no. It can damage your relationship with the customer and reduce CLV. We’ve all been there when we’re told we’ll get a certain level of service and it falls short. Don’t be the company that overpromises and under-delivers.

If you don’t get your messaging right.

This could be providing low-value information or incorrect information in the emails, or perhaps not upselling the right product. This usually occurs if there’s a lack of understanding about your audience’s wants and needs. 

Not having the required information available for us to use.

To make your campaign as effective as possible, we’ll need resources that will benefit the consumer. Such as user guides, testimonials, educational blogs, or eBooks - anything that will help bulk out your emails with brilliant customer-focused content. 

You don’t listen to our advice.

This may sound a little, self-assured... But, we’d hate for you to come back saying that your campaign hasn’t been a success when it turns out you’ve not done what we have suggested. The fact is, we’ve been doing this for a long time, so we’ll only recommend what we know is proven to work.

What’s required to make your onboarding campaign a success

From our side, we give you the strategy and help you understand why we are doing things a particular way. To create the campaign we will use our tried and tested structure, tailored to your business and audience.  

We aim to give you all the tools for success and ensure your onboarding campaign is designed with both your goals and your audience in mind. 

You’ll need to provide the information we require to build the campaign for your business. And if you choose to do the campaign implementation, you’ll need to be up to scratch on how to do so in your marketing automation platform. 

As I mentioned, your process needs to be in place and adhered to. Plus, you’ll need to be prepared to adapt your campaign in the future should your products, services, or processes change. 

Lastly, make sure the other areas of your customer journey strategy are in a good place if you want this project to be as successful as possible.

How much does it cost?

Starting at £979 +VAT  (where applicable).

Prices will be dependent on your specific requirements. E.g. how many emails are in your campaign, what level of input we have in the project, whether you choose to opt for any additional work outside the general project etc.

This will all be discussed in your strategic call, so you won’t have to commit until you're happy with the scope of the project. 

Sign up for an onboarding campaign project

To get started, it’s pretty simple, pop your cursor over the button below and click.

We’ll be in touch to kick off your project!

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