Retention Audit
After we measure the opportunity for improvement, you’ll make more confident decisions about the work to be done and its likely Return on Investment. Start here to get more repeat customers from email, SMS, etc.
Prioritize
There’s lots you might want to do, or expect you should do. But where should you start, and what’s the ‘low hanging fruit’?
Benchmark
Focus on a few key numbers and ratios that improve retention. Measure what precedes and provides profit.
Plan
Recommendations specific to your situation, resources, team capacity, and opportunity for growth.
Summary of the Retention Audit
Start with analysis of your Email Marketing program. Add SMS metrics if you’re doing that. Extend our audit to the Shopping and Post-Purchase customer experience if you’re wanting CRO / CLV recommendations that will sharpen your strategy for Email and SMS. Our advisory audit clarifies the status quo and recommends next steps to move your brand towards more repeat ecommerce customer purchases. Check pricing.
OVERHEARD
Reasons to do this now:
Staff not trained
“We already have the staff to be the ones doing it, but they’re not trained for this. Help us make a plan and get up to speed.” – CMO
Make it actionable
“We’re tracking our numbers but some are trending in the wrong direction. I want your perspective on why? And what we should do to turn these around.” – CEO
Which KPI's?
“I read articles describing the top ecommerce metrics and there’s like 30 of them. And some can be calculated multiple ways! Simplify this for the purpose of improving our customer retention!” – Store Owner
More than email
“Our team knows about email click rates, and we segment our list pretty well. But I want a game plan to enhance results. We must retain more customers. I don’t want them to just send the next clever subject line and track opens. Revenue matters.” – Brand Founder
How it works
What to expect when you hire us, and how we’ll do this together.
Our part
For each element of the audit (reference the table below), we provide you with a calculation, observations, and recommendations. We’ll work from the data you provide, and therefore will be limited by its accuracy and completeness. We’ll help you identify sources for this data. We’ll clean or organize data to the extent specified in our engagement, which helps explain its price variability. We’ll present our findings concisely. We’ll answer your questions for a limited period after our audit’s delivery.
Your part
You’ll facilitate our access to your software and systems that contain the data needed to make our calculations. You’ll create reports and deliver them in the format we specify, within reason given your systems. You’ll export data, repeatedly if necessary. If you don’t have precise data, you’ll provide sufficiently meaningful proxy data or we’ll agree to placeholder data that helps us complete our part. You may be asked to purchase software at an additional expense to you that we specify to facilitate our calculations (example: a temporary Shopify app).
Retention Audit: why?
Maybe you’ve got a great ecommerce team, and maybe you already have someone to send marketing emails.
But something about the situation needs to improve. You know that much for sure. Maybe the makeup of your team has just changed and it’s timely to assess the situation. Or you’re changing platforms!
Regardless what’s happened to get you here, we’ll bring recommendations backed by your data and ours to make a plan you can rally around.
1. Refresh your reasons
Somewhere along the lines you decided to send 5 campaigns a week. Or 5 campaigns a month. And you’ve been on that rhythm ever since. If results are flat, then consider this a pattern interruption. Make a change for good reasons.
2. Shift priorities
Should you send more campaigns? Or build more email automations (Flows in Klaviyo)? Which automations would be of highest value to you now? Is there something about your ecommerce shopping experience to fix first? Let’s prioritize.
3. Go forward with confidence
There’s a time for analysis, and a time for action. The actionable part is what ought to immediately follow this audit. Are you ready to make changes? Our analysis prepares you for the actionable next step. Confidence flows from preparation and wise counsel.
AUDIT METRICS | Email / SMS | Shopping | Post-purchase |
Subscribe / List Growth rates | |||
Open & Click rates | |||
Placed / Conversion / Repeat order rates | |||
List Engagement segmentation | |||
Sender Identity & Reputation | |||
Campaign / Flow revenue ratio | |||
Website Visitor Traffic count | |||
Checkout Abandonment rate | |||
Sales by Channel | |||
Product Count | |||
Product Top Sellers | |||
Average Order Value (AOV) | |||
1x2x3x Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) | |||
Average Days to Second order | |||
Customer Purchase Latency | |||
Average Orders per Customer | |||
AUDIT PRICE RANGE: | |||
Considering Return on Investment
In our first conversation, we’ll ask you questions about the size, pacing, and complexity of your business. Our follow-up audit price will be tailored to you within the range listed above. If you follow through on our audit’s recommendations, these will be the leading metrics to monitor for trending improvement: Open & Click rates, Checkout Abandonment rate, and Placed Order / Conversion rates. As these improve, then later the metric for Average Days to Second Order will improve. This then improves CAC, with snowball-like effects on your ability to scale ad spend.
FAQ's
When is the best time to do this audit?
The best time to do this is when you’re undergoing a change. It might be that you’re considering new software platforms. Or you’re making a budget and prioritizing an upcoming phase of optimizations. It’s ideal when you’re wanting to vet or hire new vendors who can support your team during a burst of revisions.
How long does it take?
Our start time is typically within 1 week of your making payment. Your part (described above) might take up that first week, enabling us to begin and work on the data the following week. We’ll deliver our part in the 4th week.
Who needs to participate?
The Your Part section of this page describes work that is typically done by a senior manager or owner with full access to financial and performance data. Someone with admin access to your systems is required for the hand-off. When we present our audit, consider who on your team would want to ask questions and choose which to do among our recommendations.
COMPARE SERVICES
Advisory & done-with-you services:
Retention | List | Brand | |