Stop Blasting the Exact Same Email to Everyone
Our goal with email marketing is retention, but it is also one of the best tools we have to convert fresh subscribers into first-time purchasers. Once someone buys for the first time, you can easily make back your initial customer acquisition cost on their second, third, and fourth orders.
For roughly 95% of ecommerce brands, overcomplicating segmentation by tagging interests or regional locations is a complete waste of energy. In my books, engagement is the only thing that really matters. You want to speak to engaged purchasers and engaged non-purchasers, but you need to speak to them in slightly different ways.
You do not need to design two entirely different emails each week to do this. You only need one core campaign and a very simple banner swap.
Building Your 90-Day Engaged Purchaser Segment
Before you send anything, you need two clean segments set up inside Klaviyo. The first is your 90-day engaged purchaser group. These are the people who already know your brand, trust your product, and have purchased from you at least once.
I define this segment by pulling anyone who meets at least one of these criteria: opened an email in the last 90 days, clicked an email in the last 90 days, was active on site in the last 90 days, placed an order in the last 90 days, or subscribed to your list in the last 30 days. I deliberately keep the subscription window to 30 days. If someone joined two months ago and has not opened a single email since, they are not engaged.
To finish the segment, add two mandatory AND rules. First, placed order at least once over all time (using your Shopify metric). Second, the profile can receive email marketing. Save that as your core purchaser audience.
Setting Up the Non-Purchaser Segment
Once your purchaser segment is saved, clone it immediately. We will call this one your 90-day engaged non-purchasers.
Keep the engagement conditions identical, but remove the condition for placing an order in the last 90 days. Then, change the all-time purchase filter to placed order zero times overall time. Now you have a clean list of people who are actively reading your emails and browsing your site, but have never pulled the trigger on a purchase.
They are interested, but they need an extra nudge. Treating them identically to your VIP customers is a mistake.
The One-Banner Campaign Split
Here is how you execute the strategy on your regular weekly or fortnightly newsletter. Build your campaign as you normally would, using your standard branded template, announcement, or content piece.
Create your campaign and schedule it to the 90-day engaged purchasers segment first. In this version, make sure there is no mention of a discount code. Existing buyers who are already engaged do not need a margin-eroding coupon to read your update or buy a new release.
Next, clone that campaign and change the recipient list to your 90-day engaged non-purchasers. (Always leave Smart Sending switched on just to prevent any accidental crossover). In this cloned version, add a small header banner right at the top displaying a discount code.
- Use the exact same discount offer you promised them in your welcome popup.
- Keep the body text, imagery, and product features completely identical to the main campaign.
- Send both versions out at the same time.
Why Sacrificing First-Order Margin Pays Off
When you look at your campaign analytics, you will find that roughly 80% of your email revenue comes directly from your repeat purchasers. That is standard across almost every ecommerce store we manage.
Because repeat purchasers drive the vast majority of your campaign profit, you can easily afford to sacrifice a little margin on the remaining 20% to acquire new customers. Reminding non-purchasers of their introductory discount inside a standard content campaign removes the friction holding them back.
You take a slight margin hit on order number one. You make all of that profit back on orders two, three, and four.
Final Thoughts
Turning subscribers into customers does not require complex automations or endless copywriting. Segment by engagement and purchase history, keep your core content identical, and remind non-purchasers of their welcome offer at the top of the email. It is the single easiest way to lift your campaign conversion rates.
If you want our team to audit your current segmentation and take over your weekly sending strategy, take a look at our Email Campaigns service.
