Thinking Through Abandon Cart For Software Businesses

Abandoned cart emails are the first thing any savvy marketer reaches for in their eCommerce playbook when they want to increase conversion rates.

So why not in software?

Whilst doing the marketing for Bento one of the first automations I put together was one right at the start of the onboarding flow: when we ask for a credit card.

Most leads look at that form, which is asking them to walk across the room to grab their wallet, and just leave.

Fair! I wouldn't trust it either! Especially if they don't know me or my background and came from SEO or even word of mouth.

They don't know if they can cancel easily or if they'll get the support needed to get the tool going. They may not have watched the demo videos I've shot so don't know if the product is even any good. Some anxiety about migration might now have kicked in.

All things I maybe should be communicating to them BEFORE they sign up but I don't because I don't want to add more text to the onboarding funnel.

I just want them to move as fast through it as possible.

Most software products face this problem.

If Bento was an eCommerce business I would solve this by throwing in an abandon cart sequence. It would offer them an incentive or, perhaps, encourage a dialogue to help me solve their problems.

So, I decided to try this for Bento.

The results since implementing this have been amazing.

Because users on the prior step created an account I already had their email so could easily setup the funnel like so:

1. User creates account and is identified automatically with Bento.js.
2. Once they hit /pricing I add them to an Abandon Cart email sequence.
3. I configure the sequence to end when they get a customer tag.
4. The sequence fires off 7 emails with each one trying to encourage dialogue. The user can opt-out at anytime by pressing a single button.

My first email welcomes them to the platform straight away and then my second email, which will get after a few hours if they don't become a customer, fires off. It looks like this:

Subject: Those forms are kinda scary, huh? Inbox Preview: ... super quick question, {{ visitor.first_name }}.

Hey {{ visitor.first_name | default: "there" }}!

It's me again — noticed that you didn't complete signing up and ended on the payment form page.

Those forms can be scary, huh.

Would you like me to send you a free trial coupon so you can test the product out without paying? Takes me two seconds to whip up.

Onwards,

Jesse CEO of Bento PS: This email is totally automated with Bento BUT replies go straight to me and I really do respond personally.

The email is empathetic to the problem that forms are intimidating and offers a solution. Almost 50% of people who got this replied with "Sure!" or "Yes please!" they didn't even realise that Bento already gives you a free trial coupon to try the product without paying.

The email does a fantastic job at opening up the conversation.

I've also been able to generate amazing calls with some pretty powerful companies using this tactic because their marketing team or engineers tried signing up but didn't have approvel yet to pay on the company card.

If you're a SaaS company that does freemium then still following the sequence that I created above but just think about it a little differently.

In freemium, you ideally want users to pay or upgrade eventually so your email sequence may be spread over 3-6 months and constantly encourages them to talk to sales or consider the upgrade. Maybe you even add someone to specific abandon cart sequences based on usage.

These all will work for your business and it's low hanging fruit like this that makes Bento pay for itself.

If you're interesting in hashing out flows like this send me a message on Discord or talk to us on live chat. Excited to build this out alongside our customers.