Making the most of an autoship or repeat order platform means making it as easy as possible for customers to place and modify their orders. The fewer steps between your customers and their desired delivery, the better.
In the spirit of helping you in that quest—of reducing the distance between your consumers and their goal—let’s talk about a really cool feature Autoship has that you can’t find anywhere else.
Link Builder Tool – The Basics
The Link Builder tool allows you to create custom links tied to individual products. This functions similarly to Google campaign IDs you might create to track metrics on an email ad. These links can be embedded or included in emails, social posts, etc. Basically, anywhere you connect with your customers, you can share the link and benefit from its functionality.
Where Link Builder links differ from campaign IDs is this: rather than take you to a web page, clicking the link performs an action for the user (actions like adding the linked item to an upcoming order). This makes cross-sells as simple as a single click for your customers.
That’s it. Well, that’s how simple it is. But that’s not all you can do with it.
Here’s where to find it on your WooCommerce store:
What You Can Do with It
When you create a link with the tool, you can set the link to perform a number of different actions for your customers when they click on it.
First and foremost, you can set it to add an item to an upcoming order on a one-time basis. With a single click, your customers can pick up the cross-sell. The link does all the work, no further action needed on the part of the customer. For customers that want to try out a new product, but aren’t ready to make it a permanent part of their shipments, this offers a hassle-free solution.
Next, you can create a link that adds an item to all future orders. This is the permanent option. One click, and the linked item becomes a part of every future shipment for the customer. They get what they want on a recurring basis in fewer steps than making a Pop-Tart.
Finally, you can set the link to add an item to the customer’s cart. This can be done either for an immediate, one-time shipment (rather than adding to an upcoming regular shipment), or for a new repeat shipment (i.e. separate from the shipments the customer is already getting).
In both cases, the link will take the customer to their cart on your site to finalize the purchase, giving them a chance to make any adjustments they feel are necessary (like adjusting delivery frequency).
Even More You Can Do with It
Now that you know what the link itself can do, it’s time to think of how the functionality can be applied. If you have a system in place to properly segment your market, you can tailor-make the link offers for your customers. Then, just embed them into your marketing automation campaigns, and let the machines take care of the rest.
The possibilities are endless. Run win-back campaigns, promote special offers for your best customers, or offer upsells based on a given customer’s chosen product types. The only real limit is your imagination.
Why You Want This Feature
When it comes to cross-sell and upsell conversion rate optimization, “simplifying” is the name of the game. The easier it is for customers to add an item they want to their order, the more likely they will be to do just that.
Think of it like the “impulse buy” displays at the grocery store. People snag the candy, gum, soda, and other goodies on a whim, because it’s so accessible (and it seems so inexpensive compared to the other items they’ve brought to the cashier).
Let customers add to their next scheduled order:
These links accomplish the same thing, but in digital form. Send the link to the product you’re promoting in an email, and odds are it will convert better than an ad.
Insert the link into your latest social post, and what you have is advertising that’s less aggressive, less intrusive, and less presumptuous. Advertising that makes buying the item easier for the customer than a normal ad, and that you didn’t have to pay to put in front of your target audience (and lives on the platform in perpetuity).
In other words, by making it simpler for your customers to make an additional purchase, you make it easier for your business to earn additional profits.
Conclusion
Some tools solve a problem you’re already aware of. If you’ve been trying to find easy ways to cross-sell into existing subscriptions or repeat orders, then this is your tool.
The Link Builder tool lets you add to your recurring revenue in ways you might not have thought possible.
If you’d like to learn more about how Autoship Cloud can help your WooCommerce site maximize repeat order profits, give us a shout.
Want a deeper dive in how to use the link builder? Check out our documentation.