In my years working in professional website design and website development, I’ve seen a number of different marketing tactics employed, some effective and some not so effective. What I’ve learned is that email campaigns, if designed effectively, can capture lost sales.

Some of the best marketing tactics in the world don’t always work and customers abandon a website, sometimes even in the middle of placing an order. Sometimes it’s because the website design company makes mistakes and the order processing doesn’t go as smoothly as the customer expects, but often, it’s because something turns the customer off for one reason or another.

For instance, offering a free 30-day trial on a renewing subscription product, or any product for that matter, is a great way to get customers to try your product; however, when they find that a credit card number is required for their trial period, the “free” concept kind of loses its appeal. When that happens, a customer usually leaves the site, but may have entered contact information.

If your website design company has provided a privacy policy or opt-in mailing option associated with the order screen, you can use the data collected from the abandoned order to market to those lost customers.

Privacy policies and opt-in devices are important considerations in website development. If you don’t have them, and you market to potential customers who have abandoned orders, you can get yourself into some trouble for sending SPAM (unsolicited commercial email), but if those potential customers have opted-in and agreed that by entering their contact information they opt-in for professional mailings, you’re covered and you can begin an email campaign to attract these folks that obviously have some interest in your product or service.

A great first email to these abandoning browsers would be one that says something to the effect of – “We noticed you didn’t complete your order and would like to assist you .” This doesn’t only get them thinking about the product or service again, but it opens the door for communication so they can tell you what they don’t like and what they do like. It also gives you an opportunity to close what would be a lost sale and makes an impression on the customer telling them that your company really cares about the service they provide.

A professional website design company can ensure that you still have the lead even if the potential customer abandons your site during the order process. You may find it burdensome to manually email each of these prospects. That’s understandable; however, an expert web development firm can even automate that process.