Queued Emails

[Dan Cole]

Since my last update I've being chewing on how I'd like to see the winback scheduler work and I've come to the conclusion that I'd like to give the customer a 3 month reminder that they are missed, a 6th month coupon (5% discount) if they haven't made a purchase by then and finally a 9 month coupon (say 10% discount) if they still haven't made a purchase. For the most part I think this can be done using the existing scheduler by copying it, changing the class and hook names etc and I'm going to give that a go.

While I look at doing that does anyone currently use the winback scheduler and if so, do you have any thoughts on how it should be set up? Please chime in so we can chase the crickets out of here.

Dan

[BatteryTrader]

I think there is a lot to be said for having an early reminder for abandoned cart, and more than one.

We currently have 3,

First 2 hours after, it does indeed pick up some business, quite often they had a problem of some sort, normally User error, but the contact gets things moving.

Second: 24 HRs; third: 48 HRs. The latter also has a discount voucher code. Neither of these is as good as the first one.

Striking while the iron's hot, in my opinion, works for us.

Kindest regards

David.

[Dan Cole]

I've come to the conclusion that I'd like to give the customer a 3 month reminder that they are missed, a 6th month coupon (5% discount) if they haven't made a purchase by then and finally a 9 month coupon (say 10% discount) if they still haven't made a purchase. For the most part I think this can be done using the existing scheduler by copying it, changing the class and hook names etc and I'm going to give that a go.

Turning this Scheduler into three separate modules works as expected and was pretty simple to do. Once they are tested a little more I'll package them up in case anyone else would like to approach the Winback Queued Emails in a similar way. In the meantime here are the three email templates that I created.

Winback90.jpg

Winback_180.jpg

Winback_270.jpg

I'd welcome any questions or comments that you might have.

Dan

[Dan Cole]

Here is the WinBack Scheduler update. In addition to the 3 WinBack Enhanced Scheduler modules I also updated the original WinBack Scheduler in case anyone wants to continue to use it in conjunction with the WinBack Enhanced Scheduler modules.

Scheduler - Winback Expanded.zip

As usual you simply need to upload these files to the includes/modules/outgoing directory and create your template files. That is all that is needed.

The WinBack Enhanced modules will add separate emails to the queue when an order is created, to be sent at 3, 6 and 9 months. If a customers orders again during that time the remaining WinBack emails in the queue will be deleted and a fresh batch of emails will be added to the queue, so that once again, you have emails that will be sent at 3, 6 and 9 months.

If you have any questions or issues please post them here. If the feedback is positive I'll package this up and add it to the add-on area.

Dan

[Dan Cole]

It is now time to look at adding another Scheduler Module and next one on my list is the Anniversary Scheduler. Currently that Scheduler sets up an Anniversary as new accounts are created and in my case, I think it might be better if it did so as orders were created instead. This would schedule an email for all customers, both old and new but require a bit of custom work. First of all it would need to be triggered from checkout_success.php instead of from create_account_success.php as it does currently. Secondly, it would also need to get the date the account was created so that the email could be scheduled for the next anniversary date. I would also like to add some additional merge tags so I can do things like...

<p>Gosh how time flies...you might not remember but we do. </p>

<p>It was {{Sunday, June 8th 2021}} -- {{5}} {{years}} ago! Can you believe it? You created your account with us that day.</p>

{{ denotes merge tag }}

Lastly I'm thinking it should reschedule an Anniversary email for the next anniversary date as each email is sent. I think I can manage the first few changes but I'm not sure about this latter one. It might not be possible and likely above my pay grade but maybe Gary might have some ideas on how to accomplish or otherwise handle this.

Since I'm heading down this rabbit hole if anyone has any further thoughts on how the Anniversary Scheduler can/should be tweaked, I'd welcome your input.

Dan

[burt]

Possibly the simplest answer is multiple Schedulers.
=> 1 year
=> 2 years
=> etc

I'm thinking that tying "you signed up anniversary" to Order, doesn't quite make sense..

[Dan Cole]

Possibly the simplest answer is multiple Schedulers.
=> 1 year
=> 2 years
=> etc

The more I think about this Gary the more this makes sense. For some reason I was thinking I would need say 10 different schedulers which would result in a ton of emails being scheduled. Probably two schedulers will do. I probably only want to send one of two emails if the customer doesn't reorder. I don't want to be accused of stocking.

I'm thinking that tying "you signed up anniversary" to Order, doesn't quite make sense..

Since I want to focus on customers who have ordered from us and not simply those who created an account I couldn't think of a better place to tie things into. If you think I should place the trigger some place else I'd welcome any suggestions that you might have.

Dan

[Dan Cole]

And here is the template. I have what I'm calling the Anniversary Advanced Scheduler set up and tested on my test site. It seems to be working as expect so it is now getting a work out on my live site. I still want to add another Scheduler so there is one for Year 1 and another for Year 2. After that I'll upload this for testing by anyone else who might want to do so.

Anniversary.jpg

Dan

[Dan Cole]

My Anniversary Advanced Schedulers are now complete and running on my live site. They seem to be working well but I'd like to see them get a bit more of workout before I package them up and post them here. In the meantime if anyone wants to give them a test run just send me a PM.

The next Schedulers I want to take a look at are the Add and End Special ones. I don't use the Notify Me of Product Updates which I think these Schedulers rely on so whether I do anything with them or not will remain to be seen. I like the concept so maybe I'll find a way to work them into my Queued Emails. If anyone has those working and has any input I'd welcome it.

Dan

[Dan Cole]

Time to get back to this thread. I was a little distracted (actually a lot) with some other issues and sidelined this thread while I dealt with those. As an update, the Advanced Anniversary Schedulers seem to be working flawlessly now and I'll make a note to package those up and post them here for anyone that is interested.

I've also give some thought to the Add and End Special Schedulers and I don't think they are going to be very useful the way I tend to offer special promotions. I tend to do it by Brand or perhaps a targeted group of products sometimes by category or even one off items that fit a theme, so these schedulers don't seem to be a very good fit for the way I work. I'm still chewing on this but I'm thinking I should probably break this up a bit and apply the KISS principle in how I approach this. Perhaps Specials by Brand might be a good starting point. Does anyone have any suggestions in this regard? Be gentle.

Dan