The welcome email goes to a new customer a few days after their first order. The second-order nudge goes later, to first-time buyers who haven’t ordered again, and gives them a reason to come back. Both are on one page, each on its own tab with its own switch.
You will learn #
- How to choose the email each one sends and switch it on
- Who gets each email, and when
- How to time the nudge from your own customers
- How to show each customer products that go with what they bought
- How to check what’s been sent
Before you begin #
- Write the emails first. Each tab sends one of your saved emails, which you write in the email editor. You don’t have to start from a blank page: on each tab, the link in the Which email to send row opens a written starter in the editor, for you to change and save.
- Set up email sending. Both emails go out through the sending method you set up on the Email sending page, and only once sending there is switched to Live. On a staging copy of your store, Tendlio sends no emails to customers.
- Put a coupon code in the email yourself if you want to offer a discount. Tendlio doesn’t make a coupon for these emails. Create one in WooCommerce and put its code in the email text.
Tip: If you already send welcome emails or follow-ups from another email platform, leave the matching switch on the Welcome & second order page off, so customers don’t get two. The rest of Tendlio works alongside it.
Set up the welcome email #
- In your WordPress admin, open Tendlio → Customers → Welcome & second order. The Welcome email tab opens first.
- Turn on Send a welcome email after a first order.
- Under Which email to send, choose your welcome email.
- Under Send after, set how many days after the first order the email goes, measured from when that order first counts as a sale. The field starts at 5: late enough not to land next to the order confirmation, soon enough that the customer still remembers you.
- Skip the welcome if they place another order before it’s due starts on. Leave it on unless you want customers who have already ordered again to get the welcome too.
- Click Save.
Set up the second-order nudge #
- On the same page, click the Second-order nudge tab.
- Turn on Send a nudge when a first-time buyer hasn’t come back.
- Under Which email to send, choose your come-back email.
- Under Send after, set how many days after the first order the nudge goes, if no second order has come in by then. It starts at 30. The line under the field can suggest a number from your own customers (see below).
- Skip the nudge if they place a second order before it’s due starts on. Leave it on unless you want customers who have already come back to get the nudge too.
- Click Save.
If a switch is on but the tab has no usable email, a note on that tab says nobody gets one, and why: no email is chosen, or the chosen email has no content or no subject line. The next step at the top of the page names the tab when that happens.
Time the nudge from your own customers #
Once at least 30 customers who first bought in the last two years have come back for a second order, the Second-order nudge tab shows how long they took, for example: “On your store, customers who come back place their second order after about 73 days. Half are back by then, measured over 511 repeat buyers in the last two years.”
Under that, Tendlio suggests a number of days a little lower, “so the nudge arrives before most of them would have come back on their own”. Click the Use button (for example Use 58) to put the number in the field, then click Save. If your setting is already close to the suggestion, the tab says “Your setting is close to that.” instead.
Until then, the tab says it will suggest a number once 30 have come back, and how many have so far. The measurement needs WooCommerce Analytics. It also counts a customer who ordered once as a guest and once with an account as two different customers, and the tab says so under the numbers.
Who gets each email, and when #
- A customer’s first order starts the emails. Tendlio adds a customer when their first order reaches a status that counts as a sale, such as Processing or Completed. A first order means no earlier order that counts as a sale with the same email address, whether it was placed as a guest or with an account. The days in Send after count from that moment.
- A first order starts the emails only if it reaches a status that counts as a sale while the switch is on. Tendlio doesn’t go back through older orders, so customers whose first order already counted before you switched an email on don’t get it. An order placed more than 60 days ago doesn’t start either email, for example when you change the status of old orders while tidying up.
- Tendlio skips a customer who orders again before their email goes out, as long as Skip the welcome … or Skip the nudge … is on. Tendlio checks again right before sending.
- The emails keep a gap. The welcome, the nudge and review requests wait while another automatic email to the same person is waiting to go out, and until at least 3 days have passed since the last one went out, cart reminders included. Cart reminders themselves don’t wait, because they’re about a cart the shopper left a short while ago. In Advanced mode, you can change the gap under Minimum gap between automated emails on the Welcome email tab.
- Tendlio drops an email that’s more than two weeks late rather than sending it, for example after it waited for the gap or for sending to go Live.
- Tendlio skips customers who unsubscribed, and addresses that bounced or complained. Your daily sending limit applies.
Tendlio builds each email from your saved email when it sends it, so a change you save in the editor reaches every welcome and nudge that hasn’t gone out yet.
When you turn an email off, Tendlio cancels the ones still waiting to go out.
Once a day, Tendlio checks for customers who are due. To run today’s check right away, click Run the welcome check now or Run the nudge check now under the tab’s settings. Only customers who are due get an email. While sending is Off, nothing goes out. While it’s Live, the button asks you to confirm first, because the emails then go to your customers.
Show each customer products that go with what they bought #
A product row in the email editor can be set to Picks from each customer’s orders, under Which products go here. In the welcome and the nudge, Tendlio fills that row for each customer as the email goes out: up to three products your customers buy together with what this customer bought, leaving out what they already have. When there’s nothing your customers buy together with what this customer bought, the row shows your best-sellers instead, still without what they already have. A campaign sends the same email to everyone, so there the row shows your best-sellers.
While a welcome or nudge with this row is switched on, Tendlio keeps its list of products bought together up to date, even if none of the product rows on your shop uses it.
Check what’s been sent #
- Under the settings, each tab counts its emails once there’s something to count: Sent, Waiting to send and Not sent. Not sent includes customers who came back before their email, unsubscribes, failed deliveries, emails dropped for being late, and the ones canceled when you switched the email off.
- See what it earned, at the top of the page, opens the Sales lift page. Its Welcome emails and Second-order nudges cards count the orders placed soon after each email, unless another feature already took the credit for them.
Why the emails work this way #
The welcome waits a few days #
Sent right away, the welcome would land next to the order confirmation and get lost. A few days later, the customer has their order and still remembers your shop.
The nudge is timed from your own customers #
The field starts at 30 days, and no single number fits every shop. For example, on a shop whose customers come back after about 12 days, a nudge at 30 days arrives after most of them have already ordered again. On a shop whose customers come back after about 90 days, it arrives two months early. So once there’s enough to measure, the tab suggests a day a little before your own customers’ usual return.
Only new first orders start the emails #
A welcome belongs to a first order placed a few days ago. If switching the email on sent it to everyone who ever ordered once, customers who ordered months ago would get a welcome for that old order.
Additional resources #
- How to build an email in the email editor: writing the emails, and the Picks from each customer’s orders row.
- How to set up email sending and switch it to Live: the sending method and the switch to Live.
- How sending works: waiting emails, the daily limit and email analytics
- Which orders count as a sale
- How Sales lift counts what Tendlio brought in
- How to get customers to order again
Frequently asked questions #
I switched the welcome on. Why did no one get it? #
Only customers whose first order counts as a sale after you switch it on get it, a few days later. Check too that an email is chosen and that customer email sending is Live.
Can the nudge carry a discount? #
Yes, if you write one in. Tendlio doesn't make a code for these emails, so create a coupon in WooCommerce and put its code in the email.
Will a customer get the welcome and a review request on the same day? #
Not with the gap at the 3 days it starts at. The welcome and review requests wait until that many days have passed since the last automatic email to the same person.