How Handwritten Cards Outperformed Email and Drove 11X More Repeat Purchases for Morris4x4Center.com

In the world of online retail, there’s Amazon, and there’s everybody else.

With nearly 50% market share, Amazon continues to dominate ecommerce, leaving other retailers left wondering how to best compete. Meanwhile, competitors are fighting for their piece of the pie, driving up search and social advertising costs.

Jeep owners, or “Jeepers,” are passionate enthusiasts, always in the market for new products for their ride. And that makes them coveted consumers for many companies selling parts online.

Morris 4x4 Center is one of the top online specialty retailers for Jeep parts and accessories. Founded over 25 years ago by Glenn Morris and now headed up by Michael Bernard, the site has been able to stay ahead of the competition and grow to over 50,000 products and 1 million customers.

In this case study, we'll show you the exact strategy and campaign Michael and the Morris 4x4 team uses to surprise and delight their customers, and most importantly, keep them coming back.

The key to galvanizing growth for online retailers like Morris 4x4? Customer retention.

The #1 goal of any online retailer is turning one-time buyers into repeat customers.

Why so critical?

Because repeat purchases are where profits and compound growth comes from. Morris 4x4 isn't paying to reacquire those customers after their initial purchase. For many retailers, that initial purchase is often breakeven at best, after factoring in product costs, marketing/advertising costs, and operational overhead.

And, for nearly all retailers and brands, once a customer makes a second purchase, that customer is far more likely to remain loyal in the future.

Likelihood of making a subsequent purchase increases with each purchase:

But how does one get a customer repeating? The most effective way in competitive online retail requires two things:

1. Companies must create memorable relationships with their customers to remain top of mind.

2. Companies must identify when a customer is likely to make another purchase and ensure they capture it.

Michael knows that many Jeepers are working on a “build” (restoring an older Jeep or outfitting a new one with accessories). Based on what they purchased, he can tell if that customer is likely to need more parts in the near future. The more time that passes, the greater the risk of defection to a competitor. So Michael knows he has a short window to foster that new relationship in a way that all but guarantees they become a loyal customer for life.

Why Email Only Solves 15% of the Problem

Triggered email campaigns are a great start. However, the marketing team at Morris 4x4 saw that over 85% of their customers typically don't engage with email -- either they're not on the list or aren't opening the email campaigns. 

Michael and the team turned to Handwrite.io to test whether handwritten cards could drive incremental repeat purchases and revenue.

Solution: Handwritten 2nd Purchase Campaign

Successful brands love to find new ways to surprise and delight customers. It creates loyalty and viral buzz. But, marketers also want a measurable ROI. So, we worked with the Morris 4x4 team to create a 2nd purchase test. A 2nd purchase campaign is specifically designed to lock in a repeat purchase when customers are most engaged with your brand — shortly after their first purchase.

Based on their internal data, they started with a segment of all customers that made a first purchase over $500 or containing at least 2 items in the last 30-60 days, selecting a random subset of 1,000 customers to receive handwritten cards. The remaining 10,000 received an email 2nd purchase campaign. 

For additional tracking, the campaigns included a unique coupon code based on whether it was in email or direct mail.

Here’s a look at the card:

This “textbook” 2nd purchase campaign took ~15 minutes to create and nailed it; strong imagery, clear branding, compelling incentive with expiration for urgency. We love the use of personalized copy (including vehicle name) and custom signature!

Results: 538% ROI and 37.5X higher conversion rate than email.

Let’s start by examining the email campaign. Here’s a preview:

It’s a killer email. Personalized, valuable, and actionable.

Here’s the problem…most customers aren’t even reading it.

Out of the 10,000 email recipients, 2,112 opened it. Not bad, and not surprising given these are recent, high value customers. But, that still leaves nearly 80% of high value customers missing the message!

Of those 2,112 recipients that opened, 266 clicked and 12 placed an order, generating $2,924 in revenue.

Now let’s compare that to the Handwrite handwritten card campaign:

Of the mere 1,000 customers that received the handwritten card (which typically gets read by >96% of recipients), 42 placed an order so far, generating 367% more revenue than email with 90% fewer recipients! (That’s an 37.5X better conversion rate based on total recipients. We did the math.)

With a 538% ROI, that’s already a big win for Michael and the team.

Here’s where things get even more interesting.

Over the 60 days following the launch of the campaigns, Michael analyzed the performance of the two customer segments:

1. Customers that received the handwritten card + regular email newsletters

2. Customers that received the email + regular email newsletters

Total revenue from the 1,000 customers that received the handwritten card and purchased again exceeded that from the more than 10,000 that only received the email — 11X more on a normalized basis.

The Morris 4x4 results validate what numerous studies have shown — that direct mail generates far better brand recall and engagement, while massively boosting your email marketing efforts when used together.

Here’s a breakdown of the results:

Michael and the team were thrilled with the results of their test.

After the successful test, Morris 4x4 automated their campaign to automatically send a handwritten card to any customer that meets the criteria. It works as follows:

1. Connect the the storefront to Handwrite using our Zapier integration.

2. Use one of our pre-configured “zaps” or customize your own to trigger a custom card when a customer meets your criteria. (We can assist with setting this up for you.)

3. Offer the customer a discount on a subsequent purchase.

Retention and repeat purchases are now on overdrive.

Key Takeaways

• Customer retention is critical for online retailers to make profits.

• If you’re only relying on email, you’re missing a huge portion of your customers and leaving money on the table.

• Direct mail marketing works and makes your digital campaigns more effective, and Handwrite.io makes it ridiculously easy and personal.

An Offer You Can’t Refuse

Don’t know where to start? Well we have an offer you can’t refuse, in full Godfather style…

Let us know who you want to send to and what you want to say, and our concierge service team will take care of the rest. Plus, you’ll get

• FREE professional design service to create a custom card design (or choose from our selection of ready-to-go designs).

• Double credits on your first order.

• Free signature digitization (a $199 value)

Stop leaving money on the table and become the memorable brand your customers can’t wait to keep doing business with. We’ll deliver a custom campaign designed to boost retention, profits, and loyalty, all within a couple of days. Limited slots available, so apply today!