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How to Grow Repeat Revenue
Smart retention tactics you aren't using
Fil from Bedford
February 12, 2025 • Reading time: 7 minutes
GM! Paperboy here 🗞️
I’m hiring an account manager for my email agency. If you or someone you know has experience with Klaviyo and wants to work at Bedford please reply to this email.
Today’s Golden Nugget:
Source: Jimmy Kim on LinkedIn
Got you, right?
That’s how your customers read too. Simplify your message and design accordingly.
Today’s Issue: Non-Traditional Retention Tactics
Your popups and welcome flows are working. Your abandoned cart flows are solid.
And yet...
With ad costs climbing, most founders I talk to want more from their existing customers.
I've tested dozens of retention tactics this year. Some worked beautifully. Others bombed.
Today, I'm sharing the winners - tactics you can layer on top of what's already working.
A few quick notes:
These won't save a bad product
Not every tactic is for every brand
They work best with repeat buyers (2+ purchases)
Nobody paid to be mentioned here (except our regular sponsors at the bottom)
Get a Friend Paid Campaigns
Give your loyal customers a reason to tell others about you.
Email your repeat customers (2+ purchases) with this offer: "Share this friends and family discount. When others use it, you also get a $25 Amazon gift card."
Social Snowball makes it stupid-easy to set this up. I had my first campaign up and running in under an hour…
Try Before You Buy
A simple but powerful offer: Let customers try your product before paying full price. They put down a small deposit (or nothing), and only get charged if they keep it after X days.
Run campaigns or flows to existing customers to convince them to try more of your products.
Warning: Be careful if you try to use this for ads, meta will show ads to cheaper customers - your CAC might drop, but you’ll be getting worse customers (lower AOV, more returns, etc.).
Tools like Tryonify or TryNow.com can handle the setup.
Subscription Upsells
Got customers buying the same product over and over? Here are two ways to make their lives easier (and your revenue more predictable):
The Simple Switch: "Hey, we noticed you buy this every month. Want 15% off to make it automatic?" Even better if you can do quarterly - you can pass some of the shipping savings on to the customer.
The Surprise Box: Perfect if you have products with many variants. Let customers get a mystery shipment each month. I’ve seen this work in a lot of niches: socks, pet toys, snacks and so much more.
Tools like Recharge, Skio, or Appstle can handle this. Each has their strengths - drop me a note if you need help choosing.
Post-Purchase Order Upsells
Use AfterSell to show personalized offers right after checkout, based on what customers have bought before.
For example: "Thanks for your third order! Here's 40% off this complementary product we think you'll love."
Sitting on extra merch or slow-moving inventory? Offer it to repeat customers for $1. They feel special, you clear inventory, and suddenly your best customers are walking billboards.
Bundling
Notice customers stocking up on specific products? Give them a reason to grab more at once:
You can set these up with FoxSell and share them via campaigns or winback flows.
Checkout Links
My favorite tool right now.
Once customers know your brand, skip the fancy landing pages. Send them straight to checkout with a pre-loaded offer or bundle.
No discount codes to remember. No landing pages to build. Just a simple link that adds everything to cart and applies the deal automatically.
It's a game-changer for running quick promotions to your email list, and customers love how easy it is. The app is called Checkout Links.
Upcoming Charge Emails
For subscription businesses, ARPU lets you send customers a polite heads-up before their next charge.
Even better: They can modify their order right in the email. Add products, skip a month, update their address - all without visiting your site.
Been great for reducing churn and increasing cart sizes for our subscription brands.
Meme of the Week
Bryan makes hilarious ecommerce-related videos on x. Click here to watch the video.
That’s all for now,
Paperboy 🗞
p.s. Did you like the newsletter? Hate it? Reply and tell me why! I read and reply to every message.
AfterSell - Upsells that drive AOV without hurting CVRs
Alia Popups - Engaging popups that grow your list
FoxSell Bundles - Build loyalty and AOV through bundling
I use all these sponsored tools for 7 and 8-figure brands at my agency. I would never promote a product I don’t personally use.