As we exit the holiday season, a few tips for your e-shoppers is in order. Though the holiday is over, these steps, from Benchmark blogger Francis Santos, are evergreen:

"Follow up fast - The timeliness of your abandonment strategy is crucial. Ideally, you want to follow up in anywhere from 24 to 72 hours after the cart was abandoned. Anything longer than that and the sale typically becomes unsalvageable.

Personalize it - This is your chance to change the visitor's mind and convince them to complete the purchase process. Don't blow it. Personalize your follow-up message by including their name, and referencing the item they left behind.

Make it tasty - Personalizing your shopping cart abandonment emails may not be enough when approaching some people. Realizing this, you should consider incentivizing your strategy. Who knows? It could be a generous discount, exclusive offer or free shipping that re-engages the lost visitor and persuades them to follow through."

When a prospect asks about Benchmark Email, what will you tell them? The facts are a great place to start:

	Over 400 holiday and professional templates that are fully customizable and incredibly easy to design
	Surveys, polls, campaign archiving, geographic mapping, tracking and reporting, social sharing - all of it comes free with even our lowest plans
	Those plans start at $9.95/month and our flexible pricing structures are designed with the small business owner in mind
	Video emails that easily link from a website's URL. No embed codes necessary!
	Benchmark Email's social media integration extends your email campaigns to Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn with the click of a mouse
	A dedicated server and top-notch deliverability for even our largest volume senders
	If a user is too busy, We Do It for You! And not too shabbily either, if I say so myself