This post has recently been updated with new information. It is the fifth and last post in a series on how to make your email marketing strategy more effective. Last week’s post showed you how split testing can help you improve your emails. This week I demonstrate why you should use email marketing automation to make your own life easier and give your subscribers and customers a better experience.
Have you ever visited a product page on the website of a company whose email list you subscribe to, then received an email with a coupon for that particular product, or for 20% off your entire order?
If so, you’ve seen email marketing automation in action.
It’s a very powerful and useful tool to capture more attention and get more subscribers to convert into customers, as well as to get current customers to buy again.
What Is Email Marketing Automation?
Email marketing automation is exactly what it sounds like. Email sequences that are triggered by subscriber or customer behavior and sent automatically.
These sequences can be long, like sending reminders for the next module in an online course, or short, like sending your subscribers a coupon on their birthdays.
All of this is set up in your ESP or CRM as email sequences in a workflow or customer journey (depending on the ESP or CRM you use.) They’re triggered by a specific action your subscriber or customer may take, such as visiting a product page or opening a broadcast email.
It does take time to write these emails and set up the automation that sends them out but once you’ve finished that, using email marketing automation saves you a ton of time and effort and can help you give a potential customer that little extra push to get them to buy.
What Does Not Count as an Email Marketing Automation?
Most people think of email marketing automations as any email that is triggered by a subscriber or customer action.
I will push back against this idea, because some automated emails aren’t the best vehicle for the “marketing” part. For example, transactional emails, like purchase confirmation emails and receipts are issued automatically by your shopping cart platform.
Not all platforms allow you to add customization to these emails, which means they’re not really marketing opportunities. And for that matter, trying to sell an additional product right after someone has made a purchase isn’t always appropriate.
Also, broadcast emails that you send to your entire list, or even segments of your list, are not email marketing automations, because they’re not triggered by a specific action, even if you schedule them in advance.
Beyond that, most emails sent via automation can be used for marketing purposes in one way or another.
Why Should You Use Email Marketing Automation as Part of Your Email Marketing Strategy?
I’ll give you 4 good reasons.
1. It saves you a lot of time and effort
Imagine trying to run down every subscriber who visited a product page or open a certain email by hand! That would pretty much consume every waking hour, depending on the size and type of business you run.
Once you’ve set up an email marketing automation workflow, it takes care of itself, with the occasional check to make sure everything is running smoothly.
Then, every time someone triggers a certain email campaign, it is sent to them with no effort on your part. This makes your marketing campaigns more scalable and easier to manage.
The more campaigns you set up, the less you have to do, once everything is in place.
2. It Makes Your Marketing More Scalable
Once an email marketing automation is set up and running smoothly, you’ve got an easy way to reach out to your current and potential customers.
That means regardless of how many people trigger that automation, they’re getting what feels like personal service from you and your business.
And, every time a new person enters your automation, you’ve increased the amount of time you’ve saved and created the possibility of a new sale.
3. It Lets You Personalize Your Subscribers’ Experience
As I mentioned in the second post in this series you can use email personalization to customize what your subscribers see.
For example, if you know a subscriber downloaded a certain lead magnet, then they visit the sales page associated with that lead magnet, that visit could trigger an automated email campaign that gives the subscriber more information about the product or service, and builds on the information you gave in the lead magnet.
This shows that you know what your subscribers are looking for and you want to help them, all while guiding them toward your goal, which is the purchase of your product or service.
4. You Can Integrate Your Email Marketing Automation with Other Platforms
Depending on how sophisticated your overall marketing is, you can connect different automations to get your desired results.
Some platforms will have direct integrations with your ESP or CRM. You can connect others through integration tools like Zapier.
Again, all of this may take time on the front end, but it makes your life a lot easier in the long run.
5 Email Marketing Automation Ideas You Can Implement Right Away
Most ESPs and CRMs include templates for the most common email marketing automations because they know it’s something their customers will use.
Here are 5 automations you should start using, whether you’ve got a template for them or not.
Welcome Emails
Your email welcome sequence is part of the first impression a new subscriber gets from your company. Make it a good one.
You want your emails to be friendly and welcoming, as well as to set expectations for how often your subscribers will hear from you and what they’ll get when they open an email.
This automation is triggered as soon as someone opts into your email list. Most ESPs and CRMs have a workflow template that you can adapt to your needs.
Discount Emails
The scenario I mentioned in the first part of this post is a discount email automation. You can set this up by adding a trigger for a specific URL. That way, whenever a subscriber lands on that page, they’ll get an email offering them a discount on that particular product or service.
A warning. Don’t discount so often that your subscribers become accustomed to getting your products and services at a reduced price. Otherwise, they’ll wait until they can get the discount, or go to the page, then leave, to trigger that automation.
You can use email marketing tags to identify your subscribers based on the types of emails they’ve received and the discounts they’ve taken advantage of.
Abandoned Cart Emails
This is another very common template in ESPs and CRMs, because it happens all the time. A subscriber starts the checkout process, then changes their mind, or gets distracted by who knows what.
Sending a friendly email or 3 to remind someone that they meant to make a purchase can frequently bring that person back to finish the transaction.
Many companies are triggering email reminders to come back to a product page if you don’t even click on the “Buy Now” button. Such as this one I received recently from a skincare company I purchase from. I’m on their email list, so I received this friendly little “hey, you forgot something” email a few minutes after I left the page.
Anniversary Emails
These are triggered by a specific date, such as a birthday or anniversary of someone joining your email list.
This is a good time to send a free gift or coupon to get your subscribers to buy for the first time and your customers to buy again.
Reorder and Renewal Emails
These are similar to anniversary emails, in that they’re triggered by a specific date, but typically remind a customer that their payment is coming due or the product they order regularly may be running out and it’s time to reorder.
Re-engagement Emails
Also known as “win back” emails, these go out to subscribers and customers who haven’t opened your emails for a predetermined period of time.
This is another common automation template in ESPs and CRMs, because it’s always easier to reengage someone currently on your list than it is to get a brand-new subscriber or customer.
A re-engagement email campaign may not get every single subscriber who has stopped paying attention to open your emails again, but it will get some of them back, which makes it a worthwhile automation to set up.
Here is the one I use in Drip to re-engage my email subscribers.
Add Email Marketing Automation to Your Overall Strategy to Make Your Life Easier and Your Subscribers’ Lives Better
It may take some time to set up, but once you’ve done it, having email marketing automation in place just makes sense. It’s less work for you and gives a greater benefit to your subscribers and customers.
Most ESPs and CRMs have tutorials on how to set these sequences up inside their platform. Some include basic templates you can use to write the emails as well.
Or, you can take advantage of a special offer I have right now on 2 of my top most lucrative email marketing sequence trainings: my Persuasive Abandon Cart Sequence and my Ideal Onboarding Sequence, for just $99!
These trainings include everything you need to know to get these email marketing automations written, set up, and active for your business, including email templates, swipe files, and walkthroughs of how to set up the automations in different platforms.
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