An email with the right message, at the right time, can make the difference between winning a customer and making a new sale, or nothing at all. Effective email communication comes down to seizing opportunities and relevant content.
Of course, that’s easier said than done. How do I know when a person is ready to hear from you or your business? How do I organize my timing and schedule so I can do the right segmentation, figure out the best sending schedule to hit the right target?
Undoubtedly, the answer to all these questions is email marketing automation or email marketing automation. Stick around and you will learn about this powerful tool, and how you can use it to grow your business. We hope this article will be another trigger for ideas to keep growing!
What is email marketing automation?
Email marketing automation is developed from a web-based software tool that allows marketers and business owners to automate sending newsletters to their subscribers including digital marketing campaigns through various channels, or managing contacts in their email database.
Email marketing automation is the process of sending a series of automated emails in response to a given condition. The trigger can be related to customer behavior, preferences or other personal information.
In a world where personalization of treatment is increasingly valued, email marketing automation saves companies time and allows them to hit the target with a higher open or success rate than sending a mass mailing that is not very personalized. Let’s take a look at some examples of what can be done with email marketing automation:
- Send a welcome email to a new customer or subscriber.
- Send a birthday greeting with a special offer or discount on his or her birthday.
- Trigger emails depending on the sections visited to a certain website.
- Discounts to complete a purchase that was left in an abandoned cart.
What is the difference with traditional email marketing?
Email marketing is defined as sending an email campaign to a list of “N” subscribers. In other words, the same message to everyone. Email marketing campaigns are great for sending general announcements or promotions, but they are not the most optimal for converting a lead into a sale.
Email marketing automation works something like one-to-one sending, allowing a better tracking of interactions with subscribers and being able to define a path to achieve the final goal of the campaign.
What are the benefits of opting for email marketing automation?
If you want to grow your business quickly, traditional and “unintelligent” email marketing will not be enough. On the other hand, email automation is completely scalable and will produce better empathy with your subscribers, faster. Let’s take a look at the main benefits of email marketing automation below:
- Maximizes the number of opens of your messages.
- Improve user experience.
- Leads to a better conversion rate.
- Oils the relationship with your subscribers.
Some examples of when to use email marketing automation
Here are some examples of where to use automated email sending to improve empathy with your users. Believe us, it is key to adapt the content to send at the right time.
Welcome email
Welcome emails are the first step in the relationship with your new customer. This can be sent after they have made a purchase, when they create an account if you have a membership site, or when they have subscribed to your email newsletter list.
Generally, an effective welcome message aims to:
- Share a few words of welcome and how glad you are that they decided to buy your product.
- Guide the customer on the next steps they need to take to receive or use what they recently purchased.
- Invite the subscriber to want to learn more about your business.
- Use the wow factor: add a value proposition, a special discount for their next purchase, or allow them access to certain content they weren’t expecting.
- Invite your customer to follow you on social networks.
In abandoned carts
There is always someone who creates an account on your website, leaves some data, starts to fill the cart, and poof, they disappear. Did you imagine that they are the majority? Surely not, and you should know that almost 60% of people abandon a site after adding a product to the cart. Reason enough to send them a reminder of why they should continue with their purchase. Fortunately you can automate this with an email marketing tool and it will be a great idea to use this option.
Here are some recommendations for your abandoned cart email:
- Remind them what they left in the cart and tell them “these products are waiting for you”.
- Open a communication channel in case there are any doubts or questions about what they were buying.
- Offer a discount for a limited time to invite them to return.
- Let the potential buyer know if the product is out of stock so that if he/she returns later and cannot find it, he/she will not be left without it.
Birthday greetings
Birthday emails are one of the easiest and most effective automation workflows you can set up. All you need is the subscribers’ date of birth to automatically send a birthday email. According to experts, birthday emails generate 400% higher conversion than promotional emails sent at any time.
It is a great opportunity to increase customer loyalty and positive brand sentiment. Plus, this type of initiative requires very little investment and is perfect if you have a small business. People are likely to treat themselves to an unplanned purchase on their birthday – an automated email can capitalize on that positive reaction!
Here are some tips to make your birthday email stand out from the rest:
- Generate a light, friendly and fun email.
- Offer a discount coupon or unexpected gift for their next purchase. Always for a limited time.
- Craft an intriguing email subject line to increase open rates such as “John, we have a birthday gift for you.”
- Try to generate an original piece. Keep in mind that your customer will probably receive a few emails on their special day. And your email must be up to the task if you want to generate impact.
Email to encourage progress in the sales funnel
Thanks to the integration of the best email marketing platforms with WordPress and other website generators, it is very easy to track links, which pages, categories and products our prospect visited, and based on that, send them segmented information to help them make their purchase. Many times your site visitors are not decided to buy at the moment, and that is when, if you get their email address, you can guide them to the correct selection of the product they were looking for.
Final tips and your promised gift
While marketing automation has the potential to save you a lot of time in the long run, don’t be tempted to let the software do all the work. It’s important to keep a close eye on metrics and statistics to make sure you’re on track, and identify any room for improvement.
Remember not to send emails to email addresses from lists bought or given by someone else as you could fall into spam and cause the opposite effect to what you are looking for. In this other article we wrote some time ago, we showed you the sure tips to reach your clients’ inbox.
Another golden rule is not to buy just any tool on the market. There are many that may seem promising but are nothing more than improvised developments, pretty but not very functional.
That’s why we want to give you an Email Marketing account with up to 300 daily mailings and capacity to manage up to 2,000 contacts so you can get started right away. Plus, get guides, documentation and help to do it all. What are you waiting for? The time is now!
