Email has always been an integral part of the marketing mix for years, giving you the power to speak to your contacts directly, delivering personalised, targeted messaging. Over the years, many have said ‘Email is Dead’ but with 80% of marketers reporting an increase in email engagement over the past 12 months, it’s far from dead. In the last few years, automated email has been growing at a huge rate, let’s look at why.
Why automation?
Automated emails are triggered by an event/action made by your customer, i.e. they sign up to your newsletter. In most cases, the first automation they’ll receive from you is a welcome series.
Automated emails are always relevant to your customers – Emma reports that relevant emails drive 18x more revenue than broadcast emails (Emma). This means you won’t be blasting messages to your customers without a reason – they will be contextual at the right time.
You don’t want to stay behind your competitors. On average, 51% of companies are currently using automation, so if you still don’t have any automated workflows enabled, you’re missing out.
Automation benefits:
- The right content delivered at the right time to the right people
- Better responsiveness to customer and prospect needs
- Easier nurturing of customers through sales and support cycles
- Deeper relationships with customers and better response rates
- Not just limited to email, if you’re doing automation correctly it’s an omnichannel approach, for example utilising other tools such as remarketing or SMS messaging
- Higher levels of brand recognition and trust
Types of automation:
Welcome series
The most important automation. According to research 74% of people expect to receive a welcome email when they subscribe to a mailing list. In 2008, 40% of brands sent a welcome message to their new subscribers. Today 80% of brands send this type of message.
Post-purchase series
Build anticipation for an order, reduce post-purchase anxiety, and build long term value, we’ll explore refer a friend series and how we interact with a customer straight after purchase
Lead nurture series
We’ll implement a series that provides leads with a further introduction to your brand and the benefits of using them, as well as an incentive
Re-engagement series
These emails will remind the customers about the benefits of purchasing from your brand, customer reviews, samples etc.
Cart abandonment
Around 84.27% according to SaleCycle of e-commerce shoppers abandon their carts for many reasons. Abandoned cart emails can help you recover lost sales.
Webinar invitations
Emails are particularly useful when organizing webinars because you can send them automatically to anyone that may be interested in attending your presentation.
Post-event follow-up
An automated post-event follow-up message could include a thank you message, a survey, follow up information.
Anniversary emails
An anniversary email is sent to commemorate a special event or milestone. This can either be a customer’s milestone, or a general business milestone
Upselling messages
They aim to convince subscribers to spend more on their service. They can do so e.g. either by getting the customers to stay longer at a given hotel or book a more expensive room.
Wish list update and price drop
You can make contact just to remind them about the product they’ve previously added to their wish list, simply to check if they’re still interested.
Product feedback
One of the best ways to get a thorough understanding of your customer’s pain points and needs is by asking them directly.
Inform your customers of upcoming expirations
Send customers email campaigns informing them that their subscription, account, or policy with you is about to run out.
Birthday surprise
Birthday emails are one of the most common types of automated emails you can send, and they can be extremely effective when done right.
Send appointment reminders
One of the best ways to get repeat business from your existing customers is to send them regular reminder emails.
Promote your new blog posts.
So when you publish a new post on your blog, make sure you send your subscribers an email alerting them of the new post and enticing them to click through and read it.
Looking to get the most out of your automation flows? Get in touch with our team of experts today
