You can only pave new avenues of success for your business if you can transform your prospects into your customers. So, how can you do it? How can you entice your prospects to visit your website or physical store and take action? The answer is email marketing.
Sure, there are many other ways of marketing, but nothing beats the popularity and success of email marketing. After all, it has the highest ROI amidst all the marketing channels i.e. $42 for every 1 dollar spent.
However, email marketing is constantly growing. In the words of Tom Kulzer, the CEO and founder of AWeber, “the most effective email marketing strategies adapt, grow, and innovate.” This is where email marketing automation comes in handy.
Email marketing automation, as the name itself suggests, is a process that automates your promotional email campaigns. It considers predefined triggers and actions and sends the right message to the right person at the right time.
No wonder the global marketing automation market size will reach 25.1 billion U.S dollars by 2023! Automated emails have the capability of generating 320% more profits than non-automated emails.
So, it wouldn’t be wrong to say that undermining the importance of email marketing automation can cost your business a huge chunk of loss in revenues. Simply put, if you haven’t already implemented email marketing automation in your business, it’s high time you do it.
Types of automated emails
Let’s take a look at the various types of automated email campaigns that will help you ace your email automation strategy.
Remember the age-old saying, “first impression is the last impression?” That’s exactly what a welcome email does. It helps you establish an initial communication between your customers and your brand.
You can send a welcome email when a prospect signs up for your newsletter, buys a product from your brand, or just drop a friendly hello to break the ice with a new customer.
Simply put, a welcome email is an excellent way of engaging with your new customers or subscribers. You can take some inspiration from this welcome email from HubSpot.
Key takeaways from this email:
- Addressing the subscriber with his name. It’s a basic yet excellent way of personalization.
- Explaining to the subscriber how the HubSpot tools will help him convert his leads and prospects into customers.
Conveying thank you to your customers is vital for building long-lasting relationships. In other words, when you display gratitude to your customers for a particular action they took, you are making them feel valuable, thereby strengthening your connection with them.
This is where thank you emails can come in handy. Once you automate your thank you emails, an email will be sent to customers when they complete an action, such as buying a product/service or signing up for a newsletter. Take a look at this compelling yet straightforward thank you email from Alastin:
Key takeaways from this email:
- The line “welcome to the A-list” will surely make subscribers feel that they have subscribed to something exclusive.
- The email has a strong call-to-action (CTA) to encourage subscribers to browse and shop the latest beauty bestsellers.
- Another CTA gives subscribers access to the latest skincare tips and trends through the brand’s blog, thereby keeping them engaged with the brand.
All in all, automated thank you emails are not only relevant but also help you build your brand’s credibility and trust.
Further, it is an excellent way of encouraging customers to make a repeat purchase. All you need to do is include an offer or a discount coupon in your thank you email and entice customers to come back and shop. Here’s how the tea brand Harney and Sons did it.
Key takeaways from this email:
- Thanking the customer for the purchase through compelling email copy. Take note of words such as “varietea” and “beauteaful.”
- Encouraging customers to shop again by giving them $10 off.
- Subtly putting across that the offer is valid for purchase above $50.
- Creating Fear of Missing Out (FOMO) by mentioning that the offer expires in 15 days.
- Recommending tea varieties similar to the one that customer ordered, thereby increasing the chances of a sale.
- Keeping the customer engaged with the brand by giving them access to the “ultimate tea brewing guide.”
While it is essential to acquire new customers, retaining your existing customers is also equally critical. How would you do that? By sending them loyalty emails. These emails are a great way of building robust customer relationships. After all, it makes customers feel valued and gives them a reason to come back and shop more.
You can send loyalty emails to your customer in the form of discounts and coupon codes.
See how Chipotle is leveraging loyalty emails like a pro:
Key takeaways from this email:
- A strong CTA of “claim my rewards” in the beginning to ensure that the customer clicks through it.
- Introducing a new dish in the form of rewards. It is an excellent way of knowing the customer’s reaction to the new dish without sounding salesy.
- A step-by-step guide that contains all the ingredients of the dish. It subtly hints at how delicious the new dish is going to be.
- Mouth-Watering images.
- Testimonials from people who have had the dish, thereby improving the credibility of the dish.
A follow-up email is an email that is sent on an action triggered by the customer. You can use a follow-up email in the following situations:
- To motivate customers to opt for the free plan of service.
- To encourage customers to leave a review.
- To suggest products similar to the ones they purchased.
Follow-up emails are an impeccable way of building the trust of your customers while helping you increase conversions.
Here’s a good follow-up email from Really Good Email:
Key takeaways from this email:
- Since the user couldn’t collect the email the first time, the brand encourages them to try saving the email again.
- Further, it explains in a step by step process how the user can:
- Collect and refer back to the email when needed.
- Collect and review the mail with a team.
- Collect and create emails on similar lines through code view.
Abandoned cart emails are emails that are sent to customers who add items in their cart but leave it midway without checking out. An abandoned cart email re-engages customers and encourages them to complete the checkout.
An automated abandoned cart email is sent soon after the customer leaves the cart.
See how Everlane makes good use of abandoned cart emails to woo its customers back.
Key takeaways from this email:
- The brand hits the right chord with customers by telling them about their great taste.
- The features of the product are explained in detail. This, in turn, will entice customers to think about purchasing the product again.
- The mail ends with a strong CTA of “take another look” to compel customers to take an action.
An order confirmation email is sent to the customer upon completion of a purchase. Such emails consist of details such as order confirmation number, the name and address of the customer, the cost of the purchase, and more.
Order confirmation emails are a great way of following up with customers while assuring them that their order will be delivered soon.
Here’s an excellent order confirmation email from United by Blue:
Key takeaways from this email:
- Clear and precise details about the order.
- Good cross-selling and up-selling strategy by recommending the customer look at similar items to the one purchased.
Benefits of email marketing automation
Since you now know what email marketing automation is all about and the various types of automated emails you can send, let’s see how it can benefit you in the long run.
Automated emails with their perfect timing and relevancy instill a sense of positivity in your prospects. Automated emails such as welcome emails, loyalty emails, special event emails induce customers with a sense of value, thereby fostering a better and long-lasting relationship. This, in turn, increases your chances of having more conversions and sales.
When you plan your email marketing strategy, you want to regularly reach as many people as you can. Doing it manually can be cumbersome and time-consuming. However, with email automation, you can target a large base of your prospects instantly and consistently. Results? You save ample time and effort.
Simply put, when you automate your emails, you steer clear of the time and effort you need to put in sending individual emails to each of your prospects. Email automation does that on your behalf while you put your time and focus into your core competencies such as marketing and innovation.
Email automation allows you to send a message automatically as a customer takes an action. As a result, your customer receives the right message at the right time, thereby making the message more relevant for the customer.
Every business encounters people who are interested in their products, but who are not ready to go ahead with a purchase. If you too have such leads, you can keep them engaged through automated drip campaigns.
In such campaigns, emails are sent to leads at regular intervals. These emails consist of FAQs, product demonstrations, and solutions that address customer pain points. This, in turn, keeps your brand in the customer’s mind all the time. These campaigns also keep your leads warm and entice them to go forward in the sales funnel.
As mentioned already, sending emails manually is a tiring and time-consuming task. Also, the number of manual emails sent depends upon your staff size. Imagine if your customer size increases overnight, would your limited staff be capable of sending emails to each and every new customer? The answer is no.
But with email automation, you can easily scale your marketing strategy. All you need to do is set up your email as per the requirement and relax as your message gets sent when a customer takes an action. For instance, if you set up email automation for sending a welcome email every time a prospect fills your sign-up form, you don’t need to worry if your staff is present to send it or not.
Email automation makes staying in touch with customers more effortless than ever. With automation, you can schedule your emails and ensure that your copy is relevant to the customer. As a result, your chances of retaining a customer increase.
Wrap Up
From welcome emails and order confirmation emails to abandoned cart emails and thank you emails, automation is a great way of attracting new customers while retaining existing ones. You can even keep your leads warm through email automation and motivate them to make a purchase.
In addition, a good email automation strategy provides an impeccable user experience to customers and also helps you streamline your workflow.
So, go ahead, get started with your email automation strategy, and see how your business paves new avenues of success, one automated email at a time. Happy Emailing!
