Your Guide to Create a Successful Email Automation Strategy

Are you hoping to reach new customers but don't know where to start?
Are you looking for a cost effective alternative to expensive advertising?
Well, you might need to start thinking about good oldfashioned email marketing.
What's good, guys? It's Ben here from Neighbourhood,
where we help businesses find, sell to and keep their people.
Despite being one of the oldest digital
marketing strategies in the book, email remains a highly lucrative channel.
There are more than 290 Billion emails
sent daily, and that number is only increasing.
So email marketing remains a key player when strategizing marketing campaigns.
Why, you may ask?
It's because it delivers the best
marketing return on investment of any strategy.
With the right elements in place,
emails can be the ultimate weapon in improving your campaign.
And this strategy only becomes more powerful when coupled with automation.
By sending personalised communication
to customers who fit certain criteria or perform particular actions,
you can boost your open rate by 70.5% compared to generic newsletters.
If you're new to the concept of automation
but are keen to explore its potential, then we've created this guide for you
to develop a killer email automation strategy.
Let's get into it. So what is email automation?
To put it simply,
email automation involves setting up personalised email campaigns that send
communications automatically when contextual requirements are fulfilled.
Sounds confusing? Don't fret.
You probably receive automated emails every day without even realising.
A common example for an automated email is
one that reminds customers of an abandoned cart.
The purpose of such communication is
to boost the company's number of completed transactions to drive profits.
Other reasons to set up email automation
include product promotions and survey reminders.
There are a wide range of benefits for crafting email marketing campaigns,
so we'll include a few of the important ones today.
Firstly, they allow you to create a highly segmented list.
Customers expect highly personalised
communications in today's digital landscape.
By creating segmented email lists based
on user data, you can develop highly targeted campaigns that drive engagement.
Subscribers are more likely to react
positively to relevant and timely messages that actually cater to their needs.
It can also help to reduce unsubscribe rates.
By collecting data on these unsubscribe
rates, you can harness that to improve your marketing strategies.
For example, granular data could help you
to improve the tone, content, length or quantity of links within an email.
Probably the most important one is that it saves you time.
This is by far the most compelling reason to start automating your emails.
By computerising repetitive tasks such as building email lists and follow up emails,
you and your marketing team can focus on more creative tasks.
Lastly, it helps to convert leads into loyal customers.
Countless studies have shown
that customers prefer to interact with brands via email.
In automating these messages, you can ensure that you adequately nurture
your leads via this channel, a channel that suits their requirements
and remains relevant to the customer journey.
But you might be asking how do you even start automating emails?
To begin with, you will need to investigate email
marketing automation platforms to find a service that suits your needs.
Once you have the relevant email marketing
software in place, you can get on with building your workflows.
Firstly, you'll need to identify your key
audiences with a customer relationship management platform like HubSpot.
You can use your customer database to create highly segmented mailing lists.
Say you want to promote a new product to relevant audiences.
Using your CRM, you can whittle down recipients according
to their gender, job title, or even purchasing history.
Second, you have to establish enrollment criteria.
The enrollment criteria for automated
emails refers to the conditions that must be met for a contact to join the workflow.
For example, marketers can create personalised
workflows that trigger when a customer takes an action.
This includes submitting a form, clicking on an email link,
viewing an article on the website, signing up to a mailing list, or much more.
It's also possible to establish workflows based on contact information.
This can include the number of times a customer has visited your website page,
if they've downloaded content, or a combination of different properties.
Thirdly, you should identify automation actions.
You must specify what actions your email marketing automation platform should take.
Under these circumstances, these actions could include sending
of emails, updating your CRM, or delaying certain communications.
You will need to map out event sequences
using automation software, stating precisely when it needs to take action.
Next is creating relevant assets.
Different workflows require different types of emails or assets.
Before you set up a workflow, you must create and load relevant email templates.
Remember to spend time making them as eye
catching and engaging as possible, as this is going to boost your chances
of securing click throughs and conversions before you hit send.
You should also test your emails.
Once you have established a workflow
and written up your list of commands for the automation software to follow,
you can conduct a test run using a personal email inbox.
If you encounter any issues, look at your workflow and make any necessary tweaks.
Finally, you can launch the workflow.
Once you're happy that the workflow
doesn't contain any bugs or inconsistencies, you're ready to go.
Of course, the work doesn't end here.
You're going to need to monitor
the success of individual campaigns to ensure that it has the desired effect.
If you notice any mistakes, don't hesitate to adjust part of the workflow.
It's also worth remembering that most
email marketing platforms allow users to automate actions besides email.
As such, it may be worth keeping track of the workflow's ability to add or remove
contacts, update contact information, and other administrative jobs.
If necessary, you should update your commands to make your email automation
strategy as effective and growth driven as possible.
Workflows can take many different forms
depending on the style and purpose of your email marketing strategy.
Some of the common examples include blog
Subscription Workflows if you run a successful blog,
it's a great idea to set up automated thank you emails to new blog subscribers.
You can also send subsequent reminders
to read the latest article, instalments or update their subscription settings.
Doing so will help drive traffic to your
blog and keep the customer engagement levels high.
Next is High Engagement Workflows automated engagement emails are triggered
when a customer interacts with your digital content regularly.
This could include clicking on your social media posts, submitting web forms,
visiting your site several times, and much more.
Automated emails sent out to these loyal customers should be friendly and encourage
them to share your brand's best content with their friends.
You may also wish to offer perks rewards
or birthday emails in exchange for the customer's loyalty.
Another one is workflows for inactive contacts.
Inactive contacts are those who appear to have fallen out of love with your brand.
Triggers for identifying these individuals could include a drop in site visits,
low rates of form submissions, and other signs of low
engagement. Emails sent to their inboxes should encourage reengagement through
exclusive offers or friendly reminders about how awesome your brand is.
Moving on we
Have Event Registration Workflows if you are running a virtual or in person event,
communicating with your registered attendees is a must.
Your workflow could include registration confirmations messages containing vital
information such as schedules or accommodation costs,
login details for webinars, and gentle reminders about the event.
After the event is over, why not send follow up information such as
slides presented by the keynote speakers or satisfaction surveys?
A big one for any ecommerce site is Abandoned cart workflows.
If you've ever left a site with items
in your basket, you're probably familiar with this type of workflow.
Abandoned cart emails usually contain
friendly reminders that the customers haven't completed a transaction.
In most cases, this kind of email encourages
the customers to go through with their purchase.
In the long term,
setting up this kind of workflow could boost your ecommerce business.
Next is Customer service Workflows automating customer service emails could
help save your service team a significant amount of time.
Your workflow may categorise different
kinds of complaints and assign them to different members of the team.
They can register these enquiries as a ticket and can be used to keep track
of problems and ensure that your team reaches a resolution.
Next up is Lead Nurturing Workflows lead
nurturing is a fundamental part of an effective email automation strategy.
It can involve several forms.
You could set up automated emails
that sends when a customer downloads an ebook from your website,
attends a webinar, or signs up for a free trial offer.
It's the secret source for gently pulling
leads through their buyer's journey and one step closer to becoming customers.
It's no longer enough to whip up a quick
email and send it straight through to a client.
Incorporating automation into your email
strategy is the only way to take your campaign to the next level.
However, we understand establishing
an email automation strategy can be a little bit confusing for beginners.
If you're looking to harness the power
of email but are unsure of where to start, we've got you covered.
Please get in touch with the link down in the description. While you're there,
make sure to like and subscribe so you never miss out on another video.
If you want to read more about email
marketing, automation or a whole range of other topics, please cheque out our blog.
That's it from me, guys. Happy Marketing.