Marketing processes need to be automated – no matter what your business size is. According to Erik Harbison, if social media is the cocktail party, then email marketing is the ‘meet up for coffee’ – the original one-to-one channel. Among all marketing tactics, though it looks that social media is effective, let us agree that an email is arguably the most important marketing tactic. It also hints that you SHOULD use automation in emails.

Email marketing automation is the process of setting up automated emails and email drip campaigns to be sent to your customers when they perform specific actions on your website.

Being an owner of an online business, obviously, you can’t be available 24X7 to communicate with your customers.  And that’s why, you should automate email workflows.

Most important 7 email workflows to be used in your marketing automation…!

If you haven’t yet automated your emails, high chances are you’re not sending out nearly as many emails as you should be. It’s true that there can be number of chain of emails based on your purpose of email marketing. And not all might need automation. But, here are some of the most important email workflows that you should have it on your radar – if they are not already present in your CRM.

• Email workflows for new subscribers/customers

Email Trigger: Subscription to your blog / Registration to your newsletter

Whenever any user subscribes to your blog / newsletter, always send them nice, short and warm welcome email thanking them.  According to HubSpot, on average, ‘welcome’ emails receive an unusually high open rate of 50%, making them 86% more effective than newsletters. Your welcome email should be designed in such a way that it introduces your brand as well as marks a very good impression on the mind of a reader about your brand value proposition. Make it personalise with a clear and engaging subject line, and keep it scrip. Also, do not forget to add the link to unsubscribe. It’s a requirement of CAN-SPAM.  

Quick Tip: Use this email lists to promote your blog, ask review on your blogs, and any other offers.

• Email workflows for events

Email Trigger: Registration/Attendance for events

Events can be both online (e.g. webinar) and offline (e.g. meetup). You should use automated email workflows for passing on information related to the event. These emails help to communicate before, after and during the event.

Quick Tip: Use this email lists to promote post event offers and offer special discounts / vouchers to the attendees.

• Email workflows for resource downloads

Email Trigger: Download your lead magnet (resource / offer)

Most of the online businesses need to create a valuable lead magnet for their website. A lead magnet can be in the form of eBook, video, image, quiz, etc. To access that resource, a user must need to enter their email ID. If a user visit to your landing page and sign up with the required details to download that resource, you must create email automation workflows for the same. These series of emails will one day turn your browser into a buyer.

For instance, if you have an eBook on Twitter Marketing on your website and a user downloads it. Send him/her a weekly follow up chain emails with content related to Twitter Marketing. And eventually, one day send them out an email offering them to invest in your Twitter Marketing services.

Quick Tip: Use this email lists to promote more of your offerings. They have downloaded lead magnet means they are interested in knowing something from you.

• Email workflows for FREE trials’ or consultations’ sign-up

Email Trigger: Signed up for FREE trial / consultation  

If you have offered a FREE trial for product demo, ensure that you have proper automated email workflows for all those users who sign up for FREE trials. Your emails should guide them on what to do next. This is very common for software companies since they usually offer demo prior to sales.

Quick Tip: Such email workflows increase user engagement and retention by educating them on all of best features of your website.

• Email workflows for lead nurturing

Email Trigger: Range of top of the funnel event conversions

When you provide value to your users, they get converted into your leads. But, not all leads get converted as your customers. Your sales team need to go through the process of lead nurturing. Lead nurturing emails cover the emails that educate, entertain, and re-engage your leads.  

These email series should be personalised according to your prospect’s behaviour and actions. For instance, if you are offering handbags and the user has downloaded an eBook on which handbag suits their body style; they should be treated as warm leads. And they are part of your BOFU. Your email campaigns should revolve around bottom of the funnel campaigns. It means awareness campaigns aren’t needed for these leads.

• Email workflows for re-engagement with old customers

Email Trigger: Inactive contacts since XXX days/months

All businesses face this situation that their past customers haven’t come back to them since a significant period time. These are called inactive email lists. One conclusion drawn could be your offerings or emails are not up to the mark and don’t provide value to them. And this conclusion hurts! So better reengage with them. Let them know about anything new happened in your business. Offer them special discounts on your new launches. In short, make them feel excited about your company once again with the help of your re-engagement campaigns.

Quick Tip: Other lists with whom you need to re-engage could be those who have signed up on your website but haven’t yet taken any action.

Also See: ABOUT EMAIL MARKETING AUTOMATION

TIPS FOR MAKING THE BEST OUT OF MARKETING AUTOMATION

• Email workflows for cart abandonment

Email Trigger: Shopping cart abandonment

It is applicable for ecommerce sites. Often, ecommerce stores experience that customers add items to their shopping cart, but later on abandon the cart without making any purchase. The reasons could be any – either they are unsure of their product requirements or they have got distracted in their user journey. In both cases, the conclusion is same – cart abandonment. Here, you need to help them out in completing their journey across your marketing funnel with the help of email automation.  In case your initial normal emails do not work, it is best to offer them a special discount to intrigue them to complete the transaction. Since they fall under the categories of hot leads, it should not be much tough for you to convert them.

Get started now…!

By now you have learnt a lot about which email workflows definitely need marketing automation. So what are you waiting for? If you haven’t yet taken help of automation, it’s the right time for you to get started with it. Suggested marketing automation software’ from our end are Infusion soft, Aweber, Active campaign and Get response.