What Is Email Marketing Automation?
Unlike a regular newsletter, an automated email is set-up once and then the system automatically sends it out based the pre-defined triggers. This could be someone signing up to a marketing list or when a customer makes a purchase.
Email marketing is still one of the most profitable marketing channels a business can invest in. For some organisations however, the thought of drafting email after email feels them with dread.
But fear not, email marketing automation is the ideal solution for any time sensitive business large and small.
While newsletters and one-off campaigns will always have their place in your email marketing strategy, the smartest companies are starting to set-up automatic email campaigns that trigger from a user’s actions.
In the UK the open rates for automated messages are considerably higher than a regular campaign:
-
B2C marketers who utilise automation have seen conversion rates as high as 50%
- Automated email messages average 70.5% higher open rates and 152% higher click-through rates than “business as usual” marketing messages
Automated emails are timely, personalised and relevant to the reader. As a result, they are opened and clicked more frequently and drive visits and revenue for your business.
Three Examples of Email Automation You Should Try
1. Lead nurturing workflows – Multiple top-of-the funnel conversions
If a contact has downloaded several pieces of your top-of-the-funnel content or regularly engaged with your brand. Perhaps it is time to lead that contact further down the funnel with middle-of-the-funnel content.
2. Blog subscriber welcome workflow – Main trigger: subscription to your blog
Welcome new subscribers to your blog with a welcome email and thank them for taking the time to read your blog. Offer them tailored content based on their preferences.
3. New customer welcome workflow – Main trigger: buying lifestyle stage
Consider setting up a series of welcome emails to when a contact converts to a paying customer. Especially if your product/service requires some training on your customers’ part.
Sales Focused Email Automation
According to a reports, 60% of survey respondents who use marketing automation say it has increased the quality of the leads that get passed to sales. Leads that go through automated workflows have a 23% shorter sales cycle. Imagine what your sales team could do with 23% more time?
It's also a great addition to ecommerce sites - take our client Monty Bojangles, for example.
Using a WooCommerce integration we connected Monty’s site with MailChimp and created an abandoned basket email which was automatically trigger 24 hours after someone had left the site. The email used the WooCommerce transactional data feed to display the products a customer had left and offered a 10% discount on the order.
It achieves on average a 46% open rate and 13% click through - which has lead to hundreds of pounds in orders that would otherwise have been lost!
Email Automation Software
These days most email marketing platforms have an automation tool. However, not all email automation tools are built equal.
Choosing the right email marketing platform and ultimately, the right automation tool, will all depend on what the business needs. Some platforms like our very own Fatmail, offer a more ‘simplistic solution’ which doesn’t require any coding knowledge in order to build campaigns and can be set-up and running in a matter of hours.
On the other end of spectrum is Adestra, our enterprise level email marketing solution partner. Adestra’s sophisticated automation tool allows the user to create complex multi-funnel journey, where hundreds of different triggers can be set-up in order to push a subscriber further down the automation funnel.
Get in touch with our specialist email marketing team today to learn more about how email automation could benefit your business.
