Marketing automation: 6 Essential Emails
Email automation, or email triggers, are without a doubt, your best allies in distinguishing your message from those of your competitors. Since business development continues even after the acquisition of new customers, email triggers allow you to add value to your communications at every stage of the customer journey. The goal of this is to turn your buyers into loyal ambassadors and increase your conversions. With the growing competition, missing out on this opportunity defeats the overall purpose.
What is Email Automation
The quality of the communications sent to your customers is paramount, however, no one has the time to create an individual email for each and every one of them. On the contrary, it is just as unreasonable to send out a general message to your entire database, and that is when email automation comes into play.
Email automation is a feature that allows you to automatically send communications to your customers' inboxes, based on their behaviors, at a specific point in the purchase process. Email automation falls into two categories: events, which triggers messages to be sent based on the actions taken by the customer at a specific time, and segments, which do so when customers meet a defined set of conditions.
6 Examples of Email Automation
Many companies, from different industries, are present online and need to adapt their email messages in a personalized way in order to interact with their customers. That being said, there are some must-have automated emails that everyone can benefit from, no matter what industry they are in.
1. Welcome Email
Welcome emails are opened 10 times more often than most other email communications. Therefore, if you do not take the time to welcome your new subscribers properly, you are missing out on a crucial engagement opportunity. Sent automatically after a new subscriber completes the opt-in process, welcome emails typically make the reader feel welcomed, for lack of a better word, while also offering the next steps, such as:
- An introduction to the brand
- What they can expect from the brand
- Links to other content that may be of interest to them
The goal is not to overwhelm your new subscribers, which is why welcome campaigns are often broken down into short series of different emails. These automated messages are based on several factors, including time intervals and subscriber behaviors.
2. Abandoned Cart
Most e-commerce owners fear the abandoned cart phenomenon. With so many distractions and online competitors, this is a real common denominator in the e-commerce industry.
When this situation arises, automated abandoned cart emails are beneficial as they serve as a friendly reminder to the buyer that they are missing out on your fabulous products. Likewise, this is a good time to offer a discount or a way to make first-time buyers feel more comfortable.
3. Order Confirmation
Sent to customers following a purchase, the order confirmation email can easily be compared to a simple digital receipt. Well beyond the summary of the transaction, this communication is intended to give your customers peace of mind knowing that you have received their order, in addition to meeting their expectations regarding the speed to which they will be able to track the progress of the shipment.
4. Feedback on the Experience
One message worth adding to your automated email campaigns is definitely the customer feedback/survey. It is excellent as it can be triggered by just about any type of event, including:
- A purchase
- Following an event
- After attending a webinar
- After downloading free content, and more!
Not only do these types of emails allow you to gather valuable customer feedback, but they also allow your customers' voices to be heard, which is what they are looking for from any brand they care about.
5. Re-engagement Emails
Your customers have a busy life. Between work obligations and family responsibilities, it is very easy for them to forget about your product. Your job is to find a creative way to regain the attention of these potential buyers. Recovery (or win-back) emails are a great way to re-engage, inform and hopefully convert your inactive email list members. Take advantage of this communication to introduce your new brands, offer discounts or encourage webinar participation.
6. Birthday Email
Customer engagement with automated birthday emails speaks for itself. With a 342% higher conversion rate than promotional emails, birthday emails not only have high sentimental value for the customer, but also prove to be especially profitable for retailers. On a subscriber's birthday or other important event, take advantage of automated emails to send a promotional code or special offer.
Email relationship marketing remains the most successful channel for a return on investment (ROI). However, many retailers are still missing the mark when it comes to implementing such an effective and cost-efficient strategy.
Email automation is a reliable way to distinguish your messages from those of your competitors. With the right automation tool in place and adding these essential emails to your strategy, your campaigns will be scheduled in no time. Go ahead and maximize your conversions before you regret not having started sooner.
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