Email marketing automation basics for startups

Email Marketing Automation | email marketing automation software | triggered email campaigns | drip automation | constant contact

Email marketing automation

Here are some examples of email automation systems that you might want to look into. Although there are many more available that can be suitable for your business,

Constant Contact

Customer.io

Drip

Marketo

Main Points

1. Email automation is a sequence of automatically sent emails that follow the user’s activity, such as signing up for an email list, clicking a link, or making a purchase.
2. It can ease your ability to achieve your business goals, such as retaining clients and onboarding new ones.
3. Proper cadence is key when sending a series of emails. This implies sending the right message to the right person at the right time.

After reading this article, you will need to prepare yourself for email marketing automation.

1. Choose an email automation platform.
2. Create terms and conditions so that you can send emails to your customers.
3. Introduce a checkbox for email opt-in or opt-out.
4. Add an email entry box for your website or app.

That’s what you will do.

We’ll answer,

1. What exactly is email automation?
2. How do you put it into your business?
3. How do you use it with your customers to keep them interested and engaged?

Automation of Email. Isn’t this the least appealing subject? But consider it from a different angle.

Email automation is like a big party where everyone is socializing and getting to know one another.

Let me show you how.

Assume you’re at a party. Which guest will get the most attention?

The one who can only say "Hello" and "Bye?"

The person who tells the same narrative to everyone?

an outstanding storyteller who talks about topics of interest to others?

Exactly the third one is the winner. 😃

This individual understands his fans and knows how to keep their interest. 👀

Similar to this partyman, your marketing emails should stream like a thread with outstanding conversations: they should be interesting, engaging, and relevant to the people involved.

Instead of attendees at a single chat box, you may have thousands of consumers, each with their own set of interests and wants.

As a marketer, you will most likely want to speak with each of these consumers for a lengthy period of time. But email marketing makes it easy for you. You can now manage everything through email automation.

Email Blasts 

There are still many companies that send the same promotional emails to everyone, referred to as "email blasts," assuming that all emails are the same. But this has no good marketing value. because everyone's position is different. It is like that person who tells the same story to everyone at a party. This strategy is sometimes helpful when you need to convey an announcement to everyone about changes in your company's policies, personnel, or address, for example, as in press notes. It could be useful in marketing for launching a new product or having a flash sale at the end of the month, for instance. But for follow-up, it has no value, and basically, it needs more investment with little return. because you cannot track the customers, or you even do not know where your email is now.

But when you set up a sequence of programmed, scheduled emails to your clients, you use email automation, or "email drip." Not you; your clients prompt those emails.

It’s also known as drip marketing. Here you can "drip feed" messages to your audience for a specific purpose.

It can help you convert potential buyers into real customers, keep current customers engaged, and re-engage previous customers. That is exactly what you want.

But a speculating mind wants to know: does it really work to deliver personalized messages to all clients without writing to each one of them individually?

A case study

Let’s look at how a company achieved it. Suppose its name is Custom Home Supply (CHS), which successfully runs email campaigns. They are an online company that provides goods to homeowners who are renovating their houses.

CHS discovered that many consumers abandoned their online shopping carts before clicking the buy button, so they employed email automation to convert these probable customers into successful ones.

If users left their carts for more than an hour, CHS contacted them and offered to assist them in completing the transaction, along with a 5% discount that is going to expire in 7 days.

If they did not respond after the first email, they would receive a reminder seven days later that the discount was about to expire. CHS also inquired if they had any queries, facilitating the customers.

This email automation campaign was a huge success for CHS. Let’s take a look at how consumers reacted to the first email with the 5% discount coupon and the second email a week later.

Here’s how the first email performed:

58.7% of users opened the email (aka open rate).

37% of those customers who opened the email subsequently proceeded to their shopping carts (click-through rate, CTR).

36.6% of individuals who clicked through purchased the products.

 Here’s how the second email performed:

40.9% of consumers opened the second email.

22.2% of them then clicked through to their shopping carts.

100% of individuals who clicked through then purchased the products.

Isn't it interesting? 

Before you begin email automation, just like CHS, which focuses on re-engaging idle clients, you must first determine what your goal is and how to achieve it.

To reach your email automation goals, follow these steps: The user takes an action. Customers' actions include, for example, visiting your website, app, or store and signing up for your emails, or attempting or completing a purchase. It triggers an email flow at a certain cadence. These emails are key to reaching your goals. 

Let’s investigate some common goals:

Goal 1 of Email marketing automation

Onboarding and educating clients on how to use your product or service

Here’s an example of an onboarding email flow: The buyer purchases one of your items and receives your welcome email an hour later. They will get a "how my product works" email over the next few days.

Goal 2 of Email marketing automation

Encourage customers to interact with your products or business even more.

The trigger occurs when customers use some features or services from your apps or websites.

Let's set up your email automation flow as follows: If customers take an action of your choice, they will receive an email every few weeks in order to keep them engaged with your business.

You will be emailing your newsletter to them once a month. They’ll also get periodic emails about new features or items you’re offering, including helpful tips or tutorials.

Ultimate Goals

retention, attraction, and engagement of customers.

You may achieve this goal by utilizing various triggers and setting email flows. Assume that you set a trigger for the action when a customer completes their first transaction. Your response will be that they’ll get an email asking for feedback in two days.

Again, you set the trigger when a consumer makes more orders. A day later, they may receive an email with related products or bundles they may be interested in.
Re-engagement

If your customer has stopped using your product, it will trigger your email flow to get them back and start their re-engagement.

When clients forget about you and disappear entirely, this is the trigger. You could send them emails every 7 days for a set period of time. The first email might be a simple "We miss you." The second is a message concerning "what you’re missing out on." Finally, they will receive a discount or promotional offer.

So, there are lots of triggers you can set.

TIPS

Your email flow may overwhelm or irritate your clients. Please don’t do this. Allow users to opt in and out of receiving your emails.

Next to do

Now, take a look at the following points to see what you need to do to prepare yourself and your website or app for email marketing automation.

1. Create terms and conditions so that you can email customers.
2. Look into email automation platforms.
3. Add an email opt-in/opt-out option.
4. Add an email entry box to your website or app.
5. This is something you could do.

Thanks to Google Primer for educating me.