It’s no secret that personal connections are the foundation of the strongest relationships. Relationships that lack a personal connection are usually short-lived and unproductive for both parties. The same can be said for marketing. “72 percent of consumers say they only engage with personalised messaging,” according to SmarterHQ. But how do you personalise on a large scale? Here comes email marketing automation.
Email marketing automation is a series of triggers that occur along the customer journey and cause a personalized email to be sent to the customer. Each email is tailored to each touchpoint, organically moving the customer through the sales funnel.
We discovered that automated emails generate 310 percent more revenue than non-automated emails at Get AcademyPro. An automated email campaign differs from any other email marketing campaign in that it is personalized to the consumer rather than being a mass mailing with broad messaging. Consumers are more likely to shop with your brand when they have a personalized experience, according to Accenture. So, if you’re wondering how email automation can help your business grow, you’ve come to the right place. Let’s get started.
What is different between automated email marketing and drip marketing?
A common misunderstanding is that automated email marketing and drip campaigns are interchangeable. The distinctions are subtle but significant. A drip campaign is predetermined, but not in the same way that automated email marketing is; the approach as well as the email content are distinct.
Drip campaigns are generic, blanketed emails that are sent to every customer, regardless of their customer journey. They are emails with broad messaging that are sent at regular intervals. A drip campaign might include an email promoting a sale or a product launch, for example. These are the emails that every customer receives, regardless of where they are in the sales funnel or their previous interactions with the brand.
In contrast, automated email marketing is a series of emails that are only sent when qualifying thresholds are met for each customer. These automated email series are tailored to each customer’s journey, catering to their specific needs and interests.
If a customer abandons their shopping cart, for example, an email with a discount code and a prompt to complete the purchase is sent. And, with a strong email marketing platform, it will go beyond simply sending a generic “cart abandonment” email; it will offer personalized content to that user.
1. Select an email marketing automation software.
The tool you use is the foundation for your email marketing automation, so it’s critical to select one with features that will ensure your success. Not sure where to begin? The following are the key features to look for in an email marketing automation tool:
Email automation capabilities — The ability to automate emails based on customizable triggers is the first and most obvious. Many email platforms lack this critical capability, or have only very basic automation with no customizable triggers.
Personalization — If the data above is any indication, the ability to personalize is essential not only for email marketing automation but also for company growth. Personalization is accomplished through the use of tools that integrate with customer relationship management (CRM) software. You can nurture leads more effectively once your CRM is integrated, which leads to growth.
Real-time analytics that are robust — How do you know if something is working?
Take a look at the numbers!
How do you know where your growth opportunities are?
Take a look at the numbers!
Any process that does not have a way to measure key performance indicators (KPIs) will have a limited long-term impact.
Email templates that are simple to use and modify — Email marketing automation saves your team time that can be spent connecting with customers.
However, in order to save as much time as possible, you must have beautifully designed, easy-to-use, yet highly personalised templates.
The key is to use a tool with ready-made, easily customizable templates.
This will ensure design appeal while also allowing you to create a relevant template for each use case.
Personalized email automation will only go as far as your email list segmentation allows. Each distinguishing feature of the subscriber should be reflected in segmentation. The automation tool has nothing to personalize your emails from unless these characteristics are defined and segmented. As a result, having a tool that can generate dynamic subscriber lists is critical.
Transactional email ecommerce integrations — Having the ability to send transaction-specific emails to existing customers is essential, especially if you have an ecommerce store. It will be difficult to create timely emails if your email marketing tool does not integrate with your ecommerce platform (for example, Shopify). Furthermore, it is difficult to create highly targeted marketing campaigns without a comprehensive view of your customers in the same platform.
Optimization for mobile devices — Given that 81 percent of people check email on their phones, according to Adobe, mobile optimization should not be overlooked in the user experience.
2. Divide your subscriber list into segments
When it comes to email marketing, a segmented subscriber list is the foundation for everything else. Create multiple list segments based on customer information such as location, gender, interests, or devices used.
Your email automation platform should ideally allow you to create custom fields and integrate them with your ecommerce platform and CRM to enable dynamic segmentation. Custom fields enable you to enter specific information that will determine subscriber segments. This allows you to segment your subscriber list based on what is most important to your specific audience. Through integrations, you can send out massive campaigns that are still uniquely personalized to each user experience.
To maintain transparency and trust with your subscribers, include an email preference centre that allows subscribers to control how their information is used. A preference centre can provide even more details about what they’re interested in and allow for more accurate segmentation, in addition to maintaining the relationship.
3. Implement automated workflows at each stage of the customer journey.
It’s time to have some fun now that your list segments are in place! At this point, you can begin creating campaigns with personalized emails to target different stages of the customer journey.
Nurture produces leaders.
No matter how good your product is, it’s difficult to successfully ask a stranger for money. For most prospects, simply asking for their email address is an easier lift. Once you have their email address, you can use an automated lead nurturing campaign to establish rapport, gain trust, and keep your brand at the forefront of their minds.
Building relationships is the goal of lead nurturing. Personal connections and meeting the needs of potential clients are the foundations of these relationships. As a result, it is critical to find an email service provider (ESP) with an application programming interface (API) capable of sending highly personalised emails. Campaign Monitor, for example, integrates with several CRM software and apps to strategically prompt customers and move them along the pipeline.
Automation also saves your team time when following up with potential leads while still providing a personalised experience. Your sales team will spend less time sending out repetitive emails and more time closing deals with automation.
Welcome new clients.
When a lead becomes a customer, it’s time to express your gratitude. We’re not talking about a generic confirmation email here, but rather something tailored to each individual user. With email marketing automation, each welcome email should acknowledge the customer’s uniqueness in some way. In a welcome series, for example, you could include a curated collection of products based on the customer’s browsing history or on-site feedback forms such as a skincare quiz.
Brightly does more than just personalize emails using an algorithm. In the first email, they even ask their readers what they want to see. This information is then incorporated into each subsequent email to deliver highly personalized content.
Increase product acceptance
It all comes down to two things: (1) demonstrating value and (2) encouraging action. By sending highly personalised content directly to the consumer, email marketing automation accomplishes both of these goals.
You can curate emails with email marketing automation to show what is most immediately valuable to each consumer. And when customers find value, they act.
This email from a distillery is an excellent example of highlighting value and encouraging action. This company began by hosting an event to promote product use cases (i.e., happy hour). They then used automated email marketing to provide immediate value (such as drink recipes and tool recommendations) in exchange for product adoption (i.e., buying their alcohol).
Collect feedback
Getting feedback directly from your customers is the best way to improve a product and curate social proof. If you never ask your customers what they want, you’re essentially guessing when it comes to meeting their needs. When it comes to potential customers, the most important thing they want to know is whether you’re keeping your brand promise.
According to a survey conducted by Insights, “91 percent of respondents read at least one review before making a purchase decision.” Respondents stated that this applied to purchasing decisions for a product, business, or service — in other words, anything they’re going to spend money on. Positive reviews, according to the same survey, had a greater impact on purchase decisions than anything else (including free shipping and discount codes).
You understand — feedback is the best. But how do you obtain consistent and timely customer feedback? Here comes email marketing automation. You can use email marketing automation to send highly specific requests for feedback on experiences, products, fun factors, or anything else you want. Do you need a catchy quote for product promotion? Send an email to your most recent buyers of the product. Do you require feedback on that private product preview? Send an email to all customers who have access to it. The possibilities are endless.
Surprising and delightful
“Surprise and delight” is an old adage in the hospitality industry that also applies to your marketing. “Surprise and delight” refers to the moments in your product’s experience that distinguish it in a competitive landscape. It’s what you give your customers that is personalised, one-of-a-kind, or goes above and beyond the norm. Consider receiving a glass of champagne as you enter a five-star hotel or a personalised welcome basket on your bed. It is the small details that create an unforgettable experience and keep customers returning for more.
Email automation in marketing allows you to “surprise and delight” customers every time they take an action or have an experience with your brand, such as a thank-you email for purchasing a product or service, a birthday surprise, or a “just because” surprise.
Promote
One of the most significant benefits of email marketing is that it is owned media. If you want to promote something, you don’t have to worry about social media platforms not showing your ad. Email is your own marketing platform, with direct access to your customers and a complete understanding of where they are in the customer lifecycle. You can also make those promotions highly targeted by leveraging the power of automation and a segmented email list based on CRM integrations.
If you’re hosting an event that only targets a specific business sector, for example, you can segment your email list by business type. After segmenting your email list, you can send email invitations to only those qualified subscribers without having to manually sort and send.
You can also segment your list by purchase history or interests if you want to promote a product that may not be relevant to all of your subscribers. Your CRM and ecommerce integrations will automatically pull in all of that data. You won’t cause email fatigue among those who are uninterested this way.
With email marketing automation, you can send promotions to only the most qualified leads with the click of a button, saving both their and your time.
Increase brand loyalty
Brand affinity is similar to how you feel when you meet someone special. They are attractive, share your values, and make you feel complete, excited, and understood. Brand affinity is essentially how people feel about your brand. And what better way to win someone’s heart than to send them personal love letters via email? It just doesn’t feel the same if someone sends the same generic email to you and a few thousand other people. But when it’s personalized and highlights key brand pillars you identify with, everything changes. This is what automated email marketing allows you to do.
Recover lost customers
Customers occasionally leave. It’s never enjoyable, but it happens. They stop buying because they believe your brand or product is no longer relevant to them. So the challenge becomes reminding them of the value of your product once more. Email automation makes it simple to follow up with each customer at scale based on dormancy triggers.
You can set up an automated re-engagement campaign tailored to the individual if someone has cancelled their membership or simply stopped using your product. Re-engagement campaigns, for example, can be triggered when a customer hasn’t logged into their account in a certain amount of time or hasn’t engaged with emails in a few months. The frequency with which you send emails, as well as the type of product or service, should determine your trigger points.
Collect and optimize data
After a few automated email series have been sent, you can begin to identify patterns in customer behaviour and engagement. The number of emails you should send before attempting to identify trends is determined by several factors that contribute to statistical significance. These factors may include the size of your audience, the diversity of your content, your industry, your baseline conversion rate, and the sensitivity of the elements you’re testing.
Once you’ve determined that you have a large enough set of data, it’s time to analyse the results of your campaigns and make changes as needed. The most effective email strategies are those that take a comprehensive view of their customers and iterate constantly to better serve the user’s needs. When the needs of the customers are met, They keep returning, and when they keep returning, your bottom line grows. Your email marketing strategy’s success is determined by its ability to evolve in tandem with your customer base.
What is the most effective method for analyzing campaign results? Use an email analytics dashboard to get a complete picture of each campaign element and their impact on your marketing efforts.
Scalable business expansion
Everyone does “email marketing,” but not everyone automates their email marketing. Email marketing automation is what differentiates businesses because it allows you to personalize each customer’s experience at scale. People engage when they feel seen, and when they engage, they convert.
Not sure where to begin? We’ve got you covered! Check out our beginner’s guide to email marketing. Alternatively, you can use our simple drag-and-drop email templates and send them using our built-in marketing automation software.