Every business strives to provide an amazing and personalized experience to both existing and potential consumers. One of the most effective ways of doing all of this is still emailing. Despite the technological advances in today’s world, emailing still stands the test of time, when it comes to messaging consumers. In fact, according to a 2020 study done by 99Firms, over 4 billion people globally are email users.
Unfortunately, manually writing and sending emails with a personal touch requires a lot of time and resources. Email automation is the next best thing. A report found that automated email messages receive 70.5% more open rates and 152% more click-through rates on average than other marketing messages.
In this article, we’ll explore the advantages of email automation workflows and the ways businesses can use them to improve engagement with potential and existing customers.
What Is Email Automation?
Like any other form of automation, email automation is supposed to make tasks easier and more streamline for individual users and groups. Email automation, in essence, is the process of automatically sending a personalized and contextual email campaign based on a trigger. Research shows that triggered email campaigns generate over 75% of email revenue. This allows marketing teams to focus on less time-consuming tasks and more on other processes that are impossible to automate.
For an email automation campaign to be successful, it requires a good workflow. Email automation workflows are the blueprints of automated emails. They instruct automation software to follow a repeatable process and define the consumer behaviours that trigger an automated email.
Benefits Of An Automated Email Workflow For Businesses
Despite only accounting for 2% of email sends, automated emails deliver 29% of all email orders. In comparison to other promotional campaigns, automated messages generate a 359% higher conversion rate.
“It’s no secret that businesses benefit tremendously from automated email workflows,” notes Jerry Miltenberger, a business writer at Elite assignment help and OX Essays. “In addition to converting potential customers into paying consumers, an automated email workflow frees up the marketing team’s valuable time to work on other projects.”
Automated email workflows also allow businesses to scale effortlessly as they grow and engage better with a larger audience. Going back to the “359% higher conversion rate” statistic, that alone speaks volumes, since your business – no matter what it is – already strives for growth and engagement with your audience. Therefore, when you decide to put email automation to work, it’ll do wonders for your business!
7 Ways To Use Email Workflow Automation
So, now that you know how and why email workflow automation is important for business, it’s time to make it work for you! Here are some of the most effective uses of email workflow automation by businesses:
Welcome A New Subscriber
Most businesses excel at welcoming new subscribers or customers with an automated email. In addition to thanking the consumer for joining your mailing list, make the welcome sweeter by including an incentive. Incentives might convert them into a paying customer if they’re not already. This incentive could be in the form of a discount, free trial, or free shipping.
“The welcome email also sets the tone for the rest of the automated emails you send out,” explains Gregory Huang, a marketing blogger at State of writing and UK Services Reviews. “It gives consumers the chance to learn more about your business and consider engaging further through a trial or purchase.”
Product Recommendation
Users have their own preferences, when it comes to, say, shopping online. If you see that customers are always gravitating towards certain products, then that’s a sign that you should cater said products to them more often. You can always find out the preferences of your shoppers by looking at your website’s analytics (via analytics software or online tools like Google Analytics).
From there, you can create something called “product recommendations.” Product recommendation emails based on browsing or purchase history is a personalized way to engage with your subscribers. This can be highly effective at tempting them to purchase a product you know they like.
Abandoned Cart
Now, the last thing you want is for shoppers to do the following on your website:
Leave your site early without making any purchases
Place an item in the online shopping cart, only to empty the cart moments later, OR
Leave your site during the checkout process
These scenarios happen too often with eCommerce sites, so much so that they have a name: the abandoned cart.
However, there IS something you can do about abandoned carts: Emailing consumers who had left your site before making a purchase.
The abandoned cart email gently reminds consumers when they leave items in their cart. Setting up an abandoned cart email automation workflow is not intended to pressure the consumer to checkout. It simply informs them that the items are still in their cart. In some instances, this can provide the gentle nudge to convince the consumer to follow through with the purchase.
Discounts
Consumers love to save money. Did you know that, according to Inc.com, 4 out of 5 Americans (which is 81% of the U.S. population) always go to the store looking to find a great offer or discount? So, why not give them discounts that’ll make their day?
Offering a discount on a product the consumer has viewed a few times is an almost certain way to get a sale. Discount emails based on consumer behaviours is a brilliant strategy for converting sales. The discount might just be the push that consumer needed to finally purchase that product.
Free Trial
In addition to saving money, consumers love free things. In fact, who would ever say “no” to free stuff?
That’s where free trials come in! Free trials allow people to try before they buy. Suppose someone was skeptical about buying a streaming service. A free trial allows them to stream said streaming service for a few days, before they make the ultimate buying decision.
Therefore, a free trial email automation workflow is a great way to convert a subscriber into a paying customer. The best free trial emails also remind the consumer that they can cancel their trial at any time. The lack of commitment required might just convince to them to try your service.
Feedback Survey
All customers have the right to talk about a product or service that they either like or dislike. In fact, their feedback is valuable in terms of either promoting a product or service, or improving it.
So, after a customer makes a purchase, it’s a good idea to set up a feedback survey email automation workflow. Encouraging and collecting reviews from a paying customer is a good way to convince potential consumers into trying your service or product.
Re-Engagement
Finally, it’s important to know that consumers come and go as they please. Sometimes, they might not visit your site for a good while.
If you see that a customer has been inactive for awhile, sending out a re-engagement email might help reel them back in. These emails could highlight new products and recommendations or any recent updates.
But don’t let re-engagement seem like bugging the consumer. Re-engagement is meant to be the gentle reminder to them that they can always revisit your site.
Conclusion
Ultimately, email automation enables businesses to streamline their email marketing processes. Additionally, it creates new opportunities to reach your target audience and convert them into paying consumers. If you want to grow as a business and develop a strong relationship with your subscribers and customers, email automation workflows are the way forward.
Christina Lee is a digital marketing specialist at Lia Help and Pay for assignment. She writes about marketing strategies and trends for such services, as Simple Grad, and others.