10 Easy Ways to Start Automated Email Marketing for Your Business
20 years ago, Banking Institutions would have scoffed at the the thought of a decentralized currency becoming commercially acceptable. Today, 1 Bitcoin is worth more than 11,000$ and Cryptocurrency is growing like a weed on steroids. Keeping up with the times, Marketing too has evolved. Digital is here to stay as consumers are increasingly becoming mobile. Brands have stepped up their game considerably in order to grab maximum eyeballs and remain relevant in the age of information.
The Argument For Automating E-Mail Marketing
If you consider Digital Marketing, there are regular channels like Website, Social Media, Organic & Paid search, Mobile, Display ads etc. at your disposal. But if you had to choose 1 on the basis of effectiveness, reach and ease of use, then the humble E-Mail should probably feature on the top of your list.
I’m not talking about the vanilla version of Email Marketing, but Email Marketing 2.0. You need to evolve and automate your E-Mail marketing powered with data and insights. This will help you reach out to the right audiences with the communication they actually want to receive.
Automated emails have a 119% higher click-rate compared to their un-automated counterparts. Instead of sending blanket emails to your entire list, you can set triggers to send automated emails to particular segments of users/prospects. I would like to illustrate this with 10 examples:
- Welcome Email:
Trigger: A new customer signs up for your newsletter or emails.
You can shoot off a customized Welcome Email to every individual signing up for your email list as soon as they subscribe. Here’s an example of how Grammarly does this:
Right off the bat, Grammarly shares a link to their iOS keyboard app in order to increase their product adoption.
UGMonk wastes no time in sending an offer code to new users right after sign up. Same concept in theory and execution.
2) Confirmation Email
Trigger: Purchase made by customer
This is a common practice carried out by a lot of E-Commerce firms where they intimate the digital receipt of customer’s last purchase and notify them about their purchase details. Apart from that, there are other practices like feedback, cross-selling and up-selling that can be leveraged freely via purchase confirmation emails. With automation, personalized emails can be sent out to customers with minimal inputs from your end.
Little Moo have used live links to make re-ordering and referrals a breeze in their purchase confirmation emails.
Example 2: Mountain Hardwear
They drop in an email to their customers AFTER they have received their product, requesting them to give feedback about the whole experience.
3) Abandoned Cart Email
TRIGGER: A customer abandons their shopping cart.
According to Statista, 77.3 % online retail orders were abandoned without making a purchase in 2017. There are X number of reasons that explain the reasons behind visitors abandoning their cart by not making a purchase. If you are dealing with a similar issue, then it is critical to analyse why it might be happening. But, you can boost online conversions by setting up automated reminder emails for individuals who have abandoned their online shopping carts. This can be sent after 24 to 48 hours of cart abandonment by a customer their purchase to try and get them back on your app/website and finish the checkout process.
Ralph Lauren’s automated Email reminds customers of items lying in their cart.
4) Unsubscribe Email
Trigger: A customer unsubscribes to your newsletter or emails
You can automate the Unsubscribe emails that will be sent out to customers every time they hit unsubscribe. Now, there can be 2 broad possibilities for unsubscription from the customers end:
→ The recipient hit the unsubscribe button by mistake
→ The recipient genuinely wants to unsubscribe
Betaout sends this unsubscribe email campaign with a 3-pronged approach:
1) They ask the recipients for a feedback outlining the reason why they wish to unsubscribe to improve their offering.
2) They offer an option to subscribe for a weekly newsletter instead of a daily newsletter to their recipients.
3) They offer a chance to re-subscribe for their newsletter in case the recipient unsubscribed by mistake.
5) Milestone Emails
Trigger: A customer hits a milestone or celebrates a holiday
You can make your customers feel valued by wishing them on achieving a personal milestone (birthdays, 5 year business relationship, 25–50–100 purchases etc.) and giving them something special to enjoy as a gift. These can be automated, and sent out every time the customer touches the aforementioned milestone.
6) “We miss you” Email
Trigger: A customer goes dormant
Do you have customers who have suddenly gone under the radar? You can renew their interest with a reactivation campaign, and get them to re-engage with your website/brand/product.
Typeform urges its non-active users to try out the Template gallery and get some inspiration for trying out their platform once again.
7) “Customer Service Follow-up Email”
Trigger: A customer contacts customer service.
A lot of companies have a ticketing system to take care of the customer complaints as and when they are raised. It makes tracking easier, and serves as a proof of record. Automation can be used to send an email reply to your customer with details of their ticket, the action that is/will be taken along with associated timelines for dispute resolution. Second instance of automation can be a triggered when a ticket is closed.
Squarespace sends an automated email to clients after their ticket is closed, asking them to provide feedback about their experience with customer service. This helps to understand the real world effectiveness of your dispute resolution system powered by feedback.
8) Product Return Email
Returns are ubiquitous in any online business, and they need to be handled with care and perfection so that the customer experience is not affected. Automation can help you craft an email that lists all the details of the transaction to the customer so that it effectively serves as a perfect point of reference for them. This would reduce any expected friction between you and your customer and let your customer service team breathe a sigh of relief.
9) ‘Back in stock’ Email
Serve your customers who missed out on making a purchase due to unavailability with an automated email campaign. In case customers have registered to be notified about an item’s availability, send them a personalized email such as the one listed below:
Kaufmann Mercantile sends a detailed mail highlighting the availability of the same product the customer was trying to buy, but couldn’t because of low stock/unavailability.
10) ‘Automatic Purchase Email’
TRIGGER: A customer signs up for regular deliveries, refills or subscriptions.
This would be well suited to a subscription-based business (BirchBox, Ipsy, Dollar Shave Club) where customers transact regularly with a brand. You can serve timely reminders to your customers via automated emails about refilling their stock/renewing their subscription. These emails can also be used for creating upselling and cross-selling opportunities, and getting more referrals from customers.
In the example below, Filtereasy informs the customer about the expected arrival date of fresh filters, which have already been sent because the previous ones have surpassed their usability.
Here, Express Scripts pharmacy urges their customer to refill their prescription ahead of time so as to not run out of the essential medicine supply.
Conclusion
These are just a few examples of how you can create automated email campaigns for your business to increase conversions, and maximize engagement seamlessly. Hope you find some inspiration to create some automated campaigns for your business. If you still have your doubts about Email Marketing, then you can check this post out. We have covered some important aspects that justify the importance of Email Marketing for business.
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