Marketing automation can take your conversions from zero to hero in no time at all – if done correctly. If you’ve got your strategy and implementation down pat, you can not only provide stalker-level personalisation, but you can also improve customer experience, brand loyalty, conversion rates and save yourself valuable time. Now if that isn’t reason enough to dive head-first into email automation, then I don’t know what is.
In this blog, we’ll discuss why email automation needs to be the main character in your marketing strategy and how you can best leverage it to take your conversions to the next level.
What is email automation?
Although manually scheduled emails are sent somewhat ‘automatically’, they aren’t the same as automated emails. An automated email series has more persuasive power than a scheduled email could ever dream of – and this is why.
Automated emails have the ability to shoot off different, targeted messages that are triggered by your buyer’s behaviour. For example, if a user has subscribed to your email list, an automated welcome email can be sent off immediately, triggered by the signup. But automated emails can be so much more than a one-off welcome email if they are well planned and set up correctly.
Automation specialists can set up an automated series of emails that follow a customised flow, branching off with different messaging depending on where users are in their journey. Think of it as a choose your own adventure story, where the user picks their pathway, but the marketers choose the storyline.
An example of this is when a user has browsed your website but doesn’t purchase anything. This could trigger an email that reminds them of the amazing products they were perusing a couple of days earlier. The user may then return to the site, place items in their cart but then abandon the cart before any purchase is made. This action could then trigger another email, reminding them of their forgotten items and offering them a discount to get them over the line.
These types of emails are highly personalised and are very effective as a result.
What are the benefits of email automation?
Email automation is one of the most undervalued marketing tools available to organisations today. While some may think that an email is just some words in a browser, the results and benefits actually speak volumes. Here are just some of the reasons why you needed to sink your teeth into automated emails… well… yesterday.
Automated emails:
- Drastically increase conversion rates
- Provide a highly personalised customer experience
- Create brand loyalty and awareness
- Give the user a sense of feeling understood
- Saves time and will always work in the background – 24/7
- Directly reach users in their inbox
Impressive’s top email automation tips
1. Leveraging first-party data for top-notch segmentation
Every time your customer interacts with your site, you are collecting valuable information about them, what they like, what they’re looking for and so on. This is called first-party data. This data is invaluable when it comes to developing a solid email automation strategy.
Using this data, you will be able to segment your audience and create personalised, automated journeys or ‘flows’ that correspond with specific email messaging. These segments can be defined by a set of characteristics such as their location, how recently they have made a purchase, what items they tend to purchase, what items they have viewed and so on.
You can then tailor a campaign to those segments, giving them personalised product suggestions and offers that will be relevant to them, and therefore will be more likely to convert.
Example:
An organisation has segmented their audience by a specific product category purchase. They can then set up an automated email campaign that sends their customers a post-purchase email reminding them of other relevant products that can complement their initial purchase.
From there they may segment their audience further, sending those who purchased a relevant product another email asking them to review their company, while the ones that didn’t purchase may get a reminder email with a promo code.
Remember: no one wants to receive emails that are not relevant to them, so start trawling through your data and make sure your segmentation and personalisation is on point!
2. Be clear and strategic about your CTAs
It’s great to send your customers an email that entices them to buy, but if there’s instruction or an easy way to go through with the purchase, then they’re likely to give up and hit that delete button. All of your hard work has just gone to waste.
So instead of simply including persuasive copy and leaving it at that, make sure that you include a call to action line, explicitly telling your customer what to do, followed by a button that takes them straight to where you want them to go.
Example:
If you’ve laid out an email telling customers all about your incredible products, then tell them what you want to do with them. Ie. ‘Shop Now’ or ‘Discover Our Range’ with an easy access button that leads them straight there.
You can also be creative with your CTAs, showing off your brand personality and giving them something that really catches their attention.
3. Test from A to…B
There’s more than one way to craft an automated email. In fact, there’s a million different ways. So why not put a few different options to the test and see which one comes out on top? That is exactly what A/B testing allows you to do.
When putting together your email, try drafting another version or two. That way, you can send some of your audience segmentation one version, and some of them the other. Then you can go through your analytics to see which one achieved the highest conversion rate and you can continue along with that one.
You can perform A/B testing in a number of ways and to different extents such as:
- Trialling different subject lines
- Crafting different body copy or CTAs
- Pushing different products
- Experimenting with the number of emails sent out per series
A/B testing is an inexpensive way to ensure that you are getting the biggest bang for your buck and giving your audience the best possible experience in the future.
Now that we’ve offloaded our top tricks of the trade, it’s time that you stop hitting snooze on email automation and start putting it to work. We promise you, if you’ve done it correctly, you’ll never look back.