Email Automation: The Key to Automated Business Success

The value of well-strategized email automation cannot be overstated. Depending on the application, it can welcome new customers to your business, educate them on their latest purchase, and even catch opportunities for upselling. Plus, specialized email automations like abandoned cart reminders can bring in extra sales that would otherwise be lost. In short, if you don’t have automated email in your business’s arsenal, you’re leaving money on the table.

Email automations are a key part of any marketing strategy. They allow businesses to send targeted, timely, and personalized messages to their audience without the need for constant manual effort. With a good automated email series, you can nurture your subscribers and funnel them toward future sales. Ultimately, this increases awareness, conversions, and loyalty—all with minimal oversight.

If you’re considering creating an email automation series for your business, you’re in the right place. We’ve been email experts for over 25 years. We’ll strategize automations that will work for your unique audience and industry, then write, design, and code it to win you more business… automatically.

Types of Email Automations

As stated, there are many opportunities for a good email automation strategy to work wonders for your business. Here are just a few popular ideas that we use for our clients:

Welcome series. Thank new subscribers and introduce them to your offerings.
Lead nurturing campaigns. Educate subscribers on the benefits of a purchase, as well as other options.
Customer onboarding. Once they commit to a sale, give customers more information about what their purchase means.
Post-purchase follow-ups. Don’t drop the ball once you’ve made a sale! Check in and see how they’re enjoying your product.
Feedback and referral requests. Ask for feedback, reviews, and referrals so you can improve your offerings—as well as share invaluable social proof.
Upselling and cross-selling. Tell subscribers about other offerings you have that might complement their previous purchases.
Abandoned cart emails. Trigger a message when purchases don’t get completed. (This is a highly effective strategy that averages open rates over 41%.)
Birthday and anniversary emails. Send subscribers little perks like coupons or discounts for major milestones.
Membership and subscription renewals. Remind them when a bill or renewal is coming up.
Event invitations and reminders. If you have new product drops or special events, make sure your subscribers are made aware.
Re-engagement campaigns. You can also trigger an email automation that will check in with customers who haven’t made a purchase in a while. This can remind them of your offerings, clinch an extra sale, or clean them from your list.

Of course, this is just a sampling of the power of email automations. We can create a completely unique and customized message—or series of messages—based on your business model, audience, and goals. Talk to us and see what we can do for you!

Email Automation as Part of a Larger Digital Marketing Strategy

To get the most out of email automation, it’s essential to include a number of other elements in your strategy. For example, you’ll need a solid email platform to launch your automations from. Then, you’ll likely want some kind of join form to build your list. A popup or SuperCollector™ can encourage even more subscribers. Once you’ve taken care of the automatic side of your email marketing strategy, you may also want to further nurture your audience with monthly newsletters.

If any of these sound like a good idea to you, you’re in good hands. As a full-service digital marketing agency, we can help you branch out your strategy to get the most out of your list—and win more business.

How Does Email Automation Work?

Thanks to modern technology, there are almost endless potential applications for email automations. Basically, email automation is the process of using software to autonomously send pre-designed messages based on specific triggers, actions, or schedules.

One of the most basic (and powerful) examples of this is the welcome email. When a new website visitor signs up for or subscribes to your mailing list by adding their email address, your software can automatically send a message welcoming them to your community. This message also confirms that they successfully signed up for your mailing list, as well as creates an opportunity to start building a relationship with your business.

How We Design an Email Automation

The process of creating an email automation—or automated email series—is similarly straightforward:

Determine the goal or objective. When will your audience members most benefit from a message? How can we capitalize on an opportunity to educate, upsell, or remind them of offerings? By writing out concrete goals, we’ll be able to accurately measure how successful it is.
Define triggers for the automation. Triggers tell your software when to send specific audience members this message. These can include sign-ups, purchases, specific activities, or time frames.
Create the email content, using personalization whenever possible. If you’re building a series of automations, you’ll need content for each message. Make sure to include subject lines, preview lines, graphics, and compelling calls-to-action (CTAs). Follow industry best practices like automatic personalization for top results.
Set up, test, and then launch the automation workflow. Depending on your platform and needs, this could involve directly coding the message or using a drag-and-drop visual editor. We’ll test it before it goes live. That way, we avoid sending typos (or worse errors) to your subscribers.
Monitor and optimize the automation. Although email automation is inherently automatic, it’s important to keep track of its progress over time. The data will tell us how well it’s performing and if it’s meeting your goals.. Plus, we will make tweaks, adjustments, and even overhauls to achieve maximum success.

When you get email automations from us, we’ll handle most of this setup—and even more backend work—ourselves. You’ll be able to review and approve this content, as well as make changes as needed, before we launch. We’ll also watch the metrics carefully, keeping you apprised and making any necessary upgrades and optimizations as needed.

Pricing

Frequently Asked Questions

What is email automation?

Email automation is the process of using software to send emails to your customers automatically. You can set up these emails based on certain triggers. For example, you can send a welcome email when someone signs up for your newsletter. This saves you time and helps you connect with your customers efficiently.

How does email automation help small businesses?

Email automation helps small businesses by making communication easier. When you automate emails, you can send messages to many people at once. This means you can reach more customers without extra effort. It also allows you to send targeted messages based on customer behavior. This increases the chance of making sales.

Can email automation increase my revenue?

Yes, email automation can significantly increase your revenue. It allows you to send personalized offers to your customers. When messages are relevant, customers are more likely to buy from you. Automated follow-ups can remind customers about items they left in their carts. This can lead to more sales for your small business.

What types of emails can I automate?

You can automate various types of emails, such as welcome emails, promotional emails, and follow-ups. Welcome emails greet new subscribers and introduce your brand. Promotional emails highlight special sales or discounts. Follow-up emails check in with customers after a purchase, encouraging them to return for more. Each type helps engage your audience.

Is email automation easy to set up?

Email automation is easy to set up, even for small business owners. Most email marketing platforms provide user-friendly tools. You can create a schedule for your emails and set triggers for when they should be sent. With just a little time investment, you can have a complete email automation system running for your business.

What information is needed to begin setup?

To create a strong email automation strategy, we’ll need to become familiar with the state of your current sales funnel. This will allow us to analyze your industry and audience to generate an optimized automation that can do the heavy lifting for you. We’ll also need access to your email platform, if you have one, and your customer list. Typically, this is managed securely through integrations. Lastly, you’ll provide us with any branding assets you have, including colors, fonts, and graphics, so that we can generate content that looks and feels like your business.

Can I see and approve my email automation before it launches?

Yes, of course! After you approve the strategy outline, we’ll build the email automation using your branding guideline. Then, we’ll walk you through the messages and show you how it works. You can make any adjustments you like before we launch. Plus, we’ll make sure to keep the automation updated to reflect any new offerings, directions, or targeting to maintain optimization.

What happens next?

We’ll keep track of data, make updates and refreshes as needed, and do any maintenance as it comes up. You’ll typically start seeing the results of the new email automation right away—whether in conversions, new sales, or list growth, depending on the objective. A well-strategized email automation is built for long-term results as well, so these wins will increase over time.