Introduction
As your email list grows, sending relevant messages to every subscriber becomes a challenge. Not only that, but you need to send emails out in a timely manner so subscribers don’t lose interest in your brand. If your email list is still in the early stages, it’s easy to send out messages manually. But once you’ve built your list, know that your emails will be far more time-consuming. That’s why email automation workflows come in handy.
What is automation?
Automation workflows are a series of emails that send when triggered — these triggers are based on a subscriber’s data — like their behavior, or their place in the customer life-cycle. Simply put, automation makes our jobs as email marketers much easier. Because these emails are linked to subscriber behavior, they're much more likely to have strong engagement and are delivered when they are most timely. It means no more sending one-off campaigns over and over again. Because these are often "set it and forget it" type of campaigns, you can trust they will be sent as needed to give you time to dive into the other elements of your email marketing responsibilities.
Types of automation
- Re-engagement Over time, you may see parts of your audience stop engaging with your emails. By setting up a re-engagement campaign, you can see which of these disengaged subscribers may still have interest in your brand.
- Onboarding Building a multi-email onboarding automation to new subscribers can set expectations, provide important information about your company, and simply positions your brand as approachable and nurturing.
- Product Launches If you have an exciting announcement coming up, a single email may not always reach everyone right away. Build anticipation or reiterate details over time leading up to a launch to get people excited, but also informed, with your new product or offering.
- Advanced notice of contracts expiring, renewal date approaching Leverage automation to drive action from your audience if you have date-specific contracts or renewals. This takes the heavy lifting off of trying to individually follow up with each subscriber close to that looming due date.
Automation Best Practices
- Double-check your automation trigger Make sure your automation initiates exactly as you want and targeted to the audience you intend. Consider all the ways subscribers could enter your automation, ensuring subscribers will not enter when you do not want them to, i.e. via bulk imports that may inadvertently kick off an automation.
- Keep an eye on analytics Consistently review analytics to track performance of the emails in the automation workflow. Knowing your baseline statistics allows you to identify under-performing emails and take action.
- Review content Is your content still timely and relevant? Consistently review the emails included in the workflow to ensure the messaging is still accurate. If you have discount codes or links, make sure they still work. It's also a good practice to make sure your messaging is still in good taste.
Wrap up
Email automation is one of the best tools in an email marketer's toolbox, giving you valuable time back so you can cross out more on your ever-growing to-do list. While automation helps you, more importantly it helps your audience. Showcasing timeliness, relevance, and personalization, your subscribers can better connect with your brand.
