Email marketing still remains at the top of the list for effective marketing channels available for small business today, but it continues to evolve.
While newsletters and single one-time campaigns still hold a spot in your marketing strategy, more innovative companies are beginning to implement automatic email campaigns that react to a user’s actions.
You may be asking yourself why your business needs this. There are actually a few reasons. Automatic emails are convenient and prompt, personalized and well-suited for the reader. This results in emails that are opened and clicked on more often, driving more visitors and revenue to your business.
Why Use Automatic Email Campaigns?
In comparison to one-time campaigns and newsletters that you design and then send out to your mailing list at one time, automatic email campaigns have an initial set up and then are sent automatically to individuals each time they meet certain triggers.
You would be wasting an enormous amount of time manually creating and sending emails to each person as they sign up. With email automation you set up an automatic welcome email that goes out each time you have a new signup.
That’s what makes email automation so handy, you just have to create the email once and then each time someone hits the trigger you outlined, the email will be sent without any work needed from you. It pretty much automates the marketing process for you.
Growing Your Business with Email Automation
Automated emails can be set up in a matter of a few minutes. The only thing you really have to do is place an email subscribe box somewhere visible on your website that adds people to your subscriber list, and then create an automated email that will be sent each time someone new is added to that list.
You might consider generating a discount code to include in the email, if your eCommerce site will support it. This not only provides the perfect incentive for your customers to purchase, but it also lets you keep track of the campaign and see how it impacts sales.
Increasing Product Usage
Many online apps offer some kind of free trial to potential customers hoping they will give the product a try and eventually convert into a paying customer.
Before people are willing to dish out cash, they need to be convinced that your product has value to them during the free trial period. This means you need to come up with a campaign and send it out to your subscriber list.
Important Automated Emails You Must Create
In order to get consumers to appreciate the value of your product, eventually make a purchase and return for future purchases, there are a few automatic emails that you should implement. These emails include:
Welcome Emails
These emails are immediately sent to everyone that sets up accounts on your site and will include some general personal info regarding their account that they will need to navigate the site, including their username and email address. These are useful to help the user get started on the site and then navigating through to the first step of creating a campaign.
Items in Cart Reminder
Many times, for one reason or another, customers will leave your site with items still in their cart. These reminders will help keep your product fresh in their minds. If they have taken the time to add products to their cart in the first place, then they were seriously considering making a purchase. Sometimes all it takes is a subtle hint to make a sale.
Follow-up Emails
One of the biggest mistakes you can make is to forget about your customers once a purchase has been made. You want your customers to know you care for them even after the sale. This will encourage future purchases and increase positive reviews.
Tips for Effective Automated Emails
- Composed eye-catching subject lines
- Make it short and to the point
- Write well-crafted content
- Add a call to action button
- Track your results
Conclusion
If you are a professional marketer, most likely you have so many things vying for your limited time and attention. Yet, of all the options available to grow your business, email marketing continues to have the most impact. Implementing automated emails can help achieve positive results without devoting a ton of time. If you take a little time to compose and set up automated email campaigns, you can sit back and reap the benefits for years to come.
