You know your contacts need follow-up. But you do it manually, or not at all. Every time you bring in a lead, you have to think for yourself: when do I send what? Email marketing automation solves that. You set up once what needs to be done, and the software does the rest. Just at the right time, for the right person, without you having to be there. After this article you know how it works, which parts are in it and which automations you set up first.
What exactly is email marketing automation?
Email marketing automation is the automatic sending of emails based on a trigger. A trigger is an action or a time you set up beforehand. Think of: someone signs up for your newsletter, clicks on a link in your email or visits a specific page on your website. Once that trigger occurs, the software automatically sends the corresponding email. Set up once, then it runs on its own.
The mechanism is always the same: trigger, action, mail. You no longer have to keep track of who has done what or when someone has received something. The automation arranges that for you, even if you sleep or have a holiday.
The difference with a regular newsletter is big. You send a newsletter once to your entire list. Email marketing automation responds to what a specific contact does. This makes communication much more personal and relevant. You no longer send the same message to everyone, but the right message to the right person at the right time. That’s exactly what differentiates marketing automation from regular campaign emails.
How does an automation work in practice?
An automation consists of three basic components: the trigger, an optional condition and the action. The trigger is the starting point. The condition determines whether or not a contact gets the next step, depending on something the contact did before. The action is what happens next, usually sending an email, but also adding a tag or starting a new sequence.
Concrete examples of triggers are: someone fills in a form, someone clicks on a link in an email, someone visits a specific page on your website via site tracking, or someone leaves a shopping cart in your online store. All those moments can be the starting point for an automatic follow-up.
A simple automation works like this:
- Someone fills out the registration form on your landing page.
- The software recognizes the trigger and adds the contact to your list.
- Immediately afterwards, the software sends a welcome email.
- Three days later, a second email with more information will automatically follow.
- After seven days, a third mail goes out with an offer or invitation.
You set this up once. After that, each new contact receives the same careful follow-up, regardless of whether ten or a thousand people register per month.
Which automations are you setting up first?
You don’t have to automate everything right away. Start with the automations that have the most impact on your situation. Three of them are valuable for almost every company.
The welcome series is the most logical first step. Someone signs up and expects something in return. With a welcome email and a few subsequent emails you immediately make a good impression and lay the foundation for a relationship. This is the automation that yields the most per hour you put into it.
The abandoned shopping cart-mail is indispensable for webshops. Someone has placed products in their shopping cart, but did not complete the order. An automatic reminder, sent an hour or a day later, still recovers a large part of that potential turnover. Abandoned shopping cart emails have, on average, the highest conversion rate of all email types. You link your Shopify or WooCommerce store through the e-commerce integration and the automation state.
The win-back campaign is for contacts who have not been heard from for a while. You set someone to automatically receive a reactivation email after a certain number of weeks without activity. This way you keep your list fresh and involved, without having to look at it yourself. You can read more about how to handle this on the page about a win-back campaign.
What do you need to get started?
You need email marketing software that supports marketing automation. Not every tool can do this equally well. See if the software works with visual flows, so that you build up the automation as a flowchart instead of clicking on separate settings. That makes it clear, even if a flow is getting longer.
In addition, you need an entry point: a form, a landing page or a link with your webshop. Any contact that comes in via such an entry point can immediately start an automation. The more entry points you have, the more you get out of your automations.
Another question that often arises is whether you need a large subscription right away. You don't have to. With an entry-level subscription you already set up a solid welcome series. Those who want to continue with unlimited automations, lead scoring and a CRM system, look at the possibilities in a more extensive package. See what suits your situation on the prices page.
If you want to know how to build a complete funnel around your automations, the article about making a marketing funnel is a good next step.
How do you make automations more personal?
An automation that is the same for everyone is better than nothing. But you send really relevant emails based on what you know about your contacts. That starts with segmentation: you divide your list into groups with similar characteristics or behavior. Someone who has clicked on a link about product A will receive follow-up emails other than someone who has only read your welcome email.
Tags play a big role in this. You automatically assign a tag based on behavior, and that tag determines which flow someone is flowing into. This is how you build a customer journey that fits in with what someone actually does.
For those who want to know who is ready to buy, lead scoring is a logical next step. You automatically assign points to contacts based on their behavior: +5 for opening an email, +10 for visiting your price page, +25 for filling out a contact form. As soon as someone reaches a certain point count, a follow-up flow automatically starts or your sales team receives a notification.
Do you want to know whether you should do it yourself or better outsource it?
Sometimes it is wiser not to do the design of your automations yourself. Especially if you want to start quickly, do not have time or want it to be right immediately. Read when outsourcing marketing automation is the smartest choice.
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