How to transcend your business ROI with email automation

Email automation is the most transformative advancement in the world of sales and marketing.

Suppose you sign up on GoDaddy before creating a website for your business, immediately after which they send you an onboarding email that shares tips to create the best domain name.

Take a look at the GoDaddy example below. It not only builds brand credibility but also makes it easy for you to decide a domain name. Additional highlights of their email are the 30% discount on the first purchase and striking CTA buttons.

This is how email automation works. It triggers an email based on the behaviour and activity of the subscriber, thereby increasing the chances of conversion.

Take a look at this chart.

Based on the data, it’s clear that more and more marketers endorse the use of automation to facilitate one-to-one communication with the subscriber. However, many marketers struggle to drive the expected results from email automation despite all the hard work.

If you want email automation to bring you better conversions and greater ROI, here are expert tips to help you out:

1. Draft interesting subject lines

Your subject line should entice the readers to open the email. In the case of automated emails, it should reflect that they have received the email because they performed a specific task on the website. For example: If a subscriber has downloaded a free resource from your website, the subject line of your next automated email could be: “Hey, did you like our ebook?” This will not only increase the open rates of your email campaigns but also increase subscriber engagement with the brand.

Moo presents a great subject line example. Check out the image below:

2. Write humanised content

Sound human, that’s the most important thing when it comes to email automation. Send relevant content that’s valuable for the subscriber even though it’s automated. It should seem like someone has actually taken effort to draft an email exclusively for the reader. A good idea would be to include the subscriber’s first name somewhere in the middle of the email rather than confining it to “Hey first_name”.

Take a look at the email by Social Media Examiner. Personalisation in the subject line and email copy make the subscriber feel special and render a sense of exclusivity. Even though it’s probably shot from a bot, it looks like a conversation and does not look like a machine talking.

3. Consider the buyer’s journey

To incorporate email automation in your strategy, you ought to define your buyer’s personas and the stage of the buyer’s journey. Let’s say a subscriber is still in the awareness stage. You should set triggered emails that mainly intend to introduce him or her to your brand. Share your free resources to give an exact idea about your products or services. The process of email automation works by setting the most appropriate condition that would trigger the email. Make sure you do it right as it will help to lead your prospects further in the sales funnel, closer to conversions.

The webinar invitation email by Listrak is perfect for a subscriber who is in the consideration stage as it will help build trust and move the subscriber faster in the sales funnel.

4. Design specific landing pages

If you are using all the right tricks to garner opens and clicks on your email but not redirecting the prospect to the right landing page, all your efforts will go down the drain. Your landing page should be in line with the email that you send. It should shed more light on the offer you have highlighted in the email and entice the subscriber to take the next action. This, in turn, leads to better ROI.

One of my favourite examples is the one created by Moo.

Check out how their landing page is aligned with the GIF animation in the email. It is a wonderful concept to grab subscriber attention and bring higher conversions for the business.

5. Set a logical flow of your emails

Whenever a subscriber signs up to your email list, you should send out a welcome email that provides information on what your brand is all about. Flow welcomes their new subscribe with a short and sweet educational email. The clear CTA along with a link to email their customer support and social media icons make it an ideal welcome email example.

You can even offer an incentive that would encourage the user to make the first purchase. Next comes the nurturing emails. Subscribers who do not purchase should be nurtured with drip email campaigns that share free resources, customer feedback, and free trial to name a few. Grammarly showcases the previous year of the user and entices him or her to upgrade the services. It is a clever way to acquire a premium customer.

You should always segment your subscriber list based on the age, gender, geographical location, previous purchases, total purchase value, etc. so that you can send better emails to the subscribers.

You can retain the existing customers with upsell or cross-sell email campaigns based on the data of previous purchases. Alternatively, you can also set an automation workflow with referral email campaigns to get new customers.

Often, marketers have dormant subscribers who do not open or engage with any of their emails. You can reengage these subscribers with win-back email campaigns.

See how Email on Acid re-engages their inactive subscribers with the subject line: “This might be your last email from us!”

It instantly radiates an emotional vibe and tempts the recipient to open the email and click-through.

If you carry out email marketing for an ecommerce store, you should give a shot to cart abandonment emails to bring back the lost customers. Cart recovery program gives a leg up to the email marketing strategy and helps boost your business ROI. You can even give a shot to browse abandonment emails and see how it works for your brand.

Wrapping up

Email automation is a technique-sensitive tactic that can make or break your entire strategy. We are sure these tips will help you in driving greater business ROI through automated emails.

Do you have any other ideas to make it better? We would love to hear from you.