What is email automation?
Email automation is where you create any number of emails that will be sent out to your email database automatically. These can be a series of emails sent at regular intervals or a simple one-off email to welcome someone as a new client. Either way, these “workflows”, as they’re known, can be triggered by any number of events and provide a way of communicating with your audience in a consistent way, removing the need for human intervention.
For example, if you decide to send everyone who submits an enquiry on your website an immediate response to let them know that their enquiry has been received and what will happen next, this would become a difficult job to manage manually. You would need to be available 24/7 to send the follow up email or risk leaving it too long before making contact.
With email automation, you can set up your enquiry forms so that email addresses are automatically added to your email marketing software. Then you can create a workflow that is triggered by a new email address being added to your list. The email is then sent automatically without you having to lift a finger.
Why use email automation?
We’ve probably highlighted the main reason why you’d use automation above – quite simply, it is going to save you hours of time!
Secondly, it creates consistency in how you communicate with customers and prospects meaning you don’t have to think about whether certain bits of information have been sent to every customer. If you’ve automated it, every customer should get the same information.
And finally, it provides a repeatable process that requires virtually no input from you. It frees you up to be doing more important tasks and means your business is more desirable to future owners (if that’s your plan) as it’s removing you from the process.
Examples of email automation in action
Welcome emails
Possibly the simplest way of automating emails is to send a one-off welcome email when someone signs up for a newsletter or places an order or joins a community or membership. You can use this to explain what will happen next (managing expectations), signpost them to more information they may find useful, include a video so they get to know you a bit better or use the email to request a bit more information about them so you get to know them a bit better!
Educational emails
Send your database a series of emails at regular intervals. For example, you might have 10 top tips for creating better social media posts. Rather than send all 10 tips in one email, how about drip feeding them once a week over 10 weeks. The benefit of this regular communication is that it builds up a relationship with your audience. They get to know you and your expertise over a period of time. They also get used to hearing from you, so future emails are more likely to be received and opened.
Lead nurturing emails
If you have a data capture form on your website or landing page, requesting an email address in return for more information about a product or service you offer, you know you have a hot lead on your hands! Rather than leave it to chance that you will be able to contact them via phone and convert the lead immediately, why not keep in touch via a series of automated emails, giving them more information about your product or service. Aim to answer frequently asked questions, send them video demos and show how you’ve helped others with case studies.
System/processes emails
Ahh, the dreaded admin emails! If you only have a small client base, managing these emails manually probably isn’t an issue, but when you have a lot of clients, you’re going to want to automate this as much as possible. These could be emails such as the welcome email we discussed above, then an email sending out your terms and conditions, an email requesting a digital signature on a contract, an email requesting materials or information required from them before starting work or an email for them to confirm their payment details.
Many, if not all, of these can be automated, saving you time with your client on-boarding processes.
There is some work required in the setup of these automated email workflows, but once set up, they should run on auto-pilot in the background while you concentrate on money-making activities!
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