Methods to Set Up Automated E-mail Advertising Workflows (+ Examples)

With out e-mail advertising automation, your advertising workforce misses out on main alternatives to nurture and have interaction your audience and contacts.
On this article, we’ll overview frequent kinds of e-mail advertising automation, the instruments that will help you set up and keep an e-mail advertising automation technique, and completely different automation triggers you could implement at your organization. However first, let’s start by answering probably the most essential query: what’s e-mail automation?
E-mail Automation
E-mail automation helps convert leads into clients, delight current clients, and encourage actions like larger product adoption, upsells, evangelism, and extra purchases.
What’s e-mail advertising automation?
E-mail advertising automation is the observe of executing automated, customized, and contextual e-mail campaigns to enhance accuracy and influence in addition to prevent time. The method might contain segmenting clients primarily based on behaviors or traits and sharing focused e-mail campaigns with these teams accordingly.
Prime 7 E-mail Advertising Instruments To Automate Emails & Get Clicks!
Why must you do automated e-mail advertising?
E-mail advertising automation eliminates time-consuming duties, reminiscent of getting ready e-mail lists, sending generic messages, or scheduling occasions manually. This provides entrepreneurs and salespeople extra time to work on initiatives that require their consideration (or can’t be totally automated).
E-mail advertising automation is centered round workflows, a predetermined, triggered set of actions you are directing your automation software program to take for you.
Now let us take a look at how this course of really works.
Methods to Automate E-mail Workflows
- Choose e-mail automation software program.
- Establish who you are sharing your e-mail campaigns with.
- Decide your e-mail marketing campaign’s purpose.
- Set enrollment standards.
- Decide which processes you wish to automate with Workflows.
- Create your e-mail marketing campaign property.
- Test your e-mail automation setup and run a check if doable.
- Make our e-mail automation workflow dwell and monitor its progress.
Professional tip: When you work by way of the next steps, maintain the teachings from this video on e-mail advertising in thoughts — most of the subjects lined under are additionally touched on within the video and vice versa — in spite of everything, your e-mail advertising automation is a part of your e-mail advertising technique.
1. Choose e-mail automation software program.
There are a number of e-mail automation software program available on the market at this time — the secret’s choosing the best choice for your enterprise and objectives.
For the sake of this text, we’ll work by way of the next steps on this part by HubSpot’s Advertising Automation software.
However listed below are a number of extra instruments on your consideration with their foremost options and advantages to offer you an concept of what these instruments are able to.
E-mail Advertising Automation Instruments
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HubSpot Advertising Automation: Finest e-mail advertising automation software program for automating and personalizing e-mail campaigns with CRM integration.
Value: Free, $45/mo (Starter), $800/ mo (Skilled), $3,200/ mo (Enterprise)
With HubSpot’s Advertising Automation Software program, you’ll be able to automate your e-mail drip campaigns with none code. Choose triggers, circumstances, and actions, so your emails are despatched to the correct viewers members on the proper time.
Pair your e-mail marketing campaign workflows with objectives to trace and analyze their success. And talking of workflows, you’ll be able to visualize, customise, and personalize them that will help you goal each particular person in your contact database.
(You may also use HubSpot to automate many different duties in addition to e-mail, reminiscent of lead scoring, lead rotating, webhooks, and so forth.)
Professional Tip: Use HubSpot’s Advertising Automation software program to automate and personalize e-mail campaigns to maneuver prospects by way of the advertising flywheel and generate certified leads.
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Versium Attain: Finest e-mail advertising automation software program to visualise and phase clients.
Value: Contact for pricing
Versium Attain means that you can create goal audiences that you should use throughout varied advertising platforms (like HubSpot) and channels that will help you successfully goal and attain these teams by way of your e-mail (and different digital) campaigns.
Versium Attain helps you visualize and phase your clients so you’ll be able to tailor your e-mail campaigns to them regardless of which stage of the client’s journey.
The software additionally helps you keep an economical lead technology technique — Versium means that you can experiment with a single knowledge supply for better-performing buyer segments.
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Mailchimp: Finest e-mail advertising automation software program for connecting ecommerce and e-mail platforms.
Value: Free Primary Plan, Necessities Plan; $11/month, Commonplace Plan; $17/month, Premium Plan; $299/month
Mailchimp makes it simple to ship customized and related messages and buy paths to people primarily based on their contact info and the way they work together together with your firm. Ship-time optimization then schedules your emails to be despatched when your clients are most certainly to interact with them.
Mailchimp presents many ecommerce integrations (e.g. WooCommerce, Shopify) so you’ll be able to join your on-line retailer to the e-mail software — this fashion, you’ll be able to goal clients primarily based on their purchases.
Mailchimp presents six foremost kinds of e-mail automation to make your workforce extra productive and environment friendly — buyer journey automation, conduct automation, transactional e-mail automation, postcard automation, date-based automation, and RSS-to-email automation.
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Moosend: Finest e-mail advertising automation software program for managing a number of e-mail campaigns and mailing lists.
Value: Contact for pricing
Moosesend is an e-mail advertising platform for managing a number of e-mail campaigns and mailing lists. Design and A/B check responsive emails and newsletters to make sure they successfully goal your viewers.
Personalize your emails by creating situation mixtures to phase your viewers primarily based on the particular behaviors you care about in your emails and your web site.
Perceive the success of your e-mail advertising campaigns with Moosend’s analytics dashboard — observe e-mail opens, clicks, social shares, unsubscribed, and extra.
2. Establish who you are sharing your e-mail campaigns with.
Decide who you wish to ship your emails to. For instance, you may use lifecycle phases to group your e-mail recipients — for an upsell marketing campaign, you ship emails to current clients who haven’t bought a selected product but.
Your e-mail advertising software ought to have the option that will help you effectively phase your clients forward of your marketing campaign utilizing the factors you have determined upon. Once more, your contact knowledge in your CRM ought to assist with this — for example, in HubSpot, phase your e-mail recipients by lifecycle stage.
3. Decide your e-mail marketing campaign’s purpose.
Your e-mail advertising is just pretty much as good as your technique — so guarantee you recognize precisely why you are contacting these people. Would you like them to purchase one thing? Be taught one thing? Do one thing?
When you reply this query, you’ll be able to determine the messaging you should take them from the place contacts are at the moment to the place you need them to go.
You additionally need to plan for what occurs whenever you succeed.
For instance, think about a 10-email collection to get prospects to request a session. Prospect A converts throughout the first e-mail. If Prospect A continues to obtain emails telling them to do what they’ve already carried out, they will get pissed off.
In HubSpot, if you happen to outline your purpose, it’s going to unenroll any contacts who meet the purpose.
4. Set enrollment standards.
Enrollment standards confer with the {qualifications} that should be met for a contract to be entered right into a workflow.
Suppose you are utilizing HubSpot Workflows. You possibly can create customized, automated e-mail workflows that may get triggered in quite a lot of other ways. This will appear like a contact added to an inventory, submitting a type in your web site, clicking a hyperlink in an e-mail, viewing a web page in your weblog, clicking on one among your advertisements, or turning into a advertising certified lead.
You may also arrange e-mail workflows primarily based on any info you might have in regards to the contacts in your advertising database, reminiscent of web page views, e-mail or social media clicks, content material downloads, contact properties, or any mixture of those and extra.
5. Decide which processes you wish to automate with Workflows.
For those who have been manually emailing these contacts, what would you do? Consider your e-mail advertising workflows as blueprints that define every motion your software will take for you.
For example, specify which actions you need the software program to soak up HubSpot. Examples of automatable actions are:
- Sending an e-mail.
- Scheduling an e-mail (and/or delaying it).
- If/ then e-mail branching.
- Updating and syncing all e-mail and phone knowledge to your CRM.
6. Create your e-mail marketing campaign property.
By this level, you understand how many emails you wish to ship, the overall messaging you may embrace within the emails, and which teams of shoppers the emails are going to.
Now it’s time to make sure your whole e-mail marketing campaign property are created and accessible in your e-mail automation software program so you’ll be able to add them to campaigns.
7. Test your e-mail automation setup and run a check, if doable.
Some issues to think about implementing into your workflow publishing course of are:
- Taking a look at your record of enrolled contacts for errors.
- Making certain the variety of enrolled contacts is what you’d anticipate.
- Contemplating your workflow chart and use circumstances.
- Checking your “Ship” settings.
In HubSpot, you’ll be able to check your workflow to make sure the automation you propose to set dwell is working as meant.
8. Make our e-mail automation workflow dwell and monitor its progress.
When you’re pleased with the workflow, set it dwell.
Errors can occur, so monitor for anomalies. Do not be afraid to regulate as wanted to resolve points or enhance the efficiency of your e-mail automation workflow — just like your different advertising methods, that is additionally an iterative course of.
Moreover, you’ll be able to regularly broaden upon your workflows to assist different enterprise objectives. Use them to automate different actions reminiscent of setting or clearing a contact property worth, updating a contact’s lifecycle stage, including/eradicating a contact from an inventory, and different administrative duties that permit for extra focused, efficient advertising to your prospects and clients.
E-mail Advertising Automation Examples
Now let’s stroll by way of some examples of automated e-mail workflows you’ll be able to set as much as begin getting extra out of your contacts database and advertising automation software program.
1. Subject Workflows
Principal triggers: Web page views or content material supply downloads.
Create a workflow for every of the industry-related subjects you create content material about.
Think about you are a unicorn breeder whose foremost content material subjects embrace unicorn diets, unicorn gear, and unicorn boarding. Then you can bucket your content material advertising presents (e.g. ebooks, webinars, kits, and so forth.) and weblog posts by these subjects. You can additionally create an e-mail workflow for every matter after which set off the suitable workflow when one among your contacts views a web page or downloads a proposal centered round that matter.
Set off a content material obtain workflow primarily based on a type submission from a software conversion software like HubSpot’s Free Advertising & Lead Era Software program. To set off an automatic workflow in HubSpot, you should use the “Lead Circulate Submission” possibility because the beginning situation.
So if a contact downloaded your book known as 10 Ideas for a Balanced Unicorn Weight loss program, your “unicorn weight-reduction plan” workflow could be triggered, sending that contact extra useful content material, reminiscent of weblog posts describing unicorn dietary ideas.
2. Weblog Subscriber Welcome Workflow
Principal set off: Subscription to your weblog.
Give your model new weblog subscribers a pleasant, heat welcome with a weblog welcome e-mail. Use this e-mail to thank contacts for subscribing, remind them what they will get from studying your weblog, overview their subscription settings (and permit them to make changes), and promote your weblog’s best-performing articles or different presents.
(Get ideas for making a profitable weblog welcome e-mail right here, and study extra about optimizing welcome emails right here.)
3. New Buyer Welcome/ Coaching Workflow
Principal set off: Lifecycle stage.
Whereas we’re as regards to heat welcomes, think about organising a collection of welcome emails when a contact converts right into a paying buyer, which you’ll be able to set off when a contact’s lifecycle stage will get up to date to “buyer.”
Not solely is that this a good way to kick off your new buyer relationship on a optimistic observe, however it could possibly additionally maintain your clients engaged after they purchase. And in case your services or products requires just a little coaching in your clients’ half, use this workflow as a chance to introduce useful coaching supplies on an incremental foundation.
4. Engaged Contact/ Evangelist Workflow
Principal triggers: Visits, clicks, or type submissions.
Create a sensible/dynamic record that mechanically updates to incorporate contacts that you have actually engaged.
To create this record, use set off standards reminiscent of a excessive threshold of visits to your web site, clicks in your emails or social media posts, or type submissions. Then create an e-mail workflow to leverage this record to encourage evangelism of your high content material on social media.
As a result of these contacts are extremely engaged with you already, they’re extra prone to share your high content material. You may also think about including record standards to drag in contacts with a sure variety of Twitter followers to leverage the facility of these social media influencers in your database.
5. Lead Nurturing Workflow
Principal set off: A number of starting stage conversion occasions.
If a contact has downloaded a number of of your starting stage advertising presents like ebooks and webinars, it is perhaps an indication that they are prepared for a bit extra. Arrange workflows that assist advance these contacts additional by way of the flywheel.
If the contact is a lead, ship them emails containing extra content material that may improve them to a advertising certified lead (MQL) or a chance in your gross sales course of.
This workflow might embrace content material and net pages you have recognized from an attribution report evaluation as influential in changing leads into clients — maybe content material like buyer success tales/case research, free trial presents, or product demos.
6. Inner Gross sales Rep Notification Workflow
Principal triggers: Late stage web page views/conversion occasions.
On any given web site, there are specific web page visits and conversion occasions that point out extra product curiosity than others.
First, determine these pages and conversion occasions utilizing an attribution reporting software like HubSpot. You’ll discover that, as a rule, the pages you unearth shall be your pricing web page, product pages, and so forth. — the pages that your contacts view after they’re actually contemplating your services or products.
Use workflows right here to set off an inner e-mail notification to your gross sales rep to tell them of those high-value actions. Utilizing personalization, give the rep all the data they want in regards to the lead in query, together with related mid- and late stage content material that they’ll ship to the lead of their outreach e-mail. This lets you join gross sales reps with the very best leads on the proper time.
7. Re-engagement Workflow
Principal set off: Inactive contacts.
Reawaken inactive contacts with a re-engagement workflow, enrolling contacts as soon as they’ve met sure record standards.
For instance, you can set circumstances such because the size of time since their final type submission, web site go to, or e-mail click on, triggering the e-mail as soon as it has been some time since a contact final engaged with you.
In your workflow, strive sending them an unique supply or coupon to get them enthusiastic about your organization once more. For extra tips on launching an efficient e-mail re-engagement marketing campaign, try this submit.
8. Occasion Workflow
Principal set off: Registration or attendance.
Internet hosting a dwell, in-person, or digital occasion? Use e-mail workflows to automate your communication to occasion registrants and attendees earlier than, throughout, and after the occasion.
For instance, create a workflow that delivers essential info registrants ought to know main as much as the occasion, reminiscent of resort lodging and agenda info for dwell occasions, or webinar log-in info for on-line occasions.
When the occasion ends, arrange a workflow that offers attendees on-line entry to session slides and continues to nurture them with further content material or promotion for future occasions.
9. Deserted Procuring Cart Workflow
Principal set off: Procuring cart abandonment.
For those who’re an ecommerce enterprise, you may possible profit from an deserted procuring cart workflow.
The idea right here is easy: When somebody provides an merchandise to their on-line procuring cart however leaves your web site with out finishing the acquisition, you’ll be able to set off an e-mail workflow that reminds them of their forgotten buy. By providing a particular low cost code or incentive to purchase, you inspire the person to return to your web site to finish the transaction.
10. Upsell Workflow
Principal set off: Previous purchases.
Communication together with your clients should not cease after they make a purchase order. That is very true if you happen to promote varied merchandise and/or providers. Use workflows that will help you upsell or cross-sell current clients.
Create dynamically updating lists of contacts who buy a sure product — or mixture of merchandise — and create workflows aimed toward recommending different merchandise/ providers or encouraging upsells or add-ons.
11. Buyer Happiness Workflow
Principal set off: Excessive or low NPS scores.
For those who administer common Internet Promoter surveys of your buyer base, you should use clients’ Internet Promoter Scores as a property to set off workflows.
Merely decide what your ultimate buyer happiness rating is, and use that as the brink on your dynamic record of completely satisfied clients. Then set off a workflow for patrons with “completely satisfied” scores and reward them with unique content material, presents, or reductions.
Set off a unique workflow on your “sad” clients that features content material/presents aimed toward serving to to enhance their happiness.
You possibly can even phase sad clients by the particular causes they’re feeling unhappy — then ship them much more focused workflows to handle their points.
12. Buyer Success/ Engagement Workflow
Principal triggers: Success metrics or product utilization.
For those who maintain observe of buyer success metrics, you might have a primary workflow alternative in your palms.
For instance, if you happen to’re making an attempt to construct up your arsenal of buyer case research, mechanically set off an e-mail that asks clients in the event that they’d be concerned about being featured as a hit story as soon as sure buyer success metrics have been met.
Moreover, suppose you observe clients’ product adoption or function utilization. In that case, you can set off a workflow for customers exhibiting low product engagement, offering assets that educate and prepare them on utilizing the product options they don’t seem to be benefiting from.
13. Upcoming Buy Reminder Workflow
Principal set off: Purchases made on a cycle.
Does your contacts database embrace clients who sometimes buy on a cycle? Enter these folks right into a workflow that will get triggered after they make a purchase order.
For example, you promote eye care merchandise, and a buyer purchases a six-month provide of prescription contacts. Enroll that buyer right into a workflow that sends them an automatic e-mail 5 months later as a reminder that their six-month provide is about to expire, and it is perhaps time to order a brand new batch of contacts.
14. Buyer Service or Ticket Workflow
Principal Set off: A buyer or prospect contacts customer support through e-mail or a web based type.
Your clients or prospects may need bother utilizing your free or paid software program. When this occurs, fielding a bunch of customer support emails and messages can take tons of precious time out of your schedule.
One solution to keep away from that is to create a workflow that turns buyer considerations into tickets that may be categorized, labeled, and assigned to customer support reps in your workforce. These tickets can even aid you observe ongoing issues and when points with a buyer or prospect are resolved.
15. Deal-Based mostly Workflows
Principal Set off: When somebody e-signs a quote or contract.
Sealing the deal is essential to profitable advertising and gross sales. Automating small elements of this course of, like emails somebody may get after signing a contract or quote web page with you, permits your gross sales reps extra time to nurture the consumer over the telephone, throughout demos, or through different messages.
With a deal-based workflow, you’ll be able to set off affirmation emails when a prospect turns into a consumer or certified lead by signing a quote or contract. With techniques like HubSpot, it’s also possible to set the workflow to vary the contact’s standing to point out the place they’re within the lifecycle.
Automate Your E-mail Advertising Campaigns
E-mail advertising automation will increase effectivity and offers your workforce again precious time that may be spent on clients and different work that requires their consideration. Moreover, the method helps optimize your e-mail advertising technique and personalize e-mail content material to extend its effectiveness amongst your audience and clients.
Establish your ultimate e-mail advertising automation software and start organising the workflows your workforce wants.
Editor’s Notice: This submit was initially revealed in September 2012 and has been up to date for freshness, accuracy, and comprehensiveness.