5 automation tracks for email marketing

In amongst the very comprehensive 2018 Email Marketing Benchmark Report from Sign-Up.to. Get your copy here

There’s a fairly stunning chart that anyone responsible for email marketing should be aware of.

The graph above shows open, click-through and click-to-open rates for automated and non-automated email campaigns.

So why does email automation get good results?
In most cases you're sending an email to an engaged person, and you're encouraging them with some content that’s very useful for them. Also, list sizes tend to be smaller so results tend to be better but that doesn’t underplay the value of these emails.

What can an email automation track do for you?

We all know B2B sales can take time. With the plethora of communication channels and interactions that digital communication enables, it’s a well researched fact that more and more customer touch points are required to take a prospect to a customer.
Journeys are fragmented and not necessary linear.
Email automation is a great way to create relevant, personalised touch points that are aligned to customer behaviour, nudging a prospect or customer towards an end goal.

So with these great results in mind, we’ve outlined 5 simple email automation tracks (beyond the abandoned basket follow-up) that you can put to work to massively improve your email marketing.

#1. Content amplification
I bet as a marketer in 2019 you spend a lot of time working on content.

We have a compulsion for reads and shares, we judge are very worthiness on likes and follows.
Our to-do list is creating thought leadership, blogs, news, videos, educational material, events, infographics you name it, creating outstanding content is the marketeer’s holy grail.

But what do we do with it?

In many cases we see content published to a website and maybe shared a bit via social media and that’s it - job done.

#1. Content amplification
I bet as a marketer in 2019 you spend a lot of time working on content.

We have a compulsion for reads and shares, we judge are very worthiness on likes and follows.
Our to-do list is creating thought leadership, blogs, news, videos, educational material, events, infographics you name it, creating outstanding content is the marketeer’s holy grail.

But what do we do with it?

In many cases we see content published to a website and maybe shared a bit via social media and that’s it - job done.

With a simple bit of automation, every time you post a piece of content to your website and it can be distributed to your database via email.
Meaning you’re not reliant on someone visiting your website or watching your social channels.

As soon as the content is published, it's there, right in their inbox.

Whether it’s every post or a weekly or monthly round-up, you can automate your content amplification meaning you don’t have to worry about the manual creation of newsletters.

Everyone’s kept up to date without you lifting a finger.

Whether it’s every post or a weekly or monthly round-up, you can automate your content amplification meaning you don’t have to worry about the manual creation of newsletters.

Everyone’s kept up to date without you lifting a finger.

#2. The welcome programme
When someone shows an interest, whether it’s registering to use a system or to do business with you it’s an opportunity.

You’d never expect a new employee to come in and immediately hit the ground running, it takes time to introduce them to how the business works, it’s the same for new prospects or clients.

Think of a welcome programme as an on boarding opportunity.

A chance for you to show an interested person around your business and meet the team.

Now doing this in one hit would probably be a bit overwhelming. Splitting it into a few emails makes it easier for the new prospect to digest and it also gives you a chance to create more touch points with your new potential customer.

A welcome programme might include the following emails.

#3. A nurture programme
A nurture programme is exactly that - it's an opportunity to take someone who’s at a certain point in their customer journey and nudge them on towards an end goal.

A prospective customer might be placed into a nurture track because they have performed a certain activity or reached a certain lead score, so now it’s your chance to, metaphorically speaking, take them by the hand and show them what you think they need to see in order for them to take the next step in the customer journey.

For example, if a website visitor's profile shows they might be interested in a particular “service” because they have visited the service page on your website multiple times in the last week.

Then you can send them a series of emails that encourage them with more information about the service, how it works and what others have experienced. The end goal is for them to submit an enquiry form about the service.

Then you can send them a series of emails that encourage them with more information about the service, how it works and what others have experienced. The end goal is for them to submit an enquiry form about the service.

Then you can send them a series of emails that encourage them with more information about the service, how it works and what others have experienced. The end goal is for them to submit an enquiry form about the service.

This kind of email track might look like the below.

#4. Events & webinars
An event warrants its own email programme.

Email is a fantastic way to raise awareness and get attendees.

You’ve got save the date, invitations to send out, reminders and follow-ups and depending on how people respond to these event emails it should influence the next email they receive from you.

Managing all of this manually in real-time can be time crippling, so why not set-it all up and let it run automatically.

Check out our automated event invite and follow-up email series:

#5. Re-engaging or saying goodbye to in-actives
Let’s face it some people never respond to any emails.
There’s plenty of reasons why this might be, the biggest one being the email address is no longer in use.

People move jobs, and email addresses become redundant.

So it’s good practice to have a tidy-up of your database fairly regularly - at least every six months.

The easiest way to do this is to set an automated program that regularly emails people who have not interacted with any of the emails you've sent them in the last six months.

So there we go - a few automated emails you can set-up and let run and watch your engagement statistics shoot up.

The potential to keep communication going without ongoing manual hassle and headache, you just need to keep an eye on things and monitor results.

If you’d like some help don’t hesitate to get in touch.

We provide a hands on email marketing service as well as strategic and tactical advice. We support clients using many different platforms.

For more information get in touch.
Paul Wreford-Brown, Digital Director, paul@thisisembrace.com
Steve Haydon, Email Services Manager, steve.haydon@thisisembrace.com