B2B email automation elevates your sales pipeline by up to 10%, says a report by Forrester. Only a handful of B2B marketers are using email automation in their marketing campaigns. Sending out periodic mass emails is not effective when your customers may or may not be qualified for the intent of the email you send. For eg: You are sending a product upgrade email to a set of customers who have purchased your product X. But, a handful of them have already applied for product cancellation or they have requested a purchase of some other product. This email would be irrelevant and may end up irking your customers, ultimately leading to unsubscribes or spam marks.
Email automation essentially lets you build on your customers’ preferences. Honestly, you don’t have to do anything.
Auto-responders and Email Workflows
Remember the automated email that you receive when any contact of yours is on a vacation or a leave? Auto-responders are a blessing while you are out of action. That way you don’t lose out on the customers and can conveniently keep track of them even while you are away.
Send out auto-responders as a security blanket to safeguard your customers from any unauthorized or unknown login
Email workflows on the other hand are like a pipeline or a preset stack of steps that you create. Now, these workflows are triggered based on a customer’s actions. They are like the dominos (crude example) where if one domino falls, the others aligned beyond following suit. Likewise, create workflows using the many email workflow tools for different CTAs.
This is an automated email I received when my Visa Application arrived at the Visa centre in my city
Email workflows are pretty easy to work with, given the fact that they are based entirely on the way a customer moves or behaves with your brand entities. For instance,
The Email Subscriber Workflow
This workflow starts from the point where your customer lands on your website and signs up with their preferences to receive updates from you. This will trigger the email subscriber workflow that will automatically place the customer in the proper segmented email list.
As you can see here, the customer gives his email address, the frequency, and the information preference! All you have to do is extract this information and allocate it to the proper lists and send out an automated email as per the customer’s actions!
When should you send an automated email to your customer?
There are multiple automated emails that you can start incorporating in your marketing strategies right away. That way you are right around the corner when your customer needs you!
Best Practices of Email Automation
You will find plenty of resources, tips and tricks that tell you how to nail your email automation. I’ll add a couple of my own too!
1. Keep them short and precise
Automated emails are meant to be of assistance to the customer at any point in the workflow. And so, it is essential that you keep it short and precise to the point of information that your customer seeks!
2. Plain text only
Remember. This is a transactional email. Spare the excess images and bulky GIFs. Keeping it plain textual will insulate you from the spam net.
3. Time and test your email triggers
Once you have created the email workflow, it is important that you time your emails effectively. By that I mean, time the email exactly as per the customer’s actions. Test your emails to see if the emails reach the customer’s inbox in time and at the right moment.
Social media marketing, ads, retargeting campaigns etc. are all essential, but constant bombarding of content is not enough. Customers need to be nurtured and looked after. Automating your emails based on your customers’ actions not only keeps your customers happy but also builds your sales cycle.
Have you set up an automated email campaign for your contacts? Hit us up and we’ll work it out for you!