Get Ahead with These 5 E-mail Automation Tips
November 13, 2020
E-mail automation is a game changer for businesses looking to increase brand awareness and online traffic. Automation is as easy as inputting the information you want to send and scheduling its release. However, it requires a little more from you as a business owner. Whether you choose to be incredibly hands-on with your e-mail automation software or leave it up to templates and contact lists, there are ways to improve the outcome. Here are 5 tips to try with your next automation campaign.
1. Create E-mail ContentSpecific to Your Customers
Generically sending every subscriber the same e-mail won’t get you far in the business world. Whether your company offers a service or a product, there are ways to ensure your customers feel appreciated and acknowledged at every turn. When you create content for consumers, consider attributes which set them apart. You can still use automation to fill in these blanks. Things like age, gender, previous purchases, and activeness on your social media pages piece together the puzzle of what they want to see in your communications.
Using customized photos, links, suggestive selling, and promotions to gain the interest of your customers is an excellent strategy. It creates the image of a person at a desk typing out each e-mail individually. A strong CRM and e-mail automation software duo will do much of this work for you. All you need to do is work from a template and leave the rest to the system.
2. Specify Sending Times Basedon Time Zones
It’s surprising to consider that some of your subscribers may be opening their eyes for the day while others are just settling into their beds. If you want to get the most activity from your e-mail subscribers, a good practice is sending during business hours. This means scheduling e-mails based on time zones. If you want someone in Pasadena, California to receive mail between 9am and 5pm, you need to send it with Pacific Standard Time in mind. Similarly, for a recipient in Nova Scotia, Canada, e-mails should be sent in consideration of Atlantic Time.
According to statistics gathered by CoSchedule, the best time to send an e-mail is 10am to 11am. This provides the best chances of your correspondence being opened the day it is sent. Fortunately, your CRM and e-mail software should allow you to input this information quickly and easily.
3. Encourage Consumers to SignUp and Opt In
While the practice of buying e-mail lists is outdated, there are still businesses that use cold calling practices to reach customers. The best way to ensure recipients are happy receiving the mail you send is to only send to those requesting it. By opting into your newsletters and promotional e-mails, you’re guaranteed that customers are happy to see your brand appear in their e-mail account.
You can increase the number of subscribers to your e-mail campaign by posting links on your website and social media accounts. You can also design a promotional campaign to increase awareness of your newsletters by creating exclusive contests to subscribers only. As each potential customer subscribes, your automated system captures the contact information and creates a profile which you can customize.
4. Use Descriptive PreheaderText to Grab Attention
Even the most exciting headlines leave modern customers scrolling by without a glance. It’s the preheader text which really grabs attention. This is where your recipients stop scrolling long enough to gain a basic understanding of what your e-mail entails. Preheader text should be concise but descriptive. By including just enough information to give readers a taste of what’s to come, you guarantee they still open the letter to find out the rest of the message.
Preheader text that is vague or tells too much will either bore readers or tell them what’s in the e-mail, so they don’t bother opening it. If the correspondence includes any type of coupon or promotion, be sure to mention it in the first line of the preheader text. This is a huge selling point for reading the information you’ve created.
5. Create a Customer-FocusedAutomation Strategy
The customer journey method of sales has increased in popularity over the past decade. Consumers are wise to traditional marketing methods and want to know more about what they’re buying. By focusing your sales strategy on the experience of the customer, rather than the standard sales funnel, your e-mails will be more successful.
The customer journey has stages, and determining where each recipient is in their journey will encourage the kind of information they receive. This model relies on the following stages:
- Interest and awareness
- Education and research
- Assessment of needs
- Purchasing
- Experience and retention
With these stages in mind, you will know whether to send a greeting, an abandoned cart reminder, a coupon code, or a message of thanks with an exclusive promotion for returning customers. It also impacts the scheduling of your e-mails. Once you know where your customer is on their journey you can automate the e-mails which will follow suit. The term automation conjures generic, computer created content. This doesn’t have to be the case for your e-mails. By mixing traditional e-mail methods with modern ones, you save time and money while still showing your customers you care. Hopefully these 5 tips put you on the path to automation success. For more tips on this and other digital marketing methods, check back regularly.