Email marketing is one of the most effective digital marketing strategies out there. Compared to content marketing, SEO, ads, and such, email marketing boasts some astounding ROIs, open rates, and boosts in profits.
When we automate email marketing, we use AI tools to set up parameters and ‘triggers’ that automatically send curated emails to pre-segmented consumers. The right tool will strengthen your customer relationships by sending the right deals, updates, news, etc. to the right people at the right time.
And all of this will be based on triggers or specific actions of segmented clients. While AI offers tools of all kinds – logo generator programs, social media automation, email marketing automation, and so much more – it’s up to us to tell these programs what our goals are.
In other words, as a marketer, it’s your job to optimize marketing emails that work for your brand. By utilizing data, we can look at numbers, purchase patterns, and customer segments, and with creative thinking can figure out how to appeal to our customers with more efficiency.
Here’s what you need to do.
5 Simple Tips to Set Up a Killer Email Marketing Automation Strategy
1. Select a marketing automation tool
Choose an email marketing automation tool, like Aritic, that aligns with your brand goals. It sets up the tone of your journey and also influences how successful your campaign will be. Some features that are a must-have for a killer email automation strategy include personalization, send-time optimization, high email deliverability, live content functionality, and 24/7 tech support.
What these features do is ensure that your emails are not ending up in Spam or Junk folders but landing directly in the inbox; that each of your emails is personalized for individual customers; is delivered at a time when the customer is available (the time where they have opened their emails in the past); and that even when they open a promotional email after the deal has expired, your email can direct them to options or hot selling items that are still available.
The right email automation tool makes your campaign smarter and more nuanced. You can set up subtle automation workflows with higher chances of success.
2. Divide your potential customers into segments
Email segmentation refers to dividing up your email subscriber list into smaller, highly targeted groups of consumers. You can divide your email list based on demographics, actions taken, purchase behavior, and other traits.
The #1 benefit of email segmentation is that it decreases the chances of your email being deleted, unopened, or marked as spam. Email automation allows you to target smaller chunks of your subscriber list. You can set up separate email campaigns for each of these groups and send them personalized emails with specifically targeted content.
For someone who bought an acne clearing gel from your store, your email can recommend a nighttime oil control serum. Your targeting can also be demographic. Creating a campaign for customers in Australia where there are winters now while the rest of the world enjoys breezy summers.
By sending them a list of your best body butters and hydrating moisturizers, you can let them know that you are thinking of them and separate yourself from other brands that are just dumping the same content to their entire subscriber list.
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With segmentation and targeted emails, you not only enjoy more conversions from your leads and higher click-through rates but increased brand connections, too. Your customers come to appreciate the effort and thought you put into sending them brand offers and information when they want it the most.
To get the most out of your email automation, segmenting your list is essential.
3. Create personalized messages and add CTAs
Personalization goes hand in hand with segmentation. When you divide your list according to common traits and behaviors, the goal is to send them content that would be the most beneficial to them.
Here we are talking about personalization that goes a few paces beyond using each customer’s first name. You have got to do more. Based on what they have purchased in the past and how did they find your brand, your emails can direct them towards products and services within your brand that they are likely to prefer the most.
Think of ‘Recommendations’ and ‘People who bought this also bought this’ but on emails, at times where the customer is most likely to open the email and act on it.
Also, CTAs. Call to Action buttons.
With segmented, personalized emails, make it clear what the goal of the campaign is. Do you want people to subscribe to your mailing list, read a new blog post, avail a particular discount offer, or visit a landing page? Whatever your goal is, make it singular. And communicate it clearly in your email through a well-designed and well-placed call to action button.
4. Add splits and tweaks to make the campaigns more goal-oriented
When we add splits, we make the already targeted email even more specific. Consider a welcome email series, as an example. When you send a welcome email to all your new subscribers, that’s a segmented email.
And you can use the click activity on that email to help guide your second series’ main objective. Based on the click activity, your second series can be split into two or more segments.
Suppose some people click on the Clarifying Scrub link present in your welcome email while others go for sulfate-free shampoo bars. You can divide your second series by sending the first group more exfoliating product links and the other group can receive your top seller hair care products.
You can split your segmented emails by cart total (a group will get a 5% discount while another free shipping), past purchases, and other unique traits.
Targeting these smaller triggers in your automation campaign will result in more returns as you are aiming at predictable behavior. Such closely specific emails also improve brand loyalty and trust, not to mention customer service.
5. Test and analyze
With any kind of automation of your email marketing, testing is essential. How else are you going to learn which strategies are working and which need a bit more time to nurture? Testing allows you to see where you are wrong – with data and insights to do better.
As you start to automate your emails, consider A/B testing. This is a tried-and-tested method of figuring out which way is better. Send Group A one template of your emails and Group B another. When results come in, look at the data to see which group had the higher open rates, views, click-throughs, and conversions. These KPIs will help you refine your strategy for the next time so you can achieve better results.
Conclusion
Email automation is a genius way to use data and insights to help your customers benefit from your brand in the most effective way possible. When done right, email automation is not only profitable for businesses but also helps consumers explore the brand in a more systematic and useful way.
Using email automation strategically allows you to free up your time from administrative tasks so you can focus on creative ways to approach and engage with your consumers.
