Email marketing automation<\/a> is about automatically sending emails based on specific triggers or schedules that can be easily set up in your Email Service Provider (ESP). Automation simplifies the process, saves time, and ensures that the right person gets the right email at the right time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n By leveraging email automation, you can:<\/p>\n\n\n\n You can automate many email types including:<\/p>\n\n\n\n This well-designed, visually-rich email welcomes new users, and encourages them to start engaging with the brand right away by exploring its various articles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Browse abandonment indicates that a visitor was interested in some products, but left the site before filling their cart. This email provides a gentle reminder and an opportunity to continue shopping.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This email from Objective gently nudges the user towards completing their purchase. The \u2018buy now\u2019 link takes them directly to the product page so they can complete the transaction quickly and with minimum friction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This quirky birthday email fits well with Nintendo\u2019s gaming brand. Attractive colors and free points make the user feel special.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This email provides all the relevant information about the event in a well-structured, easy-to-read format.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This longish email includes a mix of text and graphics so the user can quickly see what\u2019s available, and choose their preferred films or shows from within the message.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This email is low on graphic content. However, it provides all required information to encourage a user to sign up for the webinar.<\/p>\n\n\n Unlike many blog update emails, this email from goop includes a short introduction to each blog to pique the reader\u2019s interest. A read more link is also included to encourage further engagement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This newsletter about training courses includes a graphic plus a short introductory text about each course. It also includes a blog link and a link to the library subscription store.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This simple Unsubscribe email includes text that can be easily replicated. At the same time, it includes personalization in the form of the unsubscriber\u2019s name. It also includes a reactivation link to discourage the subscriber from leaving permanently.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Setting up email automation requires a one-time only effort. Once you build a strong foundation, all you need to do is analyze and measure your campaigns, and tweak them as necessary. It is suitable for both B2C and B2B subscribers\/messages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For great results from your automation efforts in a short period, follow these 5 best practices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n One of the best ways to implement email automation is with reusable, on-brand templates. Almost all ESPs provide built-in templates and a drag-and-drop template designer. Leverage these features to choose your preferred templates. Then customize them to make your automated emails stand out with content blocks, custom fonts, and your brand\u2019s colors, logos, etc. Some ESPs also allow you to create templates with custom HTML.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Before adding any template to your automation workflow, send out a test email with that template, and preview it in different email clients.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Create mobile-friendly, responsive email templates with the right text blocks, images, buttons, layout, and other design elements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You can create different templates for each email type, and then reuse them every time you send out that email. Create one template for welcome emails, one for abandoned cart emails, one for birthday emails, etc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Segmented campaigns get 14.37% more opens and 64.78% more clicks<\/a> than non-segmented campaigns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When you segment your subscribers, your automated emails will reach the right subscriber with the content that\u2019s relevant and timely for them<\/em>. Otherwise, they may stop opening your messages, and even mark them as spam.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Think about your subscribers, and what kind of information they would find most useful based on different factors:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Most ESPs offer user-friendly tools and data models for audience segmentation. You can create data filters or SQL queries; you can also create customer journeys, drag customer data into each journey, and add emails to it. Thus, you can create a journey for welcome emails, birthday emails, and so on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Another segmentation strategy is to add a link to your Preferences Management Center in your welcome emails. Users choose the frequency and type of emails they want to receive. Subscribers with similar choices will be automatically added to those segments, and you can auto-send different emails to each segment to improve engagement and open rates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Tweak your segmentation strategy over time with progressive profiling. This will enable you to collect more data about subscribers, build a richer profile about them, and keep improving your automated email campaigns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You can send two types of automated emails: event- or behavior-based trigger emails<\/em> and drip-feed emails<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Triggered emails can produce great results in terms of opens, conversions and revenues. And automating them removes most of the tedium of setup, creation, testing and sending. Examples include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s critical to send trigger emails at the right time. So, a welcome email should be sent immediately after a subscriber signs up to your website, makes a purchase, etc. A birthday email should be sent on their birthday. Similarly, an abandoned cart email should go out within 1-2 days of the subscriber abandoning the cart. Send them too early, and the subscriber will ignore them. Send them too late, and the message won\u2019t have the same impact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Drip-feed campaigns, which deliver sequential emails based on a particular timeframe (that you specify) are a great way to:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Like triggered emails, the timing of drip campaigns is important. Figure out the best time to send them based on your audience and triggering events. Space them out to get your message across without overwhelming subscribers. For seasonal or holiday campaigns, start a strong drip email push just before those dates, and schedule the remaining emails at regular intervals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You can also automate newsletter emails to drive consistent audience engagement, and event-driven campaigns specific to your industry or organization, e.g. trade shows, conventions, etc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Best practices when scheduling automated emails: <\/p>\n\n\n\n Automating email campaigns does not mean taking shortcuts with content, layout, subject lines and CTAs. Since you will do the setup only once, you must actually pay more<\/em> attention to these aspects. To impress subscribers, and encourage conversations \u2013 even with simple, automated thank you<\/em> or shipping notification <\/em>emails \u2013 create tailored content that appeals to them specifically. Also personalize each email by addressing subscribers by name. Or include real-time content with product recommendations, bundles, or promotions based on their specific account or previous history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You can also incorporate dynamic content so different subscribers will see different emails depending on their actions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Create a responsive, well-organized design with comprehensible content blocks, a neat F-layout, and clear headings\/subheadings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Craft compelling, unique and concise subject lines for each automated email. Use power words like \u201cintroducing\u201d, \u201cspecial\u201d and \u201coffer\u201d, pronouns like \u201cyou\u201d, and precise personalization with their name, birthday, location, etc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Experiment with emojis. They can <\/strong>increase open rates by 4.2%<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Also add incentives within the subject line to increase open rates by as much as 50%<\/a>. But use them strategically, and don\u2019t overwhelm the reader. And always match the emoji and incentive to the tone and purpose of your email. For instance, it\u2019s not a good idea to include smileys or exciting discounts in automated messages like:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Create different subject lines for the same email, and perform A\/B testing to identify the one that performs best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Finally, clear CTA links or buttons are critical in automated messages where you want the subscriber to take some action. Make sure the link (or button) is clearly visible. Place at least one link above the fold. Add urgency, include white text, and use contrasting colors. As with subject lines, use A\/B testing to determine the \u201cbest\u201d version.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A quick note about A\/B testing: You can A\/B test many elements of your automated emails, not just subject lines or CTAs:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Read more about A\/B testing here<\/a>. Automation is a great way to save time and effort. But it is not<\/em> a replacement for learning and improvement. Measure the results of your automated campaigns regularly. Most ESPs provide comprehensive data on metrics like opens, clicks, spam complaints, bounces, etc. Review this data to find improvement opportunities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Also look at key numbers that matter to your business: site visits, conversions, purchases, revenues, etc. The more you learn about your subscribers, the better you can target your automated emails. So, if recipients are not taking action on your abandoned cart emails, marking your discount emails as spam, or not clicking on product recommendations, you can try different tactics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Measuring metrics can also guide other actions. So if your deliverability rates are low, it means that many emails did not arrive in your subscribers\u2019 inboxes, but in their spam folders. This could indicate that your emails contain spammy words, or that your server is blacklisted. Remove such words, and establish a good reputation with ISPs as a legitimate email sender. Other possible reasons include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Your time, budget, and resources are limited. Use them strategically to get great results from your email marketing program \u2013 with automation. By automating your campaigns, you won\u2019t have to waste time on repetitive tasks. Plus, you can improve audience targeting, and connect with them in meaningful ways to boost loyalty and grow your revenues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/email.uplers.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/welcome-to-wellgood.png\")
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<\/a>#1. Create email templates<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
#2. Segment your mailing list<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
#3. Optimize timing and volume<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
#4. Use compelling subject lines, copy and CTAs<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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<\/a><\/div><\/div><\/p>\n\n\n\n#5. Measure, improve, repeat<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Wrap up<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"Introducing](\"https:\/\/lh6.googleusercontent.com\/dAUN6SDsx8okwqgVi_cOoysczTuk_Kj31pRC1HGSAR8EKNsdP_Br3cS0IcaFY53lxo-Z4bk6B4fx4wqDwbjIwdhhNhy-Al7XGBfaS6Q8DF0DFNEAuw_4e5CJBQ_RBHTrbM45T3vNq1i6VBArFQ\")
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