An email automation workflow is the ultimate time-saver for creators. It enables them to send personalized messages, nurture leads, and increase engagement on autopilot.
But what is workflow automation, and how can you make it work for your brand?
Email marketing automation is how you send automated promotional emails to your subscribers.
Because it is an automated process, marketers save time they would have used to create and send new promotional emails every time.
This article covers five must-have email automation workflows to help you leverage the best email marketing automation platforms to grow your audience and build deeper connections.
What Is Email Marketing Automation?
Email marketing automation helps marketers send timely, customized messages using customer data and behavior-triggered rules, replacing manual one-off messages.
One such email marketing automation is sending a welcome series when somebody signs up. This series may have several emails introducing a subscriber to your brand, providing value to the subscriber, and encouraging further interaction.
What Are Email Automation Workflows?
Email automation workflows are a sequence of automated, pre-written emails delivered to a consumer after a particular activity trigger.
The subscriber initiates an action, which sets off a series of events. Relevance and urgency are two key components of email marketing automation.
A workflow is the set of steps or business operations needed to complete any task. The task may be of any size or complexity and may involve multiple departments, channels, and functions.
Depending on specific criteria, some processes might result in additional workflows.
For instance, a customer may spend a few minutes browsing your products page on your e-commerce website but decide not to add anything to their cart before leaving. To assist, you can set up a series of personalized automated emails that can be sent to the prospective client. You can even provide first-time discounts on all items to encourage them to return to the website and convert them into sales.
Every email automation workflow has a certain objective: to nurture and convert leads.
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Why Use Email Automation Workflow?
Email automation workflow revolutionizes operations by automating repetitive tasks. Besides saving time and reducing errors, it grants teams the power to work smarter. Other reasons include:
1. Improves clarity and consistency
It is important to maintain clarity and consistency, especially in modern teams. A crucial step might be overlooked without an email automation workflow process.
The email automation procedure serves as a manual for all project participants. The email process design can be consulted to examine what occurs initially, what that event triggers, what follows, and so on.
2. Provides accountability
Workflow automation involves assigning certain duties to your automated system.
Accountability is critical to any team. With improved accountability in the workplace, you also improve:
- employee performance
- participation and involvement
- feelings of competence
- commitment to work
- team morale
3. Increases work satisfaction
As Deloitte Insights argues, meaningful work is among the decisive contributors to employees’ quitting intentions.
Automation allows employees to devote more time to engaging, mentally taxing tasks. Employees’ involvement in productive tasks encourages them to work efficiently, leading to work satisfaction.
4. Increases productivity
Every organization has a limited number of employee hours, regardless of team size. Workflow automation frees your team to concentrate on higher-value tasks that propel business expansion.
5. Reduces the risk of error
While being human at work means wanting to be productive and have a purpose, it also means that mistakes will be made.
Everyone does it.
For example, if an employee hits the incorrect key, they might send a refund request to K. John instead of J. Smith. If one employee misreads “8” as “9” and enters it into a spreadsheet, a series of calculations could be thrown off. Correcting these errors can be expensive and time-consuming.
However, the likelihood of a clerical error is reduced and sometimes eliminated using automation procedures.
5 Must-Have Email Automation Workflows for Creators
1. Welcome series
Trigger: A visitor subscribes to your list.
According to Omnisend, welcome emails have strong open and conversion rates.
An automated welcome sequence consisting of three consecutive emails acquaints new clients with your brand and motivates them to purchase within a specific timeframe.
The goal of the welcome series is to facilitate a smooth onboarding process. It promotes lasting client relationships and begins to create a favorable brand image. With your welcome series, you may go in the following direction:
- Email 1: Describe your value proposition, goods, and services.
- Email 2: Offer behind-the-scenes material or additional information that adds value. This increases engagement and an emotional bond with your brand.
- Email 3: Showcase satisfied clients with feedback and social proof.
- Email 4: Provide a voucher or tailored discount to encourage their initial purchase. However, don’t make it the primary focus of the email.
2. Birthday series
Trigger: It’s your subscriber’s birthday.
A birthday email is an automated message delivered to a client or subscriber on their birthday or a few days before.
Offering a discount for any order plus a few extra days and demonstrating personal attention produces excellent outcomes.
According to Omnisend client data, e-commerce companies that use this birthday automation strategy can achieve positive outcomes. The research showed that birthday emails have a click-through rate of 23.90%.
Send an excellent birthday series consisting of a text message wishing them a happy birthday and informing them that a gift is in their inbox. Once the gift (a discount, free delivery, or whatever else you believe would be appropriate) is included, configure the email to be sent out as the second item.
3. Abandoned cart series
Trigger: Shopper adds items to their online cart but doesn’t complete the purchase.
These automated emails are usually sent to customers who recently added products to their basket but did not complete the purchase.
Amundsen Sports, for example, used a two-email abandoned cart sequence to obtain a 57% conversion rate. At the time, they didn’t even provide a discount in their email.
Here’s how you could create an abandoned cart workflow:
- Email 1 (Sent an hour after being left behind): Inform customers of the items in their cart. Make it easy and quick for customers to finish the checkout process. “Are you still shopping?” is a good topic line.
- Email 2 (Sent twelve hours following the abandonment): To encourage action, emphasize the advantages of making a purchase. Use messaging that focuses on boosting value, enjoyment, etc. Try using the phrase “Hurry! Your cart is going to expire soon.”
- Email 3 (24 hours following desertion): When your cart expires, use a scarcity message to create urgency. Offer a time-limited coupon code as an extra inducement to convert cart abandonment.
As time passes, the series gradually increases the pressure, framing the offer around the customer’s value.
4. Re-engagement automated email
Trigger: A subscriber has been inactive (hasn’t opened emails or bought) for a prolonged period.
The customer reactivation email, or the re-engagement automated email, is crucial for encouraging repeat business from senior customers.
This is fantastic as retaining existing clients is less expensive than finding new ones.
With this workflow, you’re attempting to win back your clients.
Here’s how you might approach this email marketing automation flow:
- Email 1: Tell your dormant contacts that you miss them and have a surprise email for them.
- Email 2: Send an email and an SMS. To motivate a purchase, include a personalized discount or voucher with this initial “We miss you” email.
- Email 3: Send another email seven days later to take advantage of your special offer. Ensure the recipient doesn’t receive any more emails if they open them.
- Email 4: After about seven more days, send the final email. Use the subject line “Please, come back” to make a sincere request and offer your finest incentive to encourage re-engagement.
5. Abandoned product series
Trigger: A shopper views a product page but doesn’t add the item to their online cart.
Customers occasionally peruse particular items they plan to purchase but never add them to their carts. To retarget these high-intent visitors, use an automated series of abandoned products.
This process highlights items that a contact has previously viewed but not purchased in a sequence of emails:
- Email 1: Send 24 hours following a view of the product page. Use a heading such as “Are you still interested in this?” to highlight the item in an email. Provide a little incentive to encourage conversion.
- Email 2: If there is no purchase, send it a week after the first view. Highlight the goods once more with a more significant discount. “Last chance for XX% off!” is an example of scarcity messaging.
- Email 3: Send the final email after two weeks of viewing. This is a good place to use urgency language about a flash sale expiring or a product selling out.
MailDrip: The Best Email Marketing Automation Platform for Creators
MailDrip enables creators to leverage email automation workflows to increase conversions, nurture leads, and save time.
This user-friendly platform provides tools, such as email automation workflow templates, to automate tedious processes, personalize communications, and establish deeper connections with audiences.
In addition to making workflow automation easier to understand, MailDrip offers improved capabilities that enable authors to concentrate on their jobs and succeed more.
Conclusion
Email marketing automation is a potent tool for audience engagement. It enables you to communicate with your subscribers in a relevant and personalized way. These are determined by their requirements, preferences, and behavior.
This article discussed how email automation workflow works and provided some advanced strategies for optimizing campaigns.
Now, it’s time to put these examples into practice.
Sign up for MailDrip’s free plan today!
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