How to improve your business’s inbound marketing strategy with email automation

Email is a great way to communicate with your past, current, and prospective customers, keeping them engaged and informed about your business’s offerings. Because more than 50% of people check their email more than 10 times a day, email marketing has massive potential to disseminate important messages to a qualified audience. In addition to sending new messages, email marketing can be a helpful tool for reaching out to past clients to rekindle business relationships. However, as your email list grows, it can be difficult to keep track of a large number of contacts, as well as the kinds of information these contacts are interested in. Luckily, with the help of an inbound marketing platform, email marketing automation can be implemented to help your business manage your emails and contacts, and can even make it easier for customers to contact you!

What is Email Marketing Automation?

Email marketing automation refers to the inbound marketing process of automatically sending emails to your contact lists based on a certain set of rules and triggers. To create an email automation system, businesses need to identify which user actions on their website should prompt an email to the customer, and then create the email message and workflow to make this happen automatically. Typically, this can be accomplished by including user input fields on your website that allow prospects to provide their email address in exchange for information that is of value to them, such as e-books, product manuals, newsletters, or promotional materials. Once a user inputs their email address, an email is sent to that address with the information they requested, saving the business time from emailing each individual customer or waiting for a list to develop before sending the information. Marketing automation also allows businesses to set up other actions, filters, and dependencies that can save time and keep potential customers in the sales funnel. For example, email automation can send follow up messages based on whether or not a contact has opened a previous email, or with a time delay to give recipients enough time to receive and consider the material before hearing from you again.

How Can Email Automation Help My Business?

Email automation offers businesses multiple opportunities to save time and generate conversions. To begin, the email automation process largely cuts back on the amount of time businesses spend sending emails and responding to requests for information. Email automation lets users choose the information they’d like to receive from your business, leading to more qualified leads and happy customers who are not inundated with unwanted emails. These customers have already established an interest in your company and your products or services by signing up to receive emails from you, meaning that they may already be more likely to purchase from you. Additionally, automating your email campaigns saves your business time that employees would have spent coordinating email messages and sending them to specific customers. Lastly, email automation allows businesses to reach interested prospective customers directly, instead of sending an email out to a broad, general email list, part of which may not be interested in your message.

How Can I Optimize Email Automation for My Business?

Focus on specialized emails. If your current or prospective customers request information on a particular product, service, or promotion, categorize them in lists that are relevant to them and make sure you are not unnecessarily adding them to email lists for unrelated products or services. Sending a large number of unsolicited emails to your email list can cause subscribers to become annoyed by the number of emails they receive, potentially leading them to unsubscribe from your email list — losing them altogether. Additionally, customers requesting specific information have established a specific interest in your products and services. By using specialized emails, you can give these customers an opportunity to learn more about the products they’re most interested in and remind them of the reason they contacted your business in the first place — your products, services, and expertise. Be sure to only send more general emails, such as newsletters and general promotion updates, to customers who have signed up for your general mailing list, not those who only want information about one product or service.

Send follow-up emails to re-engage the reader. Marketing automation software allows businesses to send follow-up emails, which can help the business increase efficiency with customer communications and cultivate a relationship with them. Depending on the business, follow-up emails could remind users of promotions, provide additional information about a transaction, or simply keep your business top of mind. Remember that emails can be automated with a time delay, so the customer only receives the follow-up after an appropriate amount of time, which is determined by the business.

How Can I Start Automating?

There are quite a few marketing automation software platforms available for a variety of budgets. Pulse Marketing Agency is a SharpSpring partner, meaning that we can offer marketing automation services through SharpSpring to benefit your business. SharpSpring allows users to build and create emails, manage contact lists, and create email automation, along with a number of other features to support your sales and marketing team.

If your business struggles with managing your outgoing and incoming emails, or is looking for a more effective way to communicate with customers and create more qualified leads, contact Pulse Marketing Agency today for a free 30-minute consultation.