Most marketers (as well as consumers) feel that automated emails are little more than a pain and hardly ever get a response. While that may be true for 98% of the crowd, there’s something the other 2% does, that makes automated email marketing the most powerful weapon of successful email marketers.
Autoresponders, however, are more than just event-based emails sent at specific intervals to a list of people who have performed a certain action. Actually, they’re the Holy Grail of engagement-driven marketing…
Read on to see what we’re talking about…
Email automation is a powerful tool for marketers, simplifying the marketing process while increasing the effectiveness of your campaigns.
Research from JupiterResearch says that automated email campaigns — those that produce timely, automated, customer-centric content — generate as much as nine times greater results than other forms of email marketing. Similarly, in an April 2011 study, market research firm, Gartner, found that event-triggered techniques resulted in a 600% lift over traditional outbound programs.
Automated emails allow marketers to push relevant, perfectly-timed content to subscribers with little effort — Nuture customers with automatically timed follow ups, manage your workflows and sales pipeline with automated, segmented emails, and even trigger face-to-face appointments with your sales team.
While marketers often have a knee-jerk reaction to the idea of automated marketing — thinking it will destroy the ‘personal touch’ they’ve so successfully built up — a properly set-up automation system can, in fact, deliver far more qualified results overall. You’ve just got to know how.
Simple uses
Automatically trigging particular content when a subscriber a particular action is performed — when a link is clicked, when a visitor subscribes (or unsubscribes) or any other trackable action — allows you to push targeted, personalised and timely content.
For a new subscriber, a welcome email, promotions for a first purchase, or educational material could all be appropriate. For customers who have already made their first purchase, you could offer a receipt, event reminder or special promotion for further purchases. Automate birthday and anniversary emails or reminders for such things as appointments and membership expiration notices.
Maxmail, for example, can send a follow up SMS message, automatically, if an email isn’t opened within a certain time period.
Likewise, if you’re a prodigious producer of blog or news content for example, you can automate updates directly to your customers using Maxmail’s RSS to email feature.
Email automation allows you to send targeted material, triggered by particular actions — what actions and what material is limited only by your imagination.
4 Key Product Lifecycle Scenarios
The introductory cycle
The introductory cycle is an opportunity to touch base with a prospect, introduce yourself and start building trust. The best way to do this is via an e-newsletter of blog post in the beginning stages. Let the customer know what you’re offering, and use the opportunity to list benefits and overcome objections. Give the customer the opportunity to give you feedback and track their interests closely.
As more feedback is received, continue to follow-up as the customer moves further down the sales pipeline.
The closing cycle
As much as the above title sounds like a ‘hard sell’, it is anything but. The closing cycle is all about ‘notifying’ and ‘reminding’ your customer about what’s on offer.
Often customers will come close to purchasing but will fail to take the final step (such as loading and then abandoning their cart). A personalised, but automated, notification (such as the kind possible via Maxmail) or reminder that their cart has been abandoned is a powerful close.
If, after two emails, the customer has still not purchased, the automation process can move to offering other products and specials, or some other form of enticement, to get the deal closed.
The post-sale cycle
Believe it or not, the process is only now actually beginning.
As counter intuitive as it sounds, the post-sale email cycle is actually the most important, and lucrative, part of the purchase lifecycle. The fact is the vast majority of visitors to your website or recipients of your emails will never purchase anything. A real-life customer, someone who is interested in your product, is willing to pay money for it, and has actually done so, is the most valuable asset your business has. It is a relationship that has to be nurtured.
Now is the chance to further cultivate the client-business relationship. Are they satisfied with their purchase? Great! Get them to share that fact on Facebook. Or tell a friend. Or purchase a complimentary item or upgrade. What else might they like to buy?
Post-sale, map out a best-case business scenario and then follow through with automated messages.
For example:
1. Send them a thank-you email, including a short profiling survey
2. Getting started
3. Tips/features
4. Introduce other products
5. Request feedback
6. Suggest upgrades
The lapsed-customer cycle
It’s not over just because they’ve stopped purchasing. Now comes the win-back phase.
Introduce them to new products that you’re selling, offer special deals to tempt them back into the fold and entice them with the unique benefits that your product offers. If nothing works, send a survey email to find out how you can serve them better, then actually do it, based on their feedback. Again, use their past behaviour to inform your current offer.
Don’t despair over lapsed customers. They’ve bought off you before, meaning they’re more valuable to you than your new incoming traffic. Like all automated email marketing, it’s about offering the right message to the right person at the right time.