Steps To Automate Your Email Marketing & Why It’s So Important!
Life is busy, even busier if you’re a small business owner! One of the first steps to having a successful online business is having a robust email list full of raving fans and paying customers. If you’re like me, finding time to stay on top of your email marketing can feel very time intensive and overwhelming! What’s a small business owner to do? Automate your email marketing, of course!
When you automate your email marketing, you not only save time but, more importantly, you boost engagement with your ICA (ideal client avatar), nurture those relationships by building the know, like, and trust factor, and warm them up so at some point in your automation, they become paying customers!
In this blog post, we’ll explore why you need email marketing, how email marketing is the key to nurturing your prospects into paying customers, how you can automate your email marketing, the best types of emails to automate first, our favorite email marketing systems, and an action plan to get help you get started with email marketing and more! Let’s dig in.
Content Overview
- What Is Email Marketing?
- Why Do I Need Email Marketing?
- Why Is Nurturing Your Email List Important?
- What Does Automating My Email Marketing Mean?
- What Type of Emails Can I Automate?
- What Are the Best Practices of Email Automation?
- What Are Some Services We Recommend for Email Automation?
- What Are the Best Practices of Email Automation?
- This Week’s Action Plan
- Free Tools and Resources
What Is Email Marketing?
Email marketing is a digital marketing strategy that involves crafting compelling and personalized email messages that are sent to subscribers who have willingly opted in to receive communication from you with the purpose of receiving valuable content that will nurture your leads into customers (i.e., building relationships), promoting your product and services (i.e., making sales) and establishing yourself as a leader in your industry. (i.e., scaling!)
Email marketing campaigns can include a variety of content, such as newsletters, product announcements, special offers, event invitations, educational resources, and more. These emails should be designed to deliver value to the recipients; whether it’s informative content, exclusive discounts, or personalized recommendations, email marketing is a highly effective and cost-efficient way for you to communicate directly with your audience.
To implement email marketing, you’d typically use an email marketing platform that provides tools to manage subscriber lists, design visually appealing emails, automate sending schedules, track campaign performance, and comply with email regulations such as anti-spam laws.
Email marketing success relies on factors such as creating engaging content, segmenting the audience to deliver targeted messages, optimizing email deliverability, monitoring metrics like open rates and click-through rates, and continually refining your strategy based on data analysis.
Overall, email marketing is a powerful marketing channel that allows you to reach your audience directly, nurture relationships, drive conversions, and achieve their marketing goals.
Why Do I Need Email Marketing?
Email marketing is essential because it allows you to communicate directly with your audience in a place where they are, ALL OF THE TIME, in their inbox. It provides you with a way to deliver personalized messages based on their preferences, behaviors, or demographics. This personalized approach helps to build strong relationships and drive conversions.
Email marketing has a very wide reach. When someone subscribes to your email list, they have expressed direct interest in what you have to offer. This makes them so much more likely to engage with your email, leading to higher open rates, click-through rates, and conversions compared to other types of organic marketing. It’s a cost-effective marketing strategy that offers a high return on investment—the highest in all organic digital marketing strategies. And the best part, you can nurture your customers over time by consistently delivering value add content while keeping you top of mind! This builds trust, loyalty, customer conversion, and retention and helps to establish you as an expert in your industry.
Why Is Nurturing Your Email List Important?
Nurturing your email list is crucial because it helps build relationships and trust with your subscribers. By providing valuable content, addressing their needs, and staying in touch, you can increase customer loyalty, drive repeat purchases, and encourage referrals.
I hear time and time again from clients, well… I don’t want to bother my audience with too many emails. And I have to tell them YOUR AUDIENCE WANTS TO HEAR FROM YOU. People do not give their email addresses up for just anything. They are very particular about who gets their email address. If you have a lead that has signed up for your email list, you can bet they are interested in what you have to offer.
Now, that doesn’t mean that you have to email them every single day; however, they do want to hear from you on a regular basis, or they wouldn’t have signed up in the first place. The last thing you want is for someone who is interested in what you have to offer signing up for your email list and then never hearing from you! That’s a major missed opportunity, and in small business, that is one thing that we NEVER want missed opportunities.
How to Identify Your Core Lead Magnet – Are you having trouble building your email list? The best way to get people to opt in is by offering them free and valuable content! By creating a fantastic lead magnet that aligns with your core offer, you will be proving the quality of your products and services and building a following that will help cement your future success!
What Does Automating My Email Marketing Mean?
Automating your email marketing refers to the process of setting up systems and workflows that allow your emails to be sent automatically based on predetermined triggers or actions. Instead of manually sending individual emails, you create a series of emails and establish rules or triggers that determine when each email should be sent.
For example, you can set up an automation to send a welcome email to new subscribers immediately after they sign up. You can also create automated sequences that send follow-up emails to customers who have made a purchase, reminders for upcoming events or appointments, or abandoned cart emails to customers who leave items in their online shopping carts without completing the purchase.
By automating your email marketing, you streamline your communication process, save time, and ensure that your emails are sent consistently and timely. It allows you to nurture your email list, engage with your audience, and deliver relevant content without the need for manual intervention for each email sent.
What Types of Emails Can I Automate?
You can automate various types of emails to streamline your marketing efforts. I always recommend to clients to start by automating emails that you find yourself sending over and over again. You don’t want to have to recreate the wheel every time you bring a new client on board, want to remind a client of an upcoming appointment, reach out to someone who visited your website, or put something in their shopping cart but didn’t check out. You get the idea. Here are some emails that I recommend starting with first to get a little more time back in your day.
- Client Onboarding: Welcome emails, instructions, and resources for new clients.
- Newsletters/Marketing: Regular newsletters or promotional emails to keep your audience engaged.
- Reminders: Automated reminders for upcoming events, appointments, or renewals.
- Thank You’s/Anniversaries/Occasions: Automated emails to express gratitude, acknowledge anniversaries, or celebrate milestones.
- Abandoned Cart Follow-ups: Emails sent to remind customers about their abandoned carts and encourage them to complete their purchases.
- Confirmations: Automated emails to confirm bookings, orders, or subscription sign-ups.
What Are the Best Practices of Email Automation?
When it comes to automating your emails, you want to make sure that the workflow makes sense. The last thing you want is for someone to get an email that doesn’t apply to them or that they should not have received at all. And even worse than that, you want to craft email automation that don’t seem like they are, well, automated. You still want any email that goes out to your audience to have a personalized feel and not that they are receiving a canned message. Here are some tips for getting started!
- Segment your mailing list: Divide your audience into relevant segments to deliver more targeted and personalized content.
- Personalize your emails: Use subscribers’ names and tailor the content to their interests, preferences, or behavior.
- Be clear and stay on brand: Clearly communicate your message and ensure it aligns with your brand’s voice and values.
- Start simple: Begin with a few automated emails and triggers to minimize errors and complexity.
- Test thoroughly: Test your automated sequences before scheduling them to ensure they work as intended.
What Are Some Services We Recommend for Email Automation?
Having an email marketing system is something that every business should have! It’s a foundational piece of your business and as important, if not more important, than having a website and/or landing page. You need somewhere that you can collect lead information from the very beginning. Don’t wait until you’ve been in business for a couple of years to start an email list, do it immediately. There are A LOT of different email marketing systems out there. Here are some that we use with our clients on a regular basis to help you get started!
Here are some popular email automation tools:
- Mailchimp: A widely used email marketing platform suitable for businesses of all sizes.
- MailerLite: A user-friendly tool with automation features, ideal for small businesses and startups.
- ConvertKit: Designed specifically for creators and bloggers, it offers advanced automation capabilities.
- Constant Contact: A comprehensive email marketing platform suitable for small businesses and nonprofits.
- Keap: Offers automation, CRM, and e-commerce features to help businesses manage customer relationships.
- ActiveCampaign: Provides advanced automation, CRM, and sales features for growing businesses.
- Kajabi: A platform for online course creators and coaches, offering email marketing and automation capabilities.
What Are the Best Practices of Email Automation?
When it comes to email marketing, there are definitely best practices that you want to ensure that you are following!
- Please don’t purchase contact lists, and please don’t email someone who hasn’t opted into your email list. Make sure that you are General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) compliant!
- Segmenting your mailing list so the right person gets the right messaging. Don’t send people emails that aren’t relevant to them.
- Keep your subject lines short and sweet & hook them!
- Make sure to keep your important messaging and a clear call to action (CTA) above the fold of your email. Don’t make your audience search for what you want them to do!
- Clean your email list regularly. Make sure you are removing people who unsubscribe or haven’t engaged with your emails over a certain period of time.
- Personalize the email, include your email signature, use the person’s name, and include your logo; personality is key!
This Week’s Action Plan
- Do you have an email marketing system already? If so, great. If not, hit pause and jump over and open a free account now. You might have to try a couple of free trials before you find a service that really works for you.
- Is your email list segmented? If so, wonderful! If not, take an hour to sit down and think about the different types of clients you have/want and the different types of services/content that they should receive. Segment your list so your audience is ONLY getting emails that apply to them.
- What type of emails are you writing over and over again that you could automate? Onboarding emails? Follow Up emails? Abandoned Cart Emails? Start by writing out a sequence (or get help!) for each of these automations and then set them up to go out when triggered by a specific action.
- Test the sequence!
- If you like how it runs, consider signing up for a full membership of the email marketing system. If you still have misgivings and want to ensure you get the most from your subscription, let’s chat! Please hop over to jennielyon.com/chatwithjennie, and we’ll make automation a regular part of your email inbox so you can get back to what you do best!
In conclusion, automating your email marketing can save you time, engage your audience, and boost conversions and retention. By following these tips, and best practices and using reliable email automation tools, you can streamline your email marketing efforts and focus on what you do best: growing your business. If you need any help at all, please let me know!
Free Tools and Resources
- Schedule a Consultation
- Free Resources
- Email Automation: How to Set Up Automated Workflows [Data]
- What Is Email Automation?
- Sell more with better email & SMS
- Email Automation
- 10 Best Email Automation Software Tools
- How to Identify Your Core Lead Magnet
- Email marketing
- Content to Include in Your Email Marketing Campaign to Hook Your Clients
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