Free email automation can be a powerful tool to help nurture leads through their buyer journey. But it is important to consider the entire customer experience when creating an automated email campaign.
Whether it’s a friendly nudge or a product recommendation, all automated emails should reflect the brand voice and values. This will help ensure that the messages are relevant and meaningful to your audience.
1. Create a workflow
A well-constructed email automation workflow is an important part of a successful email marketing strategy. Whether it’s a welcome series, product update reminder, or course lesson series, each campaign should align with your strategic goals and objectives. It’s also vital to understand your audience and their needs to create relevant and valuable content. For example, a new contact may not benefit from a content sequence that pressures them to make a purchase, while a loyal customer might enjoy a more targeted campaign drip that provides them with industry insights and education.
Once you’ve identified your goals and defined your target audience, it’s time to begin creating the email automation campaign. Start by importing your email list into SendGrid, either manually or via CSV file upload. You can then segment the list based on demographics, purchase behavior, or engagement levels to better personalize your message to each group of contacts.
Next, choose a trigger event that will initiate your campaign. For example, a contact can be enrolled in the workflow by submitting a web form, completing an ebook download, or making a purchase. Once the workflow is active, it will begin sending the appropriate follow-up messages for each stage of the journey.
Lastly, it’s essential to consider how your emails will be personalized to increase engagement and click-through rates. A personalized subject line, sender name and body content will encourage recipients to open and engage with your content.
It’s also important to make sure your automated emails are accessible to people with visual, hearing, motor, or mobility impairments. To do this, you can use a tool like Finalsite Workflows that will let you easily customize your email campaigns to meet accessibility requirements.
2. Create a subject line
Creating compelling subject lines is essential to an email campaign. After all, they’re what entices your subscribers to open your emails and pursue the information within. However, creating attention-grabbing subject lines can be difficult. There are many tips and tricks online to help you optimize your subject line, but you’ll still need to consider individual subscriber needs and brand messaging when determining the best approach.
One great way to improve your subject lines is to personalize them. Using personalization tokens like the recipient’s name or location in your subject line creates a feeling of rapport and increases click-through rates. It’s also important to keep the subject line as short and clear as possible. Many people don’t have a lot of time to read long, confusing subject lines, so the shorter and more descriptive you make them, the better.
A strong subject line will include a call to action or something that piques the curiosity of your audience. You can do this by including a discount, an exclusive offer, or an upcoming event. The key is to be specific, because you don’t want to over-promise.
Finally, use a tone that’s friendly but direct. Avoid using ALL CAPS, which is often interpreted as yelling and can be annoying to your audience. Additionally, don’t use emojis in your subject line, as this could be perceived as spam.
It’s always a good idea to test your subject lines before sending them out to your whole audience. Split-testing your subject lines allows you to see which ones perform best, and it gives you a sense of what will work with different segments of your audience. For example, you might test subject line A, which uses a call to action and sense of urgency, against subject line B, which focuses on exclusivity and the desire to be first in line.
3. Create a template
When it comes to email automation, a well-designed template is the key to success. Not only does a good template make it easier to create emails quickly, but it also helps protect your brand reputation by keeping your email messages on-brand and error-free.
When creating a template, think about the types of campaigns you run most frequently. For example, if you have a welcome series set up to greet new subscribers and introduce them to your products or services, you can set up a template to automatically enroll a user in the welcome series as soon as they join your list.
A good template should also include relevant links to your website and social media accounts. This will help you get in front of your customers and prospects when they are most interested in your offerings. And, it will encourage recipients to click through and visit your site.
Another key factor to consider is the message cadence of your automated campaign. You want to send enough emails to keep your audience engaged, but not so many that they become overwhelmed. If you’re unsure where to start, you can try out our recommended email cadence or create a custom one based on your audience and business goals.
Once you’ve created a template, test it to see how it looks and works before sending it to your email list. To do so, select a user profile and click Preview. You can also personalize your templates by using data feeds, Catalog items, and snippets (for more information, see Personalizing Template Content). In addition, you can configure settings such as the default font, email signature text, and whether or not to convert CSS to inline styles in Preferences.
4. Send a test
As you create your email automation campaigns, you can test out a variety of elements to determine which will have the best results. Subject lines, for example, are an easy place to begin your testing because they can have a significant impact on email open rates. In addition, you can try varying the type of content you send. This could include a different offer, new product announcement, or another call to action. You can also test a variety of images and designs to see which ones perform the best.
You’ll want to use your automated emails to collect key information from your recipients and keep them engaged with your brand. To do so, you’ll need to use clear and informative visuals, personalized recommendations, and persuasive language. This will help you build loyalty and drive conversions.
When you’re creating automated emails, it’s important to stay compliant with the laws and regulations of your country. This will show your audience that you’re responsible with their data and respect their privacy. In addition, it’s a good idea to keep track of metrics such as opens, clicks, and conversions to measure your email performance.
To get the most accurate results from your tests, choose a small, randomized portion of your audience to receive each variation. Then, make sure to limit your changes as much as possible so that you can see the impact each change has. For example, you shouldn’t change both the CTA color and the text in your emails at the same time. Otherwise, it will be difficult to determine whether the increased engagement was a result of changing one or both variables. Ideally, you should use an email automation tool such as Constant Contact or Brevo to conduct your tests.
5. Monitor your results
Automated email marketing campaigns can be a powerful tool for engaging your customers, but they need to be targeted and focused on your business goals. To achieve this, create automated email workflows based on behavioral triggers that align with the specific stages of your buyers’ journey. Use these triggers to initiate email automation, like a welcome series that introduces new subscribers to your brand, or win-back emails triggered by a purchase or period of inactivity.
To track the effectiveness of your email automation, monitor metrics such as open rates, clicks, and conversions. This information can help you adjust your messaging and timing to drive better results. You can also use tools like Google Analytics to see how your audience interacts with your email content, and this can help you identify what types of campaigns are most successful.
Another important metric to monitor is your unsubscribe rate. A high unsubscribe rate can be a sign that your email content isn’t valuable to your subscribers. To keep your unsubscribe rate low, offer clear and consistent communication and a positive customer experience.
Lastly, ensure that your email automation campaign is compliant with email regulations like CAN-SPAM and CASL. This will protect your subscribers’ data and privacy and also show that you respect their choices.
When creating an email automation campaign, be sure to include a sign-up form on your website. Adding these forms to your homepage, blog posts, and landing pages can help you grow your list of subscribers. Be sure to provide compelling reasons for people to subscribe, such as exclusive discounts, free trials, eBooks, and webinar access. Finally, make it easy for your email subscribers to unsubscribe by offering a clear and simple opt-out option.