Role of Automation in Email Marketing: Time-Saving Tips and Strategies 2024

The dynamic landscape of digital marketing has constantly evolved and so has email marketing. Email marketing has become a potent tool in every marketer’s arsenal. It is one of the most trusted ways for brands to connect with their audience but it can also be time consuming and tedious if not used efficiently. If used well, email marketing automation is a game-changer for brands and marketers aiming to save time, costs and boost the odds of campaign success.

The process of sending personalized and relevant emails to subscribers based on specific triggers or actions in email marketing automation. For eg: a welcome email landing in the inbox of a user who has just signed up or a cart abandonment email when a user abruptly leaves the app or website without completing purchase. This article will further discuss the best practices of email marketing and explore how email marketing automation can alleviate and revamp a brand’s email marketing efforts.

Email marketing automation can prove to be advantageous for brands by:

• Delivering timely, tailored and relevant messages to users causing a spiral in email open rates, CTRs and conversions.
• Fostering the relationship between a brand and its users by providing value through relevant and engaging email communication.
• Automation of repetitive and mundane tasks can reduce manual effort, human errors, costs and increase efficacy.
• Analyzing different strategies and variables to optimize the performance of campaigns and boost ROI.

But how do brands get started with email marketing automation? Here are some time-saving tips and strategies to help you create and implement effective email campaigns:

Define goals and segments

Before setting up email automation workflows, have a clear idea about the end result and the target audience. Ensure that the goals are quantifiable, achievable and relevant for the band. For eg: a goal to boost sales by 10% in the next quarter could be achieved by sending personalized product recommendations to the subscriber base.

Segment the email database on criteria such as, demographic, past purchase history, preferences and interests. Segmentation aids the process of sending relevant and personalized emails to the customers increasing the odds of engagement and conversion. Segmenting users by the products bought or frequency of purchase  could be helpful in crafting an email that engages with the user and provides value.

Pick the right email automation platform

For the efficient creation and execution of an email automation campaign brands need to pick a powerful and user friendly email marketing platform that aligns with the needs and goals of the brands.  A variety of automation and email marketing platforms are available in the market that offer distinct features and capabilities. CleverTap, a customer engagement and retention platform, helps marketers drive growth by creating personalized customer experiences and offers valuable features and capabilities that make email marketing automation easy and effective:

• Event tracking: Track and analyze customers’ actions and behavior across website, app, and email channels. Leverage this data to create personalized targeted segments and campaigns.
• Push notifications: Send push notifications to app users to drive them back to your app or website, and complement the email campaigns with another channel of communication.
• Revenue tracking: Measure the impact of email campaigns on revenue and ROI, and optimize strategies accordingly.
• Retention tracking: Monitor and improve customer retention and loyalty by sending timely and relevant emails that keep users engaged and satisfied.
• Cohort analysis: Compare the performance and behavior of different groups of customers over a specific time span, and identify the best practices and scope for improvement.
• A/B testing: Test different versions of the email campaigns to pick the one that performs better than others and delivers the expected results.

Create email automation workflows

Once the goals are defined and the segments are created and the platform is ready marketers can start creating email automation workflows. A workflow is a series of emails that are triggered by a particular event or condition that follow a predefined logic and sequence. An example of a workflow could be.

• Welcome new user – An email with a discount code when a user first signs up. 
• Day 2 – An email with details of the best-selling products and a testimonial.
• Day 5 – An email with a blog post and an invite to the social media handles.
• Post purchase – An email with a survey and details of a referral program.

Marketers can create different workflows for segments and actions, for eg:

• Lead generation: Capture and qualify generated leads and move them further along the sales funnel.
• Lead nurturing: Educate and persuade leads and convert them into paying customers.
• Onboarding: Welcome and orient new customers to help them get started with the product or service.
• Upselling and cross-selling: Increase customer lifetime value and revenue by offering additional or complementary products or services.
• Customer loyalty: Retain and delight current users to boost retention, repeat purchases and referrals

Optimize and improve email automation campaigns

Creating email automation workflows is not a one-time task, it needs to be continuous monitoring, analyses and optimization to ensure they deliver the desired results and meet the set expectations. 

To enhance the effectiveness of email automation campaigns incorporate the following tips and best practices:

• Test different elements of the emails like, headline, subject line, images CTA’s and check which one resonates best with the user through metrics like CTR’s and conversions. 
• Segment user base and personalize emails depending upon customer behavior, preferences and interests and measure how this affects engagement levels and conversion.
•  Experiment with different sending times and frequency of emails and check how it affects deliverability and performance. 
• Use analytical data derived from open rates, CTR’s bounce rates, unsubscribe rates to compare with industry benchmarks and norms. 
• Collect customers’ opinions and suggestions, through feedback and surveys and use this data to improve email content and value proposition. 

AMP-lify email marketing strategies 

Positioned at the forefront of the industry revolution. AMP is an innovative open framework that has revolutionized email marketing by introducing interactivity. Growth marketers are encouraged to adapt by incorporating AMP to redefine email marketing and boost rate of conversion. The impact of this approach reveals that email incorporating AMP for email have reported up to 3x higher rate of conversion and CTR when compared to traditional email marketing campaigns. With real-time interaction, dynamic content and personalization AMP for email can open new avenues for growth and retention. Harness the power of AMP for Email with CleverTap and stay ahead of the competition.

Embracing email marketing automation is not just a choice but a necessity. It is an effectual tool for brands to reach out and engage with the target audience and grow. These time-saving tips and strategies can help marketers create and implement impactful email automation campaigns that provide value to the user through personalized and relevant messaging and drive them to take action.  

To learn more about email marketing automation and how CleverTap can transform customer engagement and retention for your brand, schedule a demo today.