Engage and Convert: The Ultimate Guide to Email Marketing Workflows

Imagine having a tool that connects with the target audience and seamlessly guides them from the curiosity to the loyalty stage. That’s the potential of mature email marketing processes. With the number of daily emails expected to surge from 306.4 billion in 2020 to 392.5 billion by 2026 and a projected 4.73 billion email users*, the opportunities for brands are immense.

Email marketing remains a dominant channel, and well-planned email marketing workflows can help marketers reach and engage their ideal customers and prospects.

What are Email Marketing Workflows?

An email marketing workflow is a series of automated emails triggered by specific user actions, personalized to guide users from initial contact to purchase and beyond. These emails often include conversion goals like call-to-action buttons and embedded videos to help subscribers navigate their journey.

Email workflows are designed to onboard new customers, engage and nurture leads, drive conversions, and retain customer loyalty. Here are a few instances of workflows on how email marketing workflows are leveraged: 

Onboarding Workflows

• Welcome Emails: Greet new users and thank them for joining or signing up. Introduce your brand, products, and value proposition.
• Onboarding Emails: Guide new customers through product setup and features for a smooth experience.

Lead Nurturing Workflows 

• Lead Magnet Delivery: Deliver value-driven content (e.g., ebook, webinar) followed by educational emails.
• Free Trial Campaign: Highlight product benefits during a free trial and prompt conversion to a paid plan.

Engagement Workflows

• Re-engagement Emails: Target dormant users with exclusive offers to pique their interest in the brand.
• Behavioral Triggered Emails: Automated emails based on user behavior, like abandoned cart reminders or product suggestions.

Transactional Workflows 

• Post-Purchase Follow-up: Send gratitude emails with additional product information, usage tips, or loyalty program details.
• Order Confirmation & Tracking: Confirm and provide shipping information and support options on orders placed.

Drip vs. Nurture Campaigns

Drip Campaigns are similar to automated broadcasts sent at regular intervals to a specific group of contacts. They are ideal for welcoming new leads with informative content spaced out to avoid overwhelming them. These campaigns help maintain a steady flow of communication, ensuring that new subscribers are gradually introduced to the brand and its offerings.

Nurture Campaigns deliver targeted content based on user interests and their stage in the journey. They are triggered by specific actions, such as cart abandonment or content downloads, and tailored to meet users’ current needs. This approach ensures higher engagement and effectiveness by providing relevant and timely information that resonates with each individual recipient.

Bonus Tip: Use drip campaigns as a stepping stone to build nurture campaigns. Observe user interactions with the drip series to gain insights for personalizing future emails.

Building Automated Email Workflows: A Step-by-Step Guide

The path to crafting compelling email workflows begins with building a solid content strategy. Fret not; Marketers can follow these simple steps to get started without needing a full-fledged marketing plan:

1. Map the Workflow: Use a flowchart tool like draw.io to visualize the email sequence and to plan the trigger conditions.
2. Gather Resources: Compile all necessary content and creative resources, such as informational content (blog posts, articles, press releases, etc.), educational content (training materials, instructions, FAQs, etc.), and promotional content (sales pitches, discounts, special offers, promo codes, etc.).
3. Define Triggers: Specify what actions will kick off the emails. Define the events that trigger an automated sequence of emails, such as new user sign-ups, wishlist creation, product launches, user interactions, form submissions, content downloads, or website visits.
4. Use Segmentation: Personalize emails with features like names and relevant product suggestions based on user data, purchase history, and past behavior. Marketers can even tag users who visit a specific page and send them targeted content accordingly.
5. Email Frequency: Space out emails strategically to avoid overwhelming leads. Consider a slower drip for new users compared to those who signed up for a complimentary trial. 
6. Launch and Monitor: Track key metrics (open rates, CTR, conversions) and conduct A/B tests to refine workflows for better results.

Following these steps and focusing on strategic content creation enables marketers to build and manage automated email workflows that nurture leads, build trust, drive engagement, and help achieve marketing goals.

CleverTap offers a seamless setup with no-code integration along with several other key features and functionalities that are a valuable asset in creating and managing email marketing workflows:

Streamlined Campaign Creation 

• Drag-and-Drop Editor: CleverTap’s drag-and-drop editor allows marketers to build visually pleasing and engaging emails with rich media, including text and images. Marketers can use ready-to-use or empty templates, making crafting emails easy without coding know-how. Alternatively, marketers can use the HTML editor to create customized emails suitable for all skill levels.
• Preview and Test: Refine the emails before hitting send with CleverTap’s built-in preview tool. This feature allows marketers to optimize for growing dark mode usage, ensure proper rendering, and test across inboxes and devices to identify potential display issues before they reach the subscribers’ inbox.
• A/B Testing: CleverTap’s A/B testing feature helps marketers design and experiment with different email versions, such as subject lines, content, and CTAs, to find what resonates best with users and achieves better open rates, click-throughs, and conversions.
• IntelliNode: This feature leverages AI to help create perfect email marketing workflows by letting marketers experiment with different email sequences, channels, and timing within a single journey. It analyzes results and automatically routes users through the highest-performing path that leads to conversion, ensuring the email marketing efforts stay effective over time.

Powerhouse of Personalization

• Deep User Segmentation & Targeting: CleverTap’s rich user data allows marketers to segment their audience based on demographics, behavior, preferences, and personalized product recommendations that can accelerate purchases. Such high-precision segmentation enables marketers to craft hyper-personalized and targeted email campaigns with content that resonates and proves valuable for each subscriber.
  
• Real-time Personalization: Boost engagement and enhance relevance by crafting dynamic email content that adapts to individual user behavior and interests in real time.

Triggered Workflows & Automation

• Event-Based Triggers: Use automation to launch email workflows triggered by specific user actions, such as app downloads, sign-ups, and purchases. This allows marketers to interact with users promptly with relevant content tailored to each customer journey stage.
  
• Omnichannel Engagement: CleverTap is easy to integrate with the brand’s current email service provider (ESP), or they can use CleverTap’s built-in ESP for seamless email delivery. Also, marketers can sync email marketing efforts with their complete marketing strategy, including push notifications and in-app messaging, for a comprehensive and seamless omnichannel experience. Imagine crafting a user onboarding journey that starts with a welcome email, followed by an in-app message highlighting key features, and culminates with a push notification reminding users to complete a specific action. This can be achieved through CleverTap’s visual campaign builder, allowing marketers to orchestrate a multi-channel flow that keeps users engaged across different touchpoints.

AMP for Email Support

Transform static email experiences into interactive ones. CleverTap supports AMP for Email, allowing marketers to embed interactive elements within their email communication. This feature can help significantly increase engagement by encouraging users to perform actions directly within the email without switching to another app or website.

Advanced Analytics & Optimization

Campaign Performance Tracking: Monitor important metrics like open rates, click-through rates, and conversion rates to measure the efficacy of the email workflows.

Data-Driven Insights: Leverage CleverTap’s analytics to gain valuable insights into user behavior, track delivery success rate and reputation with deliverability reports, and identify areas for improvement within the email workflows.

By incorporating CleverTap to build and execute an efficient email marketing strategy, brands can create personalized, data-driven, automated workflows that drive user engagement and achieve marketing objectives. To learn more about how CleverTap can help build email marketing workflows, talk to our expert or schedule a personalized demo here.