Email is a powerful marketing tool for any business if you leverage it properly. A customer’s inbox is a distraction-free zone you’ve been invited into. This gives you the chance to capture their attention with more high-targeted offers than any digital channel.
Effectiveness and ROI of email marketing are incredible for this very reason. Email is 40 times more valuable at customer acquisition than Facebook and Twitter. On average, for every $1 spent in email marketing, it generates $44 in ROI. This is very impressive considering that email marketing is cheap – all you need is an email marketing service provider and content to send to your subscribers.
But as valuable email marketing is, it’s not enough on its own. Effective email marketing is all about automation. Send the right email at the right time to the right prospects and you’ll have lifelong customers who’ll be evangelists for your business.
Here are the emails you should automate to boost sales, upsells and profits.
1. The Welcome Email
You’ll have one opportunity to make a good first impression. If your introduction to a new subscriber isn’t impressive, your follow-up campaigns won’t be either.
Generating three times the transaction and revenue per email than other promotional emails, the welcome email is the head of your email campaigns.
When a visitor takes their time to sign up for your email list, they’re not only agreeing to future newsletters, but they’re giving you access to their inbox. Don’t take their trust lightly. Pace their expectations for what’s to come.
Celebrate new subscribers with fun and friendly welcome emails. For example, you can offer them unique discounts codes; this will drive sales among prospects who just made a conscious commitment to engage further with your business.
2. The Cart Abandonment Email
Yes, people get distracted. They go online to make a purchase, and something diverts their attention. They get a Facebook notification, their phone rings, there’s a knock on the door…and they abandon their cart without a second thought.
Aside from distraction, there are other reasons a shopper may abandon their cart. According to a report by Baymard Institute, 69% of e-commerce visitors abandon their shopping cart and 61% name high shipping cost as their reason. You can turn your cart abandoners into customers by addressing shipping costs in follow-up emails.
Can you tell the lifetime value of your customers? Are most of them likely to be regular customers after trying your services? If they are, offer them a “risky” discount so they can afford to take a hit on the front-end. But if your rates are too thin to compete on shipping, ask for feedback.
You will not always convert abandoned cart shoppers, but try to reach out to them to find out why they didn’t complete their purchase. Use their feedback to improve your checkout process.
3. New Product Teaser
When you create alluring and irresistible email campaigns teasing new products, you’ll build anticipation for your new product. This will create a huge amount of support and it will help you achieve your project goals.
Do you have a new product coming into the market soon? Create a teaser campaign to get your subscribers excited about your upcoming launch. This way they’ll stay tuned for more updates and they’re likely to purchase the product once it’s available.
Teaser emails are simple because they only need to spark curiosity, which will keep your audience engaged.
The key is to anticipate emails in your business that can be automated and sequenced. Automated emails save you time in the end and because they offer more consistent touch points to your customers, they result in higher sales.
As you review your sales cycle today, what emails can you automate to improve business performance?