The 5 Types of Automated Emails You Need To Be Using

Automation. One simple word that makes a huge impact.

Automation allows us to pass off simple tasks and focus our attention on what is really important. But, you may not realize that the same things that make your daily life easier also help your business function better.

Think about it: What wakes you up on time every morning? Your pre-scheduled alarm, right?

What drives you to get up out of bed? Could it be the aroma of freshly brewed coffee from your programmable Keurig?

Now, think back to the last time you went on vacation. What simple feature helped people know what to expect while you were away? An out-of-office auto-reply.

Automation is everywhere.

But in a study done by Smart Insights, 18% of B2B organizations reported that they were not using marketing automation… at all…

However, according to Epsilon, automated emails have a 152% higher click rate and a 77% higher open rate than other messages.

If you’re not using automation you’re not optimizing your efforts, especially when it comes to email.
Automated emails are personalized and triggered based on a user’s action. They are also super targeted, which is probably why they yield such great results.

With automated emails, the copy, offer, and delivery are all coordinated for that one subscriber at that specific time. If you’re not quite sure how to get started with email automation, you’re in luck!

In this post we’re going to share 5 different types of automated emails in order to drive the point home that you need to start using them in your business!

Let’s get started.

1. Welcome emails

Welcome emails are messages that confirm an opt-in and greet your new subscribers. Sending a welcome email or a series of welcome emails is the simplest form of email marketing automation.

Take this example from Starbucks Rewards, which is pretty simple:

You may be wondering – if they are so simple, do people even read them?

Well, yes! Welcome emails actually get 4 times higher open rates than other promotional emails. Plus, their click-through rates are 5 times that of other emails.

Those stats speak for themselves, but imagine this:

You’ve just arrived for your first day at a new job. When you walk in, do you get a better first impression if everyone keeps their head down and ignores you? Or when people greet you with a warm, “Hello, nice to meet you!” and a smile?

First impressions are crucial. You want to be the person that smiles, introduces themselves and offers to show you around. As it turns out, you can do just that with an automated email!

All you need is a smart email marketing platform like Sendlane.

As soon as someone signs up on your blog or store, the automated messaging you’ve set up will start sending your welcome email series right away.

Expert tip: Don’t wait! Sending welcome emails promptly improves their overall performance.

2. Onboarding emails

Someone buying your product or service is a perfect opportunity to initiate a user onboarding sequence.

Onboarding emails are great for explaining product features to new customers and sharing hidden benefits. You can also utilize them to connect customers with support resources, trainings or how-to posts for best results and more.

You could easily develop an initial “training” series with automated onboarding emails as well, meaning that you have more educated customers who are able to take full advantage of your product or service.

Take a look at this onboarding email from Squarespace. It clearly shows that it is part of a series, includes tons of actionable information, resources, support links and even a little promo right at the end:

Taking the time to acclimate new customers and share worthwhile content elevates the customer experience significantly. This also helps keep your refund rate low, since each new customer has a greater understanding of how your product or service actually works.

3. Follow ups based on opens and clicks

Automated campaigns can also be based on your subscriber’s interactions with your emails.

For example, say you send an email that many of your subscribers didn’t open. With automation, you can prepare for this ahead of time.

Simply set up another version of the same message with a more targeted, more flashy subject line, and your workflow will sends the new version automatically to anyone who didn’t open the first time.
If you send out a promotional email with great open and click through rates, set up another workflow to target these active subscribers. You can even hone in on their enthusiasm with a freebie so they are primed to buy.

Most email marketing platforms allow you to set up workflows with subscriber-activity based trigger, so this type of automation is actually quite simple to set up:

4. Cart abandonment emails

Cart abandonment messages are slightly more complex than the rest of the emails on this list, but are just as important.

Baymard Institute compiled information from 37 different studies and found that the online shopping cart abandonment rate was a staggering 69.23%.

So, almost 70% of potential online purchases are not completed is a huge opportunity for conversion!
Cart abandonment emails are designed to capitalize on this huge potential revenue loss that affects a large amount of businesses.

Whether you offer a discount on shipping, a coupon, or just a quick reminder that they have items still sitting in their cart, there are many opportunities to secure the sale!

In fact, SaleCycle reports that over one third of cart abandonment clicks result in a purchase!

The downside here is that these emails generally require an additional tool or service that integrates with your online store to trigger campaigns. Your email marketing platform might not provide this type of integration option.

5. Special event emails

Sending messages on special occasions, such as birthdays and anniversaries is also a great way to build rapport with your subscribers.  In fact, emails with a personalized message generally have an open rate of up to 18.8%!

If you’re interested in sending messages on personalized events, check to see if your platform supports custom values. If they do, all you need to do is add a few custom fields to your opt-in form and you’re good to go!

If you don’t have the ability to collect custom values, you can still send out personalized holiday greetings, it’ll just a tad bit more work!

Expert tip: Draft your special event email accordingly but incorporate a promotion into it! For subscribers who aren’t interested in the offer, the email itself is just well wishes for a great holiday/birthday/event. But, for anyone that is interested in the offer – you may have just automated a purchase!

Wrapping it up

Hopefully, you now have a better understanding of what automated emails are and realize that not all of them require complicated or expensive tools.

As you now know, you can power your email marketing using a highly effective automated campaign with a simple email automation solution such as Sendlane.

So sign up for Sendlane now (There’s a 14-day free trial and paid plans start at just $9/mo). Once you sign up, follow the process in this article to create your first automated campaign!

Your list will love you for it!



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