Automating Your Email Marketing: What Beginners Need To Know

Beyond saving time and effort, email automation is designed to boost ROI with improved engagement and conversion rates.

In this guide, we’ll walk through everything you need to know about automating your email marketing.

Email marketing automation involves setting up predefined, specific commands that trigger emails to be sent. For example, you can ensure that an email is automatically sent when someone abandons their cart, signs up for your newsletter, or makes a purchase.

It’s also possible to set up drip campaigns, which are sequences of automated emails that are written in advance and sent at predetermined intervals.

Some email marketing companies, like Omnisend, even provide premade email templates and workflows to make email marketing as easy and stress-free as possible – perfect for beginners starting out.

The beauty of automated emails goes beyond just saving marketers time and effort. It’s a fantastic tool for nurturing leads, keeping customers informed and engaged – ultimately securing conversions. Your subscribers receive the exact email they need at exactly the right time.

Automated email workflows are the best friend of any business.

With set sequences of emails that are designed to achieve specific goals, any chance of customers becoming disengaged or losing a lead is kept to a minimum.

The most common automated email workflows are:

Welcome emails are designed to onboard new subscribers, introducing your brand and highlighting key products or services.

In the second or third email in this welcome sequence, some companies include a special discount to bring subscribers closer to a purchase.

When a customer leaves your site with items still in their cart, it’s a good idea to trigger an email workflow. This might start with a reminder that they still have items waiting for them, increasing the chances of the customer returning and making a purchase.

Further incentives can follow with small rewards like a 5% discount or free shipping.

It’s not all over once a purchase has been made.

After this happens, take the opportunity to gather feedback via a questionnaire or product review. A purchase can trigger a ‘thanks for your order’ email, alongside an invite to leave feedback.

Shortly after this message, follow up with another email showcasing similar products and further discounts.

Don’t leave it up to chance for your customers to return for another purchase.

There are many prebuilt workflow templates in Omnisend's catalogue that are created specifically for re-engagement.

For instance, the customer reactivation sequence targets customers who haven’t made a new purchase in a period of time selected by you.

Alternatively, for a more tailored approach, the replenishment reminder workflow alerts customers when they may be running low on a repeat order.

As already mentioned, automating your email marketing efforts is a highly effective way of saving money, time, and manual work. It also leaves no space for human error, such as undelivered messages, typos, and inconsistent send times.

Despite reducing human input, email automation ensures that messages remain personalized, no matter how big your contact list is.

Cutting down on manual labour doesn’t equate to a sacrifice of leads and conversions; in fact, quite the opposite is true.

Define your main priorities, such as nurturing leads, re-engaging customers, welcoming new subscribers, and so on.

It’s worth investing in a solution with prebuilt workflows that match your goals. Omnisend even offers these in its free plan, so you can try out a campaign with a small number of contacts before spending money on a paid subscription.

Upload your existing contact list and segment it based on purchase history, engagement, browsing behavior, and whichever other factors you may prioritize.

It’s important that you make sure you have permission to add your contacts to the email marketing service and send out emails, so you don’t get your business in legal trouble.

Starting out, it’s a good idea to go for a prebuilt workflow, like Omnisend's 3-email sequence for welcoming new subscribers.

If creating your own, define your triggers (event starting the automation), conditions (who the automation applies to), and actions (what happens as a result).

It’s essential to have everything well planned and laid out so you don’t lose your way.

You’re in danger of losing the personal touch when stepping away from manual email campaigns, so take time to get it right before launching your automated messages.

Email marketing services have unique and beautifully crafted email templates fit for all kinds of occasions – and they’re usually fully customizable. The hard work is already done, you’re just in charge of the finishing touches.

Before launching, don’t forget to check email previews, test your workflows, and ensure all links are correct.

Once everything’s in order, you’re ready to go!

The final step is one of the most important ones.

In order to keep improving and optimizing your email marketing campaigns, carefully track core performance metrics, like open and click-through rates, conversions, and revenue per email.

A/B testing is also great for spotting successes and weaknesses, and it’s included in all plans.

Automation in email marketing has completely changed the game.

The reduction of manual input and repetitive tasks, plus the increase in engagement and ROI, is truly groundbreaking.

Small businesses, especially, can feel the benefits without sacrificing huge investments, as many providers offer free versions that allow you to set up drip campaigns using prebuilt workflows.

Omnisend even provides access to A/B testing and email templates in its free plan.

It’s all at your fingertips. Check out free trials and demos, compare services, and start increasing conversions with automated emails.