Automation

Email Marketing Automation Demystified

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Marketing automation utilizes technology to create automated processes, thus eliminating the need for manual work. As a small business owner, you may think that marketing automation is just for big companies and, of course, big budgets. However, on the contrary, with such advanced technology, marketing automation has become accessible to everyone. Marketing automation covers many areas of marketing, and in this article, we will focus a bit more on email marketing automation.

Are Businesses Successful With Marketing Automation?

Right, it’s time to try and demystify marketing automation. Some businesses are unfamiliar with it, and others have tried but have not succeeded. Unfortunately, that is very much true because marketing automation, as excellent as it may be, requires knowledge and guidance with the setup process, maintenance, and further optimization to achieve the best possible outcome.

Have a look at the results of a very insightful survey asking UK businesses if they were successful in the implementation of their automated email marketing programs.

How successful would you say you have been in implementing automated email marketing programs?“: 

Source: Statista, 2018. 

You can see that, in general, less than 10% of the respondents were very successful, which is not a lot. However, since 2014 (4%), the success rate has increased. Another significant outcome of this survey is that the majority of the businesses were quite successful in implementing email marketing automation. It means that more than half of the respondents, except in 2014 (47%), have found some success in email automation. We hope that’s encouraging news.

Of course, we need to mention that the percentage of the respondents who indicated that they have failed with their automation efforts is quite high. Nevertheless, the trend is clear – the number of unsuccessful attempts has decreased from 49% in 2014 to 37% in 2018. Maybe that’s due to technological advancements or more accessible information and learning resources.

Thus, hopefully, you, as a business owner or an entrepreneur, will be encouraged to see that so many respondents actually find success in email marketing automation.

Email Marketing Automation Techniques

There are quite a few email marketing automation techniques you can use. Of course, they will vary in complexity, and a lot will depend on what information you hold about your clients and their user journeys.

Automation in email marketing is not just about the automatic email send (for instance, creating a welcome email cycle), but there is much more to discover. For example, you can look for ways to automate the build of your email templates. And yes, Smaily’s email marketing and automation platform offers just that. With our award-winning drag-and-drop template editor, you can quickly build amazing mobile responsive emails.

Email marketing automation can cover your mailing list segmentation and subscriber management, which, we believe, is another significant aspect of email marketing. That’s why we have created a subscriber management tool for easy import and sorting, taking care of duplicates at the same time.

Automated Email Workflow Ideas

We’ve already touched upon the ways you can automate email marketing, but it’s worth having another look at what type of emails you can automate. As mentioned before, one of the most popular automated emails is the welcome email.

It’s an excellent idea for any business – with this automation in place, every new subscriber gets a welcome from you or your business. You can guide them through your offers, your products or services, introduce your company and start building great relationships.

Transactional emails most certainly should be automated – imagine how much effort you can save when all the notifications for your clients’ purchases or delivery information are automatically sent to the right client at the right time!

What about event triggers or webcast emails? A big yes from us – with automation, you can create seamless user journeys triggered by your readers’ behavior. Remember, consumers are getting increasingly tech-savvy, and they expect their digital journeys, including email, to be timely, relevant, and, of course, entertaining.

Source: Email marketing and marketing automation excellence 2018

Marketers surveyed by GetResponse and SmartInsights have revealed that the most popular choice is the welcome email workflow (47%) and promotional sales-focused emails (46%), followed by transactional emails (28%).

Eliminate Time Waste and Increase Process Speed

The most significant benefit of email marketing automation is saving time. Automation will eliminate the labor-intensive tasks you previously had to do manually, thus saving you time and reducing potential errors. And time is valuable for all of us – business owners, entrepreneurs, both salespeople and marketers. We’ve found a great chart showing the benefits of marketing automation (MA) through the eyes of adopters and non-adopters.

Source: The marketing automation report; TFM&A Insights and RedEye

Email marketing automation will help you send more personal, relevant, and, of course, timely email campaigns. Automation can generate leads, thus helping you with your customer acquisition as well as retention. All that, in turn, will help you increase your revenue.

Want to know about some real-life email marketing automation use cases and examples? We will follow up with a more detailed how-to article soon!

What to keep in mind:

  • Email Marketing Automation helps to save time and send more personal, relevant, and timely Email Campaigns

Next: The Power of Voice: What Could The Future Hold For Email Marketing?

Email marketing is still one of the most stable marketing platforms, and it is here to stay. Thus, in the next blog post, we would like to talk about the potential future of email. What could email marketing look like with voice assistant technology securing its place in the market?

Make sure you check our blog regularly, and don’t forget to subscribe to our emails. Or you may want to follow up on the last blog post on Hacking Email Marketing Once and For All if you’ve missed it.