Email automation: what is it and how does it work?
As a true marketer, you are constantly trying to attract more website visitors and get more conversion out of your visitors. SEO, SEA and the social channels are fully deployed. But we often see that emailing customers is forgotten. While, in contrast to SEO and social advertising, this is actually a free channel. Fair enough: you often pay for the e-mail software. And you often get double or triple (or more!) out of it. And, you get the result pretty quickly! Especially when you start automating your e-mail flows. For e-commerce companies, this is an option that should not be missing in your marketing strategy. But what exactly is e-mail automation? We explain it all to you!
What is email automation?
Email automation is setting up an email (or e-mail flow) once and, via a trigger in your email programme, automatically sending the email out to the right people.
This way you let the system work for you! Setting up these emails is easier than you think: you have to think about what exactly you want to set up, then add conditions to get to the right target group, then set up an email with the right content and then trigger it. After that you will see your turnover grow. Per trigger, you can find out how many times the email has gone out, to which people, how many times the email has been opened, how many times it has been clicked, how many orders have been placed from the trigger and of course the most important: how much revenue you have generated. With Reloadify, you can see this all in one glance. Email automation has a lot of possibilities. The sky is the limit! How about sending an instruction video to your customers when they bought a certain product? Or sending an email to someone who abandoned his shopping cart. Or would you like to send your best sellers to your customers every week? Anything is possible, as long as you have the right data in front of you. The better your email flows are, the better your content is, the better your conversion will be. Above all, test what works and what does not. For example, this is what an automatic email flow looks like:
What do you need to send automatic emails?
You need a few things to start sending automatic emails. First of all, you need to buy an email software package that allows you to do this. At Reloadify we have the right data and the right triggers to set this up. Of course, there are more packages which can do this. At Reloadify, we keep it simple: through different rules, you can design a certain trigger (for example: customer left shopping cart 1 minute ago > fire trigger). We have made this so easy that anyone can work with it. Which is nice!
What else you need:
- Customer data: With the right data from your customers, it is only possible to use email automation. Do you have a first name or date of birth of your customer? Then you can use personalised automation. Do you know what your customer has bought or what he is interested in? Only then are good automations deployable.
- Triggers: In the email system you use, it must be possible to set triggers. Triggers are triggered by certain conditions that you define yourself. Think of a new subscription to your newsletter, whether your email has been opened, and so on. This way, the emails are sent automatically.
- A campaign flow: It is convenient for you to keep the overview for email automation. The emails are sent automatically, so it is useful to have some control over this. Draw what this should look like for yourself. In this way, you can monitor the flow and avoid bombarding your customers with 'double' emails that actually amount to the same thing.
Which email automations do you need for e-commerce?
There are countless possibilities for email automation. Which ones are the real must-haves for e-commerce companies? We give you a hint by sharing 11 email automations with you.
Welcome email automation
As soon as your customer has signed up for the newsletter, you want them to receive either a confirmation or a welcome email. Because how nice is it that you really welcome your customers who have signed up? Way too much fun, of course, so go for it! In your welcome mail, you give your customers a warm welcome and you tell them who you are and what you do. Another thing most customers appreciate is a discount code after signing up for the newsletter.
Onboarding email flow
After you have welcomed your customers, it is time to onboard them. This means basically telling your customers what you stand for. They also become familiar with you as the sender of newsletters. Customers who view and read your welcome and onboarding flow are much more engaged with your company and are therefore more likely to open your regular newsletter than those who have not.
Your onboarding flow can look like this:
- email onboarding 1: Here you explain what your shop offers. Think mainly about the product range and what people can come to you for.
- email onboarding 2: In this email, you explain exactly what the advantages of your web shop are. Think about points like the opening hours of the customer service, your return policy, your shipping terms, the guarantee, etc. This way, people become familiar with your web shop and they know what they can expect from you.
- email onboarding 3: In this email, you can highlight your top categories and maybe give away an incentive (discount). The onboarding is now over. Customers know what you can offer them and why they should come to you.
Email automation: the birthday mail
When you have the right data, it is easy to do something with it. Do you have the customer's date of birth? With a bit of a handy email system, a birthday email can be set up in no time.
In Reloadify, the trigger for this is very simple:
Because how nice is it that you give your customers a present on their birthday? Now we all know that many companies send you an email on your birthday. To stand out, it is also possible to send your customers an email a few days earlier with a nice present such as a free product or a unique discount code. On the birthday itself, you can send a reminder. Chances are that your birthday email will be well read! And... you only have to set this up once. Our system checks every second whether a profile matches or not.
Cross-sell automation
You will always have customers who do not yet know your entire range. Suppose you offer a cot and your customer buys it. A nice cross-sell action is then to offer the duvet as well. It is best to build this logic into your webshop. If this does not work, catch this problem via your email automation. As soon as the customer has purchased product X, send an email a few days later for product Y, which goes with it. It is advisable not to send this email immediately. Your customer has just ordered and paid and is still waiting for his or her order. It is then a bit late in the day to send an email that you have matching products. What you want is:
- Familiarize your customer with your entire range
- Persuade your customer to make another purchase
You do this by offering your customers the cross-sell items they have been waiting for.
Repeat orders via email automation
When your customer has bought a certain product, you would like your customer to buy this product again. This is called a repeat order. Repeat orders can be determined by the behaviour of your customers. Did your customer buy shampoo and you see that he buys it again after 4 weeks? Then the time between the orders (the so-called retention time) is 4 weeks. It is then a good idea to use an email automation that sends out an email after 2.5 weeks with the subject: 'Need a new shampoo? In this way, you are working on a personal level and you are giving your customer a push in the right direction to proceed with his repeat purchase.
Win back campagne
Bringing in your customers is difficult enough. But keeping your customers is perhaps even more difficult. You have to work on that too. Have your customers lost track of you and are they beyond your retention period? Get your customers back by starting a win back campaign. The name says it all: this is an email campaign to win back your customers. A win-back campaign is used for customers you are in danger of losing. Do you see that your customers place an order with you every four weeks? And has your customer still not placed an order in the fifth week? Then it's time to use your win back campaign. This email automation can be set up once and from then onwards, it will run for all your customers that you are in danger of losing. This target group is (often) brought back by including a discount code in your email. Reloadify allows you to generate discount codes automatically. Ideal for the win back mail!
Tell a friend
The refer-a-friend email always works very well. Which makes sense, because shopping together is much more fun than shopping alone! The refer a friend email means that your existing customers invite their friends to come shop with you. Nothing is for free: a discount code is only fair. At Reloadify, we want to make it as easy as possible for you: there is already a trigger for you to refer a friend. Create unique discount codes that can be used twice: once for your customer and once for his or her friend. With the refer-a-friend campaign you kill two birds with one stone: you activate your current customers again to place an order and you use your current customer base to have their friends place an order.
First time customer
You want your customers to have a positive experience of their purchase. Ordering online is in itself very anonymous: nobody bothers you during shopping and a web shop is a totally different experience than a physical shop. Therefore, you have to make it as pleasant as possible for your customer. You can create a positive experience after the first purchase. Has your customer ordered something from you for the first time? Hurray! That's almost worth a celebration. You can express this to your customer as well. You set up an automated email for this purpose. It is easy to filter out customers who have only placed one order with you. Draft an email to say that you are very pleased that the customer has ordered from you. This makes the customer feel special. Your customer will also have a positive experience from this: you mail your customer with a kind of 'thank you'. Adding a discount code in the email is possible, but not a must. When you include a discount code in the email, you can also present the discount code as a gift.
VIP customers
Do you have customers who order a lot and often? These may very well be VIP customers. VIP customers generate a lot of turnover, have a high order value and remain customers for a longer period of time. These are customers you would like to keep. Therefore, you can certainly go the extra mile for this customer group. VIP customers are special to you, so treat them as well. What about extra discounts? Would you rather not give them a discount? Then give this customer group extra benefits. Like early access to a certain sale. In Reloadify, you can easily set up an email that meets the requirements to find your VIP customers.
👉 Want to know more about VIP clients and how to reach them? Check out our blog about VIP clients and how to find and keep them.
