Email marketing is not limited to just scheduling email blasts to your subscribers, have you set up marketing automation for your business?
Marketing automation, as its name suggests, is a workflow you can configure so that automated emails will be triggered and sent upon specified conditions.
This is especially useful for e-commerce and retail businesses to nurture your subscribers (be it potential or existing customers) so that you can get more sales from them!
The question is, what kind of automated emails should you consider? In this article, we compile 5 automated email campaigns you can easily configure via your email platform:
- Sign-up / Welcome Email
- Abandoned Cart Reminder Email
- Post-Purchase Follow-up Email
- Re-engagement / Revival Email
- Upsell / Cross-Sell Email
Do take note that these automated emails are best for B2C businesses that sell products or services to end consumers. Marketing automation for B2B can be quite different altogether.
EMAIL MARKETING
1. Sign-up / Welcome Email
When to send it? Upon new subscription
Imagine when you recruit new members offline for your loyalty program, they are given a welcome pamphlet, right? The same can be done for online email subscribers.
From our observations, many e-commerce or retail businesses are not sending this yet. This is so easy to set up so don’t waste the opportunity to leave a good first impression on your customers!
Cotton On has one of the best welcome emails as shown above, you can take a leaf out of their email by having these elements in your welcome email:
- Benefits of shopping with you: For example, free shipping, return policy etc.
- Intro to your product offerings: Key brands or product categories you offer.
- Offer welcome coupon code: Best to be unique code with limited validity for “exclusiveness”.
- What to expect by subscribing: For example, exclusive previews, birthday treat etc.
2. Abandoned Cart Reminder Email
When to send it? X duration after dropped cart
The interest to purchase is marginally higher when a product is added to the shopping cart, therefore it will be a missed opportunity if the cart is not checked out eventually.
It is fundamental for e-commerce players to send a reminder email whenever there is a dropped cart, this can be set up systematically via marketing automation workflow.
The way Mango is mimicking a shopping cart look and feel in its email reminder is pleasant. On top of a standard reminder, you might also want to consider giving your customers one last push by showcasing existing customer’s reviews, limited-time discounts etc.
3. Post-Purchase Follow-up Email
When to send it? X duration after a purchase
Customer testimonial or review is important for any e-commerce business to gain trust, especially from new customers who have never bought anything from you.
Email via marketing automation is an effective yet unintrusive way to send the post-purchase request to your customers asking for product feedback or review.
Best to send post-purchase after a couple of days so that your customers would have sufficient time to try or use your product. You can also include after-sales information like return & exchange, or recommend related products in this email.
4. Re-engagement / Revival Email
When to send it? To members who haven’t opened email / made a purchase
This campaign is also fondly known as “the revival of the dead“, haha!
Rules can be set in marketing automation to identify subscribers who have never opened your email or made a purchase, provided an integration between the email platform and shopping cart system is already in place.
Besides offering a discount coupon, is there any other way to wake the dead? Guess not. You can also opt to inactivate sleeping subscribers after this revival email, especially those who have never opened your email after subscribing for a period of time.
5. Upsell / Cross-Sell Email
When to send it? To members who have purchased before
Forget about the dead, this is to stimulate your existing customers to buy more from you!
It is important to increase the LTV (lifetime value) of your online customers so you can be creative in upselling or cross-selling tactics, the ultimate goal is to boost repeat purchases via automated emails.
The example above might look simple to you, but Manchester United sent this email to their members right after they won a key match against PSG in the UEFA Champions League.
Even with just a free shipping promo, Man United is riding on the emotional high of their fans, at the right time, to spend more and celebrate the glory.
While this is more like an ad-hoc campaign instead of an automated email, you get the point of how to use email marketing to encourage repeat purchases.
