Are your contacts moving with the times, or are they just floating around aimlessly in your marketing database?
If you haven’t created an email automation funnel, you probably fall into the latter—and that means you’re losing out on some huge opportunities to engage and nurture your existing customers.
Why do you need an email automation funnel?
Did you know that companies which use marketing automation to nurture their contacts see a 451% increase in successful leads? But email automation isn’t reserved solely for lead nurturing and is also a great tool for getting in touch with those contacts who have already purchased from you. It also assists you with pleasing your customers and encouraging activity, such as additional purchases, upsells, and greater product adoption through personalized emails triggered by the different touchpoints in the customer’s journey.
Setting up email automation funnels
To create these email funnels, you’ll need marketing automation software, like Campaign Monitor. There are a number of different providers that offer a variety of functions and features, so make sure to review them all before making a decision. For example, most of them will help you create personalized, automated email funnels that are triggered in several ways—when someone views a certain page on your blog, submits a form on your site, clicks on an ad, or is added to your mailing list.
Funnels also can be created with any data you’ve got about your customers, such as age, gender, geolocation, content downloads, transaction history, and more.
Pretty cool, huh?
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Examples of email automation funnels you should be using
Topic funnels
When you create content about an industry-related topic, create a funnel for it. For example, if you’re a health food supplier and you create content surrounding health supplements, dietary requirements, and meal substitutes, you would create an email funnel for each topic. Then, when a customer downloads or views something on one of these pages, the appropriate funnel will be triggered.
New customers
When a contact becomes a paying customer, consider creating a funnel that welcomes them. You can trigger this funnel at the lifecycle stage, once their status is updated to “customer.” This not only builds a great relationship with the customer after they’ve bought from you, but also keeps them engaged after their purchase. You could also use this funnel as an opportunity to provide more content, training, or advice based on their purchase.
Lead nurturing
If one of your contacts has downloaded an e-book, has looked at your offers, and attended a webinar, it’s highly likely they’re ready for the next step. Create a funnel that will help move these contacts further along in their customer journey. For example, if they’re a potential lead, offer them content that may help in their decision-making process, such as case studies, product demos, or free trials.
Abandoned cart
This funnel is incredibly useful if you’re an e-commerce business. How many times do customers get to the purchasing stage before leaving the site? Therefore, having an automated email funnel when this happens will give customers a gentle reminder that they’ve left some items in their cart. This will motivate them to complete the purchase, and you could also incentivize them to come back by giving them a discount.
An email automation funnel enables you to get the most out of your customer database, which can boost your revenue as well as provide a more satisfying customer experience.
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