What Is Email Automation? A Complete Guide

• Updated on: 2024-08-24
• Read original article here

Did you know that the first-ever email was sent in 1971, over a decade before the official birthday of the internet?

Since then, email communication has gotten so sophisticated and normalized that most people can’t help checking their inboxes multiple times a day. This is one reason why email marketing can be quite effective. Of course, it can be next to impossible for a single person to send out thousands of emails a week, which is why email automation is so crucial.

Have you ever asked yourself, “What is email automation?” Keep reading to learn all about it and how it can help your business.

If you’ve never heard of email automation, you should know that it’s something many small businesses use across a wide range of industries. As the name suggests, email automation is automatic and allows you to send pre-formed emails to people based on a determined action. There’s a lot of variety in email automation, which allows you to tailor it to whatever needs you may have.

It’s important to distinguish email automation from mass email broadcasts. Mass emails are those that get sent to every email address on your list. On the other hand, email automation only occurs if a certain action triggers it, and then it will be sent to that specific person.

A popular type of email automation occurs when people sign up for mailing lists. The action of signing up is the trigger that sends a welcome email to the new person on your list. Other possibilities of email automation include purchase confirmations, invitations to review a specific product, profile password changes, appointment confirmations, and so much more.

Since the exact type of automated email will depend on the action performed, you can tweak the emails so that they are more personalized and targeted.

The beauty of email automation is that it only needs to be set up once. From then on, you can allow the system to run itself while you focus on other small business tasks. If you ever need to update something, then you’ll be glad to know that the process is as easy as tinkering with a single form email.

Aside from saving you a vast amount of time, email automation can also make sure your business itself is on time. For instance, it could be bad form on your end if you were to send an email to a customer at 5 in the morning. Things can get extra complicated if you have customers who are spread across different time zones.

When it comes to email marketing tips, you can use automation to send emails at the right moment according to different time zones. After all, the recipient is less likely to open up an email if they get it in the middle of the night. Not only could it get flagged as spam, but it could also get buried beneath other emails that are sent by the time a user checks their inbox.

Automated emails can also make your email marketing campaigns more successful overall. The reason for this is that the emails people receive through automation will be relevant to their actions and other information. With this in mind, users are much more likely to click on links and perform other actions that can increase communication and engagement.

This also helps a lot with retaining customers. Keep in mind that it takes much more energy and resources, in general, to recruit a new customer than it does to keep an older one. Email automation has also proven itself effective with customer retention.

The main differences between a successful email and one that gets trashed are timeliness and personalization. Most people will get rid of an email that was sent a few hours after you signed up saying, “Hey, there! Long time no see. Please come back to our site!”

Put in the simplest terms, all email marketing strategies will hit their limit if you are taking advantage of email automation. The more you grow your list, for instance, the more your team will be spread thin. Instead of waiting for this outcome, you can allow email automation to manage and scale your business’s growth.

In one way, email automation is like hiring a whole new staff, except it’s something that can work like clockwork at any time of the day or night. While automation is focusing on the rote and form emails, your real staff can focus their brainpower on very specific and custom emails. They can also expand their horizons and shoot for the stars with ambitious email campaigns.

After all, you wouldn’t want to have your team scrambling for help when your email lists double or even triple within a short span of time. Not only will email automation lift the weights from their shoulders, but it can also provide your team with more useful data.

Aside from the actions that spur an automated email, you’ll learn how effective such emails are. Every click-through, sign-up, and online purchase will contribute to a data pool that can inform your overarching email marketing strategies. They say that knowledge is power and that definitely applies to the world of marketing.

Has a friend or family member ever asked you the question, “What is email automation?” Now that you’ve learned all about it, you can explain it to them in detail. If they have a business as well, be sure to recommend the tech to them.

We at Vertical Response have all the marketing expertise and automation software you could ever need. From an easy-to-use editor and automated follow-ups to surveys and advanced reporting, the tools you’ll have access to can heighten your business’s success.

Best of all, we have two service packages that can fit whatever budget you may have.