2. Email Automation Guide
How can you make a bigger impact with your email marketing
campaigns – without investing more dollars and manpower? Email automation is the answer.
Email continues to be an effective communications tool – after all, virtually everyone in the online
world uses it. For marketers, the high penetration rate of email means that it’s a great way to reach
customers at a low cost. And because it’s a direct sales driver, the returns are very strong.
It comes as no surprise then that according to a B2B
Within the digital sector, email far
Magazine 2011 poll of business-to-business (B2B)
outperforms every other channel on return
marketers, 68 percent reported that they plan to spend
on investment (ROI), which is projected to
more on email marketing this year.
average an impressive $44.25 for every dollar
Understanding how to make the most of email spent in 2011.
marketing programs starts with an understanding Source: DMA 2011
of email automation and how it can be utilized within the context of customer relationship
management. A belief that automated email messages are robotic and impersonal couldn’t be
further from the truth. Email automation done right improves the customer experience, as well as
deliverability, marketing efficiencies, relevancy and ROI.
B2B Digital Spending Increases 2011
Source: B2B Magazine, 2011
In this guide, we’ll cover the latest statistics, facts and trends in email automation, discuss
the benefits and opportunities, and provide strategies that can help you improve email
campaign performance:
• Leverage welcome programs to maximize subscriber value at acquisition.
• Incorporate dynamic content to improve personalization and relevancy.
• Implement trigger campaigns based on subscriber activity and behaviors.
• Create drip campaigns to strengthen subscriber relationships over time.
Plus, check out our Bonus Checklist: Idea Starters for High-Touch Trigger Campaigns.
Marketing Guide 2
3. Email Automation Guide
Automation Stats, Facts and Trends
Email automation can be defined as the use of software tools to automate email management, including welcome programs, dynamic
content, trigger campaigns and drip marketing. Automation makes otherwise manual email processes much more efficient and frees
up time and resources for new, more sophisticated programs. Plus, when you automate, you unquestionably save time and money –
you’re not recreating the wheel every time you launch a campaign.
Automated email programs done right also improve relevancy, because automation allows you to customize content dynamically and
ensures that you’re delivering the right message to the right subscriber at the right time. In fact, according to a 2010 Aberdeen Group
study, best-in-class companies leverage automation 45 percent more often than weaker performing organizations.
Automation also improves open rates. Depending on
the content and industry, marketers are reporting that Automation = Better Subscriber Experience = Higher Revenue
automated emails are garnering a 30 - 70 percent open rate. MarketingSherpa presented findings on the impact of trigger emails sent
This is a wide range, but when you compare it to open rates immediately after onsite searches for lowfares.com. By sending these
achieved through manual programs, the impact is clear. highly targeted and timely messages, lowfares.com achieved 200% higher
open rates and 50% higher click-through rates than what they were able
Manual programs deliver open rates of 10 - 20 percent on to get with their standard newsletter.
average – significantly less than automated programs. This
metric is particularly important because it directly impacts
revenue. If more subscribers open your emails, more subscribers convert. And more conversions mean more revenue.
Automation Benefits
Having established the importance or automation in email marketing, the challenge becomes how to successfully capture all the
benefits that automation can deliver to your email campaigns:
Benefit #1: Significant improvement in the economics of your campaign performance overall. Automation allows you to
understand your subscribers better, and the more that you know about your subscribers, the better able you are to deliver value. And
better delivery of value translates directly into higher revenue.
The beauty is that you can achieve this revenue bump without incurring additional costs. In fact, automation reduces your resource
requirements – both man hours and cash investment through creating a streamlined, efficient workflow.
Benefit #2: Improved deliverability and sender reputation. Your deliverability reputation is a combination of positive response
rates – things like opening and clicking – and negative response rates, which include things like spam complaints and subscriber
inactivity over a certain time period.
When you automate effectively, you engage your subscribers in the way that they want to be engaged. This translates into stronger
trust and less fraud, which in turn increases your deliverability rate and improves your reputation. Internet service providers (ISPs)
carefully watch response rates and complaints to assess your sender reputation. If your subscribers are more engaged, more of your
messages will land in the inbox.
Benefit #3: Improved subscriber engagement. When you send a subscriber the right message at the right time, you improve the
quality of the dialogue and relationship with that subscriber, which, in turn, improves your response rates.
Marketing Guide 3
4. Email Automation Guide
By automating activity tracking, you make it possible to trade shows, events and product releases. By implementing a
understand what your subscribers need and what will motivate welcome program across all opt-in sources, you give your new
them to act favorably within the always-critical window subscribers a chance to expand their interest categories through
of opportunity. preference setting.
Automation Opportunities It’s also important to remember that welcome programs are
Whether you’re getting started with automation or looking not only applicable to a first point of contact. They can also be
to build a broader automation infrastructure, it’s important employed at any new milestone in a relationship, such as when
to understand the range of automated programs available to a customer signs up for an additional subscripstion, registers a
you. Each serves a different and important purpose in your previously unregistered account or reactivates after a period
campaign toolbox. of time.
Welcome Programs To recap, here are the key points to focus on when executing a
If you do nothing else with automation, the welcome program is welcome program:
unquestionably the most important. • Conduct a touch-point review to make sure that you’re
capturing data across all opt-in sources.
Welcome programs are ideal for automation because the
messages and delivery are pre-determined, saving you time, • Make sure that the call-to-action in your welcome email
money and manpower. Welcome messages are sent automatically is in a logical place, visually distinct and communicates an
immediately after someone subscribes, places an order or obvious benefit.
registers with your company. They serve as the foundation of • Funnel your prospects to a concise landing page to capture
your relationship with your subscribers and present the perfect only data essential to completing registration.
opportunity to get off on the right foot and learn a host of • After registration is complete, immediately send out a
valuable information about them – giving your company an confirmation email to express your thanks, verify the opt-in
advantage in the long term. and invite the new subscriber to set preferences.
Information gathering through welcome programs is best • Once you have captured subscribers’ content preferences,
make sure to deliver consistently against those preferences
achieved through a structured path of engagement and data
and provide the opportunity to update their choices.
capture. The process involves funneling subscribers to a landing
page featuring data capture forms. Once the subscriber submits
the requested information, a confirmation email is sent asking
new subscribers to verify that they did indeed intend to opt in.
Confirming this helps keep your list clean and improves your
deliverability through a more engaged subscriber base.
Welcome campaigns should be linked to all opt-in sources.
Every business has a unique set of opt-in opportunities – what’s
important is to capture registrations from all your customer
touch points, including newsletter subscriptions, point-of-sale,
account registration, first purchase, reactivation and social
media. You can also leverage interest-based signups – things like
Marketing Guide 4
5. Email Automation Guide
ESPN Welcome Email Engages
and Informs
Lyris client ESPN uses a solidly-executed Notice that it confirms the subscriber’s
welcome program to deliver highly- name and provides prominent calls-to-
targeted, relevant content to its action to set preferences. The email
subscribers, based on their reported also communicates value through a list
interests. Once a new subscriber of contents and prizes that the new
completes a Web form to sign up subscriber can access. There’s also an
to receive email, ESPN sends out opportunity to connect on social media.
a welcome email to acknowledge
the registration.
Dynamic Content
A dynamic content email is one in which the content is varied to create highly individualized and targeted messages. The content is
based on a wide variety of gathered data, including contact information, demographics, behavioral patterns and preferences.
By pulling from these different data points, marketers can create content blocks within offers to create a customized stream.
The key benefits of dynamic content are the ability to create a
personalized experience, achieve better relevancy and timeliness,
and spur more active customer engagement. The use of dynamic content in email automation
has been proven to increase order size, response
The value that automation delivers to dynamic content lies in and revenue because these types of emails are more
the ability to create filters that seamlessly deliver customized relevant to the recipient.
content without any manual intervention. It’s a great way to
deliver highly relevant, timely and personalized messages that
generate better performance for you and a better experience for
your email subscribers.
Dynamic Content Best Practices
Dynamic content is as effective as the data that it leverages. That’s why it’s critical to execute a fully featured welcome
program to capture both demographic and preference data. Then, by overlaying behavioral data, filters can be set up based
on pre-determined business rules, in effect automating personalization. Well-designed filtering rules can vastly improve the
subscriber experience.
Marketing Guide 5
6. Email Automation Guide
Trigger Campaigns Drip Marketing
Today’s most successful marketing campaigns use triggers to Drip marketing is defined as a communication strategy that sends
automatically send email based on customer behavior. A trigger – or “drips” – a specified sequential set of messages to customers
can be a customer action or response, an event like a date, a and prospects at predetermined intervals. Unlike other types of
website update or a response to Web analytics or Web visit data. automated campaigns, drip marketing isn’t driven by subscriber
By establishing a set of business rules and criteria around such behaviors and preferences. Instead, it’s typically driven by
customer behaviors, marketers can decide the right message, the the marketer.
right customer and the right time, and use the combination for
So what kinds of things can you incorporate into your
highly-effective programs.
drip campaigns?
Trigger-based marketing programs seize the moment by capturing
• Educative content – things like Webinars, white papers
just-in-time data and turning it into automated, executable and guides. This provides immediate value and a halo effect
campaigns while the window of opportunity with customers and around good will and thought leadership.
prospects is wide open.
• Events – like an invitation to a seminar, a party at a
Trigger campaigns are effective because they are customer driven tradeshow or a networking event. Your campaign could
include offers around discounted registration or an
– when a customer signals you and you respond, you nurture
invitation to a “bonus” event followed by a formal invitation
your customer relationship. You’re then in a good position and a last chance offer.
to implement high-touch campaigns that deliver value with
• Special offers that motivate engagement with your
each message. Messages won’t be perceived as unwanted and
products, services and people – for instance, you can
annoying because they’re initiated by your subscriber. entice a subscriber pre-conversion to try your product for
free, or you can offer consultations.
Once set up, trigger email programs work automatically and don’t
require day-to-day management. They aren’t subject to delays
when resources are tight or other priorities come up. And trigger Drip marketing is frequently used as a sales
email can complement broader communications like newsletters, cycle management tool. Particularly for
special offers or acquisition programs. industries with long sales cycles, it can be a
very effective technique for keeping prospects
The Bonus Checklist at the end of this guide provides 12 ideas in the pipeline.
for trigger campaigns that you can use to strengthen your
relationship with your subscribers.
Setting Up a Trigger Campaign
• Automate customer-driven activities and events. The • Develop a trigger plan that defines what will be sent, to
window of opportunity to respond to these interactions is whom and when.
narrow; automation ensures timeliness. • As your data capture continues to grow, look for new
• When designing your campaigns think through the migration opportunities to expand your trigger programs, and
of your customer through your trigger program and remember: your performance improvement hinges on the
establish rules for what happens for all the possibilities. quality of your business rules.
Marketing Guide 6
7. Email Automation Guide
A drip marketing best practice is to leverage good will offers – things that will help your subscribers succeed. Try content, event and
other special offers to deliver meaningful value. Since these offers require an investment to fulfill, make sure that you’re qualifying
your leads and segregating them into tiers for drip campaigns. While you don’t want to lose lower tier leads, you also don’t want to
invest a significant amount to convert them if the return is low, nor do you want to get distracted from higher value targets.
The key at the end of the process is to secure the conversion with a strong ROI.
Sonic Bids Drip Campaign:
Daily Alerts to Upcoming Events
Lyris client Sonic Bids helps bands get triggered daily drip campaign about new
gigs and promoters book the right bands upcoming events, a great way to provide
– the site connects musical artists and relevant, timely information and stay
agents. Sonic Bids has set up a top-of-mind with their subscribers.
Conclusion
Email automation delivers a wealth of opportunity for marketers today. It’s a key driver in
delivering the consistent growth and returns enjoyed by best-in-class companies who systemize best
practices around automated email programs.
Automation done right goes beyond improving email campaign performance. It also contributes to improved email deliverability,
sender reputation and subscriber engagement through a range of automated programs that serve different and important purposes:
Welcome programs are essential to getting off on the right foot with new subscribers. Gathering information and setting preferences
lay the foundation for a great experience.
Dynamic content provides a great way to keep content fresh, interesting and personalized.
Trigger campaigns leverage customer-initiated actions that provide the opportunity to respond in a timely fashion and seize the
moment during a narrow window of opportunity.
Drip marketing is an important tool for managing the sales process and building customer retention.
As importantly, email automation is a strong contributor to the bottom line, leveraging email’s superior ROI performance over all
other marketing channels and improving marketing efficiencies to free up time and resources for other initiatives.
Marketing Guide 7
8. Email Automation Guide
Bonus Checklist: Idea Starters for High-Touch Trigger Campaigns
Abandoned Shopping Cart email – These campaigns more than double the number of orders and the order size. Send an email
announcing a special offer, free shipping or other sweetener to encourage someone to come back and complete his or her
purchase. Refine these email messages by testing different offers and timing: while you may think that the sooner an email is sent,
the better, many companies have found that timing the trigger email to go out 24 or 48 hours later is more effective.
Win-back programs – Set up trigger email messages that include incentives for those who haven’t purchased or visited your
website for a while. Start with those who haven’t purchased in the last three months, six months and a year. Use their purchase
history to determine the right offer and then use dynamic content to easily deploy email to a wide variety of audiences.
Satisfaction survey email – Send trigger email with a satisfaction survey after the first purchase and on a metered schedule after
that. Consider offering a discount or prize for those who take the survey. Remember to quickly act upon anything customers
have complained about and investigate their suggestions.
Cross-sell email – Use trigger email to cross-sell from other products, particularly from lower performing products to best
sellers. Set up a trigger email whenever someone either buys or looks at a product on your site that isn’t one of your top 10. It
should promote a special offer on your strongest product – and hopefully convert visitors to customers and larger sale.
Email “punch card” program – Set up a program to keep track of the number of purchases by unique customers. When
customers have purchased 10 times, give them a free gift or discount coupon. Use a trigger email series to let them know how
many punches they have made and to promote special offers or products to encourage them to add another punch to their card.
Customer service trigger email – For those who have contacted customer service, trigger a follow-up email asking if their
concern was addressed to their satisfaction. Provide contact information, hours of operation and response time frame for
unresolved customer service inquiries.
Internal notifications – While not a customer-facing application, don’t be afraid to use the trigger email functionality to
communicate with your sales or customer service teams. For instance, you can set up email alerts so a sales rep can follow up to
make sure all is well if a customer reviews particular content on your website or goes to a customer service page. Or, send email
alerts to your PR team for follow-up when reporters visit your press room.
Seasonal trigger email – If you sell sports-related products, set up triggers before championship matches to promote logo
merchandise. For health care or beauty products, set up triggers to automatically remind customers to order more allergy
medicine or sunscreen when hay fever season or hot weather rolls around again. Use holidays or special events as triggers,
segmented by purchase history, to create trigger email messages for products and offers that are relevant to your subscribers.
Service reminder triggers – If your company provides a service such as tire rotation, software upgrades, dental checkups,
furnace filter replacements and so on, send reminders to set the next appointment or to take advantage of special offers.
Milestone email – Offer your customers a discount or gift on their birthday, anniversary or other special day. If you market to
businesses, send an offer on start-up anniversaries or on the first day a business started working with your company.
Reactivation email – If customers have not purchased or clicked through an email in more than six months, their likelihood
of purchasing in the future is low. A reactivation email can promote new targeted offers or a general discount to get those
customers to purchase from you again.
Email alerts – Encourage your customers to modify their profiles to set up alerts when new products are in stock, when their
favorites go on sale or to receive alerts when new content is uploaded to your website. These are great because they are truly
customer-initiated.
Marketing Guide 8
