What is Email Automation and How To Use It

Your Facebook ads are growing your audience and Google ads are driving traffic to your ecommerce store, however, you’re still missing out on sales even when customers are on your website. Email automation is another tool used by successful ecommerce sites to increase sales and build long-lasting relationships with customers. 

The unsung hero of digital marketing, fast growing ecommerce stores now enjoy an increase in sales, a higher conversion rate and a growing customer base, thanks to email automations. 

Indeed, one retailer recently enjoyed a massive 124% increase in open rates and a jaw-dropping 3,536% increase in revenue per email (RPE).

Email automations consistently help companies achieve growth. 

That’s because studies have found that some customers check their emails a massive twenty times daily. 

What is email automation?

Following initial setup, automation emails are sent out at scale on a series of customer behaviour triggers, so it eases the workload on your marketing team whilst generating new sales. Email automation includes cart abandonment emails, browse abandonment emails, subscriber Welcome email series, personalised birthday emails, and upsell emails. These emails are used to compliment your regular campaign emails.

It’s a tactic used by many of the most successful ecommerce companies. Below is a graph showing the growth for one of our specialist pet food ecommerce client, adding 10% extra to revenue every month from automations alone!

So, what can we learn from our experience in growing successful ecommerce stores? Our top 7 tips will show you how you can increase sales through email automation. 

So, let’s jump straight in!

7 top tips to ecommerce success through email automation.

1. Cart abandonment emails will turbo-charge your sales. 

You’re lying on the sofa in the evening, watching the latest Netflix hit and scrolling through an ecommerce store on your phone. 

And you’ve come across a product you love and add it to your cart. 

Uh, oh, dinner’s ready, so you don’t complete the purchase. 

Later that evening, you get an email reminding you that you still need to finish the check-out process.

“Oh yeah, I forgot about that!” you mumble to yourself as you go ahead and complete the purchase. 

That’s one example of email automation in all its glory, turning potentially lost income into sales.

This is our most successful type of email automation, especially when you offer the customer a small discount to push them over the line.

2. Create browse abandonment emails.

Your customers are juggling busy lives; work, kids, hobbies and entertainment.

As a result, they don’t always complete a purchase immediately and can benefit from a gentle, non-intrusive nudge.

Say hello to browse abandonment emails; the perfect email marketing tool to re-engage your website’s visitors after they’ve left your website.

So, what form could a browse abandonment email take?

It could be as simple as an email that reminds your customer what products they were viewing and a link that takes them back to that product on your website.

Klaviyo, one of the best email marketing software providers, has a great article on how to turn window shoppers into buyers: 18 browse abandonment email tips and examples.

3. Personalise your automated emails.

Two emails from two different ecommerce companies.

1. “Dear customer, see our latest products.”
2. “Dear Sandra, we’ve picked some products we know you will love.”

Which would you prefer?

Number two, of course.

Why?

Because it’s written for the customer and not for the brand, it feels bespoke and personalised. 

So, if you haven’t already, it’s great to personalise all your automated emails to include their name and a curated product list based on their browsing behaviour. 

PS: We’ve spoken previously in our blog about the importance of personalisation.

4. Make use of email drip campaigns.

It’s not unusual for customers to research a brand or product several times before they make their first purchase. This is where drip campaigns earn their keep.

Once a customer has created an account or signed up for your newsletter, they’ll get a series of emails that were pre-written but delivered at pre-arranged times that are unique to each customer.

So, for example, a company might set up a drip campaign that is triggered once a customer signs up for a weekly newsletter which offers them a discount on their first order. 

From there, the customer is automatically sent several emails that could serve as an introduction to the company, products or advice and valuable tips.

5. Make a great first impression with welcome series automation.

The old saying goes, “You never get a second chance to make a good first impression.”

For example, a new customer signs up for your mailing list and immediately receives a personalised welcome email.

And those welcome emails aren’t just a nice-to-have; three out of four customers expect to receive them in 2022.

Even better, studies have shown that welcome messages get read four times as much as other emails, receive five times more clicks and generate a massive 320% more income per email than other promotional messages.

Pretty impressive.

6. Customer win-back emails remind your customers why they love your company with intelligent re-engagement emails.

Every one of your customers is different.

So, it’s only natural that your customers might not interact or engage with your company every day, week, month or year.

And that’s where the trusty visitor re-engagement email comes in.

Let’s use an example.

You’re a mid-sized pet product ecommerce company. One of your regular customers hasn’t recently bought products or opened your emails.

This triggers pre-set criteria that could send them a personalised ‘15% off your next order’ discount code to encourage them to re-engage and buy from you.

Now you’re back to being the Wizard of Paws!

7. Order and shipment confirmations.

Customers expect an email to confirm their purchase when they order a product.

This usually consists of “Thank you for your order”, a summary of the order and how much you paid, and shipment confirmation.

But this email is prime real estate to add in an extra call to action subtly.

You could include links to other products, a discount on their next order or ask for a Trustpilot review.

Conclusion

Email marketing automation is probably the best marketing tool you’re not using.

The benefits are clear; ecommerce companies like yours can enjoy an increase in sales, more traffic to your website, and create a long-term relationship with your customers.

Inexpensive to set up and backed up with actionable data to refine your flows as you go along, email marketing automation represents value for money.

It removes the need for your staff to write out each time-consuming email individually, allowing your marketing team to focus on other parts of the business.

Are you ready to start with a tailored email marketing automation strategy and browse abandonment email campaign?

Web Bureau has grown national and international clients’ ecommerce stores by implementing email automation into their digital strategy. 

Using Klaviyo, one of the industry’s best email marketing platforms that features powerful email and SMS marketing automation, we’ve turned abandoned carts into cold hard cash.

GET IN TOUCH TODAY TO GET STARTED.