Influencers and content creators are notoriously losing sleep due to tight schedules, an influx of brand business emails and never ending social media DMs.

I know your subscribers might wonder what you do all day, thinking that influencing is a walk in the park, but if they saw the business side of it they would take back their assumptions in a heartbeat.

Influencing is a hugely time consuming job so it’s no wonder many creators are seeking help from external sources. It means they can concentrate on creating consistently amazing content and expanding their revenue streams.

I work with Coy Co, a full service technology company which helps influencers monetize their platforms and one of the most underutilized technologies influencers are sleeping on is the power of email automations.

You might be thinking,

What are email automations, and why should I care about them?

Email automations: a process where you can specify exact emails to be sent specifically at the right time to the right people. Did I mention, you only have to create these automations once, even though they are sent out multiple times.

A streamlined email automation system comes with a variety of perks you don’t want to miss out on. 

1. It’s automatic which saves time and extra work.
2. It allows you to nurture leads and turn them into brand advocates.
3. You can give each subscriber personalised content.
4. You are able to leverage your marketing strategy effectively.
5. It reduces costs.
6. It Increases sales and revenue.
7. You will be able to increase brand awareness.
8. Target your customers with accuracy.
9. Segment your customers and clearly understand them.
10. Reduce the margin of error in customer service.
11.  Retain existing customers.
12.  Get detailed reporting for making data driven decisions.

Sounds like a savvy process doesn’t it.

I’ve broken down some ways in which you can implement these automations. 

I have used these myself and let me tell you, they work. 

Let’s start at the beginning with a welcome series 

A welcome series automation will be triggered when a new customer signs up to your email list. You can use a welcome series to nurture new leads with a series of pre planned emails.

A great welcome email includes most, if not all, of these 6 components:

1. A confirmation update along with a thank you note to your new subscriber or customer.
2. The lead magnet or whatever incentive was promised in exchange for subscribing. Discounts are very common among e-commerce brands but it pays to get creative with your lead magnet. Consumers like to see something unique. 
3. Information about what the subscriber can expect from your emails.
4. An introduction to your company.
5. Instructions for whitelisting you.
6. Contact information and links to your social channels.
   
   When constructing an email welcome series, I look at the clients goals and the customers served so I can create something unique to that business model’s requirements. A service based client in the dental industry will have different needs than a athleisure e-commerce brand so a “one size fits all” template simply won’t work.
   
   This welcome email from Lyft is a great opening example:

WINBACK CAMPAIGN SERIES

It’s one challenge acquiring customers but keeping them is a whole other issue. 

A winback campaign is designed to capture unengaged customers and encourage them to back into your brand.

According to activecampaign.com, 45% of customers that receive a winback campaign will begin opening your future emails. This is how you save people from dropping off and becoming uninterested in your brand.

Top tip: You may find that customers will unsubscribe to you no matter how good your winback campaign is. This can be due to many different circumstances, for example, maybe they are at a different stage in their life and have grown out of your content. 

I really encourage you to clear your email list of unengaged customers.

I know you might be thinking “But Roslyn, why would I want my list to have less followers than before? More is more right?”

At first glance this seems like a logical train of thought but in actual fact this strategy will go against your brand. 

The answer is simple.

If you clear your list of unengaged subscribers, it will result in your open and click rates going up.

What’s even more notable is that you will have less emails marked as spam. Providers like Google actually log spam complaints. If they get a certain number of complaints they will automatically place your emails directly in everyone’s spam folders.

Remember: Open rate > Number of subscribers

Here are some examples of winback campaign emails: 

ABANDONED CART CAMPAIGN

Customers abandoning their carts is a real issue in the e-commerce space. 

Here are the facts:

According to Geckoboard, the abandonment cart rate websites see around 68.81% to 74.52%. So even if you manage to get people to click “add to cart” you will still lose a lot of sales. 

Whatsmore…

According to Carl Sednaoui of MailCharts, “the average person gets 1 interruption every 8 minutes, while the average employee gets interrupted 56 times a day. This is where cart abandonment emails come into play. By sending out one or more emails, companies can typically recover between 5% and 11% of otherwise lost sales.”

Before I set up an abandoned cart automation I always ask myself this one question.

Does it make sense for the business?

What’s the point of going to all that trouble setting up an automation and providing a discount if it puts you, the business owner out of pocket?

That’s an oversight and a mistake which could result in disaster for your end of year accounts. You have to consider each and every one of your overhead costs when pricing out your products, offers and discounts. 

Once you have a clear answer, it’s time to structure your campaign. 

An abandoned cart email series can be structured like this:

Email 1: A reminder that the customer has left the item in their cart.

Email 2: Follow up. Include scarcity tactics.

Email 3: Promotional discount.

The key to ensuring these campaigns are successful is to personalise the campaign to the customer you are sending it to. Generic emails are too easy to ignore. Write a killer subject line and make sure the copy is compelling, without being too lengthy.

Here are some great examples of abandoned cart emails:

Extra tip: Including reviews and social proof in this campaign will help convince your customer to hit that “buy now” button.

BROWSE ABANDONMENT

Did you know that you can capitalise on your customers, even if the intent was simply to browse your site?

This is where Browse Abandonment automations come in. 

Customers who are already registered to your mailing list can be sent this type of campaign. With Browse Abandonment, you are keeping those products at the eye line of the customer. 

Ensure that you are featuring the products that the customer has actually looked at on your site. If you feature too many different products, it will make the experience too overwhelming and they will be less likely to make a decision and purchase. Personalisation is a must. 

In your Browse Abandonment automation, you can also relate your stock levels to your products to create a scarcity or FOMO mindset within the customer. Even if the customer has browsed a product which is sold out you can keep them interested by sending them an email once that item is back in stock. 

One issue that customers come across whilst online shopping is confusion. Maybe they need a bit of extra help. Signposting where to reach customer service within the email will help reduce this confusion and inspire confidence to purchase with your brand. 

Check out these Browse Abandonment emails for reference:

REWARD LOYALTY

For customers who spend a lot with your brand, it is important to show that you appreciate them. You can do this by giving them a reward. A little appreciation goes a long way.

Depending on your business model you can do this with the following:

1. Loyalty programs
2. Special incentives and appreciation gifts for high spending or VIP customers

The key is to try and maximise each customer’s lifetime value by encouraging them to buy from your brand again and again.

Looking ahead

My prediction for the future is that even though it’s an extremely new market, there will be a crossover between NFTs and email loyalty programs. 

Check out these loyalty based emails:

GENERATE REAL FEEDBACK

Not sure why your engagement keeps dropping? 

Perhaps you’ve dropped a new collection, and you’re not sure how it went down. 

Enter real feedback.

Use feedback emails to give your business a reality check. There’s no point in surrounding yourself with “yes” men. Sometimes friends and family can be too close to give objective feedback, and this can hold you back, putting a barrier between you and your customers.

Feedback emails can be used for the following:

• Winback campaigns.
• As an interactive quiz which entertains the customer, but provides market research for you as to what that customers preferences are. The preferences can then be sorted into groups, so you can reach out to them with tailored campaigns in the future. 
• To rate your customer service and or products.
• To encourage them to leave a real review on your site. This can be particularly useful if you are looking to gain that much needed social proof on Google. 

Take a look at these feedback emails for reference:

BIRTHDAY SURPRISE

It’s the little extras that count!

A birthday email celebrates your customers, showing that you remember and appreciate them.

The result?

Increased customer retention and the possibility that your customer will participate in word of mouth marketing. 

Here’s how you can also drive sales with this automation:

• Make a personalised gift offer, created based on your customers preferences.
• Implement a mystery offer to increase click through rates. The anticipation!
• Make your email stand out from a design perspective. Your customer is probably receiving a tonne of messages from other emails. Being seen is a must!

The proof is in the data. According to Experian, birthday emails have 481% higher transaction rates than promotional emails.

Check out these excellent examples of birthday emails: 

SET APPOINTMENT REMINDERS

Here’s a little hack that will save you time and money.

Reasons appointments are missed:

Want to prevent customers from missing appointments?
Sending a reminder to go out the day before an appointment will significantly reduce the risk of a customer missing their appointment.

Missed appointments mean lost time from rescheduling and less money brought in overall because that is a space you could have filled. 

Here are some pointers for setting appointment reminders:

• Keep the use of capital letters to a minimum.

Tone is really difficult for humans to process through text. In some cultures using capital letters can be seen as shouting. This will make your appointment reminder seem rather unfriendly and unapproachable. This is something we want to avoid!

The key in business is to nurture relationships, whilst still setting boundaries.

• Ask your clients to arrive 5-10 minutes in advance to avoid delays in your schedule. 
• State your no-show policy. 

Some businesses like to mention their no show policy in the appointment reminder, not only to incentivise the client to turn up on time, but also to make it clear that the client will need to compensate the company for no shows. 

You could even get them to reply and confirm that they will honor the appointment. If they write back saying they can’t make it you can then reschedule. 

Feel like that was a lot to take in?

The opportunities and possibilities within email automation are really impressive. Having that control and personalisation allows you to hone in on your goals and target the right people with the right campaigns.