13 workflows for email marketing automation

Do you manage your mail contacts, or do they just rest in your database? If you do not use automated workflows for working with electronic mailings , then probably the correct answer is the second, which means that you miss a lot of opportunities to “grow” and involve already existing contacts in the sales funnel.

Lead nurturing campaigns are not the only way to automate email marketing that will allow you to efficiently manage your contact database. Automating email marketing will help you not only increase lead conversion, but also retain existing customers, increase product acceptance rates, increase sales (upsell) and stimulate evangelism.
')
The HubSpot marketing automation service team has written an article in its blog about managing all types of email contacts from the database - we have prepared a brief squeeze of the main ideas of this material.

1) Thematic Workflows

Main triggers: page views or content download

Set up a workflow for each topic for which you are creating content. Suppose you breed unicorns, then your main topics will be food for unicorns, harness and riding unicorns. In this case, you could make customers useful and relevant offers (e-books, webinars, equipment) and run a thematic blog, create workflows for each topic and launch triggers when one of your contacts looks at the page or downloads content.

Thus, if a client downloaded your e-book called “10 tips on healthy nutrition of the unicorn”, then the workflow “nutrition of the unicorn” would start, sending him other useful information on this topic, for example, tips on caring for the unicorn.

2) Workflows for greeting a blog subscriber

Main trigger: Subscribe to your blog

Greet your blog's new subscribers with a nice and warm letter. In it, you can thank visitors for the subscription, remind you how your blog will be useful for them, make a brief overview of the subscription settings (and allow you to make changes at your own discretion), as well as submit the best blog articles or make other suggestions.

3) Workflow for greeting / learning a new customer

The main trigger: the stage of "life cycle"

If we are talking about warm greetings, create a series of friendly letters for the contact, which becomes customer status. In this case, you can run the trigger when the stage of the contact's life cycle changes to “customer / buyer”.

Thus, you will not only start a relationship with a new customer on a good note, but also keep it after making a purchase. If necessary, this workflow can be used to gradually send instructions on how to use your product or service.

4) Workflow to stimulate evangelism

Main triggers: visits, clicks and form filling

Create a dynamic list that automatically includes users who are genuinely interested in your product or service. For this purpose, use such trigger criteria as the number of visits to your website, clicks on letters or posts on social networks, as well as filling out forms. Then create a workflow in email to stimulate evangelism through the most popular content on social networks.

Since these contacts are already actively interacting with you, they are more likely to share your content with other users. You can also add criteria for the number of followers on Twitter to take advantage of popular users from your database.

5) Workflow for Lead Cultivation

Main trigger: multiple conversion events in the wide part of the funnel

If the contact repeatedly received your marketing offers (downloaded e-books or webinars) while staying at the top of the funnel, this could mean that it is ready for something more. Establish workflows that will help these contacts go down the sales funnel below.

If the contact is already your lead, try sending him contact material from the middle part of the funnel. This will probably turn it into a “marketing lead” (MQL, marketing qualified lead) or a potential buyer. In this workflow, you can include the most popular content or website pages that contributed to the conversion of leads into buyers (customer success stories, case studies, free demos, etc.). And the analysis of the so-called attribute report will help you determine the popular content.

6) Workflow for notifying sales managers

Main triggers: page views at the bottom of the funnel, conversion events

Each website has the most visited pages and conversion events that point to the most interesting product. First of all, identify them using the reporting tool. You will be convinced that, as a rule, these are pages with prices or a description of a product — that is, pages on which contacts can evaluate your product or service.

Set up workflows that will send internal notification of these important events to your sales team. Using personalization, give the manager all the necessary information about the lead, including the content that can be sent to him. This approach will allow your managers to turn to the most promising leads at the right time.

7) Workflow for re-engaging contacts

Master Trigger: Contact Inaction

Facilitate the re-engagement of inactive contacts through workflow. As a criterion for a trigger, you can use, for example, the time interval from their last visit to your site, filling out a form or following a link from a letter. Set up your workflow to send inactive contacts exclusive offers or coupons to interest them again.

8) Event Workflow

Main trigger: registration or participation in the event

Are you organizing an interactive event? Or an online event, such as a webinar? Use workflows in email to automate communication with participants or registered users before, during and after the event.

Create a workflow that sends the necessary information to registered users before an event, such as hotel accommodation, scheduled events, or data to register for online events. At the end of the event, set up a workflow that continues to nurture participants through sending out additional information and invitations to upcoming events.

9) Workflow for reminding of abandoned baskets

Main trigger: abandoned basket

If you do e-commerce, this workflow will be useful to you. His idea is quite simple: when a visitor adds a product to the cart and leaves the site without having made a purchase, the workflow reminds him of a forgotten purchase and motivates to complete it by offering to use a special discount or other bonuses.

10) Workflow to boost sales

Main trigger: past purchases

Communication with your customers should not stop after the purchase, especially if you offer a variety of different products and / or services. Use workflows to pre-sell existing customers or sell them additional products based on past purchases.

Create dynamically updated contact lists that purchase a specific product (or combination of products), and create workflows that will recommend other products / services or stimulate additional sales.

11) Workflow for customer satisfaction

Main trigger: high or low consumer loyalty index (NPS)

If you regularly conduct customer loyalty research from your database, you can use NPS indicators as a criterion for triggering a trigger.

Just determine how this indicator should be with a satisfied customer, and use it as a criterion for inclusion in the list of happy customers. Then set up your workflow to send out rewards in the form of exclusive content, offers or discounts to users who are on this list.

For dissatisfied customers, simultaneously launch another workflow that distributes content and offers in order to raise their level of satisfaction. Segment these customers for reasons of dissatisfaction and set up even more targeted workflows aimed at addressing these causes.

12) Workflow for engaging customers

Main triggers: user success metrics and product usage

If you are tracking user success rates, then you have another great opportunity. Suppose you want to collect examples of how customers use your products. In this case, you can set up a workflow that automatically invites customers to share their success story when they reach certain indicators.

In addition, if you monitor the level of acceptance of your product or the frequency of use of functions, you can set up a workflow for interacting with inactive users. He will send information about unused features or instructions for use.

13) Workflow to remind you of an upcoming purchase.

Main trigger: cyclical purchases

Are there contacts in your database that make purchases cyclically? Set up a workflow that will run after making the next purchase.

Let's say you sell eye care products, and a customer buys contact lenses six months in advance. Include this client in a workflow that automatically sends him an email after five months, when the lens supply comes to an end and the user needs a new set.

Other materials on the Pechkina blog:

• Email, social networks, instant messengers: What does the media influence and how to choose them
• How to create email-auto-answers: Analysis of 100 applications to support services of IT companies
• Working with email: How to reduce the number of incoming messages to zero
• Why spam is so hard to beat
• Email and Security: Is it possible to protect email correspondence?