Email Workflows That WON’T Spam Consumers’ Inboxes


Email Workflow Best Practices

There’s a grey space that exists between customer interest and purchase. It is in this spot where you want to nurture your leads, and keep them flowing through your marketing funnel. An excellent way to keep the momentum going is establishing your email workflow. Consumers looking for added value often sign up for emails that provide additional information about a specific business or industry, such as special events, new products, recalls, DIY articles and videos, infographics, and white papers.

Sometimes, however, they do not sign up for these emails. So, by staying on top of visitor behavior, you can figure out what kind of automated email should be triggered.

Wait… What is an Email Workflow?

Put simply, an email workflow refers to the automated emails that you set up to be delivered in response to specific customer behavior. The reason these are absolutely worth your time is because workflows take over the task of guiding prospects through the sales funnel to a purchase decision.  It can not only help you convert leads into customers, but . . . [also]  encourage activity like greater product adoption, upsells, evangelism, and additional purchases.

How it Works

Email workflow uses  a series of “if this, then that” logic decisions to match each customer with the email campaign(s) that’s right for them, based on their behavior.

Perhaps a visitor downloaded some information from your website, but that’s it. One action item you can set up is a “Welcome” email that is immediately generated and points them to specific information on a certain part of your site or offers another download.

Did you know? Welcome emails have 320% more revenue per email than other promotional emails. Email is still one of the preferred ways that consumers like to receive marketing information, and it has a very high return on investment, leading the Harvard Business Review to declare that “Email Marketing is King”.

Sometimes a visitor doesn’t download anything and simply visits a particular page that gives you insight as to what they might be needing. You can also set up a specific email to be sent their way that offers information that could help them or turn into a purchase.

Why Workflows are Worth Developing

Developing a carefully curated email workflow practice is worth your time. Consider this piece of news: Every time a customer receives a marketing message they’re not interested in, they lose a bit of respect for that brand. . .

Well, this is terrible, but not surprising. I’m sure some of you are nodding your head based on personal experience. I know I’ve been there.

. . .they are a little less unlikely to open their next message

Oh. That is very much more worse than terrible. And I know it’s true because I also have also been less inclined to open subsequent emails from certain brands after a ho-hum experience.

and are less likely to click through on the next offer, even if it is more relevant to their needs.

At first, this seems like awful, no good, very bad, terrible news. But…it does make sense, and it does provide a hefty dose of motivation to develop spot-on content. Rest assured: all is not lost if you are now realizing you may have lost some subscribers or customers. They can be easily called back into the fold with some enticing subject lines.

Setting up your Email Workflow

First, decide what you want your visitor/client to do. Is it to learn more about your brand, shop new items, use a coupon, or read a new blog post?

Subject lines matter

After dividing behavior/actions into your desired groups, work on creating a subject line that’s personal and provides clues as to what the email will be about. Examples include:

“Welcome, Stephanie! Enjoy 10% off your first purchase.”

Or “You’re never going to believe our company origins..”

Or “Get airborne! Marcus, have you ever tried a hybrid golf club?”

Don’t overstay your welcome (emails)

Friendly reminder: now that you’re set up for success, be sure not to inundate customers with too much unfiltered information– someone just beginning to research your industry won’t be looking for the same information as someone hoping to buy a product tomorrow or someone who has already purchased your product. So consider keeping potential clients or new subscribers off of your typical newsletter feed at first so that they’re not overwhelmed.

And now you’re on the way!

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