Let’s be honest, the phrase “wearing many hats” is overused, just like “unprecedented times” or “move fast and break things.” However, if you’re a one-person marketing team (or a one-person everything team), it might resonate.

And if those hats fit, your to-do list is probably overflowing: brainstorming ad campaigns, crafting copy and content, steering the go-to-market strategy, designing email newsletters, analyzing site traffic, conducting industry research, attending meetings, more meetings, and even more meetings—phew! You need help, and automation, particularly email marketing automation, is the solution. Once your automated email workflows are set up, you can engage with customers, cultivate leads, and attract new customers in the background while tackling your daily tasks.

Email marketing automation is a massive timesaver, but learning the ropes isn’t! To spare you hours of deciphering it all, I’ve simplified everything in this easy-to-understand post, enabling you to get started quickly. I’ll cover:

• The definition of automated email marketing.
• The process of setting up your email marketing automation.
• Essential tips for testing, lead scoring, and more.

Finally, I’ll provide examples of different email types you can automate, including welcome, re-engagement, informational, feedback, milestone, blog share, and demo emails. Let’s begin!

What is Email Marketing Automation?

Don’t worry; it’s not a trivial question. There are two types of automated emails: transactional or triggered emails and drip marketing campaigns or email nurture. Transactional emails, like order and shipping confirmations, don’t require permission to send.

Nurture emails, on the other hand, are marketing campaigns requiring permission. These marketing emails guide your prospects through the sales funnel by automatically delivering curated content on a pre-defined schedule. Remember, you’ll need a marketing automation platform to implement automated emails. Numerous options are available, and if you’re already sending promotional or one-off email campaigns, your provider likely offers drip campaign functionality.

How to Initiate Automated Email Marketing

Ensure you have a designated point on your website for collecting email submissions. Once set up, follow these steps to launch your automated email nurture program:

1. Gather Lead Information

If you haven’t already, incorporate lead forms strategically throughout your website, landing pages, and ads to collect essential prospect information. Tailor these landing pages to the specific data you need. Common fields include name, email address, company, budget, industry, and location. Remember, more required fields offer greater email personalization, but proceed cautiously. Lengthy forms can deter leads, increasing abandonment rates.

2. Define Your Goal

Like any marketing initiative, determine the desired outcome for your automated emails. High open and click-through rates are desirable, but do you aim for product demo sign-ups, conversions, a specific number of purchases, phone calls, donations, newsletter registrations, or volunteer sign-ups? Once your goal is clear, work backward to develop the necessary content for your drip campaign.

3. Establish Qualifying Criteria

Okay, here’s *another* confession: I sometimes juggle content creation and qualifier setup. Remember, you can tackle both simultaneously! They should complement each other to craft the perfect flow of compelling marketing messages. Back to the task at hand. You’ll want to score leads to guide them through your sales funnel and drip campaign. Create your own scale, or leverage suggestions provided by your chosen marketing automation system. Simple guidelines include disqualifying based on location (e.g., outside your delivery area), budget, company, etc. Prioritize leads with matching job titles or affiliations directly targeted by your email. For content, assign lower scores (e.g., 1 or 2) to less actionable pieces. Content that drives conversions and educates leads about your product holds higher value, reducing your sales team’s workload. Score case studies, product marketing materials, and demos highly (e.g., 10 out of 10) to signify “completion” within your drip campaign. It all depends on your objectives!

4. Develop Funnel Content

Begin with your existing content. Identify top performers in terms of clicks and opens, high-converting pieces, and sales team favorites among blog posts, case studies, or product one-pagers that effectively engage prospects. Once you’ve assembled this foundation of existing content, start filling in the gaps.

5. Test, Test, Test

As with any new marketing campaign or channel, thorough testing is crucial. While it’s unlikely that automated email marketing won’t benefit your business, finding the right messaging and scoring to effectively guide leads through the funnel or towards conversion requires effort. Here are some simple testing tips:

• Write Abundant and Diverse Copy: Instead of three variations of “buy now,” create versions encouraging different actions or presenting the value proposition from various angles.
• Experiment with Design: A/B test email layouts to determine the effectiveness of long-form content, plain-text versus HTML, CTAs above the fold, or basic navigation at the top.
• Repurpose Content: Leverage high-engagement blog posts, whitepapers, product lines, or promotions within your automated email funnel. Test new versions against previously sent content.
• Refine Scoring: While requesting a demo is likely a qualifying action, a case study might not be. Conversely, a whitepaper could be more of a branding exercise than initially perceived. Be adaptable and collaborate with your sales team to optimize lead scoring.

• Send times; test time of day, day of the week, and so on to find the optimal time to get engagement.
• Subject and pre-header text; like the copy tip above, write variations for each subject line to see which gets opened at the highest rate.

Note: A/B testing send times and subject lines is tricker now with the iOS 15 update. Learn 13 post-iOS 15 email marketing strategies here.

6. Monitor Touchpoints

Remember, email isn’t your only communication channel with these leads. Your automated email campaign shouldn’t exist in isolation. If you’re also retargeting these leads through ad platforms or emails outside the nurture campaign, avoid overwhelming them with your brand.

7. Analyze and Optimize

This final step is self-explanatory. After launching the campaign, establish realistic expectations and success metrics, adjusting as needed. Utilize the analytics dashboards provided by marketing automation systems to monitor performance and track the number of sends per email. If leads are qualifying before reaching the funnel’s end, that’s fantastic! Consider shortening the email sequence to deliver the most relevant content promptly. Conversely, increase the number of emails to nurture prospects until they’re ready to convert.

Effective Automated Marketing Examples

If you’re still unsure about designing your automated emails, don’t fret! When I started, I heavily relied on templates from Marketo, Hubspot, and Mailchimp, which isn’t a bad approach! To further spark your creativity, I’ve compiled more inspiring email examples.

Welcome Email

When someone subscribes, welcome them to your community, introduce your products, and confirm their subscription. Welcome emails are a prime opportunity to showcase your brand’s personality. Make them engaging and creative! Offering a discount in welcome emails was standard practice, and I still recommend it. However, it’s becoming more common to summarize the business with a prominent CTA, followed by category-specific sections and CTAs. This automated email example from Casper highlights their brand voice, offers a discount at the bottom, and provides compelling reasons to choose Casper within the body.

Feedback Email Example

Requesting constructive criticism is a great way to engage subscribers. It makes them feel valued, and you gain valuable insights for growth. Revolution Tea requested feedback and then followed up with the results, including a coupon code!

Blog Post Email Example

This one’s straightforward: promote your new content! Share your popular content with your subscribers. These emails are low-risk, high-reward. Subscribers who click through and read your post demonstrate stronger engagement with your brand. Wistia achieves this by showcasing creative posts from guest authors, offering subscribers diverse options.

Informational Email Example

As subscribers progress through your automated email funnel, demonstrate your value proposition. Informational emails are perfect for explaining complex offerings, showcasing your company’s passion, or highlighting client success stories. This email from Ritual uses a clear infographic to break down the ingredients in their supplements.

Re-Engagement Email Example

Sometimes subscribers lose track of you. Don’t take it personally; life gets busy. Gently remind them that you’re still there, ready for their return! Airbnb accomplishes this by reminding subscribers about potential travel destinations and including price points, similar to airlines promoting their cheapest flights.

Milestone Email Example

Celebrate milestones like birthdays, annual subscription anniversaries, New Year’s, holidays, or company anniversaries! As a fan of celebrating even the small wins, I love Outdoor Voices’ half-birthday email below! It’s a creative way to mark the occasion with an exclusive coupon code.

Demo Email Example

Ultimately, actions speak louder than words. If applicable, offer subscribers the chance to demo your products through a compelling email. June Oven keeps it simple with a clear message, a single CTA, an accurate product image, and a hyperlink within the copy for further exploration.

Now that you understand automated email marketing, have a step-by-step guide for setting up a campaign aligned with your business goals and audience, and have explored inspiring automated email examples, it’s time to create your own! For further inspiration, browse our 30 Free Small Business Email Examples & Templates.