Email Marketing Automation: Streamlining Your Workflow

In this episode, we’ll dive into the world of email marketing automation, focusing on how it can save you time, keep your audience engaged, and drive conversions—on autopilot. We’ll break down the key elements of setting up automated workflows that work for you, even when you're not online, so you can nurture leads, onboard new customers, and keep your business running smoothly.

My favourite email marketing automation software:
MailerLite (affiliate link)

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Transcript

Welcome back to the new School of Marketing podcast. As always, I am so, so grateful to you for tuning in. Before we dive into this episode, I would love to pay my respect and acknowledgement to the Palawa people of lutruwita who are the traditional owners of the land on which my business operates. I pay my respect to the elders, past and present. 

Ok, I'm super excited to dive into this because literally, this is like one of my favourite, favourite, favourite tools for business. I know might sound weird from someone who does Facebook ads for a living, but so much of this actually ties in to Facebook ads. And yeah, there's absolutely no point in using Facebook ads and lead generation and all of that if you are not using email marketing automations. So that's what I'm going to talk about. Now, I don't know if you're using them at all, but if you're not, you should, for starters. And I'm going to tell you why. I'm going to tell you all about why email marketing automation is so awesome. So settle in and yeah, here we go. Picture this. You need to get in touch with your potential clients. You've got a list. Like you've actually gone through the effort of getting people on your list so that they can hear more about you whether you actually email them or not, let's not dive into that. But if you have a list and you feel overwhelmed by having to send emails to your list manually, or you just, like, you're just not actually doing it because you don't know how to keep your audience engaged and you're too busy. So email kind of gets put on the back burner. This episode is for you. I'm actually going to talk about how email automation can save you time, but also how it can help you build relationships and generate sales. Even while you're asleep or taking the kids to school or going for a walk, you can keep making sales. You can keep building relationships and also save time while you're doing something else. So let's do this right. 

Why is this my favourite tool? Why is automating your email marketing such a game changer? Well, first of all, it frees up your time instead of sending emails manually or trying to keep up with everyone on your list. You can set up workflows or automations. It's like called something differently in every single platform. So let's stick with workflows, sequences or automations. You can set them up so that they automatically deliver the right message at the right time to the right person. Another reason why email marketing or email automation is such a game changer is that automation helps you nurture your audience consistently. Whether it is welcoming new subscribers, onboarding customers, or re engaging leads. You can literally create personalized experiences based on where they're at in, you know, the journey that run on autopilot. It saves you time. It's amazing, honestly, it saves you time. And you also don't have to think about, oh, where was that person up to? Or where was that part of the list up to? You literally can set it up. And it's almost like I said and forget and you're consistently engaging with your audience and a lot of the email marketing platforms, and I would say almost all of them now or all of them have personalization options. So you can, you know, say hey, and an insert name and make it more personal. And it doesn't just have to have the name at the start, it can have the name throughout. You know, you could be telling a story, do you know so and so that blah, blah, blah. Like you can actually put their names in the story now. 

There are a lot of automations that you can create and it like, literally sky's the limit, it's up to your creativity. But there's a few that I think every single business can benefit from. I think the key automations that you need to have in place for your business, whether you're starting out or whether you have a growing list, are these following automations. The first one I think you need to set up, and this is at a bare minimum, I would like everyone to have this set up is a welcome sequence. And a welcome sequence helps you introduce yourself. It also helps you set the expectations. So you're basically telling your subscribers, hey, this is me. Here's what you can expect, here's what's going to happen. And it helps them understand, it helps them look forward to something. It also helps them like, it's literally like managing expectations. If all of a sudden you're going to send like three emails in a row, tell them up front, at least the new people, you know, welcome sequence and you can really build that report with your subscribers. You can also share this sequence, this automation to share valuable content or potentially lead them to a special offer. So if you're an ecommerce provider, you can put in, for example, a discount code. So if your lead magnet or the reason for people to subscribe is, let's say, 10% off their first order, you can put that in this first email saying, hey, here is your 10% off code, or, you know, coupon code. This is who I am. This is what you can expect. And you send them a series of emails. And look, a welcome sequence could be one email, two emails. I generally stick to about four emails, but there is no limit in a way, and there's no absolute prerequisite. It literally comes down to, what are you going to say? How much have you got to say? And, you know, how long are you going to send this for? I recently created a welcome sequence for a chamber of commerce, and it had four emails and it literally kind of, and it was for, there was one for new members and one for non members, and it literally had, you know, welcome. This is what you can expect. I think it had, like, all benefits for joining the chamber of Commerce. And they have some deals with local businesses where people that sign up to the chamber get some discounts. So we didn't want to put all of that in the first email, although the first email is usually the one that everyone opens. So you put your most important information in there. We put it in the second email saying, hey, did you know everyone who signs up gets discounts at this and this business? And then there was a few more email swan about, you know, highlighting the events and not specifically mentioning the events because that is a forever changing thing, but more of a, hey, check out our events page. And then there was another one that we had written some copy for. And so it doesn't have to be super long, but it's more of a welcome. Cause there's nothing worse than signing up to someone's newsletter or, you know, signing up for a lead magnet and one only getting delivered the thing just like, it's like when you sign up for a guide or something, like, here's your guide, and that's it. That's a bit boring. But there's nothing worse than signing up for a newsletter and getting nothing, like not even knowing if you're on it. And this has happened recently to me. I signed up to a local business. I'm not going to call them out, but it was a local business here that, yeah, you could sign up to hear more. And I signed up and I have heard nothing. Nothing. Absolutely nothing. So not even like emails, promotion emails or sales emails, there's just nothing. So make people feel welcome. They are kind of giving you something valuable, like they're inviting you into their inbox, which I'm pretty sure is busy enough. So use it wisely and like literally tell them who you are, what you do. And even though they've, you know, they're, they've already kind of gone to your website or something like that, or if they've come from an ad, they probably haven't, but tell them what they can expect and just, yeah, it's a welcome sequence, like the words kind of explain it. So introduce yourself, set expectations and build rapport with new subscribers. 

Now, another one that I think you should have in your business is a lead magnet delivery. And I kind of already touched a little bit on it in the welcome one sequence. One. But if someone is signing up for a freebie, then you want it delivered instantly and using an automation, make sure that they receive it right away. And then obviously you can put in follow up emails and nurture them even further. But if someone signs up for a guide or even signs up for like a free webinar, a free masterclass, even if it's not right then and there, you want to send them something like, hey, you're in looking forward to it, and you can start using warm up emails in a way to, you know, prepare them for the webinar and like tell them why they should attend, what they're going to get out of it, that kind of thing. But yeah, if you, if people sign up for a free guide or something, they want it immediately or even a coupon code to get a discount or something like that. Like that. So give it to them immediately. So that is another automation that I think every business should have in place. 

And if you sell products or courses, an abandoned cart sequence can recover lost sales. So if you sell something, whether it's, you know, physical products or courses, make sure that you have some sort of sequence in place. If your automation platform allows it or has this option, and I, you can set up all the technical details, but basically what it means is when someone adds something to their cart, as in they are intending to purchase it, we do this all the time. You go online shopping, you load up your cart and then you leave. So what you want to have in place is a series of emails that reminds customers about the products that they left behind. And then you can, if you want, to, include incentives for them to complete the purchase. A lot of people have cottoned on to this, that if they sometimes, if they pop stuff in their cart and they abandon it, a lot of them will wait a day or maybe two to see if that you're actually emailing them to one, remind them, but also to see if there's a carrot that you can dangle in, like in terms of a coupon code or something like that. So I do think it can really help you recover lost sales, and it's a really good one to have in place, especially for e commerce. And then another one that I think is a really good one. 

Another automation to have is a re engagement campaign. So a lot of people when they sign up to email newsletters or email lists, after a while they're actually not actively engaging, but they keep getting the emails. Not everyone will unsubscribe. So with a re engagement campaign, you can target inactive subscribers and encourage them to reengage with your content or to make a purchase. And like, it takes some creativity to come up with a good headline that will help them, you know, open the email. Or you could just call them out, you know, like literally saying that you're going to do a cleanup of your list if they want to stay on it and they need to click a link or something like that. So those are the four that I would say you want to have at a minimum, at a minimum, a welcome sequence. 

But if you're also doing a lead magnet, like a freebie, you want to have a lead magnet delivery sequence, you want to have an abandoned cart series. If you are selling products, whether it's digital or physical, and you can put in a re engagement campaign. My absolute must have is a welcome sequence. And then there's so many other ways that you can use email automation and keep going with it. But that's what I would have as a minimum. 

Now, there are a lot of ways you can do this. I sometimes, not very often anymore, sometimes come across people who are still using, using an excel spreadsheet and their gmail or their work, you know, or their business email to email everyone out. Now, I'm not a lawyer, but I do know that this is illegal and it's not allowed, so stop doing that. Also, there are easier ways to do this. So I would suggest that you look into email marketing platforms like email automation platforms. And I want to say choose the right platform, but really not, they're not all equal when it comes to automation. And it's important that you choose what is easy to use for you and what works for your business needs. I have my favorite, and I will tell you my favourite is Mailerlite, which is what I use. I have previously used Convertkit, which I also like. I just like Mailerlite a little bit more. It's where I've moved. But you can also use something like Klavio, Klavio never know how to pronounce it, which is really, really robust for ecommerce. So that's a really good one. You can look at HubSpot, there are lots of different options. Go through them, have a look at it, do some of the demos because it needs to work for your brain and not all of them do. So I recently started using Klaviyo for a client and I still find it really tricky to use. I'm sure it'll get easier. So yeah, have a look at them because Klavio is a really, really good one for e commerce. So that's why I'm persisting. But yeah, have a look at it. What works for you? Look at, you know, is it easy to use? Look at the automation capabilities. Is it included in whatever plan you're looking at? Because some plans or some software wants you to upgrade if you want certain features. So look at whether an automation capability is included, look at integrations with other tools and then plan for growth. So what if you scale beyond, let's say, a thousand subscribers, 20 00, 30 00, 50 00 can you scale with it or will you need to change? So all things to sort of think about. 

So setting up automations is only part of the equation. You also need to make sure that your email content is engaging and created and designed to convert, whether that is converting like in taking the next step, or whether that is in buying something from you. So let's have a chat about how you can effectively create email sequences that don't just sit in your subscribers inboxes. Cause really you want people to open it and you want them to act on it. Whatever that acting means. It doesn't always mean sales. It could also be something else. So some key points to remember is writing compelling subject lines. Look, there's no point in having the best written email if your subject line literally says Newsletter number 500 and something like that's boring, it's not going to make me open your newsletter. So you need to write something that makes people want to open it, especially your ideal audience. So think about your ideal client and go, if they read this headline, would they go, oh my God, I need to read about this? So come up with some really good subject lines for your emails. You also want to make sure that you're structuring your emails for clarity and for engagement. Like there are copywriting formulas. Google them, look them up and learn about copywriting and writing in a way so that it's clear and it makes people want to engage with what you're doing. I would 100% utilize all the options in your platform for like personalization. And if you can at all learn a little bit more about segmentation. Segmentation basically means that you're dividing people into groups because you're not talking to everyone in the same manner. Your customers, for example, you would have different kind of conversations with them or different kind of content for them. First, people that are not yet your customers. So if you can at all split them out and segment people into different categories so that you can have specific targeted messages for each of your segments. And as always, make sure that you add clear calls to action. So CTA's because you want to drive conversions. And like I said, whether is whether a conversion is a purchase this and this from me, or whether a conversion is sign up for my free masterclass because that's also a conversion. So make sure that you tell people what you want them to do next. Give them a clear call to action and then include a button or something they can click on. Make it really clear. 

So once you've got your automation set up, once you've got your emails written and it's like all in place, how do you then look at it? The data? Like how do you analyse it? How do you optimise it? So once your automations are running, it doesn't end there. You need to continuously analyse how things are performing and then you can make tweaks to improve things. Like nobody writes the best ever email sequence straight out of the gate. It's like a forever dance of tweaking, optimising, tweaking, optimising. So let's have a look at how to track your key metrics and then how you can optimise your automated workflows over time. Like I said, nobody starts out with the best ever automation. It is all a matter of looking at what your numbers are telling you and then interpreting that and making changes. So metrics to look at are your open rates. How many people are actually opening your email? And this comes down to that headline, that subject line, like I said, newsletter, you know, so a number so and so is not going to cut it. It's not going to make me want to open your email. So look at your open rates. Look at your click through rates. Like, especially if you are making people do something. Like as in getting them to take an action to, I don't know, for example, sign up to your master class or purchase something. How many people are actually clicking? Is it like really easy or are they not clicking at all? Which means it's not enticing enough. Or maybe it's just not clear enough. Like it's just sort of like hidden. And look at your conversions. Also, you might want to think about testing your subject lines. Like I said, if your open rates aren't cutting it often your email marketing platform has an A b testing. Or you can literally say, I'm going to send this email to all my subscribers and then the next day I'm going to send the same email to everyone who has not opened the email, but I'm going to change the head. And you can test run all these kind of little tests, test your email content. It's another one, you know, like if it's not resonating, try to write in a different way or try to make your layout slightly more easier to read. There's often templates inside of email marketing platforms and you can use like a simple one or make it like fancy looking, that kind of thing. But sometimes a simple one might work better. So test it. Test your timing. If your audience is not in the same time zone, they might not open when you've scheduled to send that email. So you might want to send it in a more appropriate time zone. Specific. Yeah. Anyway, I hope you get what I'm trying to say and look at how to adjust automations based on your subscriber behavior. So for example, people that are clicking or not opening or making a purchase. So look at the data, really dive in and try to figure out what that data is telling you. And I know sometimes it's not super specific, but a lot of the times you can look at numbers and go, oh, that, that happened. What does that mean? Oh, it could mean this. So this is how I look at numbers all the time. It's like, okay, well, click rates are not very high. Okay, well that must mean that it's not resonating. What can I change? I can change the way I phrase it, I can change that subject line if the open rates are low, for example. So data always tells a story. So look at the data and see what story it tells you and what you can then change. So email marketing automations, I find are the most exciting things in sliced bread, to be honest. It really helps you build a stronger relationship with your audience. It's like a special relationship because they allow you to come into their inbox, which I think is really special. And they are basically saying, yes, I want to hear more from you. So treat it as, you know, a special way and really deliver value. Don't just get them to sign up and then, you know, you might email them once in a blue moon. 
Now use the automations. Like this is all stuff you can set up and you don't even have to be there for it once it's running. People get automated emails from you and they, they feel like they're looked after. They feel welcome even though they are automations. And a lot of us know that they're automations. But I'd rather have an automation and someone have, having spent a lot of time setting the automation up than not getting anything like, that's just the worst, to be honest. 

So set up these automations and once you've set up these workflows, they'll keep working for you. Like they will keep building relationships, driving sales while you are actually focusing on growing your business. And there are a lot of other things you can do, like beyond having a welcome sequence and that kind of thing. You can set up evergreen sequences, which is what I often set up for my clients. It's like one of those things. Yes, you might be emailing them some campaigns, time specific campaigns every so often. But what about outside of that? What value can you deliver that is not time specific? That could go on an automation. So, for example, with the chamber of commerce that I'm working with, we are creating an evergreen sequence where we are getting members that have something valuable to share and teach. We're getting them to write articles that can help other members, you know, how to navigate certain HR issues, how to do certain marketing things, where to go for XYZ, that's all super helpful information that's not always readily available that other members might be struggling with as well. And now they are getting access to that kind of information. So think about how can you go beyond, you know, your welcome sequences and that kind of thing. Anyway, that's something probably for another episode. But think about how can you use email automation to save yourself time and to build better, stronger relationships with your audience. If you want more tips on this, feel free to head over to my website or dm me on Instagram because, you know, I don't have a, a whole lot of things about this. It's mostly specific to the businesses I work with because it's different for everyone. So think about how you can make this work for you. How can you simplify what you're doing well. It's not simplify but automate what you're doing, freeing up your time while you are building stronger relationship with the audiences. 

Well, that's it. Thank you so, so much for joining me on this episode of the new School of Marketing podcast. I hope you found it helpful and I'm excited to share more marketing tips and strategies with you next week. If you are ready to take your business to the next level with Facebook and Instagram advertising, or if you want to talk about email marketing automations, head to newschoolofmarketing.com for practical, free resources. And if you want to grow your business but don't want to spend all of your time on slow and unpredictable organic social media, then Aimful Ads Academy is for you. It's the place to learn how to be seen by your audience, attract the right people as leads and turn them into paying customers. With my proven for ad stack method plus, as part of the program you'll have one on one access to me and I'm a marketing strategist with over ten years experience so that you don't have to navigate ads alone. I'm here to help you be seen, track leads, and get more paying customers. And remember, make sure you subscribe to the podcast so that you never miss an episode. I can't wait to keep this journey going with you. Until next time, take care and market your business every day.