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Email Automation: How to Use it to Generate Leads

In today’s fast-moving world, email automation is a great place to start if you’re looking to build quality leads through your marketing campaigns. It offers an effective way to reach potential customers quickly and easily while being a powerful tool for driving engagement and sales. 

With email automation, you can create personalized emails for each individual, allowing you to deliver relevant content and drive meaningful conversations with your prospects. Plus, you can track the performance of your emails so you can optimize your campaigns for maximum impact. So if you’re looking to take your marketing campaigns to the next level, email automation is definitely the way to go!

What is Email Automation? 

Email automation is a way to set up emails that are sent automatically based on specific triggers. For example, you might set up an email that is sent when someone signs up for your newsletter, or when someone abandons a shopping cart on your website. Either way, your aim is to capture the attention of your customer at a particular step in their buying journey so as to increase their potential for converting. 

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Automated emails can be used to send welcome emails, discounts, reminders, and much more, similar to the use of triggers in pop ups. It’s a great way to stay in touch with your customers and build relationships with them.

Benefits of Email Automation

Email automation can save you a lot of time and energy. Instead of manually writing, sending, and tracking individual emails, you can set up automated emails that do the work for you. 

Saves your time

You can set up automated emails to send automatically at predetermined times, allowing you to focus on other tasks that grow your business. This in turn boosts your team’s productivity and grows your potential for more success. 

More efficient than manually setting up emails

Automated emails can be tailored to each individual recipient, ensuring that your messages are more likely to be read and responded to. You can A/B test your emails to determine the different factors that contribute to their success or decline and apply those results for better targeting in your future campaigns. 

Build consistency for your email campaigns

You can send out automated emails on a schedule, ensuring that your messages are consistent and timely. This allows for uniformity and consistent brand recognition among your email recipients. 

Increased sales

Automated emails can be used to nurture leads, increase customer loyalty, and even drive sales. They can be used as part of your inbound marketing strategy to keep your brand top of mind and build relationships with your customers. You can also use them to send follow-up emails after a purchase, remind customers about upcoming promotions, announce holiday campaigns, and send out newsletters.

Overall, email automation is the way to go if you’re looking to save time, increase efficiency, and drive sales. 

Setting up your Email automation 

Now that you understand what email automation is, it is important to learn how to automate your emails easily. This doesn’t have to be complicated or tedious. Here’s our simple step-by-step guide that can be applied quickly:

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Choose a platform

First, you’ll need to decide which email automation platform you want to use. Popular options include Mailchimp, Constant Contact, and AWeber. Consider your business size, goals, and budget when choosing a platform. A platform should cater to your specific needs and not just be popular in the marketplace. Do your research and check out some of the best email marketing tools in the market.

Set up your account

Once you’ve chosen a platform, you’ll need to create an account and enter your profile details. 

Add your contacts

Now, you’ll need to import your contacts into the platform. You can do this by manually entering each contact, or you can upload a list of contacts. 

Create your template

Next, you’ll need to create a template for your emails. This includes creating your email copy, adding your content, formatting the text, and adding visuals. 

Set up your automation

Now, you’ll need to set up the rules for your automation. This includes creating email marketing triggers, such as when someone subscribes to your list or makes a purchase. Remember to include a compelling call to action

Test and launch

Before you launch your email automation, it’s important to check everything is working correctly. Test all the triggers and make sure the emails are being sent as expected. When you’re happy with the results, you can launch your automation.

Types of Automated Email Campaigns 

There are several types of automated emails used for lead generation. 

Welcome Emails 

Welcome emails are sent when someone first signs up for an email list. These emails set expectations and can help build a relationship with the subscriber. 

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Lead Nurturing Emails 

These emails are sent on a regular basis and often include useful information that can nurture a lead through the sales funnel. Examples include newsletter emails, drip emails, customer satisfaction survey emails, and promotional emails. 

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Re-engagement Emails 

Follow-up emails are great examples of such emails. They can be sent to subscribers who haven’t opened previous emails or interacted with emails in a while. It’s a great way to remind people of your products or services and potentially sneak in a mouth-watering offer to inch them toward a sale. 

Strategies for Generating Leads Using Email Automation 

Know your Audience

Successful email automation starts with knowing your audience. You want to make sure you’re sending emails that are relevant and interesting to your readers. Once you have a good handle on who you’re targeting, you can start thinking about the content you want to send. Keep it short and sweet, but include information that is useful and valuable to your readers. 

Personalize your Messages 

It’s all about making your emails stand out and feel like they were written specifically for the recipient. To do this, you want to make sure you’re using the person’s name, mentioning something about their industry, or talking about something that’s relevant to their interests. You also want to use a casual, friendly tone and avoid sounding too salesy. 

Finally, make sure to keep the content short and to the point, so that it’s easy to read and digest quickly. That way, you can ensure that your emails are engaging and offer a personalized experience.

Create a Series

One great way to use email automation is to create a series of emails that can be sent out over time. This can be used to send out a welcome series, a series of onboarding emails, or even a series of emails about a specific topic. You can also use email automation to send out automated reminders or notifications about upcoming events or promotions. When it comes to email automation, timing is key. 

Optimize your Timing

You want to make sure your emails are sent at the right time when your readers are most likely to open them. It’s important to consider the timing of your automated emails when you’re trying to generate leads. The best time to send out emails will depend on your target audience, but generally speaking, you should try to send emails when people are most likely to be checking their inbox. 

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For example, if you’re targeting people in the US, sending emails during the morning hours tends to be more effective. You also want to avoid sending too many emails at once, since that can look overwhelming and possibly even lead to people unsubscribing. Lastly, you should test different times and days to see which ones yield the best results.

Use the Right Tools

Make sure to use the right tools and software to automate your emails. There are plenty of options out there, so you want to make sure you’re using one that works best for you. To get the most out of your email automation,

Give Your Audience Value 

Think of the value that your business provides and how that can make your customer’s life a whole lot better. Sell that value with relevant content. Make sure your email content is personalized and engaging. 

Give your audience a reason to act now. Use phrases like “limited time offer” or “hurry and sign up” to create a sense of urgency. Don’t forget to make it easy for them to take action. Set a clear and visible call to action in the content, so they don’t miss your message. 

Final Thoughts

Email automation is an effective way to generate leads for your business. It allows you to send automated emails to your contacts, follow up with customers and prospects, and stay connected with your audience. Plus, it’s easy to set up and maintain, and it can save you a lot of time and effort. With the right strategies in place, you can use email automation to improve your lead generation process and increase your success.

Be sure to think of the value that you offer when creating and automating your emails. Remember, it is not about you, or your business but about your customers, their wants and needs. 

Idongesit ‘Didi’ Inuk is a Content Marketer at Poptin. She's driven by conversations about technological products and the impact they have on the people they're created for.