Email Automation – How it Works, Types, Applications & Advantages

Email Automation has grown a lot in recent years. It is senseless to spend hours painstakingly drafting individual emails for every one of your customers/vendors or clients. Fortunately, it’s possible through Email Automation. In this post we will discuss in detail about what is Email Automation, it’s various types, how it works, its applications, advantages and disadvantages.

What is Email Automation

Email Automation is defined as a set of processes used to send promotional/transactional emails automatically to customers. Sending the right email at the right time with dynamic content is the main key of Email Automation.

Fig. 1 – Introduction to Email Automation

Example- Suppose you have a blog page and you are displaying a subscription form to generate leads. Email Automation allows you to send subscription emails to the subscribers of your blog as shown in the Fig. 2.

Fig. 2 – Subscription Confirmation Email Template

Automated Emails make Email marketing more personalized, well planned and relevant. It could be used to automatically send welcome emails to new customers or explain features of your product so that users get the best possible experience.

Below are some examples of Automated Emails you could be sending:

• Welcome emails for new customers.
• Emails that help guide customers to the next step on your website.
• Greet emails like happy birthday or anniversary emails to help increase customer loyalty.
• User verification emails to make sure new users are valid.

How does Email Automation Work

Automated Emails (also known as Triggered Email) are Emails automatically sent from your Email Service Provider in direct response to an individual user’s specific actions made on your website or web app. Triggers and Actions are characteristics of Email Automation platforms.

Example- If something specific happens (=trigger), then send an automated email to the users of your choice.
Each  Automation tool works in a different way, but below is the basic flow of how it works:

Fig. 3 – Basic workflow of Email Automation

Types of Automated Emails

For productive marketing, every business should consider adding automated emails that respond to customer actions. There are various types of automated emails that marketers can use to engage with target customers.
Some of them are:

• Welcome Emails
• Thank-you Emails
• Abandoned Cart Emails
• Order Confirmation Emails
• Customer Feedback Request Emails

Welcome Emails

Welcome Emails are generally the first direct contact between company and a customer. These emails are usually to tell newcomers about the benefits they get or simply getting the Users acquainted with their brand.

Thank-you Emails

Thank-you Emails are an excellent way to establish customer relationships. Automatically, they are sent to users after they subscribe, convert, download something or attend an event.

Abandoned Cart Emails

These emails are sent as a follow-up to a customer who has left items in the shopping cart during checkout.

Order Confirmation Emails

These are sent to customers who order something.

Customer Feedback Request Emails

An automated email survey or feedback from users is an excellent way to find out how to improve the quality of service provided.

Other automated emails are Follow-up Emails, Product Review Emails, Product Recommendation Emails, Blog updates, Event Reminders, Re-activation Emails and many more.

Fig. 3 – (a) Example of Abandoned Cart Email (b) Example of Welcome Email Template

Applications of Email Automation

The applications include:

• It is widely used for marketing campaigns.
• It is very helpful in Lead Management.

Advantages of Email Automation

The advantages are:

• Cost Effective – Main use of Email Automation is Email Marketing Automation. Online promotions are cheaper than any other source; some of them are free of cost.
• Another stream of income – Internet Marketing Automation opens up tons of new opportunities and prepares you to compete on a global scale.
• Time Saving – Automated Emails can be sent 24/7/365. They require no time once they’re created.
• Ability to multi task – One of the core benefit of automated email is its ability to handle millions of customers at the same time.
• Scalability – It makes marketing campaigns scalable.
• Personalization is easy – Some automated emails may feel robotic, still using it is one of the best ways to make your communication more personalized and engaging.
• Measurability – Calculating your Automation investment is relatively simple. Other marketing campaigns needs to know things such as your cost to acquire a single customer, the average customer lifetime value, and how much it costs you to set up your Email Automation.
• It works well with other marketing channels – You can easily connect your automated campaigns with other marketing channels and tools for a more complete picture.

Disadvantages of Email Automation

While automated emails undeniably bring a lot to the table, they have their drawbacks, as well. The disadvantages include:

• Only a limited degree of personalization is possible. Even the best-written triggered emails are going to fall short of the kind of personalization.
• Spam messages- Unsolicited Email can overwhelm your Email system unless you install a firewall and anti-spam software.
• Viruses- Viruses can be easily spread through Email attachments.

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