How to use Email Automation
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10th January 2020How to use Email Automation
What is email automation?
Email automation is the ability to send time or action triggered emails to subscribers with certain information. Automation is used for a variety of different marketing campaigns.
Different types of automation
Some examples of automated emails can include birthday emails, sent to customers a time period before their birthday with exclusive offers and promotions. Another well used example of email automation is to welcome new customers into a store and send them returning offers to increase customer retention.
For example, if you own a restaurant, and you want to increase your customer retention levels in order to gain increased loyalty and revenue, you can use email automation. You could create a loyalty scheme email, that sends to all customers after their first visit, welcoming them back with 10% off their bill on their next visit.
Why do businesses use it?
Businesses use automated emails to minimize operational costs. Automated emails work in the background, so emails do not need to be constantly created and sent, they can just send to all past and future visitors as an ongoing process. Automation can help to free up personnel in order to perform higher-level tasks which add value to a company and can be seen as superior.
Who can use email automation and who can it target?
Different consumer groups
Automation can be used to target almost any type of demographic. Depending on the type of business that you run, will depend on your target demographic, however, who doesn’t love a treat or an offer on their birthday? Marketing automation provides an ongoing process that enables marketers to reach different audiences, with different campaigns. Marketers can use automation to focus on different types of leads, whilst being able to easily identify who falls into which lead category.
For example, you may run an automated email campaign to welcome new customers, over the age of 40, and offer them a free hot drink. Whilst this campaign is running, you may run a separate campaign for any previous customers under the age of 40, with a similar offer, and see which one is more successful. This way you are using email automation to establish who your target demographic is, and which consumer group has higher retention levels.
Different types of business-
Any business can benefit from automation, whether you are in the hospitality sector and offer drinks/food promotions, or even large shopping centres, inviting customers to come and visit. Automation is a great way to contact your customers and send out any marketing promotions your business offers.
Visit our case study page to see some real life examples of how our portal has helped business with all sorts of marketing campaigns.
The benefits of email automation
Its automatic
One of the biggest benefits of automation is that you don’t have to keep sending emails, creating emails and wasting valuable time, the emails send in the background and can work 24/7 for as long as you wish.
Increased customer retention
According to Reachforce, roughly 70% of businesses report it is easier to retain existing customers, than to find new ones. Marketing automation can help you retain existing customers by providing them with deals as incentives for their return. These emails and offers show the customer that they are valued by the business, which can improve customer satisfaction and business reputation, inevitably increasing retention rates.
Increased business revenue
Every business wants to focus on its revenue, because more revenue, means higher profits. But with increased revenue, comes increased customer satisfaction. This can be achieved through running automated emails, which leaves more time for staff to focus on in-store experience and creating a perfect customer experience.
As mentioned, marketing automation frees your staff of sending repetitive campaigns, providing them with more time to get creative about the type of campaigns they will want to send in the future. The deeper your understanding of your target market, and the more precise your marketing campaigns are, the better-quality results your business will receive.
Personalisation
Personalised marketing refers to the strategy by which companies deliver individualized content to recipients through data capture, analysis and automation.
In research from SalesForce it was found that 57% of consumers are willing to share data in exchange for personalised offers or discounts, and 53% would share data for product recommendations. This research shows us that using personalisation within your business’ marketing campaigns, should deliver effective results and keep your customers happy.
Personalisation in emails is best performed when it uses real time data. Our social WiFi services, allow your business to see exactly when customers have logged on, and how many times. 54% of shoppers anticipate a personalised discount within a day, so if you set up an automated email to send to customers after their first visit with you, customers will feel as if they have contributed to the success of your business and you value their input.
The Benefits of Personalisation
Increased Customer Loyalty
A 2017 report by Segment found that on average 44% of consumers say they are more likely to become repeat buyers after a personalised shopping experience. So, what does this mean for your business? If you create personalised experiences for your customers, using email automation, then your customer loyalty levels will rise, and the strength the quality of sales that your business receives.
A more focused marketing strategy-
Using personalisation allows your business marketing strategy to become more focused. Your business can work out what deals work well for which consumer group, what times of the day are more successful, and who are your business’ most profitable consumer group. This knowledge and expertise within your business can help provide accurate pricing structures and help to reinforce strong relationships with consumers. A focused marketing strategy can also help your business to identity any future customers that may become profitable for your business.
Better quality results-
Using personalisation when it comes to email automation will also lead to better quality results. This is because customers are being specifically targeted so feel valued as a customer. Using data capture features such as number of visits, birthdays and names provide the email campaigns with personalisation, which provide customers with an incentive to return to your business.
How does Smarter WiFi use automation?
As previously mentioned before, Smarter WiFi offer a range of different automation options, as well as rule sets for these options, so your opportunities are maximised. Our emails are easy to create, with the options being right there on your screen, so you gain a better idea of how to use email automation.
Birthday emails
Smarter WiFi offer a birthday automation option, this can be used to send birthday offers to customers a certain time period before their birthday. Our birthday automation feature is also a great way to encourage bookings at your business, to help increase your revenue and make your customers feel appreciated.
Number of visits
Many businesses like to offer welcome emails to their customers, this means that they are showing the customer they know they have visited the store, and they value them as a returning customer. Providing returning offers, will help your business increase its retention rates and provide a consistent relationship with the consumer. Loyal customers are valued more highly than new customers as they have the position to provide a returning income for the business.
Another popular option is to provide loyalty offers for customers. Smarter WiFi can provide your business with the choice of how many numbers of visits a customer has to entail before receiving a discount. An example of this could be, ‘Thanks for your 3rdvisit with us, visit a 4thtime to receive an extra 15% off your bill.’ This loyalty offer has the same effect on business and revenue as welcome emails, as it provides customers with the incentive to return, and portrays the value you hold for the consumer.
Weather
Our marketing services also allow your business to send automated emails based on the weather. This is great for businesses who offer different deals for different seasons within the year. You may target all your customers, when the weather reaches 20 degrees and invite them down to your beer garden to enjoy discounted offers on beers and drinks. This is a great way to express your interest into the customer, and to advertise all of the many deals your business may offer. We find that using automation for weather is great for summer and winter deals for many different types of businesses.
Rule sets
On our online portal, we offer different rule sets available. This means that your loyalty offers, and automated emails can become more specific for different customers. The rule sets provided by Smarter WiFi are age, gender, number of visits and date visited. These rule sets are great to offer customers deals who visited at certain dates within the year, that were perhaps busier than others.
For example, you may provide an email to customers on their first visit, who visited in December saying ‘Thank you for visiting our Branch in time for Christmas, visit us in the New Year for 10% off your bill.’ This is a great way to show customers you really understand their shopping habits and want to thank them for being a stakeholder in your business.
Email automation is a great way to incorporate personalisation into your business’ marketing strategy. Your business can create detailed marketing plans and put them into effect with the help of Smarter WiFi and its features.
Automation is only one of our many features on our online portal, visit our products page here to find out how else we can help your business increase revenue and marketing!
