Looking for the top 10 marketing automations? Well, you’ve come to the right place! Marketing automations are like a well-planned garden.
This talks to me, both on a professional-level for obvious reasons, and also because I enjoy gardening. Lately, I’ve been focusing on indoor plants and I’m trying to grow an indoor avocado tree.
Each plant (automation) is carefully chosen and nurtured to grow and flourish, creating a beautiful and efficient ecosystem. Let me take you through the garden of marketing automations, sharing my personal gardening digital marketing experiences along the way.
But let’s shift back to the topic at hand:
The Top 10 Marketing Automations You Must Think About
From welcome email sequences and cart abandonment reminders to reporting and personalized customer journeys, we’ll cover essential automations that drive engagement, boost conversions, and nurture customer relationships. And afterwards, you’ll know the explore the top 10 marketing automations every digital marketer should strive to streamline.
Each automation is explained with practical examples, demonstrating how to set them up and the significant benefits they offer to your marketing strategy.
1. Welcome Email Sequence
What is it?
A welcome email sequence is a series of emails sent to new subscribers or customers. These emails introduce your brand, set expectations, and build a relationship with your audience. It’s often been said, that a great email newsletter begins with an even greater welcome newsletter squence!
How to Set It Up
Using a first-rate email marketing platform like ActiveCampaign, for example, you can create an automated series triggered when someone subscribes. Include a warm welcome, information about your brand, and helpful resources.
Benefits
- Sets the tone for your relationship.
- Engages new subscribers early. (Remember, when it comes to email marketing, engagement is king.)
- Increases open and click-through rates.
The welcome email sequence is like planting seeds, which is first step in growing an engaging relationship with your audience.
2. Cart Abandonment Reminders
What is it?
Cart abandonment reminders are emails sent to customers who added items to their cart but didn’t complete the purchase.
How to Set It Up
Integrate your e-commerce platform with your email marketing tool to automatically send reminders to customers who abandon their carts.
Benefits
- Recovers potentially lost sales.
- Reminds customers of what they wanted to buy.
- Often includes incentives like discounts to encourage purchases.
Cart abandonment reminders are imperative to keep customers engaged and moving towards a purchase. Just make sure you are not sending them out too soon or too late.
Too soon is a recipe for cutting your margins because often people will deliberate and your eagerness is like the salesman who makes a lower offer without understanding if he needs a counter offer in the first place.
Too late will create a customer service nightmare. By this I mean sending the email out without having the system take note if the customer placed the order. You have to have this checked when someone goes in the automation and then again the instant before the email is sent.
3. Lead Scoring
What is it?
Lead scoring assigns a value to each lead based on their behavior and interactions with your brand. This helps prioritize leads for your sales team.
How to Set It Up
Define criteria for scoring, such as website visits, email opens, and clicks. Use your CRM or marketing automation tool to automatically score leads based on these actions.
Benefits
- Identifies high-quality leads.
- Helps sales teams focus on leads more likely to convert.
- Improves efficiency and effectiveness of marketing efforts.
Lead scoring ensures that the most promising leads get the attention they need to thrive, leading to a more sales.
4. Personalized Customer Journeys
What is it?
Personalized customer journeys tailor the marketing experience for each individual based on their behavior and preferences.
How to Set It Up
Use data from your CRM and marketing automation platform to segment your audience and create personalized content and pathways for each segment.
Benefits
- Increases engagement by providing relevant content.
- Enhances customer satisfaction.
- Boosts conversions and retention rates.
Creating personalized customer journeys ensures you are engaging your subscribers with the best content you have.
5. Birthday and Anniversary Emails
What is it?
Birthday and anniversary emails celebrate your customers’ special days with personalized messages and offers.
How to Set It Up
If you are using a professional ESP like GetResponse, you can collect birth dates and anniversary dates during the signup process. Set up automated emails to send greetings and special offers on these dates.
Benefits
- Builds a personal connection with customers.
- Encourages repeat purchases with special offers.
- Enhances customer loyalty.
These emails bring color and joy at special times, enhancing the overall efforts of your digital marketing strategy.
6. Re-engagement Campaigns
What is it?
Re-engagement campaigns target inactive subscribers or customers to win back their interest.
How to Set It Up
Identify inactive contacts and create a series of emails to re-engage them. Offer incentives or highlight new products and updates.
Benefits
- Revives interest in your brand.
- Reduces churn rate. (Note that it is advisable to unsubscribe inactive users after a certain period.)
- Utilizes existing contacts effectively.
Re-engagement campaigns are like pruning. As I mentioned, it is important part to keep your overall email marketing efforts healthy and vibrant.
7. Event and Webinar Reminders
What is it?
Event and webinar reminders are automated emails sent to registrants to ensure they don’t miss your events.
How to Set It Up
Schedule a series of reminder emails leading up to the event, including the event details and how to join.
Benefits
- Increases attendance rates.
- Keeps your audience informed and excited.
- Enhances the success of your events.
These reminders help build the hype for your events and webinars. And it is an excellent strategy to send these emails, especially since the targeted subscribers are genuinely interested in hearing from you (and seeing you)!
8. Feedback and Review Requests
What is it?
Feedback and review requests are automated emails asking customers to share their opinions about your products or services.
How to Set It Up
After a purchase or interaction, send an automated email requesting feedback or a review. Include links to review sites or feedback forms.
Benefits
- Gathers valuable customer insights.
- Builds social proof with positive reviews.
- Helps improve products and services based on feedback.
Feedback and review requests provide important information that helps you make improvements and ensure everything is growing well. But more than that, getting a reply from your email marketing campaigns sends a super important trigger to the Gmails and Yahoos of the email marketing world. They validate that you are a reputable sender.
And here’s a super pro tip: the ISPs are not reading your emails (at least as of yet), so negative feedback really is not an issue. In fact, the opposite: one, it gives you a chance to improve on something and two, the ISPs still view this as a positive signal.
9. Upsell and Cross-sell Campaigns
What is it?
Upsell and cross-sell campaigns recommend related or upgraded products to customers based on their purchase history.
How to Set It Up
Use your e-commerce platform to track purchase history and set up automated emails suggesting relevant products.
Benefits
- Increases average order value.
- Enhances customer experience with personalized recommendations.
- Boosts overall sales.
These campaigns complement each other and enhance the overall health and yield of your email marketing efforts.
10. Reporting and Analytics
What is it?
Funnily enough, the last of the 10 marketing automations you have to know doesn’t even have to do with sending an email.
Yes, email automations don’t need to be reserved for purely sending.
Reporting and analytics automation collects and analyzes data from your marketing efforts, providing insights and performance metrics.
How to Set It Up
Integrate your marketing tools with a reporting platform to automatically generate reports on key metrics like open rates, click-through rates, and conversions.
Benefits
- Provides valuable insights into campaign performance.
- Helps identify areas for improvement.
- Saves time on manual reporting.
Reporting and analytics automations help you track progress, learn from your experiences, and make informed decisions for future growth. So it is important to figure out what you need and then automate the process!
The Post Top 10 Marketing Automations FAQs
Still have questions after these 10 marketing automations examples? Sure thing! Let’s make sure no stone is unturned!
What is marketing automation?
Marketing automation uses software to automate repetitive marketing tasks, such as emails, social media posts, and other website actions.
Why should I use some of these top 10 marketing automations?
Marketing automation saves time, increases efficiency, and enhances your ability to engage and convert customers.
How do I get started with marketing automation?
Choose a marketing automation platform, identify the tasks you want to automate, and set up your workflows based on your marketing strategy.
Can small businesses benefit from marketing automation?
Yes, marketing automation can help small businesses streamline their efforts, reach more customers, and grow their business efficiently.
What tools do I need for marketing automation?
Popular tools include ActiveCampaign, MailerLite, Mailchimp, and GetResponse. Choose one that fits your needs and budget.
Are these really the top 10 marketing automations?
What I love about gardening is that no two gardens are alike. And the same holds true with email marketing. Everyone gets a blank canvas when they sign up for an ESP, but after that — it’s a unique landscape.
So maybe not all of these apply to you. And perhaps there are better ones that suit your needs. Of course, as a fractional CMO, I’ve done dozens of email marketing audits and can help you cut through the fluff and right to the chase!
Conclusion
Nevertheless, giving thought to implementing these top 10 marketing automations can revolutionize your marketing strategy. By automating welcome emails, cart abandonment reminders, lead scoring, personalized journeys, and more, you can drive engagement, boost conversions, and nurture customer relationships effortlessly.
These automations not only save time but also ensure your marketing efforts are more targeted and effective.
To take your marketing to the next level! Schedule a free 15-minute consultation with me. Let’s discuss how these automations can be tailored to your specific needs and help you achieve your marketing goals.
