As the marketing landscape becomes increasingly complex, email marketing in particular remains a top way B2B and DTC companies are turning subscribers into customers and clients. But creating a system of automation that works for every stage of the customer journey is easier said than done. This article outlines key moments your team should trigger automated emails and the types of emails that work best at each stage—from the top to the bottom of the funnel. Whether it’s following up after a form fill or keeping high-engagement leads in the loop, automated emails can significantly improve your marketing effectiveness.
Sending email confirmations after form fills not only creates another touch point, but they allow you to set expectations with your contacts for next steps. Tell your leads the time frame they can expect to hear back from you, and what that communication will look like.
After your sales team qualifies a lead, you can send them information about your company before or after a sales call is set up. Consider a workflow that includes case studies for their industry and relevant blog posts. These can go a long way in keeping a contact warm throughout a long sales cycle.
Marketing contacts are not free. Stop wasting money keeping contacts in your CRM that are not engaging with your content. Consider sending a breakup email when lead scores decay and/or customers go too long without engaging with email or website content. These can be great, because sometimes the language used is exactly what’s needed to move a contact to the next stage in the funnel, or at least raise their hand and let you know they’re still interested. And if not, it allows users to free up CRM space for clients more likely to buy.
Trigger an automated email when a client visits an important page like pricing pages or case studies. Marketers commonly send automation after customers have looked at Bottom of the Funnel (BOFU) content like pricing pages, but sometimes fail to follow up on engagement further up the funnel. Consider sending email follow-ups even when customers view something like a pillar page. After all, if a subscriber takes the time to read through a page of yours with thousands of words like a standard pillar page, they likely already see you as an authority in your field. But you can solidify that by sending them additional related content, or a sequence to try to understand whether they’re an ideal potential customer.
If your company is putting on an important in-person or virtual event, trigger an email workflow to tell your audience about it to increase your headcount. Follow that up with a set of reminders as the event approaches.
Ideally, by the time a lead has engaged with lots of high-converting BOF content, you’ve communicated with this client outside of a workflow, either with a phone call or more personalized emails. Nevertheless, if a contact is not year an opportunity, consider sending them tailored content like case studies and testimonials via email.
Just because a deal has been created doesn't mean it will close. Combat common objections with targeted messaging that addresses fears and pain points. Repurposing testimonial content can be great for this, but so can client FAQ’s.
When projects are done and you are, ideally, left with a satisfied customer, email automation can help your company grow by sourcing feedback to improve upon. Create a survey for clients to complete once the project is complete. Share this feedback with account leads and make a game plan to improve on any points of constructive criticism.
If you receive a glowing survey response, send an automated email asking for reviews on sites that matter most for your industry.
Once you have a list of people who have given reviews, continue to delight these brand advocates with high-level content and perks. Maybe this means a special tier to your Christmas tier list or regular customer gifts. It could even mean access to exclusive webinars or trade show/convention invitations.
Planning to implement workflows for the events above can be daunting, and that doesn’t even include making emails that look great and have compelling but brand-appropriate copy. Concept’s team of HubSpot & Salesforce experts, copywriters, and brand strategists help clients in a variety of industries create email workflows and sequences that close deals every day. Contact us today to make email easy.