Email automation: Definition and 6-Step Guide!

Do you know how to automate emails? The art of captivating and maintaining an audience’s attention is becoming more and more complicated, but there is one powerful and often underestimated this strategy that can be your best ally. 💪🏼

Imagine a tool capable of transforming your communication approach, personalizing every interaction and, above all, optimizing your marketing efforts! 🤯

Contents:

• What is email automation?
• Why opt for this strategy?
• How to automate emails?
• What are the different types of email automation?
• Which software to use?

I’ve already said too much, let’s get started! 👇🏼

What is Email Automation?

Email automation or Email Automation is a marketing technique that allows you to send personalized, targeted emails to specific individuals or groups within your database, at certain times, without any intervention. 👀

But how does it work? 🤔

Thanks to the use of specific software and technologies that trigger the sending of emails based on predefined actions or user behavior, such as newsletter sign-up, a purchase, or even inactivity on a website for a given period. 📆

Its objective? To provide relevant and useful content to each segment of your audience, thus improving :

• 🫱🏽‍🫲🏼 Commitment.
• 💟 Loyalty.
• 🔄 Converting leads into customers.

💡 Unlike traditional email campaigns, which involve sending the same message to your entire mailing list, automation enables more personalized and effective communication.

Here are a few examples of automated email marketing:

• Welcome e-mails ➡️ automatically sent to new subscribers to welcome them.
• Transactional emails ➡️ order confirmations, delivery information, and other communications following a customer action.
• ➡️ follow-up emails target users who have not interacted with your site or emails for some time.
• Birthday or registration emails ➡️ special offers or personalized messages sent to celebrate an important date.
• Lead Nurturing sequence ➡️ series of educational or informative emails designed to guide a prospect along the conversion tunnel.

If you’re interested in these examples, we’ll talk about them below in this article. 😇

Why opt for email automation?

Email automation isn’t just a passing trend in the world of marketing. 🌍

It’s a strategy that’s transforming the way companies forge links 🔗 with their audiences.

By sending personalized, targeted emails automatically, brands can forge more intimate and meaningful relationships with their customers, while boosting their operational efficiency. 🚀

We can sense that you’re still a little reluctant. Don’t worry, we’ll explain in 4 points why you should use this strategy! 👇🏼

1) Improved customer engagement

Customer engagement means the way in which a company interacts with its customers to build a strong, lasting relationship. 💟

The aim here is to create a customer experience that fosters loyalty and leads to repeat interactions.

Before doing so, it’s essential to understand your customers’ needs and desires. This can be achieved through :

• 🟣 Polls.
• 🔵 Market research.
• 🟣 Behavior analysis.
• 🔵 Customer satisfaction survey.

💡 Once you understand what your customers want, you can start developing strategies to meet those expectations.

Next, it’s important to personalize the interaction with each of your customers. 💬

For example, you can send targeted, personal messages that respond directly to each customer’s interests and needs (we’ll soon tell you about our favorite tool for email automation 👽).

Finally, don’t forget to offer an excellent user experience. We like to receive little touches when we go on holidays, ✈️ or when we’ve ordered a product.

Well, it’s the same thing here. It could be responsive customer service, the creation of an intuitive user interface or high-quality content. 😇

2) Increased operational efficiency

This stage refers to the optimization of business processes to improve internal productivity, reduce costs and thus increase profits. 🔥

This may involve eliminating unnecessary steps, automating a repetitive process or simplifying tasks.

To give you an example, the use of email automation enables a company to send personalized messages without any human intervention, freeing up time for other tasks – and we love that! 🫶🏼

Then, as you will have understood, as we reduce the time needed to carry out certain tasks, we reduce costs (costs associated with employing a person for a task, for example.) 🤑

Finally, operational efficiency can also lead to greater customer satisfaction (CSAT), as more efficient processes can lead to better quality of service.

All we ask for in the end. 😇

3) More precise data and analysis

Thanks to e-mail automation, you’ll be able to obtain more valuable 💎 and more detailed information about your customers and their behavior.

How? 🤔

It allows you to track and analyze performance indicators such as email open rates, click-through rates and conversion rates.

Performance analysis provides you with valuable data on your users’ behavior, preferences, and needs.

This makes it possible to:

• 1️⃣ Fine-tuning a campaign.
• 2️⃣ Optimize a message.
• 3️⃣ Create a personalized experience that captivates and converts.

💡 This data is invaluable, as it enables companies to understand what works and what doesn’t in their e-mail campaigns.

This strategy makes it possible to target an audience effectively. 🎯

For example, if a company notices that only a certain group of customers regularly open its e-mails, but never click on call-to-actions, then it can adapt its approach for this segment to improve engagement.

How to automate emails?

If you want to succeed with your email automation, it’s essential to have a good understanding of this strategy and its various aspects. 👀

That’s why I’m here to give you 6 keys to successful email automation! 🔑

1) Define clear objectives

First, you need to have clear objectives. Knowing exactly what you want to achieve 🎯 with your email campaigns is the first step to success.

Whether it’s increasing sales, improving engagement or strengthening customer loyalty, every objective must be SMART.

Oh yes, you’ve heard of the SMART approach: specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time-bound.

💡 This targeted approach not only allows you to focus on your marketing efforts, but also optimizes your resources.

Email automation is a bit like your compass 🧭 in digital marketing, each email sent points towards a precise, measurable objective.

2) Segment audiences

This step involves dividing your list of subscribers into smaller groups, based on specific criteria, such as :

• 🥇 Purchasing behavior.
• 🥈 Demographic data.
• 🥉 The history of interaction with your e-mails.

By doing so, you’ll increase the relevance of your messages because you’ll hit 🏹 your prospects’ weakest point.

💡 Market segmentation transforms the art of emailing into a precise science, where every message has the potential to match its recipient, boosting engagement and customer satisfaction.

3) Personalize messages

This time, it’s all about using the data collected to create unique communications, where you’d think everything had been written for each recipient. 👀

To do this, you need to understand your customers’ interests, preferences and buying behavior.

Then you’ll establish a deeper, more important 🫶🏼 connection, transforming a simple recipient into a true, loyal and committed customer.

As you can see, by harnessing the power of email automation to personalize your messages, you’ll show your customers that they’re not just numbers in your database. 😏

4) Create relevant and engaging content

Relevant, engaging content is the cornerstone for ensuring that your e-mails are not only opened, but also interacted with.

💡 Note this: to captivate your audience, every word counts.

Your content needs to resonate with their needs, desires and challenges. 🔥

For that, well, you need to know your target audience and have the ability to tell stories that pique 🐝 their curiosity, by answering their questions, for example, or offering solutions.

There are several ways to do this: ⬇️

• Incorporate attractive visual elements.
• Add clear call to action.
• Define a tone of voice that reflects your brand.

I’ll let you in on a little secret 🤫. I’ve always been told that when creating content, you have to think about the usefulness and emotion you want to bring to your readers.

5) Set up automated workflows

Okay, first, what is a workflow?

This is a sequence of automated actions triggered by specific behaviors or criteria related to your subscribers or customers.

There may be :

• Sending emails.
• Status update in a customer database.
• Assign tasks to internal teams.
• Any other automated process designed to engage with the audience.

💡 Its aim is to streamline and optimize communication between a company and its prospects, ensuring that the message is sent at the right time.

Okay, now let’s get back to business. 🐑

Whether you’re welcoming new subscribers, encouraging customers to continue shopping or building loyalty after a purchase, every workflow helps to strengthen the relationship with your recipients.

To do this, our little tip is to remember the customer journey and identify 🔎 the key moments when an email can add value.

6) Measure and analyze performance

I can’t stress this enough, but every click (CTR), open, or conversion allows you to interpret the results of your strategy, so it’s essential! 👀

This goes beyond simply collecting data 📊 it also means objectively evaluating your campaigns, being on the lookout, identifying trends, anomalies, and opportunities for improvement.

Here’s a quick chart with 5 performance indicators to help you analyze the results of your email campaigns: 👇🏼

Rates	Definition
Open rate	Percentage of recipients who opened the email out of the total number of emails sent.
Click-through rate	Percentage of recipients who clicked on a link in the email out of the total number of emails opened.
Conversion rates	Percentage of recipients who carried out a desired action (purchase, registration) after clicking on a link in the email.
Churn rate	Percentage of recipients who unsubscribed from your email list after receiving an email.
Reactivity rate	Percentage of recipients who responded to the email, indicating a level of engagement and direct interaction.

What are the different types of email automation?

Now that you know what email automation is, you must know the different types of email marketing automation you can use.

Let’s get started with our little guide to email types! ⬇️

1) Welcome email

The welcome email establishes a solid initial connection with new subscribers or customers.

This type of email is triggered automatically as soon as someone subscribes to your newsletter, creates an account on your website, or makes a first purchase.

💡 It serves both to confirm registration, and to introduce your brand, highlighting your values and specifying what subscribers can achieve from their future interactions with you.

Okay, let’s take an example. 👇🏼

Imagine a music streaming service that sends a welcome email to its new users.

The email could include a brief introduction to the product, tips for creating their first playlist, and even an invitation to explore premium features with a free trial.

Why do this? It enhances the value of the new user 🔥 and encourages deeper exploration of the product, increasing the chances of conversion and customer loyalty. 📈

2) Transactional email

These emails are usually sent to confirm a transaction or an action on a website, such as:

• 🟣 Purchasing.
• 🔵 Inquiries.
• 🟣 Password changes.
• 🔵 Subscriptions to services.

Their role? To provide the user with immediate confirmation and juicy details 🍤 about the action performed.

For example, you run an e-commerce site on Shopify. A customer has just made a purchase on your site. A transactional email is automatically sent, containing :

• Order summary.
• Order number.
• Information on the product or service purchased.
• Estimated delivery details.
• A link to track your order in real time.

💡 This email serves not only to reassure customers that their transaction will be a success, but also to reinforce their trust 🫱🏽‍🫲🏼 in your brand by offering them all the important information.

3) Nurturing campaign

Nurturing email, also known as maturing email (not like sausage 🍖) is designed to strengthen the relationship between your company and your audience, providing useful information, advice and educational content to meet their potential needs during their buying cycle.

The goal? 🥅 Gradually guide the future customer towards decision-making and purchase. 👀

For example, you’re a company specializing in project management software. A prospect visits your website and downloads a free e-book on “How to improve your team’s productivity with digital tools”.

Following this download, you’ll be able to trigger a series of nurturing emails.

The first e-mail will contain a white paper summary, as well as a short tutorial video showing your software in action. Next in line will be blog articles on time management or team collaboration, an invitation to a free webinar, or a case study of satisfied customers.

💡 This helps educate the prospect about your offer and encourages conversion.

4) Loyalty emails

Loyalty email is designed to maintain a high level of engagement and encourage repeat purchases, while offering rewards, useful information or exclusive benefits to loyal customers.

💡 The aim is to encourage an ongoing, rewarding relationship.

For example, you’re a company specializing in 100% natural skin care products.

To build customer loyalty, you’ll create a series of automated emails sent at regular intervals to customers who have made more than three purchases during the year.

Inside, you can add :

• 🥇 Personalized skin care tips based on products they’ve purchased.
• 🥈 Invitations to exclusive online events (webinar on the benefits of natural cosmetics).
• 🥉 Special offers such as discounts on their next purchase or free samples of new products.

5) Surveys and feedback

This type of email is usually sent after a customer has interacted with your service or product, allowing you to measure satisfaction, gather constructive feedback and identify 🔎 areas for improvement.

💡 By doing so, you show your customers that their experience and opinion matter to you, to your brand, which can strengthen loyalty and engagement.

Let’s take an example. You’re a tech company making a major update to your product.

Two weeks later, you automatically email all users who have upgraded and include a short survey.

This survey aims to evaluate:

• Ease of installation.
• Customer experience.
• Gather suggestions for future collaborations.

🤫 Our little tip, add a free comments section for more detailed feedback.

If you achieve this, you’ll show customers that they’re present in the process of improving your product, it makes them unique. 🥰

6) “Happy birthday” email

The birthday email is automatically sent to your customers on their birthday 🎂 thanks to the data they’ve shared with you.

💡The aim? Add a personal touch and humanize your brand while offering them an exclusive offer or birthday gift, which encourages purchase.

To illustrate what I mean, let’s take an example.

You’re an online cosmetics company. Your system automatically detects your customers’ birthdays from their profiles and sends out a personalized newsletter on that day.

Instead of sending simple greetings, you can add a small 20% promotional code valid for one week, or a gift that will automatically be added to their basket.

Here’s how to make your customers look forward to their next birthdays to receive your newsletter! 🔥

7) Company news

Emails are used to inform subscribers of the latest news, achievements, important changes or other upcoming events within the company.

💡 The aim is to build a relationship of trust 🫱🏽‍🫲🏼 and transparency.

For example, you’re launching a new product, a compact wind turbine designed to make green energy accessible to individual households. In your e-mail, you can:

• ➡️ Announce launch.
• ➡️ Share a behind-the-scenes look at how the product was created.
• ➡️ Invite your community to a Q&A session with project engineers.

You can also include a few shots 📸 of your product or testimonials from the development team.

No more excuses, you know how to involve your community in your employer branding and values! 🔥

Which software for email automation?

Inevitably, email automation means Waalaxy! 🛸

If you don’t know what it is, it’s a LinkedIn email automation and prospecting tool designed for time-saving marketing professionals. 🔥

You’ll be able to create and manage email campaigns directly from our tool.

To go into more detail, you can easily set up automated email sequences that are triggered by specific recipient actions, such as:

• Opening an e-mail.
• Clicking on a link.
• A certain amount of time since the last contact.

Our advantage? 😇

You can integrate your email automation campaigns into multichannel prospecting strategies, such as LinkedIn prospecting, with the aim of maximizing the reach 🎯 and effectiveness of your campaigns.

Got a problem? Waalaxy has the answer! 👇🏼

Aspects of Email Automation	How Waalaxy meets these needs
Set up automated email sequences	Allows users to easily create email sequences that activate automatically according to predefined conditions.
Interaction-based triggers	Offers the ability to personalize recipient journeys according to their actions, such as opening an email or clicking on a link.
Integration into multichannel prospecting strategies	Facilitates the integration of email campaigns with LinkedIn for a multichannel marketing approach, maximizing reach and effectiveness.
Performance analysis features	Provides detailed analysis tools to track campaign results, enabling users to optimize their strategies based on the data.

If you’d like to discover the galaxy with us, book your place in our rocket by clicking on the button! 🚀

How about a recap of the article how to automate emails?

Email automation is much more than just a marketing tool, it’s a kind of bridge between your brand and your customers, or rather a way of dialogizing with them. 🌉

Through each automated email, you have the opportunity to tell a story, share a vision and show your customers that they are heard and understood. 🫡

Apart from opening and click-through rates, what counts most is the experience you offer your audience.

Believe me, if you put the principles of segmentation, personalization, and performance analysis into practice, you’ll make your customer happy, unique and valued. 🔥

Frequently asked questions

Don’t rush off, we’ve still got a few questions to answer. 😇

How can I automate mailings?

Email automation is a key technique in digital marketing 🔑 enabling companies to communicate effectively with their audience while maintaining a high degree of personalization.

Here’s how to automate your emailing process:

• 1️⃣ Choose an email automation tool.
• 2️⃣ Segment your email list.
• 3️⃣ Create relevant email content.
• 4️⃣ Define automation triggers.
• 5️⃣ Test your email campaigns.
• 6️⃣ Launch your email automation workflows.
• 7️⃣ Analyze and adjust.

What is an automatic email?

An automatic email is a message sent from an email marketing platform or automation system to one or more recipients, without direct manual intervention, in response to a predefined trigger or condition. 👀

These triggers can be based on user behavior or specific events.

That’s the end of this article, you know all about how to automate emails! 🐉