So your brand has already tapped into the rewarding world of email marketing. You have an opt-in form on your website, building your list of contacts every day. You're beginning to see success from your email campaigns that share company news and offers. All is going well, but you know you can do more, and you're ready to take your email marketing to the next level. All businesses come to these same crossroads. The next logical stage is introducing (and then mastering) email flows.
Why do you need email flows?
Email marketing automations, or flows, allow businesses to tailor communications to their list of subscribers. They are often triggered by a contact's action like placing an order or signing up for your newsletters. These examples are basic email flows to have when selling products online, but the possibilities to personalize your communication are endless.
Luxury brands will especially benefit from the individualized messaging an email flow can provide because high-end consumers need to feel as if they are being cared for and catered to. A well-strategized email flow will allow the right message to go to the right person at the most relevant time.
But, which automations are the most effective for your brand? Here are five email flows that your brand should be using and tips on how to master them.
Welcome emails
A welcome series is an incredible way to introduce your brand's unique values, personality, and products to your new subscribers. This email automation is initiated after a website visitor signs up to receive your newsletters after filling out a form.
It's now become the norm to see e-commerce companies offering free shipping or a percent off their first order to encourage sign-ups. This simple tactic is popular because it is so effective. In fact, Experian found that welcome emails typically pull in 320% more revenue than other promotional emails.
The trick to a successful email series is finding the balance between sending the subscriber the content they signed up for and also including just enough exciting information about your brand that they will fall in love. Research shows a 13% revenue increase associated with including more than one email in your series. We find the magic number to be three.
Lead nurturing
When consumers purchase a luxury item, it's hardly ever on impulse. They receive communication from the brand for months, sometimes even years, before they actually buy. This is why it's incredibly critical how, why, and when you contact the leads within your list of email subscribers.
Leads want to hear from you. They are just simply not ready to buy yet. They respond best to educational and entertaining content that speaks to their pain points and interests. If leads are repeatedly contacted with sales-forward content, they will think your brand is pushy and annoying, which is certainly not a place you want to be as a luxury brand.
Once you tap into the different automation methods, you can target your leads based on what they like and their stage in the buyer's journey. Lead nurturing transforms your emails into a much more individualized and bespoke form of communication.
Cart abandonment
We've all received a cart abandonment email and felt as if someone was peering over our shoulder. If you look past the creep factor, you'll find that these emails are actually pretty helpful to most customers. The email platform Klavio found that the average abandoned cart open rate among their users was an astounding 41.18%. This high percentage proves that people are more than okay with a little email reminder.
The key to abandoned cart emails is the relevance and the timing. Studies show that 72% of online shoppers will return to their cart within 12-24 hours, and after that, the likelihood drops significantly. Therefore, brands should set their automation to deploy 1-2 emails within that time frame. A minimal email with simple and convincing writing should do the trick. To boost conversions even further, you could test out offering free shipping.
Re-engagement
Some call re-engagement flows a last-ditch effort to catch the attention of uninterested subscribers. Still, they are also a preventive measure for the health of your email marketing strategy as a whole. A high percentage of dead emails can affect your deliverability score. Simply put, if a large amount of your email communication is going to spam or getting deleted, the email host will begin to think you are unwanted. Eventually, this means your emails will be consistently directed to the dreaded spam folder. If your list includes inactive or deleted emails, your score will worsen.
To save your sales in the long-run, filter out your subscribers into a timeframe you feel comfortable with and ask them if they still want to hear from you. You'll need to look at your product buying cycle, and the last time they engaged with one of your emails. If it's hard for you to say goodbye, you could offer them something new and exciting to see if you can save your relationship one last time.
Highly engaged
Any brand or service can benefit from strengthening relationships with its best customers. Your highly-engaged contacts absolutely love to hear what you have to say. They open your emails, read your content, and interact with you on social media. These are also the repeat customers that you should reward with something special. You could give them a special VIP offer or allow them first access or a preview to a new release.
Since these customers enjoy interacting with your brand, why not take that opportunity to listen to them? Offer up a reward in exchange for their feedback. The messages you'll receive will be the best marketing advice you may ever get.
Your highly engaged contacts are the same people that share your products with all of their friends and family, giving them as gifts and talking them up on social media. Word of mouth advertising still remains incredibly influential, so keeping these relationships top of mind benefits your business tenfold.
We've explained before that email is still king (and queen). With 99% of users checking their inboxes up to 20 times a day, this isn't a channel you're going to want to miss out on. Sending one-off campaigns is a place to start, but if you amp up the sophistication by using email flows, you'll begin to reap the benefits almost immediately.
Are you inspired to uplevel your email marketing yet? We've been in the business of crafting creative, high conversion emails since 2013. Request a quote from us here.
