How to Use Email Automation to Turn Your Leads Into Customers

Email marketing has been proven to be one of the most effective ways to generate leads and sales when done right. However, too often marketers struggle with choosing the right email automation platform and getting their list growing as fast as they’d like. Luckily, there are plenty of tools that can help you get started, such as Hubspot, that teach you how to use email automation to turn your leads into customers without spending countless hours doing so yourself. Here are five tips to start using email automation to grow your business and brand.

Create a lead magnet to grow your list

So first and foremost, you need to have an email list, an opt-in email list. So how do you grow your email list? Well, you're going to want to use things called lead magnets. So, lead magnets are pieces of digital content that you offer leads in exchange for their contact information. So this could be something like an e-book, a free consultation, a webinar, or any sort of valuable piece of content, either digital or otherwise, that can only be accessed through that particular person giving you their email, is what a lead magnet is going to be, and that's how you grow your list. You can’t just email anybody you want from a paid list or anything like that. You have to have opt-ins. So lead magnets are a great way to do that.

You will also need somewhere to store the lead information. Though we are partial as we are HubSpot Certified Partners, we recommend using HubSpot, or a similar CRM, to collect all the information about those leads. As business owners, we don't always have a lot of time to manually enter and track the lead data. HubSpot makes automated email campaigns simple and smooth without losing the custom, personal touches you would normally add with manual emails.

Set up a welcome email campaign

One simple automation is to set up a welcome email campaign. If somebody registers as a user on your website, whether it's to access a course or to purchase something online, you can have that simple email automation just to have that touch, and welcome them to your community. The nice thing about welcome email campaigns is you can have it set up so that when somebody registers for something, there's a tag put on them, and then based on that tag you could automatically send a relevant email. For example, one email automation campaign might be: every month send out an email to all of those folks who signed up for my course in February. And I might say Hey, this is Patrick. Welcome to the class! And by the way, if you're feeling really confident now after taking the course and want some more help with (xyz problem), maybe take a look at these two related resources. And then I give them two links to resources that are completely appropriate for people who took the course. It's just another way of making sure people feel welcomed and appreciated.

Use an automated email campaign to nurture leads

Once you have a solid idea of what your email automation should do, you’ll need to determine how often you should send out these messages. A weekly cadence is common for most businesses, but it depends on your audience and their willingness to engage with automated messaging. If you sell high-end items that typically take several months or years to decide on before buying, then sending an email once every two weeks would be more appropriate. If your average customer buys from you within a week or less, then sending an email every other day could be the right strategy. Keep in mind though, if you overdo it by sending too many emails too quickly, recipients might start ignoring them altogether. You can use segmenting capabilities in your email marketing platform to make sure your customers don't get spammed with repetitive information they may not care about. 

If they don't respond to emails, you can set up triggers for other events to happen further down the line in that automation. Again, the point is to nurture the lead, warm them up, and get them to the point where they're ready to buy the service that you have.

Use an abandoned cart email campaign to recover lost sales

If you're an e-commerce business, the simplest one is probably the abandoned cart email. So if you're shopping online and you've ever gotten an email after you've loaded up your cart and then left the website, many of those retailers online will send you an abandoned cart email to recover that lost sale. So that is one automation. We do that with one of our e-commerce clients, Ch’i Lash. So if you're on chilash.com and you load up your cart with eyelash products and then you leave the website, you're going to get an email from Ch’i Lash reminding you to go ahead and finish that purchase.  

That's a great way to turn people who are interested in your product into customers. Another way that we can use email automation to increase conversions or improve sales is through time-sensitive offers or deals. This type of automation gives customers a sense of urgency, which can often lead them to take immediate action without having much time to think about it - leading them back onto your site and making a purchase.

Send a post-purchase email campaign to turn first-time buyers into lifelong fans

With a post-purchase email campaign, you can build brand buy-in by sending customers an email to thank them for their purchase and provide them with information about your company, service, product, or upcoming events. You could also use this opportunity to ask for feedback on their experience or introduce them to new products in your store. The best time to send these emails is within 24 hours of purchase. If you haven’t sent out these emails after two days, consider adding a reminder email to the customer's inbox five days after the initial sale was made. These types of campaigns work best if they are personalized so recipients feel like they are part of a larger conversation between the business and its customers. 

This type of strategy not only allows businesses to create a more personal relationship with current customers but also builds loyalty because they feel like they have been rewarded for making that first purchase. For example, once potential buyers make that first online purchase from your business, immediately follow up by including links in your email blasts to additional items or services that complement their purchase.

So those are five tips to start using email automation to grow your business and brand. If you're stuck or are looking to offload your email marketing, book a free consultation with our team today!