automated email follow up

Email marketing is one of the most effective platforms for gaining a positive ROI on your outreach efforts. According to Oberlo, for every $1 you spend on email marketing, you can expect an average return of $42

The problem is that not everyone knows how to utilize email marketing to its fullest capabilities. 

If used correctly, email marketing remains one of the best ways to improve customer loyalty, encourage repeat purchases, and build your brand in a cost-effective way. 

In this article, we’ll show you 7 tried-and-true automated email follow-up tactics that can help you win more business and customers.

7 Automated Email Follow-Up Sequences to Boost Customer Loyalty and Increase Sales

These seven automated sequence ideas are by no means the only email automation you can create, but they are an excellent place to start. Let’s dive in.

1. Abandoned Cart Email Automations

According to statistics, almost 81.4% of online shopping carts are abandoned. These are all shoppers who were interested enough in your products to put them in their cart.

Although some shoppers may have actually decided against purchasing your product, who knows why the rest of them abandoned their carts. Maybe their kid spilled a drink, or the dog got out of the house, or a phone call came in…or they just plain forgot. 

Abandoned cart email automation is a great way to gently remind your customers that there’s something that they actually wanted to buy.

You can customize your email sequence to work however works best for your specific niche or industry, but here’s an example of an automated email schedule that might work for you:

  • Email 1: send 24 hours after cart abandonment
  • Email 2: send 48 hours after cart abandonment
  • Email 3: send 72 hours after cart abandonment

You can always adjust the frequency and scheduling of these emails after you take a look at the data. There’s no right or wrong amount. If your conversion rates say that a 10 email cart abandonment sequence works for your business…go for it!

In these emails, there’s a host of things you can add:

  • A reminder of what’s in their cart
  • Discounts and promo codes
  • Handle objections with product benefits

Get to know what will bring your customer back and take advantage of what works.

2. Welcome Email Series

A simple but incredibly important email marketing system to set up is your welcome email series. This is the first email someone gets when they join your list. 

These emails are important because not only do they set the first impression for your customers by showing them what to expect, but welcome emails also have a much higher average open rate versus later promotional emails. This makes it a great opportunity to connect with your subscribers.

There are several tactics you can take (and you should always keep experimenting). 

Welcome new subscribers and introduce them to your brand. Show why your company is different and what they should be excited about now that they’re on your list. 

Remember that email is a very personal, one-on-one conversation. Be transparent and conversational to make them feel like they just joined something great. 

You can also give them an incentive to purchase, like a timed discount coupon.

Another great piece of info you can give your subscribers is how to connect with them across other platforms, such as your social media or phone number. 

3. Email Nurture Sequence

Email automated processes are perfect to nurture leads. This is when you guide your customers on a journey through different stages of a sales cycle and ultimately lead them to purchase. 

Instead of shoving soulless promotions at your subscribers every week (or day), consider how you can provide the most value to your customers as possible.

By creating content that actively gives “free” value to your customers, you’ll not only differentiate yourself from other brands, but you can establish yourself as an authority in the industry.

Some examples of emails you can send in a nurture sequence include:

  • Educational emails that provide free useful, and valuable content
  • Branding emails that expand on the story of your company
  • Storytelling emails that entertain your prospects while showing the value of your products
  • Testimonial emails that show how people have enjoyed your products

The number of ways you can take an email nurture sequence is endless.

4. Post-Purchase Review Email

One of the biggest tools to make sales is social proof through testimonials. 80%-90% of people read reviews before they make a decision whether to buy something or not.

Why not automate these incredible tools to come directly back to you? Instead of expecting people to go all the way back to your site to make a review, send them an automated email after a certain amount of time passes and ask them what they thought about your product.

You can even incentivize them with a discount coupon or credit. This is a great way to increase sales while generating useful social proof.

5. Order Confirmation Email

An order confirmation email is an under-utilized tool in the automation world. If you think about 90% of items you’ve ever bought online, most likely, you’ve received a very boring and not engaging email.

This is a huge opportunity to differentiate yourself from other brands by injecting personality and voice into your company. 

Let customers know why they should be so excited that they just purchased with you. Make them laugh, make them smile, and above all — make them remember you.

6. Cross-Sell Automations

After someone buys something from your company, there’s always a little period where that customer might be ripe for another sale.

Think about a product that might go perfectly with the product they just purchased. For example, if they bought coffee beans, send an email checking if they need new coffee filters to go along with it. 

If they bought a 4 week’s supply of your product, send them an email around week 3 to see if they need more.

7. Win-Back Sequence

This sequence is for getting customers back that haven’t bought from your store in a long time. Here, you can pull out all the stops to try to win them back to your store. 

You can send this to them after 30, 60, 90, 120 days — or whatever makes sense for your product. Send them emails asking where they went and offer them limited-time discount coupons if they come back.

Since they’ve already shown that they might not be interested anymore, here is where you can pull out the big guns.

Key Takeaways

When set up correctly, email automation can literally make you money in your sleep. Since they are triggered by customer actions, the ROI you’ll get from taking a few hours to set them up will be ridiculously high.

An automated email follow-up could be the next-level tool your business has been looking for.

If you’re looking to upgrade your website to its highest potential and increase sales along the way, come get a free proposal from us today!