The Top Four Businesses That Should Leverage Email Automation

If you’ve ever wondered how you could save time in your business, especially with your marketing, email automation may be the place to start. With automation you can save time and money while eliminating tedious and mundane tasks.

If you’re not familiar with email automation, it’s the use of software to automate key email marketing actions, particularly repetitive or scheduled tasks and things like: follow-ups, scheduling calls, nurturing and even qualifying leads.

The main benefit of email automation you may be focused on is gaining back valuable time, but there are many other benefits of automation. With automation, you’ll have a powerful way to organize your communications and maximize the use of your internal resources. It’s almost like having an extra employee.

Additionally, email automation can help increase revenue by supporting sales and marketing programs. For example, by creating and automating a sales funnel via email and tracking what the user clicks on, you automatically learn what they’re interested in. From there, you can generate a series of emails on the subject and create warm leads with details for your sales person to follow up on.

While email can be a powerful platform for most businesses, there are some types of business that are particularly well-suited for using email marketing.

Here are four businesses that should leverage email automation:

#1. Home Builders

In most major metro areas, there’s no shortage of competition between home builders, so keeping leads warm and following through is critical.

Depending on the size of your sales team and the volume they deal with, it can be challenging to immediately follow up with each new lead as it comes in.

Email automation offers a solution for this by providing a prompt follow up to each new lead.

People aren’t always inclined to reply when they hear from a salesperson or agent, but an informational email after they’ve expressed interest is an excellent way to entice them and keep them engaged. Then you can use email to nurture these leads with a series of educational emails sharing what makes your homes unique, telling your builder story and why prospects should come tour your new community and see for themselves.

Taking this approach is low pressure for buyers and highly effective for you.

Email automation is also a great way to create some excitement for an upcoming communities grand opening event. Not every prospective homebuyer who’s shopping is going to visit your sales center, so automating your communications through your website is the perfect way to educate potential buyers and keep you top-of-mind. It can also be used to onboard new homeowners providing access to maintenance manuals and more.

#2. Chambers of Commerce and City Tourism

For Chambers of Commerce and City Tourism, the benefits of email automation are very similar.

A good place is to start is by offering a “free gift or guide” on your website that people sign up for. By sharing their email with you, they get to download a guide to the area with ideas of what to do when in town along with local offers and valuable expertise on member businesses and local areas of interest.

Once they sign up for that gift, you can then have a follow-up email sequence with information about the area that opens the door to highlighting everything that your city has to offer and helps drive traffic to member businesses. (And more visitors means more revenue from tourism!)

As you can see, from tips on where to stay, how to travel and “must-sees” when visiting the area, email automation can educate potential visitors and enhance their trip planning process. It can also generate revenue for chambers by offering advertising opportunities for member businesses to run banner ads in the emails as well. 

Additionally, the right email system will enable you to tag visitors so you have intelligence about their areas of interest, and then you can segment them for future marketing. This is extremely valuable when looking at tourism because you can tailor the information you provide to them and this can go a long way in helping them decide that your area is the place to visit.

Some examples of segmentation and how it works with email automation could be building a sequence of 3-4 specific emails based on things like outdoor activities, arts and culture, history, food and drink or shopping. When visitors show an interest in one of these subjects in an online form or by clicking on a link, they can be automatically sent information specific to their interest(s). These are usually spread out over several weeks to avoid overloading your subscribers inbox and it minimizes opt-outs.

Promoting local events is usually a key function of a tourism board or chamber of commerce, and email automation is the perfect way to ramp up interest in events, educate and boost ticket sales throughout your event promotion. You could also send an automated email to ticket buyers on each event day sharing the schedule of events and boosting awareness and attendance at all venues throughout the day.

Finally, if you’re running a chamber of commerce, then email automation is a great way to promote the benefits of being a chamber member. You can create an email sequence to welcome and educate new members over time on special perks of membership, advertising opportunities, and recommendations on how they can get involved, network and get the most out of their membership and create new business opportunities.

#3. Software Companies

Not every software user is created equal, so leveraging email automation to help inform and educate your audience can have a big impact.

When it comes to nurturing leads and targeting potential new business, email automation makes this whole process much easier.

Unless you have someone working on your sales 24/7, the quickest way to make contact with a lead is via an automated email. While this can’t replace your salespeople, having a touchpoint with a potential client as soon as they express interest helps you keep them warm until you can have a conversation with them.

Another email opportunity is when onboarding new software users. Once someone has purchased your product, an email sequence can go a long way to help with a smooth implementation. Sharing things like getting started videos, helpful tips and guides via email means fewer calls to the help desk and a more satisfying overall experience for new customers.

Email automation offers software companies an opportunity to be proactive and anticipate what their users may want to know. Consider using a series of emails to promote software upgrades, educational training videos or customer successes.

#4. Coaches and Consultants

When you’re a coach or a consultant, your expertise IS your business so you need ways to promote this to potential clients.

For people to be willing to do business with you, they need to know, like and trust you, so you need to build a relationship with them over time.

This is where email marketing automation comes in.

When hiring a coach or consultant, people are looking for someone to take the role of trusted advisor, and email is the perfect medium to highlight yourself in that role. You can share success stories, tips and training that positions you as an expert, which is exactly what people are looking for in a coach or a consultant.

Communicating via email also gives you a chance to show a bit of your personality and offer exclusive content that subscribers can’t find anywhere else. In your emails, you can share personal stories and educate people on what you do and the benefits of working with you.

To build a warm list of prospects, you can use email to convert website visitors into subscribers. This is best done by offering a lead magnet or opt-in (something like a how-to guide or video series) that solves a common problem faced by your audience.

Email automation opens up opportunities for your business and can offer a strong return on investment. With email you can create stronger relationships with a wider audience, for a fraction of the cost and effort.

Are you ready to look at how email automation can take your business to the next level?