In the current climate of digital marketing coupled with the movement of all commercial activities online due to the pandemic, there has been a widespread movement towards tools and technologies that can position and pivot oneself online. The gamut of activities and tools has undergone a large amount of evolution and it can be seen that email marketing has survived all the trends and competition to emerge as one of the foremost marketing tools that one can use today. Before we go any deeper into understanding email sequences, let us understand email marketing a little more.
From the beginning of the digital marketing era, it may be seen that email marketing and creating an email database was one of the most important things that a marketer stressed. This is because the email inbox is where a click is earned and the conversion happens. While social media notifications may come and go, the point to remember is that you need to personalize to capitalize. What does this mean? In simple terms, it means that you have to appear in the email inbox of your potential client since this is possibly where more one-on-one time may occur, away from the crowded social media chatter where other brands are asking the potential client or customer for their precious attention.
This is where email sequences come in. When you think of the entire process, you will see why creating the right sequence of messages and templates is of foremost importance here. The emails that you send out usually do the following when it comes to leaving an impression in the mind of your customer without asking directly for a sale or a conversion from the get-go:
- Creating awareness: This would be an important aspect to start out with. When there has been a click and when the potential user or customer has submitted the email address to subscribe to you, they are basically first committing to learning more. This learning should not merely focus on your brand or your product or service, but on what kind of a problem it fixes and why your brand is the best one to fix this problem. This kind of awareness would ideally leave a good impression and take your work forward.
- Lining up the Options: One of the next important steps in any email sequence is to line up the options to warm up the customer to the idea of what is being offered. This would also help you understand what the customer could want and which product or service is best suited for the same.
- Getting to know your customer: In this sense, the process of the email sequences points to getting to know your customer better even as you educate your customer about the niche you are playing in and why you are an authority in this niche. The main aim here is to build a relationship and to base it on trust and information. It studies the browsing behavior and then accordingly helps in prompting the customer to buy a product or a service.
When we are done understanding these elements in building email marketing pipelines, we would be in a better position to choose from the various email sequences available out there. The email sequence is basically an automated pipeline for your email marketing process and it depends on the clicks of the customer in order to automatically send and land itself in the box, rather than waiting for you to repeat the process for each prospect or for each database. This forms the crux of email marketing and what we now know as CRM or customer relationship marketing as well.
Now that we have understood email sequences, let us look at the four types that can catapult you into a high revenue earning bracket in no time at all!
- Welcome Email Sequences: This would be one of the most important ways to make it into your customer’s inbox and to remain there. The point to remember here is that you have to make it personal. At this point, you have to build a personal relationship rather than merely making a sale. The customer has already given you their email address to subscribe to, so they are already interested. But the information and click-through call for action that you give here will hold their interest and eventually convince them to convert. The welcome email series should typically have about four to six emails.
On-boarding Email Sequences: Now that you have introduced yourself to your customer, it is time to take things forward and let them know what all they can experience with you. While you would have given them enough information in the welcome email series, it would be worthwhile to now introduce them to trials and offers that can help them get a taste of who you really are and see for themselves, how you can help them. This stage too should have at least 4 to 6 emails.
Abandoned Cart Email Sequences: This would be an important one since this will also show you the buying behavior and what is stopping your customers from going all the way to checkout. Make sure you personalize these emails and ask them in a survey what they would have liked and how they would like to proceed. This would also be a good time to slip in a discount or a code that they can use for their benefit.
Repeat Customers Email Sequences: This is the time to show your gratitude and shower your customers with more information and some freebies so that they continue their patronage. Apart from that, this batch of emails also needs to ask them what you could have done better and to get some valuable customer feedback from them as well. You would do well to keep them in the know about new offers and products before they hit the market to earn their business again and again and get the word-of-mouth advertising you need.
