Email is an effective way to stay in touch with your audience, but it can also be time consuming. One way to keep in contact with current and potential customers on a regular basis is to use automation, which allows you to create messages once in programs like MailChimp and Activecampaign and set them to go out automatically based on certain triggers. This way you can disseminate information about your products or services and get feedback from customers without constantly drafting new messages.

When to Use Email Automation

There are several ways you can use automated emails to build your relationship with your audience and keep them engaged with your brand. The following are examples of these techniques.

Welcoming new subscribers. When new readers subscribe to your newsletter, you can send them an automated email to welcome them to your list and give them more information about your company and content. Also, you may want to offer something that you only give to your subscribers to make them feel like they have access to something special.

Sharing valuable resources. If you have other content that your audience may be interested in—from ebooks to white papers to kits—you can set up automated emails to publicize it and direct traffic to the landing pages on your site where these items can be downloaded.

Providing case studies. Case studies give you the opportunity to show potential customers how your services and products can benefit them. By automatically sending case studies to your subscribers, it will help pique their interest in your company by reading the details of how you can solve their problems. For an added punch, include testimonials from your current clients.

Connecting with event attendees. If your organization is hosting an online or in-person event, you can use automation to communicate with attendees before and after the event. Set up a series of emails that provide information on registration, content, and session schedules leading up to the event to get people excited about attending. Then after the event, you can send automated emails to get feedback from attendees, which will help you organize future programs.

Re-engaging dormant users. When people on your mailing list have not been opening your emails or clicking on links for a certain amount of time, this can trigger an automatic email to find out why. You can ask readers for feedback and include an exclusive offer to help woo them back into engaging with your content.

No matter how you use email automation, don’t forget to track your results and analyze how your campaigns are performing. Be sure the check your automated emails’ open, delivery, and click-through rates, as well as how many conversions your emails are generating. This will give you guidance on how effective your messages are so you can make decisions about what content should be updated.