5 Great Marketing Automation Campaigns to Boost your Sales to Another Level
According to VB Insight, “80% of marketing automation users saw their number of leads increase, and 77% saw the number of conversion increase.” This is just one of hundreds of statistics that prove that marketing automation can be a huge success if used effectively. With the right strategy, a small business can generate new leads at a higher rate and achieve more success in converting them. Here are some marketing automation campaigns to boost your sales to another level:
1. A Welcome Email Series
A welcome series is one of the most basic but highly effective marketing automation campaigns to boost your sales. It will not only help you to build a rapport with your prospect but it will also help you to illicit information from them that will with any luck lead to sales later down the line. Here’s a basic series:
Email 1:
The initial email is vital. You wouldn’t expect to walk up to a cashier desk in a shop to be completely ignored and the same goes for your email subscribers. Welcome them to your service and engage with them. Thank your prospect to signing up, tell them what to expect from signing up to your emails and maybe give them an unexpected freebie like an e-book, article or infographic. This will go a long way in building a rapport with your prospect.
When?
Instantly.
Email 2:
Let them know you’re on hand if they need you. Direct them to your support site for example or to an instructional video or article. If this kind of thing doesn’t apply to your product or service, invite them to connect with you on social media and tell them that you’re there to answer their questions any time. Make them feel special.
When?
3 days after they sign up.
Email 3:
Learn more about them. Use this email to find out a little more information about your prospect using a survey or a single question. Ensure that it’s a piece of information that will be useful to you. Whether it’s asking for some feedback or a demographic that can help improve your marketing. Make it really simple and hassle-free for your prospect and inform them of your reason for asking for the information.
When?
1 week after they sign up.
2. A Birthday Campaign
The next of 5 effective marketing automation campaigns is a birthday series. This series works particularly well in certain industries like the hospitality industry when you can offer a free drink or a free meal during your prospect’s birthday month. It helps boost sales because your prospect will pay your bar or restaurant a visit to claim their freebie and they’re sure to bring a friend or two!
If you’re not in this industry, can you give your prospect discount off your product or service to celebrate their birthday? It doesn’t have to be much but birthday campaigns go a long way with prospects and customers to make them feel special.
Email 1:
“We hear your birthday is coming up, enjoy 25% off on us.” Ensure this email is personalised with their name and entice them to make a purchase.
When?
1-2 weeks before their birthday.
Email 2:
“Happy Birthday! Did you receive our gift?” Use this email to say happy birthday to your prospect and remind them to claim their discount or free gift.
When?
On their birthday.
Email 3:
“We hope you’ve enjoyed your birthday celebrations! Remember to use your discount before it runs out.” Use this email as a final reminder to your prospect to claim their birthday gift before it expires and specify when it will expire.
When?
1 week after their birthday.
3. A Christmas Campaign
There are an endless number of Christmas campaigns you could run in your business over the festive period. Everyone loves making a saving over Christmas but it’s also a time to show your appreciation. Here are a few ideas:
“Countdown to Christmas”
Offer a small discount on different products on the run up to Christmas, or a free gift with a purchase. Put a time limit on each offer so that it expires within a day to create a sense of urgency and encourage your prospects to buy from you. Alternatively, you could send them something with no monetary value such as 25 tips, 25 recipes, 25 blog articles. Anything that relates to your industry that you know your prospects and customers will look forward to everyday and will find useful.
When?
Every day from mid-December to Christmas Day.
“We Wish You A Merry Christmas”:
Forget trying to sell for a day and wish your prospects and customers a warm-hearted Merry Christmas, thank them for their custom throughout the year and ask for nothing in return. Bear in mind that lots of businesses are likely to be doing the same, so make yours stand out!
When?
On Christmas day.
“Let the festivities continue with 50% off”:
Send your prospects an exclusive offer after Christmas. Again, this could be a discount code or a free gift.
When?
The day after Boxing Day.
4. Thank You For Your Purchase
Another of our list of 5 effective marketing automation campaigns is a series of emails thanking your customer for their purchase. This doesn’t have to be just one email and by sending a series of communications you’ll have the opportunity to up-sell and cross-sell.
Email 1:
The initial thank you email. Thank your customer for purchasing your product or signing up to your service. Tell your customer when their purchase will be with them or what to expect from your service. In this email, you could also include a section that says ‘you might be interested in…’ or ‘customers also bought…’ For example, this could be an accessory to go alongside the product they have already purchased, or a similar product that they could find useful. Amazon cross-sell other products in their initial thank you emails really well (see image below).
When?
Immediately after they make a purchase.
Email 2:
Ask for their feedback. Asking for your customer’s feedback just after they’ve made a purchase is an optimum time. Make it really simple for them; a star rating is a quick and simple way of enabling them to provide it and give them the option to give more detail. Again, Amazon are a good example of this. They send a feedback email 1 month after the purchase date.
When?
The length of time in between the purchase and your feedback email may depend on your product or service; the item could be something that can be reviewed after a day or it may need to be trialled for longer in order to give accurate feedback.
5. Upcoming Event Promotion
The final series on list of marketing automation campaigns is an event promotion. If you have an event coming up, a one-off email is not enough to promote it to your subscribers. This series should drip feed your readers information but create a buzz around your event at the same time. This could be a very long series, but we’ll cut it down to 5 basic emails:
Email 1:
An early bird promotion. In this email, give some brief information about your event and offer tickets to your event as a discounted price. Tell your subscribers that ticket prices will go up within a certain amount of time and urge them to purchase tickets as soon as possible. This will bag you some quick sales as everyone loves a discount!
When?
Depending on the size of your event, this could be a year, 6 months, 3 months or a month before the date of the event.
Email 2:
General Sale. Offer your general sale tickets, giving some more details about the event, for example, what speakers/acts/activities/entertainment will be on offer? But don’t give everything away! Let your subscribers know that there’s more to be announced.
When?
Again, this could depend on the size of your event.
Email 3:
Release some big news. Create more buzz around your event by releasing some more, exciting details. Or alternatively, some details of how attendees can prepare for your event. Tough Mudder’s email marketing is really effective and gets participants excited for what’s to come.
When?
3 months before.
Email 4:
Offer discount for a friend. This will encourage your attendees to bring friends along to the event and boost your ticket sales.
When?
2 months before.
Email 5:
Everything you need to know. Provide details of travel, dress code, timetables, acts, entertainment- give your attendees everything they need.
When?
1 month before.
Those are just a few examples of event marketing emails, but there are loads more you could send out depending on your type of event. But the most important thing is to remember to keep your subscribers interested and engaged with your communications. Ensure that you excite them and get them talking about your event.
So, there’s 5 effective marketing automation campaigns to use in your small business. All of these campaigns can be created within InTouchCRM, why not give us a go?
