Automated emails may have a bad reputation, but don’t let that stop you from getting content to your current and future customers. While scheduling emails is also a great option it’s not always the best fit. Schedules don’t always align with certain trigger points and can cause issues if sent too early or late. Give your sales team, marketers, and managers peace of mind by setting up emails that get sent out automatically as needed. Plus, if done right, you can strengthen the customer relationship with these emails.
Using your CRM as a home base, you can set up automated emails based on particular triggers or actions that occur to a lead record. Zoho CRM’s Workflow rules allow you to set this up easily so you never miss a beat. While there are many ways to use automated emails to your benefit, we’ve rounded up the top 4 messages you should be sending out.
1. Welcome, {Name}
The first impression means a lot and welcoming a prospective client to your business will make sure it’s a good one. While the idea of making a phone call to welcome each new client may seem tempting, it’s nearly impossible in most cases. And then, even if you do welcome someone to your business in person or over the phone, a follow-up welcome email will solidify you in their mind.
The first automated email you set up should be a welcome email. Create the workflow in your system to send this email out soon after a new lead record is created. Personalize this email so that it’s quick to read and gives the needed information in a concise manner. Make sure to customize this email to your business! Include their name in the subject line and the opening line of the email. Let them know how excited or grateful you are to have them support your business. Don’t forget to add any call-to-action points as well!
You can’t go wrong with a simple “Welcome to our company, we are so happy you’re here”. This will connect the customers to your business and make them feel like a person and not just another number.
2. Status Update Emails
Throughout the purchasing process, whether it be for a continuous consulting project, a home purchase, or even just an online order, you should be continuously updating your customers on the status. Never leave them wondering how things are going by sending out automated status update emails. We’ve all gotten these before when making an online purchase. The shipping information comes to us via email and we receive updates on when the delivery will be made. It shouldn’t be any different during a longer sales process.
As the status changes on the lead record in your CRM, emails should be automatically firing off. Set up an email for each major milestone that the customer should be aware of. This automation is also great for reminding the customer that you need something from them before moving onto the get stage in the process. Maybe a signature is needed before a certain deadline or a second payment needs to be made before moving forward. Free up your sales team by setting up automated emails so they don’t have to waste time sending a reminder email to each client.
While this will differ for each business, keep your clients in the loop with automated emails. Otherwise, they might end up going to another company or changing their mind altogether. This will assure customers that you haven’t forgotten about them as well.
3. Targeted Emails
Make sure you are keeping your customer’s best interest in mind when sending out automated emails. Use the client information you’ve gathered in the CRM to target their wants and needs. If the customer has indicated that this is their first time purchasing a product, put them on a new client automated email drip campaign that will tell them more information about your company and your product line. If you have a repeat customer, send them an automated thank you email and a coupon so they continue to stay loyal to your brand.
Another great way to target your customers is to segment your automated email campaigns by specific topics. This is a great way to get around the dreaded unsubscribe button. Create different topics to capture automated email campaigns into separate segments. If someone doesn’t want to receive any more emails about the company’s recent blog post, they can unsubscribe from that topic while still receiving emails about the latest products and coupons. Check out how Zoho Campaigns can help you achieve this targeted automated email strategy in this tutorial video!
4. Automated Newsletters
A newsletter is an easy way to get your business’s updates to customers in one concise email. Send out an automated newsletter as frequently or infrequently as you want. While a lot of people will unsubscribe from emails that pitch more products or special deals, a lot will continue to receive a newsletter if they feel connected to the brand.
Include industry news, company updates, product launches, brand partnerships, and more to strengthen customer relationships. Newsletters should be informative yet fun to get the client to open and read the email. Add design elements, clickable links, and calls to action. Automated newsletters provide a way to stay in front of the customer without overwhelming them.
Need More Ideas?
The opportunities are pretty much endless with automated emails. Take a look through your CRM to see what actions can be used or create your own custom triggers with workflow rules. There are so many different ways to take advantage of automated emails. Check out our Zoho CRM and Zoho Campaigns resources to learn how you can make the most out of your email campaigns.
