8 eCommerce Email Automation Workflows to Skyrocket Your Business

With the intense competition in the marketplace, eCommerce businesses must try their best to
stand out and draw the attention of their target audience.

Out of all the marketing channels, email continues to be the most effective platform to drive
business.

The main reason why emails have outperformed all the social media channels is that they are
more personalized and impart a sense of exclusivity to the readers.

You can even segment your subscribers based on different parameters like age, gender,
geographical location, past purchases, and kinds of products searched for. This goes to show that
emails help to send the right message to the person at the right time.
Automated emails play a crucial role in the eCommerce industry as they serve as a source of
passive income by deploying triggered messages that strike the right chord with subscribers.
So, let’s take a look at the automated workflows that you must incorporate in your eCommerce
email marketing strategy.

Free Download
The Ultimate Guide to Website Traffic for
Business

 
DOWNLOAD NOW
1. Welcome emails

Whenever you get a new subscriber or someone makes the first purchase from your eCommerce
store, you should send out a welcome email to introduce your brand and the products you offer.

The welcome email is the most crucial part of your automation strategy as it is the very first
communication received by the user. It helps to set the tone for all future communications and
build a stronger rapport with the customer.

It is a great idea to send out a series of two to three welcome emails that let the customer learn
more about you and your products.

Here’s an example of a winning welcome email series by Office.

In the first email, they have welcomed the subscriber and highlighted their four USPs.
The second email shares the most popular products with the new subscribers.
The last email of the series asks the subscribers to share their birthday so that they can send a
birthday present to them.
You can even incentivize a new user to encourage them to make the first purchase as Reebok
does.
2. Promotional emails

Just like you have nurturing emails for the B2B and SaaS industry, eCommerce stores have
promotional emails that can be used to upsell or cross-sell products.

You can send out product recommendations based on a subscriber’s past purchases. In addition,
you can also share regular updates and DIY ideas to use your products.

Educational content goes a long way in fostering credibility and building relationships with the
customer. You can share engaging inside stories regarding the production of the items. It will
give a personal touch to your emails and increase the likelihood of conversion.

Take a look at this email by Everlane in which they have displayed the new styles launching that
month. They have used attractive visuals to entice users to join the waitlist for early access and
look forward to making the purchase.
3. Cart abandonment emails

Cart abandonment is the biggest blasphemy faced by the eCommerce industry. To overcome this
unfortunate event, you can send out reminder emails to bring back the cart abandoners and
prompt them to complete the purchase. Just like in welcome emails, savvy marketers advise you
use a series of cart abandonment emails to recover lost customers.
Wayfair sends out a series of two abandoned cart emails to gently nudge customers to make a
purchase.

While the first email is deployed within an hour of cart abandonment, the next email is scheduled
after 24 hours.

Take a look how they have done it.

4. Post-purchase feedback emails

Asking for customer feedback after product delivery makes the subscriber feel that you care for
their satisfaction and not just your business. Follow up with the customer and encourage them to
leave a review for the product they purchased. In addition, you can also share your customer
service email address so that they can share any grievances or complaints.

See this product feedback email example by Everlane. The possibility to win a gift card will
tempt users to share their review, thereby generating user-generated content for your eCommerce
store. You can repurpose these reviews and use them as testimonials to build your brand
credibility.    
5. Stock replenishment emails

Suppose you have purchased anti-aging cream from an eCommerce store. Wouldn’t it be great if
you receive a reminder email that asks you if you need it again?

That’s exactly how stock replenishment emails make things easy for the customer. After a
customer has placed an order, you can schedule the replenishment email in case they need to
place the order again. Time the automated email according to the shelf life of the product.
On the same lines, Amazon has launched the “Subscribe and Save” model that eliminates the
need to reorder and automatically sends the product as per the timeline chosen by the user.

6. Back-in-stock emails

Often, it so happens that products go out of stock and users are unable to place an order. You can
send out back-in-stock emails to help customers who are looking to purchase a particular product.

Have a look how Sephora has sent out a back-in-stock email. Also, see how they have shared
some product recommendations for the user. Isn’t that a great idea to cross-sell your products and
yield better ROI?
7. Re-engagement emails

Over time, your customers will find some other eCommerce platform and stop engaging with
your emails. They will go dormant and not purchase from you anymore. To win them back, you
can send out a series of re-engagement emails that gets them to take action.

Make sure that you think like a fish, not a fisherman before sending out a re-engagement email.
You can share an exciting offer for inactive subscribers that may make them purchase from you
again. Additionally, you can tap on the fear of missing out (FOMO) by creating a sense of
urgency. Use phrases like “Hurry”, “Last chance”, or “Offer valid only for today”.
Clear sets the perfect example of a re-engagement email series to help you get started.

The subject line of the first email: Smiles Davis, we’re ready to wow you again

The subject line of the second email: Final call: $60 off a year of CLEAR
8. Occasion-based emails

Lastly, I would like to talk about occasion-based emails. You can send out visually rich birthday
or holiday emails to users. In these emails, include relevant offers that will grab the subscriber’s
attention and persuade them to make a purchase.

If you want your occasion-based emails to cut through the noise and get conversions, add some
attractive animations and visual elements like Nike has.
Just make sure you follow all the email design best practices while creating such unique emails.

In a nutshell

eCommerce email marketing can get pretty overwhelming as there are too many operations to
take care of. Automation proves to be a boon as it spares you of all the manual scheduling.

Once you have set up your automation workflows, you will be able to send out highly
personalized messages to your customers at the perfect time. You only need to monitor the results
and revisit the emails in case the performance is not up to the mark.

If done right, automated emails can take the customer experience to the next level and boost your
conversion rates.  

Guest author: Kevin George is Head of Marketing at Email Uplers, one of the fastest-
growing custom email design and coding companies, and specializes in crafting professional
email templates, PSD to HTML email conversion, and free responsive HTML email templates in
addition to providing email automation, campaign management, and data integration &
migration services. He loves gadgets, bikes, jazz, and eats and breathes email marketing. He
enjoys sharing his insights and thoughts on email marketing best practices on his blog.
Sending emails manually takes a lot of effort- and as your ecommerce
business grows, it’s not sustainable long term. Email automation creates
opportunities where manual email marketing and newsletter blasts fall
short by creating an omnipresent marketing force.

Today, I’m going to go over what email automation is, and discuss how it
can be used to create an effortless email marketing flow that is sure to
provide a boost to your ecommerce marketing.

What Is Email Automation?

Email automation is when you set up an email campaign to be sent to your
subscribers, either based on a trigger or an elapsed period of time.

For example, when a customer first signs up for your newsletter or creates
an account on your store, you know you have to send a welcome email. But
doing this manually each and every time you got a new subscriber would be
exhausting (especially if you’re good at email capture).

Instead, you would set up a welcome email that would automatically go out

to your newest subscribers or customers.
Email automation can go so much further than simple welcome emails
though. You can personalize them based on data you have about your
customers, their campaign behavior, and their shopping behavior.
Drive sales on autopilot with pre-built automation workflows. Start your 14-
day free trial of Omnisend today.
This ensures that you’re sending the right message at the right time every
time, without lifting a finger. And that’s perhaps the biggest benefit of email
automation.

What Is an Email Automation Service?

An email automation service is a company that provides you with an
automated email service for your subscribers. If you’ve ever received a
marketing email after signing up on a website, then this is most likely a
result of automation. 

Generally, email automation services run the gamut in terms of

functionality and pricing, all aimed at improving your campaign results. 

You can get turnkey, easy-to-use tools that are very focused on one or a
few email marketing flows. Or you can get a larger, more complex
automated email service that offers a lot of flexibility and choices, but often
with a larger price tag.

One important thing to note though: in order to know which kind of tool you
need, you should understand what your marketing needs are—both and in
the near future. A stronger automated email service will allow for tiered
pricing, so that as your company needs grow, you can use the same tool
with more features. That way you can send any targeted marketing email,
automed or not, to your target audience.

A comprehensive email marketing automation tool will allow not only email
automation for ecommerce, but also email campaign features. In this way,
you can use the tool for email automation as needed, but also send out
email blasts for special one-off promotions, sales or other campaigns.

Beyond that, great email automation services offer top-notch customer

support and learning materials that cover all parts of email automation.
That way, they won’t only show you how to set up automated emails in a
general manner, but also how to solve your specific problems in a timely
manner.

For example, if you are trying to set up a welcome series as quickly as

possible and come across a problem, you want the tool to have helpful, fast
support to solve your problems quickly.

Further below, we look at some of the leading automated email services

currently available on the market. But first, let’s look at email automation’s
top benefits.

Benefits of Email Automation

There are at least five good reasons to start sending automated emails:

1. Automated emails help you significantly increase revenue. Their

conversion rate is 359% greater than promotional campaigns. In fact, this
same report shows that 29% of all email orders in 2020 were from
automated messages, even though they made up less than 2% of all email
sends.
Considering that seven out of every ten carts are abandoned, gaining over
2% of those lost sales is astronomically good.
2. Automated emails are always relevant to your customers, if you’ve
collected the right data. This means you won’t be blasting messages to
your customers without a reason—they will be contextual at the right time.

3. Automated emails don’t change usual newsletters—they complement

them. These automated email flows help you create consistent brand
communications.

Not all of your emails should be promotional. You may send a “thank you”
email after a purchase, or a “birthday” email on their big day if you collected
that data. All of them can be automated and sent to your subscriber while
you sleep.

4. Marketing automation does not require much of your time. You set up
emails once, and they continue to do the job afterward.

5. You stay ahead of your competitors. According to LeadSpace, nearly

82% of companies rely on some form of email automation. So if you still
don’t have any email automation flows enabled, you’re missing out.
But in order to automate your emails properly, you have to have the right
marketing automation email provider.

How to Choose the Best Email Automation

Software for Your Online Store
Not all email automation software is created equally- so there are definitely
certain aspects you should look for when choosing the perfect software.
What your email automation software should be able to do:
 Send automatic welcome emails when someone subscribes to your
newsletter or creates an account on your site
 Allow for a behavioral trigger, like abandoning a cart or browsing a
certain product category
 Engage your customer post-purchase with order confirmation and
shipping notifications

 Send automatic timed responses based on birthdays to nurture your

customer relationship

 Create timed-based triggers to re-engage customers who are inactive

Finally, the best email automation software that you can choose won’t

focus entirely on email marketing.
We know that when we bring other channels into the mix, our email
campaign becomes even more powerful. Being able to automate
messages sent via other channels, like SMS, to the same customers will be
a game changer.

If you are new to email marketing, there are a few tools that you may
consider:
1. Omnisend
Although this tool has a lot of advanced features, it’s also easy to use and
has lots of pre-built email automation templates relevant for beginners.
Plus, with Omnisend, you will get free text messages for your campaign
that will boost your revenue even more.

Omnisend allows you to not only send automated email as needed, but also
messages via SMS, push notifications, and other channels.

2. HubSpot Email Marketing

HubSpot is probably best known for its powerful inbound marketing
and CRM features, but their free email marketing tool can accomplish all of
your basic email automation needs.

Whether you need to send a kickback automated email from lead offers, a
thank you email after purchase, or just a recurring email marketing
campaign, HubSpot’s free version can do that. It gets even more powerful
when you upgrade to the paid tiers, but the basics? You can get started
with no money, right now, today. 

3. Mailchimp
Mailchimp doesn’t offer text messages. However, their email automation
features are good for beginners and will address their needs for some time.

While this is fine for any basic campaign, you may hit the wall when trying
to set up more advanced email marketing automation.

4. Campaign Monitor
Campaign Monitor is another great tool for marketers. It provides a
modern-looking, visual email designer to create automated email that
keeps your audience engaged, and drives revenue.

However, according to G2 reviews, Campaign Monitor’s usability doesn’t

stand up to Omnisend’s.

Follow the link to find an in-depth comparison of these tools.

9 Automated Email Flows to Use for Ecommerce

While they might sound complicated, automated email flows are actually
very easy to set up. When you’ve chosen the best email marketing platform
for your business, you can select from various automated email flow
templates and simply customize the rules, channels, and behavior-based
triggers that are best suited for your needs.

This ecommerce email automation can lead to huge boosts in sales (such
as To’ak’s 460% revenue boost after using Omnisend’s marketing
automation tool).

For that reason, learning how to set up automated emails will largely
depend on the tool you use and the complexity of the automated workflow.
For example, if your chosen email marketing automation tool is not user-
friendly, all of the workflows will be complicated to set up.
For the second point: if you want to have a two-email welcome email drip
(examples further below), then it will be much easier to set up those
automated emails than, for example, an SMS and email order confirmation
workflow with an A/B split.

Again, this will largely depend on how user-friendly your chosen tool is, and
what kind of flexibility they provide. 

For the most part, if you’re new to email automation, you might not have to
immediately learn how to set up automated emails. A good automated
email marketing tool will have ready-to-go templates where you’ll only need
to edit the content. That will make your drip campaign easier to set up, and
you can learn the rest as you go.

That being said, there are a few ecommerce email flows that every online
store absolutely needs.

Let’s check out the best email flows that you can use to boost your revenue
and increase customer loyalty.

#1. Welcome Emails for New Subscribers & Customers

The welcome email has become standard across internet industries, and
especially ecommerce email automation. We always expect a friendly little
email whenever we sign up for anything online, and depending on the email,
we may or may not open it.
Any good ecommerce or digital marketer knows that building a great email
list is often done with some kind of incentive to sign up, like a discount or
free shipping. When you offer that incentive, either in a timed or an exit-
intent pop-up, the welcome email will likely be opened immediately.
What’s more, welcome emails give your customers an idea of what they
can expect from you, and they can instruct the customer on what they need
to do next.

Omnisend Pro Tip: Every email should have a CTA (call-to-action). Never
send an email without a purpose, and that purpose should be included in
your CTA.

Automating this is critical because customers are expecting that discount

in order to continue shopping. Setting up a trigger when an address joins
the list is one of the simplest email automation workflows to create.

#2. Product Recommendations to Gauge Customer Interest

One of the best things you can do is to personalize product

recommendations with email automation. For example, setting up this
behavioral trigger means you can recommend products based on what
your customer has already browsed or purchased.

For example, if a customer has been browsing your recent shoe clearance,
you can send the newest arrivals in your clearance section to relaunch
interest.

Alternatively, if you notice that your customer is spending a lot of time in

one particular category or with one product, you can send complimentary
products or more products from that category.

The idea is to use email automation to instantly send customers emails

and products that will be interesting and relevant to them.

#3. Discounts Triggered by Behavior

Everyone loves a discount. The cool part about using email automation is
that you can target customers when they’re most likely to purchase based
on behavioral triggers.

For example, say a customer hasn’t purchased in a while and they visit a
particular product three times. You could trigger a discount to pop up on
the third visit within one week. It might just be the catalyst that pushes your
customer to make a purchase.
These kinds of email marketing flows are especially effective in certain
cases:

 Abandoned carts and browse abandonment

 Welcome email incentives

Others are better adapted to time-sensitive emails. We’ll touch on that a bit
more later.

#4. Abandoned Cart Email Automation Flow to Win Back Lost Sales

Most abandoned carts are a result of an unexpected cost, be it in taxes,

shipping, etc. If cost is the only thing standing in the way of you clenching
that sale, a well-timed automated email can be do just the trick.

By setting up abandoned cart email automation flow, you can create an

email sequence that will remind the customer of the product they left
behind using a supportive tone. Always include the photo of the product in
question and use a three email sequence at one hour after the abandoned
cart, 12 hours after, and then 24 hours after for best results.
See how Kerrits generates 23% of their email revenue with cart recovery
and email

#5. Order Confirmation & Shipping Notification Emails to Reassure Your

Customer

Successful ecommerce is all about fostering trust with your customers.

Have you ever ordered something and not received a confirmation email?
Think about that level of anxiety. Your customer should never feel that way
when shopping with you.

Confirmation emails and shipping notifications are another form of email

automation that have become standard in the ecommerce industry.

Reassure your customers that all is well with friendly notifications when
you confirm their order and when their products have been shipped.
#6. Browse Abandonment Email Flow to Move Customers Further Down
the Pipeline

Browse abandonment is trickier than cart abandonment. With cart

abandonment, there’s usually a pretty good reason and you have a clear
picture of what your customer wants.

However, with browse abandonment, you only might have an idea of what
your customer is interested in based on a category or a set number of
products they’ve browsed.

A good idea, in this case, is to set up a behavioral trigger based on the

amount of time a customer spent on one category or another and send an
email with those previously mentioned product recommendations.
Send the products that they were interested in, but also include a product
or two that complements those products too. Maybe the product they saw
interested them, but ultimately didn’t make them fall in love. Perhaps a
similar product might move them a bit further down the customer journey.
See how Silver Street Jewellers’ browse abandonment messages earn a
RPE lift of nearly 900%

#7. Customer Feedback & Review Emails

Customer feedback is critical for online stores. A great review can make or

break a product’s success, and this form of user-generated content is
magnificent for SEO.

Because what search engine doesn’t love fresh content that updates
regularly?

Setting up a simple timed email automation workflow to go out after a

certain number of days has passed is a great way to get that review.
It’s important that it’s sent after you’re sure the customer has received the
product. Otherwise, it might be awkward to get an email about whether or
not the product was great when you haven’t yet received the product.

#8. Birthday and Just-Because Emails

Remembering things like your customer’s birthday makes you seem like a
star, and using email automation, it’s easier than a birthday reminder for a
Facebook friend.

A little something special on a certain day, be it a birthday or a random

“just-because” discount fosters customer loyalty. Also, a few well-timed
“just-because” discounts can ensure that your customer will never leave
an email from you unopened.
#9. Re-Engagement Email Campaigns

Has your once-loyal customer fallen off the face of the planet? Good news,
email automation has got you covered.

Using a well-composed re-engagement sequence based on time triggers

can help win back customers that are on the verge of churning. New
products, smart recommendations, and updates to shipping and returns
policies can be enough to win your customers back.
And if they’re not, a handy discount or freebie might work too. You can
always hit a one-two punch by sending a sale notification and
then following up a few days later with a discount on top of that. If your
margins can handle it, it’s worth it to get the customer back to your store.

Key Takeaways:
With email automation, the only real limits are your own. If you’re willing to
create the segments, automate email flows, and do the testing, you can
automate just about anything and have it feel as personalized as an email
from a close friend.

1. With automated emails, you will always be timely and relevant and
that’s why they bring more revenue. In 2020, automated marketing
email was responsible for 29% of all email orders even though it
accounted for only 4% of email sends.
2. While it might take a little bit of time to set up, automated emails run
on autopilot, earning you sales in the long term without you having to
do anything at all. Obviously, tweaking your automated email
marketing here and there will help you maintain only the best
messages, but ultimately, you’ll save yourself a ton of time to focus
on your core business.
Many marketers forget customer acquisition isn’t the only way to
sustainably grow their business. In fact, you might be better off pausing
your lead gen campaign and turning to a tool that’s already in your
CRM: your list.

If you want to make the most of your marketing budget and grow your
ecommerce conversions, start by converting more leads, getting more
repeat purchases, and boosting your CLV (customer lifetime value).
How do you do that? With marketing automation. Let me show you how
you can effortlessly implement these tactics into your existing strategy – in
just a few clicks. All thanks to all-new marketing automation templates.

Need a refresher? Read our Beginner’s Guide to Marketing Automation.

Plus here’s a great article, if you want to learn how to use email marketing
for ecommerce.

And if you prefer to learn by watching, rather than read the full article, just
go to the bottom of this page, where you’ll find the recording of our latest
webinar.

Ready? Let’s begin.

1. Customer onboarding
Love at first sight happens in the movies – and sometimes in real-life
relationships, too. But between a brand and a customer? Rarely.

Unless you sell something people fall instantly in love with (like Tesla X),
you’ve got to make an effort to stay in their minds and be remembered.

The best way to do this is to make a lasting impression from the get-go.
Capture customers’ attention and generate interest, from their first
interaction with your brand.

Welcome email campaigns make it easy.

You can use them to:

• Confirm contacts are now signed up.

• Thank people who take the time to subscribe.
• Say a few words about your brand or offer.
• Direct customers to your most popular products or categories.
 Onboarding email
promoting the Nike app

Better still, welcome emails generate up to four times as many opens and
clicks as other marketing messages!
[For latest data on email open rates and click-through rates, check out the
Email Marketing Benchmarks report]

So why not give them a go: thank your contacts, let them know what’s
coming next, and pave the way for their conversion.

Need some inspiration? Check out these great examples from ecommerce
companies, Casper and MeUndies, below.

Welcome email from an ecommerce brand, MeUndies

 Welcome email
campaign from Casper
How to do it in GetResponse:

It’s easy to set up your welcome campaign – and there are two ways you
can do it in GetResponse:

You can use a marketing automation template. Go to

the welcome category, click on your chosen template, and edit the
details (choose the list, subscription method, and email message).

Here’s how it looks:

Marketing Automation Templates Gallery

The other option is more manual. You need to create a marketing

automation workflow that starts when someone subscribes to your list, say
via a web form. Then simply add a second block to immediately send the
email.

Your screen should then look like this:

Simple onboarding workflow

2. Lead qualifying
Not all customers are the same. Some will buy from you regularly, even
when you don’t offer any discounts or deals. Others will join your list and
never open an email.

Either way, you need to know who you’re communicating with. Especially if
you’re in ecommerce business and don’t usually see your customers face-
to-face. Once you do know who is who, you’ll be able to focus on the people
who are more loyal to your brand – and better allocate your time and
resources.
Lead qualification is one way to do this. It lets you qualify your leads based
on different criteria, such as their engagement. Best of all, it can be done
automatically.

But before you can start, you need to develop a tagging and scoring plan.
You can then assign tags and scores to your leads based on the actions
they take. It could be something as simple as opening your email, visiting
your product page, or abandoning a shopping cart.

Basic tagging strategy plan

Basic lead scoring plan

Next, you’ll want to come up with a system to automatically assign tags

and scoring points. That way, all your data will stay up-to-date – and you’ll
be able to act quickly.
For example, when a contact has enough scoring points to be sales-ready,
you can swiftly pass them to your sales team to seal the deal.

Marketing automation makes it easy. With workflows, you can assign tags,
add or subtract scoring points, segment your contacts, and move them
between your lists automatically. And all in response to their actions.

How to do it in GetResponse:

Again, there are two ways to launch a lead qualifying campaign in

GetResponse.

You can use a prebuilt marketing automation template, and edit it any way
you like. This saves you having to map out the whole scenario yourself,
since you can just use a blueprint that’s worked well for others.

Basic scoring plan, basic tagging plan, and add contacts to CRM

pipeline are all available in the template library.
Basic lead scoring workflow

The other way? You can create your own marketing automation workflow
from scratch.

It can start with any condition block you like, such as when someone opens
a specific email.

Next, just add action blocks, and Tag and Score – and then choose the
point values you want to assign.
Basic lead Scoring workflow

You can end the workflow there. Or expand it to include more elements like
conditions, action blocks, or even filters. You can choose how advanced to
make it.

3. Post-purchase
Many marketers working in the ecommerce industry make the mistake of
just thanking their customers in the post-purchase email. But that can be a
mistake. Why? Because the after-sale message can do so much more
– and make a big impact on how customers view your brand.

That one email has the power to enhance their entire shopping experience,
shorten their buying cycle, and even increase their customer lifetime value.

There are several rules you should follow:

1. Act fast: Customers want to know if their payment was processed.

2. Be memorable: Use strong branding and keep in touch regularly.
3. Show good manners: Thank your customers for choosing you.
4. Be helpful: Make product recommendations and send replenishment reminders.
 5. Be open to feedback: let your customers be heard and gain valuable social proof.
6. Ask them share: Social sharing and referral programs can help build your customer
base even faster.
7. Automate: Whether you sell to 10 or 10,000 customers, make your campaigns stand
out by tailoring content to their needs.
Here’s an example of an automated post-purchase email from Aliexpress,
including product recommendations based on the customer’s order.
Post-purchase communication with product recommendations from Aliexpress

How to do it in GetResponse:  

You can use one of our predesigned marketing automation templates, or

create your own workflow. To do that, you first need to specify how the
workflow will start.
Here are a few examples:

 Someone visits a specific product thank-you page.

 Someone joins your customer list.
 An existing contact has an updated custom field value, such as the last-purchase
date.
 Use API or our Magento or Prestashop integrations to send information about the
purchase.
Then all you have to do is add the rest of your condition and action blocks.

Let me show you an example that uses:

 One Tag block to assign a “brownie_customer” tag.

 Two Send Message action blocks to send two emails: one to welcome new
customers, and one to share the brand story.
 One Wait action block to delay the second message by two days.
 Post-purchase
Marketing Automation Workflow

4. Engagement and retention

Strong, lasting relationships don’t just happen overnight. To really hook
your audience, you need to put in the work and keep sending them
engaging, relevant messages – long after their first interaction with your
brand.

So how do you do it?

You could launch a loyalty program. By rewarding your most active

customers with special discounts and exclusive offers, you can make sure
your customers keep coming back for more.
Lead qualification can help you find these contacts. By combining tagging,
scoring, and segmentation you can pinpoint your most loyal and valuable
customers. Then simply send a highly-targeted offer they find irresistible.
Like the one below, sent by Airbnb to their contacts located in Gdansk,
Poland.
Personalized email communication from Airbnb

You could also introduce a win-back campaign, to interest inactive

contacts or past customers.

To find them, simply create a segment that updates automatically when a

subscriber stops engaging with your content. When that happens, be sure
to send them an enticing offer.

And remember, it can go beyond one email. Why not try combining your
messages with remarketing campaigns via social media? Facebook pixel or
Google AdWords can increase your odds of keeping your audience hooked.

How to do it in GetResponse:

Just use one of the ready-made marketing automation templates, and edit
it to your liking.

In the Engagement and retention category, you’ll find:

 List cleaning with tags and scores

 Win back
 Contact retargeting
 Customer retargeting
 Rewarding loyal contacts
The image below looks complicated, but I assure you it’s easy to get the
hang of it.
Engagement and retention workflow template

The workflow starts by identifying contacts with a specific tag and

a scoring point below or equal to five.

The specific tag is one you assigned to people who signed up over a month
ago but never made a single purchase. Let’s call that tag “inactive”.

Onto the scoring points: let’s say everyone who signed up to your list gets
20 points, and loses a point each time they don’t open an email. Eventually,
some will end up with five or fewer points.

Now you’ve found the inactive contacts, you can send a win-back

campaign.

If they don’t click your offer on the first day, you can send a second email.

If they still ignore it, the workflow removes them from the list.

But if they do click (considered ‘won back’), their “inactive” tag is
removed and the workflow ends.

5. Abandoned cart
There are many reasons why customers abandon their online shopping
carts so often. And while you can’t save every sale, even slightly reducing
your abandonment rate can have a big impact on the growth of your
ecommerce business.

How can you tackle this problem? One way is to run retargeting
campaigns with emails or paid ads – or ideally combine both to cover as
many customer touch points as possible.

Your aim is to remind shoppers they left something behind – and then
compel them to complete their order.

I know, it’s easier said than done. Pam Neely’s article, Best Practices for
Cart Abandonment Emails has some great strategies.

Want to run remarketing campaigns using Google AdWords? Check out this
piece by our PPC Manager, Michal Borowczyk: How to Reach Your
Audience With the New Adwords Customer Match.

What do cart abandonment campaigns look like? Take a look at the

examples below from retailer brands, American Giant and Desigual, for
some inspiration.
Cart abandonment email from American Giant, focusing on lifetime warranty on their
products
Cart abandonment email from Desigual, using the scarcity tactic to increase their
conversions

How to do it in GetResponse:

Once you’ve integrated your store with GetResponse, you can either create
your own marketing automation workflow or use a pre-made template. We
have an abandoned cart reminder and an abandoned cart series template
you can use.
As you can see from the screenshot below, the logic behind it is pretty
simple.

Cart abandonment workflow template

First, an email is sent as soon as a cart is abandoned.

Next, check if the contact visits your chosen URL – such as a thank you
page that’s only visible after they buy.
If they don’t, the system sends another message.  But if they do place an
order, a special tag is added to identify them as a customer.

It’s that simple!

Use these workflows to make

your business grow
I get it. Shifting from simple email campaigns to building marketing
automation workflows can be a big leap.

Instead of just focusing on a single campaign, marketing automation is

about looking further into the future and planning ahead of time.

You have to ask: What’s going to happen next? How should I react to my

contacts’ activity? Should I bother tagging and scoring them?

Hopefully, I’ve highlighted how easy it is to apply marketing automation to

your own campaigns – and make a big impact on your business growth.

If you’re still unsure about how to use the templates for your own marketing
communication, check out this video recording of our last webinar.

And if you need some more inspiration, take a look at this article that
lists over 30 automated emails that can help you increase your opens and
clicks in no time.