With over 4 billion users every day, email has become a vital part of modern communication. It has transformed the way we connect and collaborate in both personal and professional spheres.
Marketers worldwide are harnessing the power of email marketing to reach and engage targeted users in a more personalized and cost-effective way. In fact, 33% of marketers send weekly emails and 26% send emails multiple times per month.
One way you can increase the effectiveness of your email marketing strategy is by integrating an email autoresponder. Sending autoresponse emails allows you to establish, nurture and maintain subscriber relationships with your brand.
In this guide, we answer the questions and look at topics like:
• What Is an Email Autoresponder?
• What Is the Purpose of an Email Autoresponder?
• How To Send Automated Emails
• Should I Stop Manually Sending Out Email Newsletters?
• How To Choose the Best Email Autoresponder
You’ll also learn how an automated email response works and how implementing it in your business strategy can help drive leads.
What Is an Email Autoresponder?
An email autoresponder is software that sends pre-written automated messages to a subscriber’s email address. Autoresponse emails are triggered by customer actions, such as:
• Signing up or subscribing for a newsletter
• Renewing a subscription or membership
• Registering for an event
• Referring others to your service
• Not interacting with your product for a certain period of time
• Filling out a website form
• Taking specific actions on a website
• Interacting with a certain webpage
• Completing a purchase or payment
• Celebrating a birthday or anniversary
• Abandoning a shopping cart
They can also be triggered by rules or time intervals you define. For instance, you can send an automated email response to a user a week after they subscribed. The email could include a discount code or an invitation to follow you on social media.
An automatic email response can also be sent when:
• A customer has contacted you outside of business hours.
• Your support team is unable to reply to all messages due to an unusually high volume of requests and queries.
• You’ve closed a support ticket.
Essentially, autoresponse emails are the simplest form of email marketing automation. Marketers use automated emails to streamline their campaigns and save tremendous time and effort. Ultimately, they’re designed to minimize your workload while maintaining a high level of personalization that encourages open and click-through rates.
What Is the Purpose of an Email Autoresponder?
Did you know that 87% of business-to-customer (B2C) marketers use automation as part of their email marketing strategy?
Here are several ways an automated response email service can help transform your organization:
Warm Up Leads and Nurture Trust
A welcome email is an important part of any successful digital marketing strategy. It’s one of the most direct ways to set a positive impression and build a relationship with a potential customer.
In fact, more than eight out of 10 people will open a welcome email, resulting in four times more opened emails and 10 times more clicks compared to other types of emails.
This type of automated response email is typically sent immediately or shortly after someone subscribes or signs up. They can be personalized with the recipient’s name and other relevant details. Adding a human touch to the email can make recipients feel seen and valued, encouraging them to trust and engage further with the brand.
Re-Engage Inactive Customers
Follow-up autoresponse emails can be sent to re-engage inactive subscribers or prospects who visited your site but didn’t make a purchase or have abandoned their cart. This type of automated email response can also be sent to a prospect after a sales call to summarize the value of your products and services.
Follow-up emails can contain valuable content or incentives, encouraging recipients to reconnect with your brand and make a purchase.
Maximize Upselling Opportunities
An automated response email presents opportunities for upselling or cross-selling products or services. When a user makes a purchase, you can trigger an automatic email response that promotes similar or relevant offerings they might be interested in.
For instance, if someone buys a lipstick, you can offer related items, such as lip liners, eye shadow palettes, brushes and concealers, as a cross-sell in your autoresponder sequence.
By displaying and promoting related products, you can increase sales and maximize customer lifetime value.
Reduce Help Desk Ticket Response Times
In today’s competitive market, one of the ways companies can stand out is to provide the best customer support possible.
Nearly two-thirds of buyers expect a response within 10 minutes to any sales, marketing or customer support inquiry. Unless you have a customer support team that’s online 24/7 and can respond to queries immediately, adding email marketing automation to your support strategy is ideal.
By sending an automatic email response, you let the customer know that their support ticket has been received and is being processed. This can be particularly beneficial for companies that face a high volume of support tickets. Investing in the best email autoresponder gives your support team more time to work on urgent tasks.
How To Send Automated Emails
There are several email marketing apps available that allow you to send an automatic email response. They often include easy-to-use campaign editors, email segmentation tools and customizable templates.
Some of the best email autoresponder software include:
• GetResponse
• AWeber
• Mailchimp
• Moosend
• Klaviyo
• ConvertKit
• Autopilot
• Omnisend
The best thing about an email autoresponder is that it’s not at all restrictive in terms of design and visual elements. Most email marketing automation apps allow you to add your logo, refine layouts and change the color scheme of your emails to reflect your branding.
Should I Stop Manually Sending Out Email Newsletters?
Not exactly. There are still plenty of instances when manually sending an e-newsletter makes more sense. Product launches, time-sensitive promotions, festive occasions and general company updates are best relayed through a traditional e-newsletter.
With a strong email marketing strategy in place, you drive traffic to your website, build an engaged community and boost conversions.
How To Choose the Best Email Autoresponder
Here are some factors to consider when choosing automated email marketing services:
1. User Interface
A website that’s cluttered and difficult to navigate is an instant red flag. It indicates that sending emails through their platform will also be challenging. Opt for an email automation service provider with a clean and simple website design featuring easy drag-and-drop capabilities.
2. Features and Functionalities
When choosing an email automation service provider, assess the tools and capabilities they offer. Ideally, they should allow A/B testing and feature email segmentation functionalities, easy-to-use template editors, seamless integration with other tools, analytics and reporting.
3. Deliverability Rate
Choose an email automation provider with a 99% deliverability rate. This way, you can be confident that your emails reach the recipients’ inboxes and not get lost in spam folders or blocked by email filters.
Nurture and Convert Leads With Thrive’s Email Marketing Services
Failure to understand what is an email autoresponder and how to optimize your email marketing campaigns can lead to customer churn, wasted resources and reduced revenue.
Let Thrive manage your email marketing strategy. We offer email marketing services for eCommerce, Shopify and other niches. Through hyper-personalized email campaigns, you can reach target users at the right time, leading to increased conversions and customer lifetime value.
As a full-service digital marketing agency, we also offer social media and pay-per-click (PPC) services to ensure our clients get the highest possible return on their investment.
Book an appointment now and drive sales with conversion-driven email marketing campaigns.
