Repetitive tasks are the bane of many people’s lives. They quickly become boring and often seem to present no real benefit. Sure, they keep the wheels turning, but wouldn’t you and the sales team spend your time more productively by reaching out to customers directly?
Sales email automation vs email sequences
The truth is, if done properly, these repetitive tasks can provide a great boost to your business. The old style of sales email automation was to use an email sequence.
A classic example of this can be seen on websites that offer products for weight loss. They trade a free gift (an ebook of recipes, for example) for the email address of a visitor to their site. Subsequently, the free gift is emailed, and a predetermined set of 7 to 14 messages is sent daily after this.
These messages are all tales of how a particular strategy or product helped the sender lose weight, i.e. providing the benefit the lead is looking for. Somewhere down the line, the lead will buy one of these products, and the sales email sequence has completed its job.
Unfortunately, this is impersonal and standardized, so not every sign-up will buy. This is rectified by the scale of the operation – the site hopes for thousands of free sign-ups and anticipates a few sales to make it all worthwhile.
Sales email automation works differently.
Customized for the customer
When a customer lands on your website, they begin to create a footprint. By monitoring the pages they visit and examining the products or services they express interest in, the system will become aware of the interests of the lead.
Ultimately, they may sign up for more information using a form, or provide their email address in some other way.
Once the email address of the lead has been acquired, the sales automation software can then send messages tailored to that individual. The first message will be a standard welcome message, along with any information they directly requested.
This information will be linked to a product (or service), but also the category that product is in.
Sales Email Automation in the real world
If we look at our weight loss example above, they may have looked at an item like Strawberry Flavor Protein Powder. From this, we know they have an interest in protein powder.
The first message gives all the details of Strawberry Protein Powder. Then, 24 hours later, a follow-up email is automatically sent related to Chocolate Protein Powder.
If the lead clicks the link to see the Chocolate variety, we’re on the right track. The next email will be about Banana Protein Powder. If they don’t click the link, then perhaps we have chosen the wrong factor to pursue – they were after the strawberry flavor, not the protein powder aspect. The next email should be a Strawberry Flavor Meal Replacement Bar.
And so on, and so on. By taking note of what the lead clicks, the emails can further narrow down what the customer wants to achieve and will be more likely to achieve a sale than an untargeted “general health” series of messages.
This is not exclusive to weight loss products, as parallels could be drawn in any market. From this, you can see how the process works, and how much more likely the lead is to buy when they are presented with products that they would actually have a use for.
Why automate it?
You could complete this process manually, and spend a long time doing it. This is the point of automation – to relieve you of the need to continually work at these repetitive tasks. Once the products, categories, and email capture options have been configured, you can just set the system running and not have to touch it again.
If the system gets to a stage where it has made no sales and can’t figure out why, it can be set to notify a human to intervene. The human salesperson can then take over and work on closing a sale in an even more personal manner, but this is what salespeople do best. The groundwork for the sale has already been done by the sales email automation system, vastly reducing the amount of work the sales team has to do while still producing great results.
Linking to your CRM
The lead will be providing plenty of information as they progress through the automated emails, and some of those emails may include surveys for them to complete. This information can automatically be linked to your CRM system, building a comprehensive picture of your lead that you can use in the future.
You’ll be aware of all the relevant details about your customer allowing you to tailor any communication with them effectively. If you can get inside the mind of your lead, you’ll begin to understand what it is they want to achieve, and what solutions they are looking for.
You can make recommendations that suit them perfectly and that they won’t be able to ignore.
Sales Email Automation to build your business
It is rare that any sales team has time to rest as the goal is often to simply sell more. Incorporating automation techniques into your sales process will give your sales team something that is impossible to manufacture – more time.
When the repetitive tasks are taken away and put into the capable hands of an automated system, the sales team members can concentrate on what they do best, which is communicating with customers and closing sales.
Your CRM can provide lead scores based on the actions that the leads have previously taken on their journey through the automated system. The sales team will instantly be aware of who is most likely to convert into a paying customer and can plan their strategy accordingly.
Sales email automation therefore provides multiple benefits to your business. Not only can the pressure be relieved on the sales team, but your CRM can be automatically populated and your sales experts can target the leads who are virtually ready – and when the leads are ready to buy, that’s when your business truly begins to grow.
