If there’s one thing that 2020 has taught us, it’s that no matter the size of your business or what industry you are in – it’s imperative that you be ready to pivot and evolve at a moment’s notice. Obviously, a major change isn’t possible for every business, but some of the small changes we’ve seen during the COVID-19 pandemic have been beyond innovative and impressive. We aren’t going to sit here and tell you to have multiple backup business plans in the case of another worldwide pandemic or natural disaster, but what we will tell you is that the more streamlined your business is technology wise, the better equipped you will be to handle change when necessary.
One of the most significant areas of expansion for ZenChange in 2020 has been in Email Automation. Investing in email automation for your business can save you dozens of employee hours and additional costs. There is no amount of automation too large or small to be worth getting started. Here are some of the ways we’ve seen strategies implemented that work well!
- Website Contact Page Thank you Email: Sending out an automated thank you email when somebody fills out your contact form shows them the value of their inquiry. It also shows them that your team is dedicated to a great customer service experience!
- Newsletter Signup Welcome Email: Another great way to kick off your relationship with a new potential client or customer. This email type is a great way to introduce them to your company in a more curated way than just browsing the website. You can decide on particular pieces of content and information that it would be the most relevant for them to see. You can also use this email as the first in an educational drip campaign (more on that below!).
- Landing Page or Lead Magnet Educational Drip Campaign: Our favorite one! We’ve all gotten them, the email chain that kicks off when you sign up for a free offer or some info request. Educational campaigns are a phenomenal way to introduce content to a potential client or customer, in an easy to digest way. At the point of a contact form request, you have no idea how much time they have spent getting to know you on the website. This campaign is designed to send them smaller batches of info over a specific timeframe – usually a week or two, to encourage conversion. If your sales/buying process is longer, this type of campaign also helps keep your name top of mind during their decision-making process.
- Customer Retention / Optimization Drip Campaign: The second best performing drip campaign we have seen is one that targets current clients in a different way than a regular monthly newsletter. An excellent example of this type of campaign will be if your service offers a monthly membership or some kind of platform where you want to encourage more use. You can send contacts a weekly email with new features, things to check out, different ways to use the platform, and other things they might find interesting. Videos are always a great thing to include in this type of campaign and in the educational campaign mentioned above. This type of campaign can also be used as a training tool for new clients to understand your service better.
The possibilities of email automation are truly endless at this point. There are dozens of additional campaign ideas outside of the ones mentioned above that could benefit your business.