Finding excellent quality email automation software is worth its weight in gold. Did you know that email marketing doesn’t have to be manual, and there’s no need to outsource? Did you know that, equally, software doesn’t need to cost a fortune? There’s myth-busting on the cards when finding software to help you with email marketing.
One of the most valuable email marketing tools you can possibly invest in is automation software. This software helps you to coordinate effective marketing content to thousands of email list subscribers at a time. You’ll have certain emails running automatically, like welcome emails and purchase confirmations. But you’ll also have templates and mass-sending features for more long-form emails.
In this guide, we’ll give you a thorough introduction to this advanced software tool. It really is the backbone of so many email marketing campaigns across the business industry. If you’re currently on the fence, just know it’s a worthy investment. Don’t just take our word for it; here’s what you need to know about email automation software.
What Is Email Automation Software?
Email automation software is a system that helps you create, schedule, and send email campaigns. There are tons of different software providers. It’s an umbrella term for a type of service rather than a singular package. Automated email software runs these emails for you, saving you valuable time.
As this type of software is an umbrella term for a service, the features vary on an individual software basis. You could get a secure database, analytics breakdown dashboard, or advanced features like AI-assisted email marketing templates. It all depends on what you’re looking for, so shop for the different available features.
Along with varying features, each software has slightly different goals. For instance, some software leans heavily towards increasing purchases, while others encourage building customer loyalty. Others may be more useful for niching down your target customer demographic. For example, offering segmenting lists, thorough analytics, and customer profiles.
This variation across the email software market is why you must take the research process seriously. Which software you choose can dramatically shape the direction of your email campaign; choose your tools wisely.
Needless to say, the amount of features the software includes also reflects a considerable price variation. Automation software can range from free for basic packages to hundreds of dollars a month for an advanced package.
You’ll need to crunch your budget and most desirable features and then check the reviews on the best-matched software.
Top 5 Benefits of Automation Software for Emails
When buying automated emailing software, you must know why you should even bother. What’s so impressive about this automation tool? Why should you create email sequences in special software instead of on your Gmail screen? We hope this section clears up any doubts you may have.
We’d like to say that running an email campaign entirely independently is possible. We are big believers in DIY marketing; that’s why we invest so much time in providing you with informative content.
However, the truth is, you’ll undoubtedly find it easier with the help of automation software. And when you can find software for free or for a low-cost subscription per month, why not invest?
Automation software is tax deductible and takes you from an uphill battle with email marketing to a total breeze. It streamlines your entire marketing process. We think you’ll love it. But, if you’re still on the fence, just check out these five main benefits.
1. It Saves Your Valuable Time
The most obvious thing is that it saves you time. Imagine if you had to send every transactional email. If every time someone made a purchase, did you have to send a confirmation email manually? It’s enough to induce a burned-out panic attack when envisioning it. And just imagine how chaotic that would be when you get up to hundreds of thousands of purchases a day.
Simply put, an effective business can not run without some level of email automation. There’s always room for human-sent emails, especially in customer support or answering general queries.
However, there’s no way a human could handle all of those necessary emails, especially purchase confirmation ones.
You don’t want to waste funds paying staff to do this manually. In fact, we aren’t sure you’d get many people to agree to it anyway! Similarly, you don’t want to do this yourself, as you’d spend all your work days replying with cookie-cutter emails.
Investing in automation software saves you masses of time. You’ll have fewer tasks at hand, meaning you can concentrate on areas where human contact is needed. What a win, right?
2. It Helps Customer Retention
Email marketing automation software helps customer retention by tracking inactivity and sending little nudges to retain flakey customers. For instance, you’ll know how long a product lasts, so you can set reminders at monthly or daily intervals. Individual customers will receive a promotional email just as their product is almost out. Brilliant timing or what?
This is just one example of how having automated emails can revolutionize your customer retention. You could keep track of this manually, but automating it is much more effective. There’s no chance of you forgetting, and you don’t need to keep detailed logs of customer activity. All you do is input the duration you’d like customers “nudged at,” and the rest is up to technology.
Having that reliable, preset communication is a brilliant way to trigger customer action. It’s all about getting customers at the right time, which automation is fantastic for.
3. It Boosts Your Motivation on Low Days
Everyone has off days. However, if you have an off day with email automating software, you know something is still holding down the fort. It’s a huge bonus. You’ll have things like confirmation emails running even when you aren’t feeling like opening your email box.
Knowing you have the chance to slack a bit is a huge relief. It is a more reliable way to run your business, as you have something to fall back on.
Having software can also provide you with the motivation to push through low days. This could be through AI assistance or email templates. These help you create content by helping you take the first steps. Creating dynamic content can be challenging, so why not give yourself constant access to inspiration?
Similarly, you also get motivation through results. You’ll still see retention results no matter how many days you leave your non-query-related emails. Those transactional emails and scheduled prompts work wonders, which you’ll see through precise data. Looking at those results is a great inspiration to keep your motivation high.
4. It Is Really Measurable
Automation software is incredibly measurable. You can effortlessly track things like customer email engagement and open rates. Think of it like automatically living life in easy analytics mode; you’ll get simple, quantifiable data. And the more measurable your data is, the easier it will be to grow your business.
When you have measurable data, you can understand how your customers connect with and react to your business. And the closer you are to your customers, the better your business decisions will be. Understanding is the backbone of effective strategies and precise target demographics.
When using automation software, you usually get customer profiles, including details like engagement, demographic stats, and personal data like birthdays. You also get graphs showing things like overall link clicks or open rates. It’s a really handy tool to visualize your email marketing and overall business progress.
You’d never get this measurability level when running an independent marketing campaign. Comparatively speaking, you’d be totally in the dark.
5. You Get Support
A huge bonus of having email automation tools is that you also buy into software support. Having the option of nearly constant contact with a knowledgeable support team is incredibly reassuring. When you come across a hiccup — which happens to everyone —- you’ll have the reassurance of help on speed dial. How nice is that?
Having easy access to help is a great way to take the following steps with your marketing. But, of course, without the concern of going it totally alone. Most software comes with a 24-hour helpline service or at least business hours. So, if you get stuck, you can contact experts for complimentary assistance.
Automation software is a bit of a middle ground between running your emails independently and expensive outsourcing. For this reason, it’s impressively suited to the vast majority of businesses.
If you have a tiny start-up and aren’t focused on growth, you could get away with running emails independently. If you have a multi-million company and finances to invest in staff, you may outsource to specialists and custom software.
However, chances are, if you own a business, you fall into the software-recommended category.
This middle-of-the-road option is a fantastic way to see real results.
How To Spot the Best Email Marketing Automation Software
It’s all very good looking at all the software out there. But how on Earth do you spot the best email marketing automation software? With so many options, it’s easy to get stuck in decision paralysis.
Choosing good software is as important as selecting an email service provider or sales team; it really impacts your success. We get that.
Luckily, there are some green flags you can look for. The main thing to remember when shopping for software is your budget and non-negotiable features. These are all massively individualized to your own business and goals. However, these are three general factors to check.
This is a huge deal. When you buy software, you’re also buying a support service. You are purchasing a support system and helpful guidance when things go wrong, as they do from time to time. A clear and responsive point of contact is vital when looking for great software.
You need software and people that you can trust. Your software should have a phone number available, with clear working hours, staffing, and automated messages when out of hours.
A clear email address is a good sign, but a phone number is much more ideal. Knowing you can speak to an actual human is handy and much more reassuring that people won’t ghost your problems.
2. User Experience
User experience (UX) is also a big deal. After all, you will use this software for drip campaigns and custom reports. All of these email marketing strategies require good software usability. When tackling complex marketing strategies, you want easy software.
Look for things like a clear dashboard page with easy-to-interpret stats and figures. You want fluid in-software navigation and things like a drag-and-drop editor for customizations. Everything needs to scream “easy”. This way, you’ll be able to crack on and just enjoy the software and its results.
3. Security
Last but definitely not least is security. Security should be a top concern when you take on entire databases of valuable personal information. There are so many data protection laws, and you need to ensure your business is compliant. If your software is compromised and data is exposed, you could face real penalties — not just loss of customer trust.
You should have a campaign monitor system running constant security systems in the background. Look for software that advertises its security measures and has regular security updates.
Two Details You’ll Still Need With Automated Email Software
Of course, choosing automated email software doesn’t mean that you don’t have any work to do. There are a few details you still need to provide email marketing automation software, and they fall into two categories.
Here’s a quick reminder of your two responsibilities when using email software.
1. Email Content
The most advanced software will automate transactional emails like purchase confirmations (although you usually get customization options). You may also get templates and AI suggestions for promotional content like newsletters.
However, you’ll still need to “fill in the gaps” in many instances.
You can send unlimited emails on advanced packages. However, you’ll still have some type of hand in the series of emails. Email content is never entirely passive, even with the best software.
Even the automatic emails should be slightly personalized by a human on your team to ensure good marketing. Things like subject lines and email designs should all get the “okay” from a human.
There’s also zero point in creating amazing emails without having contacts. There are two ways of building email lists: organically and non-organically.
If you opt organically, you’ll use data collection strategies like captive portals (more on that below). This will involve actively strategizing to brainstorm ways to get people to hand over their email addresses consensually.
If you choose non-organically, you’ll have the option to purchase email lists. Who knows, maybe your software will offer a separate database for purchase? Either way, this is something you need to research independently.
Beambox: Connecting WiFi With Email Strategies
One of the most effective ways to run an email campaign is by using WiFi. Sure, you can buy an email database. However, you can also seamlessly collect email contacts by using the one thing you’re likely overlooking: your WiFi.
If you run an in-person business, like a cafe or retail store, you probably already offer guest WiFi. Suppose you don’t pause right now and learn what guest WiFi can do for your business. For those already offering guest WiFi, though, all you need to do is add a captive portal.
A captive portal is a simple webpage pop-up that guests trigger when they click to join your WiFi network. When it pops up, guests must comply with its form to fully access your WiFi. For instance, it could ask them for an email address and to agree to set terms and conditions.
This is when you must pair your WiFi with great-quality email marketing software. You can sync the two, so the email addresses you collect through the captive portal go into a software database. Voila! Your customers get WiFi that appears secure and professional, and you get a long list of email contacts.
Here at Beambox, this is our bread and butter. We offer all-in-one WiFi marketing software, meaning you get access to a database and captive portal system. We can set you up with a captive portal that you can customize easily to collect as many emails as you want.
Start your Beambox free trial today and find the perfect way to collect customer data for your email automation software.
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