One of the best ways to enhance the effectiveness of your email marketing is to automate campaigns. Instead of manually sending emails to followers, you can draft automated email messages ahead of time, scheduling them to be sent automatically at a certain date, or when a certain trigger occurs (such as an automatic welcome email being sent to a new follower).
That said, you need to consider your automated email marketing options. Specifically, you must decide whether it’s best to automate a series of emails, or a single message.
There’s no one “right” answer for all businesses when it comes to choosing between individual sequence vs. series to send automated emails. The following information will help you better understand which approach is ideal for your goals.
Automating an Email Series vs. a Single Automated Email
The type of message you wish to deliver to your followers will determine whether you should automate an email marketing series or merely a single email.
For instance, perhaps you want to address cart abandonment. According to recent statistics, the average online cart abandonment rate across all major industries is a whopping 75.4%! You can improve yours by automatically reaching out to subscribers who failed to complete purchases.
In this case, it’s best to send multiple automated emails. Cart abandonment sequences featuring more than one email are 2.4 times more likely to yield sales than campaigns featuring single automated emails.
This makes sense. After all, the average marketing email open rate is only 20.81%. You can’t assume a follower is going to open every message in a campaign when you send automated emails on a one-off basis. If you only send one cart abandonment message, a follower might overlook it. If you send multiple in an email series, you stand a better chance of getting their attention.
The Best Way to Send an Automated Email Series
That’s not to say every single campaign needs to include several messages. The above example represents an instance in which an email marketing series is the best option when you’re not sure whether to send an individual sequence vs. series of messages. This is because you have a very practical goal that also provides value to a subscriber: letting them know they haven’t completed purchasing a product or service in which they may be interested.
On the other hand, if you’re merely welcoming a new follower, or sending general information that doesn’t provide substantial and immediate value to either you or your subscriber (such as a series of emails about your brand’s mission), you could make the wrong impression by sending too many automated emails. In fact, surveys indicate that receiving too many emails from a brand is one of the most common reasons people unsubscribe from email lists. You’ll actually drive followers away if you automate a series of emails that aren’t particularly relevant to their needs or interests.
Thus, it’s important to remember essential best practices when designing campaigns for an email marketing series. Segment your lists to ensure followers only receive automated emails they are genuinely interested in. Monitor your campaigns to identify what strategies are working. Verify all emails on your list are valid before automating campaigns, otherwise you may end up with a high bounce rate; this will negatively impact your email deliverability.
Again, deciding whether to send a single automated email or a series involves taking multiple factors into account. The right tactic varies depending on your current goals. By remembering this and adhering to general best practices, it will be much easier to determine the ideal approach for your automated email marketing campaign.