10 Essential Email Marketing Automation Strategies to Boost Engagement, Sales, and Revenue

Learn how to set up your email marketing strategy to work on auto-pilot with these 10 essential email marketing automation strategies.

Jul 19, 2023

This is our list of recommendations to boost your email marketing. These tasks will have a huge ROI, since you just need to set it all up once and it will generate engagement, sales and revenue on auto-pilot. If you haven't sign up to your Klaviyo account yet, just follow this link to register.

Essentials

I. Collect emails

You need to have a simple system to grow your mailing list. One of the simples ways of doing it is by leveraging the current traffic to your store and ask them to sign up. Some examples of how this may work:

You have a great blog and put a ton of effort into your content creation. In the middle and/pr on the bottom of each article leave a sign-up form so people can get notified about all news from your store and get more interesting content. If they like what they're reading, they'll want to know when you have more for them.
Set up with Klaviyo automatic pop-ups. You can implement any logic you want for them to appear: some seconds after arriving to the store, when they reach a specific page, or when they are too long on a specific product. The recommended standard is to have a pop-up on exit — when your visitors are leaving the page, show them a branded popup with an offer they can't refuse: this can be a discount code, a free shipping code, a product sample, an info-product related with your industry like an e-book, or any other freebie that may be attractive to your audience.
If you offer something, build a flow on Klaviyo so they automatically receive what you promised. This is essential so your potential customers don't get frustrated or loose trust in you after this first engagement.

II. Welcome newcomers

Once someone is added to your mailing list, you need to get in touch with them. There are some ways of doing this in auto mode and still be authentic:

In case you promised something, first of all deliver it - discount code, e-book, whatever it is.
Prepare a Welcome Series: 2 to 5 branded emails that present you to your potential future customer. You can use some of your about us content if you want. The goal is to tell your story, communicate the values you stand for, show why and how you make/source your products.
On all these emails, make sure you make yourself available so people don't hesitate to reply and ask more. Also avoid selling stuff too early. This is your dating time.
In case you didn't give them any discount yet, or if you gave them but they didn't use it, feel free to have on the last email a special discount code with a limited validity. You must be very clear about the urgency of using that code or it will expire. Example: 20% off with 24h validity.

III. Remind about their cart

There are many reasons why someone would leave in the middle of the checkout: prefers to buy on desktop, no-time, other distractions, unsure about committing to a purchase, unclear info about delivery/payments, etc. One of the best way of helping out your most interested visitors converting to customers is by reminding them about what they were going to purchase.

You should send 2 emails to them once the checkout is abandoned: one after 4 hours, and other after 48 hours.
If you have a very small catalog or if you have the resources to invest in this, you can even make a custom pitch for each of the products your customer added to the cart but ended up not buying. This is a great way of saying "you forgot about this here" and "look at the value this will add to your life".
If you have good margins and want to be more aggressive, you can give a discount code on the last email you send with a 24h expiry time. Of course this second email should be sent only if they haven't made a purchase since they got the first email.

IV. Complete their experience with a cross-sell

Klaviyo is able to analyse past purchases data to see what products people are likely to buy together or purchase as repeats customers. If they buy one, you will auto email them a week later about buying the other one and vice versa. What's amazing about this:

You're increasing the customers lifetime value without pressing them to buy it all at once
You have the opportunity to make their experience perfect by adding another product that matches and enhances their original purchase

V. Win your customers back

Send two promo emails with suggested items to anyone who hasn't made a purchase in 75 and 150 days. This timeframe can of course change depending on your expected customer lifecycle:

If you're selling a consumable that could be over in 2 weeks, you could send the first promo email in a much shorter window.
If you're selling high-ticket products like art/design pieces, you could send the first promo email in a longer period.

VI. Break-up if they don't care about you

After some time nurturing your contacts without any results it might make sense to let them go and sunset them. Suppress contacts that don't engage neither purchase after 1 year (once again, this timeframe may vary depending on your customers lifetime cycle. This will help increase your open-rate, which helps to avoid getting considered spam by email filters, and it will save you money on your Klaviyo bill, by reducing your audience size.

Next level

I. Thank your new customers

Send a short personalised thank you message to new customers who just bought from you for the first time to boost engagement and trust. You can take this personal experience to the next level by recording a video message and adding it to the email. This video should be simple and honest, it's totally fine if it's recorded on the phone by the store owner and kept under 1min.

II. Thank your new fans

Reach out to the now-loyal customers who have just bought from you a second time, boosting engagement and trust. This helps to turn repeat buyers into brand loyals. On this short thank you email, you can find ways of adding extra value to this specific customer segment, showing them:

the advantages of creating an account to make their purchase faster next time
your loyalty program if you have one
how to recommend you to their friends and get discounts (if you have a referral program)
the pros of your subscription plans (if applicable)
how to leave a review to your store/products
how to get in touch if they have any feedback or need support

Depending on your business, you can communicate some or all of these points in a combination that makes sense for you.

III. Post-purchase emails

Besides the 2 previous emails, you can also have a post-purchase email (for each single purchase) with a couple of goals:

Keep the customer's post-purchase high: between the moment of purchase and the day the order arrives, there's a lot of space for many emotions such as regret, anxiety and excitement. This email should:
- confirm to the client that it was a great idea to buy what they bought
- confirm what are the next steps — where the order is at a specific moment (give tracking link or tell when they can expect it)
- show them again the advantages of their chosen product and the many different ways how they can use them to make their life better
Add value — this connects with the previous sub-point: give them related content that will make the customer even more excited about the product they bought. This could be educational content too, related with the products acquired.
Hold your customers hand while they wait to get their order — Show how to reach to your super available customer service, so at any time they trust you and know you have their back. Don't allow your customers any reasons to cancel their order in a fit of fear, regret or impatience.
Prepare for post cross sell one week later — you can here already tease the customer with info about the complementary product that would make their experience even better, which will then be recommended in the email sent 1-week post-purchase.

IV. Back-in-stock notifications

If you don't want to allow your customers to buy out-of-stock products, it's a good idea to allow them to get notified when it's available again. In this set-up, you need to edit the product page code to collect the emails and set up an automatic flow on Klaviyo to inform your customers once the product they're interested is again available as per Shopify's inventory levels.

Conclusion

Email marketing automation can be a powerful tool for boosting engagement, sales, and revenue. By implementing these 10 essential strategies, you can set up your email marketing strategy to work on auto-pilot and generate results long-term. From collecting emails to reminding about abandoned carts and thanking new customers, each of these steps helps you build relationships with your audience and keep them engaged. If you haven't sign up to your Klaviyo account yet, just follow this link to register.

If you need help with your Klaviyo setup or email marketing automation strategies, don't hesitate to contact me. I’m always ready to assist you in building a successful email marketing campaign. To learn more about how I can help you with your Klaviyo setup and email marketing automation strategies, please contact me.