Here at Chimp Answers, we’re big fans of automation and have created several guides on the different types of emails you can send.

But one question we often get asked is “what automations should MY business do?”

So we’ve created a number of businesses that represent the types of people we hear from and outlined some specific campaigns that they can use – which we hope will guide and inspire you to have a go at setting up some stellar email automations yourselves.

Thank you emails

Trigger: Customer has purchased a product or used a service for the first time.

Set up an automated email for customers who make a purchase for the first time. Offer a discount to encourage them to continue shopping with you. Some of these can stand in for transactional emails such as confirmations, receipts and shipping.

Example: Saskia sells beauty products online. She sets up a Thank you email series to trigger when a customer first buys a product. Her email series would look something like this.

Email 1: Thank You for your purchase, outline benefits the customer will receive for making the purchase.

Email 2: Order confirmation details including a link to track delivery.

Email 3: Getting started guide or downloadable guide on how to use the product.

Email 4: (Sent a few weeks after purchase) Next steps, include any additional information required, request to provide feedback or review product.

Re engagement emails

Trigger: Subscriber has stopped engaging with your emails after a predetermined amount of time.

Win back lapsed customers by creating an email or series of emails to encourage lapsed customers to return to your store or re-engage with your campaigns. Showcase your latest products to customers who haven’t made a purchase in a while, or offer an incentive to potential customers who have signed up for your list but haven’t taken any action.

Example: Joe sells surfing products online, he defines an inactive subscriber as someone who hasn’t interacted with his brand in 6 months. He sets up a re-engagement email series which is automatically sent out to check in on those inactive subscribers once they’ve reached that 6-month time trigger.

Email 1: “We’ve missed you” email.

Email 2: Incentivise with a welcome back offer or extended free trial period on any services.

Email 3: Reminder to subscribers to reconfirm their subscription otherwise they’ll be unsubscribed.

Email 4: Feedback request.

Email 5: Final reminder outlining benefits they’ll miss out on when unsubscribed.

Joe can further expand by adding more rules and actions. For example, if the customer opened an email, he could send them a final message. If not, the action would be to remove their tag and unsubscribe.

Email Welcome series

Trigger: Subscriber joining the audience

Typically this automation is an opportunity to welcome and indoctrinate your subscribers into who you are and how you operate (and what makes you different) Your end goal could be for the customer to purchase your product /service but can also be to give you a testimonial or share your best content.

Example: Katie owns an accountancy business. She sets up an email welcome series which is triggered when a subscriber signs up for updates online.

Email 1: When to send: Immediately. This is a general welcome to the subscriber, and briefly introduces the benefits of joining the community. Katie includes a photo of herself with a short quote which makes the email more personal.

Email 2: The second email tells the story about the brand, what services are available and includes some “behind the scenes” information. Include links of other content worth exploring.

Email 3: The third email is for social proof and gives a discount for her services. The discount might be introduced even earlier, in the first email.

Katie could go several steps further in her welcome series depending on customer interaction. For example, if the customer doesn’t take advantage of the discount she could trigger a second automation to send more emails to try and slowly convert that potential customer.

Email nurture series

Trigger: Subscriber joins audience.

Example: Jason has a time management software business. He sets up an email nurture series for leads who opt in via a specific landing page to download a lead magnet.

Email 1: Thankyou for subscribing, a short intro on the company and a CTA to download the lead magnet.

Email 2: Sent 2 days after educational email with links to blogs and resources on time management. Includes a brief sales pitch on Jason’s time management software.

Email 3: A guide on the software including features and benefits. CTA button to start free trial on the software.

This can be extended for example, if the customer signs up for the free trial, this could trigger another automated sequence which can be sent to welcome the customer to the trial.

Abandoned cart emails

Trigger: shopping cart abandoned

Online shoppers, no matter how much they’re interested in your products and tend to place an order, are easily distracted while shopping online and abandon their cart in the middle. Win back these customers easily with an abandoned cart series.

Example: Ellen has an e-commerce clothing store and sends an automated email sequence to remind customers about their abandoned product and motivate them to purchase.

Email 1: Sent within 24hrs: Email reminding shoppers what they’ve left in their cart, showing the product name and the price as well as related products they have recently viewed. This email includes a link that takes the shopper directly to the checkout page. In the P.S. Ellen also asks a question to solicit feedback such as why didn’t they purchase. This is a great way to find out the objections which she can address in her next email.

Email 2: Sent within 48hrs: What’s the main reason people aren’t buying Ellen’s products? Now’s a good time to address those objections, convince the subscriber your product is worth buying with a list of benefits. This is also your opportunity to give the customer a reason to complete the purchase such as Free delivery or fast shipping.

Email 3: Sent within 72 hrs: Entice the shopper with a discount or special deal.

Email 4: Convince subscribers that your product is worth buying by including reviews and feedback on the product.

Further actions can be added depending on the subscriber behaviour e.g. If they opened an email, clicked the link, and still failed to finalise a purchase, an additional “can we help you?” email is sent to them four hours later. If they opened an email but did nothing else, a follow-up is pushed to them 6 hours later.

The Confirmation Automation

Trigger: A subscriber fills a specific form out or makes a specific transaction

You can use these types of emails as a confirmation that something has happened.

Example: An email sent related to the form such as…

The Shipping Confirmation: Send an email with details of delivery and a link to track shipping.

A thank you message: Sent after someone signs up for a company’s loyalty program.

The list subscription email: Respond to subscriber updates with an automatic email triggered when a subscriber leaves or joins your list. Confirm that they have joined and offer something of value. For unsubscribes send a feedback form, give them an opportunity to re-subscribe or point them to your social media.

Appointment reminders

Trigger: Customer reaches a predetermined time period since their last appointment.

One of the best ways to get repeat business from your existing contacts is to send them regular reminder emails. This works particularly well for businesses that provide a service to people on a recurring basis. This kind of email helps to grow your business by automatically reminding your customers to come back for another appointment.

The Anniversary/Milestone Email

Trigger: Joining the audience.

These emails are also helpful in signifying important milestones for the email list in general. For example, you could create an automated Happy Birthday email to be sent on the customer’s birthday with a discount on your products or services.

Final Thoughts

We hope these examples have inspired you and given you some ideas of how you can incorporate automated emails in your marketing strategy. Email automation works for any business, although the type of email may vary, the practice always stays the same.

Remember, these examples are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to automated emails. There are so many possibilities in Mailchimp to either use a pre-defined template or tailor your automations to your own needs.

The key to making email marketing work for your brand is being able to stay in contact with your customers and sending the right messages at the right time – email automation does this for you.

So if you are looking to tailor your emails, save time, improve customer retention, generate leads and increase revenue, then email automation is the ultimate way to go.