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Automated series cheat sheet

Automated series cheat sheet

If you are new to marketing automation, these best practice examples will give you some ideas of where to begin. They are all high impact, low complexity campaigns that are great for those just starting out with marketing automation.

An automated series is a set of emails that are sent in a timed sequence to contacts to develop their understanding and interest in a proposition.  They can be used in tandem with manual sales and marketing activity and can either be used to drive a direct response or to give you intelligence as to which contacts are interested and which are not. Automated series can contain many emails and can also include logic to send different messages depending on previous interactions. That is one of the more advanced aspects of using this very powerful tool. These examples are limited to linear sequences of no more than six emails.

Welcome Series

A sequence of emails to introduce new customers or users to your products or services and expose them to important information around setup, training and future communication. Typically consisting of 3-5 emails over 7-10 days. 

Lead Nurture Series

Generate attention and interest in a product or service by communicating with prospects in a series of communications that deepen their understanding of your proposition and prompt them towards affirmative action such as making an enquiry or booking a demo. Typically 3-5 emails over 14-30 days.

Lost Opportunity Series

Win back business that has fallen out of sales pipelines such as cancelled orders, business lost to a competitor or opportunities that have gone cold. Keep in touch and encourage re-engagement should circumstances change. Typically 3-6 emails over 1-6 months.

Post Purchase Series

Encourage those who have transacted with you recently to take positive actions around the original purchase such as registering for future communications, leaving a review, buying complimentary products or services. Typically 3 emails in a 30 day period.

Renewal Series

A set of emails to remind customers of the options to renew a contract or service. Typically consisting of a 90, 60, 30 and 14 day reminder and a mechanism to exclude contacts that do renew.

These automated series form part of proven marketing automation strategies that help you to communicate more effectively and more efficiently and are all based on common business scenarios. You can also usually see an ROI from them quite quickly. Many businesses make the mistake of trying to do too much with marketing automation too soon. Start simple and build to more sophisticated automation once you have experience with campaigns like the above suggestions.

To learn how marketing automation can help your marketing to be more effective, you may be interested in our free - a workshop where we teach you how to plan and build your first automations. Take a look at our events page for available dates.

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