Marketing has evolved over the years taking different forms such as social media, SEO, email marketing and others.
Each of these methods has proven to be a gold mine for most entrepreneurs and marketers who continue to adopt different tools in their email marketing strategy.
One of the reasons for the growth of email marketing is its timely and hyper-relevant Email automation. This helps generate more reads, clicks, traffic and generates revenue for a business.
Let’s look at what email automation is, its benefits, tools, and ways to make it more effective.
What is Email Automation?
Automated Email also called Behavior-Driven Email or Triggered Email is a message that’s automatically sent from an email service provider (ESP) in response to the action of a specific user on your website or app.
Unlike one-off email broadcasts, Triggered Emails do not require manual action to be taken every time a new subscriber joins your network or meet the defined trigger.
Once set up, the automated welcome email will be sent to the new individuals without any effort from your side. Email automation marketing does the work for you.
Benefits of Email Automation To Your Business
With email automation, you can:
1. Make marketing strategy scalable
In an enterprise, sending emails manually to the intended customer base would be limited to the size of the company’s staff.
With automated emails, you won’t have to worry about attaining your customer reach. As such, you can effectively scale your email marketing effects and target a large audience.
Automated emails allow your customers to integrate into your system once they meet any of your defined triggers.
Additionally, this automation lets you know what message to send to your customers based on their behavior.
2. Increase Product Usage
In order for your potential customers to buy any of your products, they first need to know how to use it and its value. This is why most marketers take up free trials periods.
This is intended to get your potential customers to try out the products and ultimately buy them, converting them to paying customers.
Also, for the potential customers to try out your products, they can be sent a series of automated emails with detailed steps to encourage trying it.
3. Gather product feedback
When it comes to meeting your customers' needs, it’s impossible to do it effectively if you do not understand what they want. You end up creating products they may never use.
However, this does not need to be the case, with email automation tools, you can ask your customers what they need.
Once they’ve signed up for the free trials, add them to a campaign list from which they can be sent automatically email campaigns that intrude to gather feedback.
According to statistics, such a campaign has an over 40% response rate. Once you collect the necessary feedback, you can embark on creating or improving your current products or services to meet the customers’ needs.
Additionally, gathering feedback is a great way to stay ahead of your competitors. That’s because the customers already know your products, and what you can do with your products to make them better.
4. Higher customer retention rate
With marketing, you have to concentrate your effort on potential buyers, than on existing one. That's why, there is a need to retain the already existing ones as you target new ones.
With email automation, you’ll ensure your customers hear from you regularly.
These emails are intended to meet certain needs and they can inform the customers regarding new products, discounts, and any upcoming promotions and so much more.
Top 20 Email List Building Tools To Try In 2021
#1. RafflePress
RafflePress is one of the email automation tools that allow you to run contests and giveaways. This lets you increase your subscribers, and the more subscribers you have, the higher is the chance is to convert some of them into your customers.
With Raffles, you can run up to three contests and host them either on your social media platforms or blog flexibly without any limitation.
Pricing: RafflePress charges from $49/Month and the total is billed annually. Alternatively, you can get a lifetime license for the tool at $449.
#2. OptinMonster
For an email list comprising of users who perform different activities on your site, it would be great to send them hyper-relevant emails based on their behavior and actions.
This is what OptinMonster does. With it, you can collect and auto segment email addresses by categorizing them based on their geographical location, cookies, activities, etc..
Additionally, with OptinMonster you can create lead generation forms to increase your subscribers and email list.
You can easily utilize the 6 different campaign types such as: slide-in box, inline, and a floating bar; it also has 50+ lead generation templates, and an easy-to-use drag and drop builder.
You can also integrate this tool with your email service providers such as MailChimp. This seamless integration lets you grow your email list and then send personalized emails through your ESP.
Another feature of this tool is its Real-Time Behavior Automation engine which lets you pick up what your users are searching for, on your site and shows them a relevant campaign that meets their needs.
This will likely convert the visitors into customers. Other actions you can take with this feature are:
- Follow up on visitors with targeted campaigns based on how they interact with your site and other offers;
- Show visitors campaigns that could convert them when you detect they are about to exit your site;
- Based on the activities and areas your visitors visit on your site such as the features page, you can show them targeted campaigns for those pages and so much more.
The charges for OptinMonster start from $9 per month when billed annually making it ideal for small businesses.
#3. Optimizely
What you present to your targeted subscribers determines whether or not they subscribe to your newsletter. Optimizely is one of the tools that allows you to split test various page copy and other fundamentals, without altering your original site.
It also allows you to create and modify different contact forms, pop ups, contest banners and optimize them by testing them individually.
As you optimize them, you can check and change the color of your text, image, or call-to-action button, then check which color variant is performing best.
When you know which color variant is producing the best results, you can optimize your forms, make them more effective and convert more visitors into leads.
Getting started with Optimizely is not hard, you simply need to add it to your site by adding some code to it.
#4. Unbounce
Unbounce gives you a chance to enhance and create attractive landing pages. With them, you can entice your trial sign-ups, purchases, and whitepaper downloads.
Creating landing pages with Unbounce is easy as you only need to choose your preferred template from the wide-ranged library they offer and match it with your campaign.
However, if you prefer to create your template from scratch, you can do so with the Unbounce drag and drop page builder.
You get more than just email building features with Unbounce as it also offers split testing (A/B testing) and analytics.
With these tools, for example, you can design a landing page, duplicate the original page, change your text to versions B or C, add different titles and test how each would resonate with your audience and which one is more effective.
Email Tracking and Monitoring Tools
#5. GoViral
GoViral was originally known as SmartBribe. It is a free tool that helps you grow your email list by encouraging your current subscribers to share your opt-in with others.
This is done by customizing your current Thank You Page and creating an incentive for your subscribers which they can share via email or social media.
Pricing: Free.
#6. GetNotify
Converting visitors into customers would be less effective if they are not reading your emails. With GetNotify, you get a notification, at the moment when your emails are read by a subscriber.
It is super easy to use, just add 'getnitify.com' to your subscribers' email address and send your emails as you do normally. The recipient will not see the getnotify.com tag and they won’t know you’re tracking their reads.
When you know which emails are being read or not, you can easily scale up your email marketing to get more reads by changing a few things.
Pricing; the charges are categorized into two: Free Plan and Donation-based plans.
#7. Campaign Monitor
An email marketing campaign is more effective when you can track it, optimize, and test. Campaign Monitor lets you do all that. It has interactive analytics that you can easily act on.
For eCommerce Users, you can take advantage of the CM Commerce that is designed for you.
Pricing: the charges start from $9 per month, the advanced features plan is at $29 per month while that for CM Commerce is $9/month.
#8. PageModo
PageModo is one of the email automation tools through which you can conveniently turn your Facebook page into a landing page from which you can collect leads and grow your subscribers' list.
The charges start from $75 per year.
Email Testing Tools
#9. Cake Mail
As you automate your emails, you may need to know which emails have a higher chance of conversion.
As such, you may also need to test these emails first before sending them. With Cake Mail, you have automated A/B split testing tools with which you can improve your open rates.
What’s more, this tool has a ‘Spam Assassin’ feature that ensures your emails do not wind up in the spam folder.
Charges start from $8 per month.
#10. Inbox Inspector
Operated by GetResponse, Inbox Inspector is one of the best and popular email testing and preview tools available. With it, you can preview up to 18 different email clients.
It is intended to help you get started on your email marketing as one of the GetResponse customers.
Pricing: is a free tool.
#11. Litmus
As one of the top email testing tools, Litmus lets you test up to 40 emails and devices from a single click. This means you will spend less time reviewing each email combo.
Pricing: the charges start from $79 per month billed annually, for automated testing plans there’s a plus plan which at $159 per month also billed annually.
#12. Reach Mail
As a marketer, you may want to be able to view the performances of different campaigns all at once rather than one review at a go.
Reach Mail is here to sort you out. Its testing features let you compare the performance metrics of about five email campaigns in one single click.
This tool makes your email marketing automation more effective by showing you which images, contents, and subject lines will perform better.
Pricing; Reach Mail offers a Free Plan; the paid plan starts from $10 per month.
Integrated Email Marketing Automation Tools
#13. HubSpot
HubSpot is one of the popular and highly ranked tools. This is because it offers various features such as streamlining email marketing services through automated workflows.
You’ll also enjoy using this tool in your sales and marketing activities as it is one of the best tools in that field.
Pricing: HubSpot offers free automation tools; its paid plans start from $50 per month for the starter plan while the Enterprise plan starts from $1200 per month.
#14. LeadSquared
LeadSquared is one of the tools used to streamline the lead scoring process. It increases your marketing efficiency by automating email marketing services while combining them with sales activities.
Pricing: Plans for email marketing automation are charged at $150 per month billed annually, while automation workflows are part of the basic plan which is charged at $400 per month and billed annually.
#15. Intercom
As visitors navigate their way through your app, they may need extra assistance to work out a few things here and there.
This is what Intercom is for. It allows you to send automated emails directly in your app, giving your visitors assistance when they need it.
Pricing: Intercom paid plan for an all-in-one solution starts from $87 per month.
#16. Contactually
Contactually is a CRM platform for vetting contacts. It does this by collecting contacts from your social media platforms, email inbox and website.
As it does this, it also gathers information about your contacts to use as a guide as you automate your emails.
Contactually is one of the neatest tools that are also used for CRM for real estate experts and email marketing.
Pricing: for the professional plan, charges start from $69 per month; the Accelerator plan is charged at $119 per month.
Email Marketing Services with Automation
#17. MailerLite
With MailerLite, you can easily and conveniently set up attractive email marketing campaigns using its drag and drop editor.
Additionally, you can personalize, segment, and automate your campaigns using the advanced targeting features which also improves the performance of these campaigns through the optimization features.
Combine MailerLite with other email-building tools such as OptinMonster and create high-converting sign-up forms which you can also personalize based on your visitors' actions and behaviors on your site.
MailerLite also offers you a simple and intuitive interface for your newsletter services, ideal for you if you’re starting.
Pricing: MailerLite offers a free plan; the paid plans start from $ 10 per month.
#18. ConvertKit
ConvertKit offers to you advanced CRM features. It lets you send targeted auto responders to your subscribers and personalize them based on how they interact with your emails through the automation rules.
You can go a step further and create auto responder sequences with the provided blueprints fast and easy and for any situation.
Combine ConvertKit subscriber Tags with email building tools such as OptinMonster and you can segment your email automation based on on-site behavior by users.
This tool is also ideal for bloggers who want to run ultra-targeted campaigns professionally.
Pricing: the charges start from $25 per month billed annually.
#19. Constant Contact
If you are a beginner in the email marketing world, then your ideal tools are the user-friendly kind that does not require much for you to set up and run.
Constant Contact is one of those tools, it is highly recommended as it is beginner-friendly, meaning that once you install it, you’ll have it up and running in no time.
Do not worry about being stuck with no help. Constant Contact is known for providing its users' world-class support, webinars, and extensive training in email automation to help you and your users to achieve their intended goals.
This tool is a good choice for intermediate and expert level marketers because it offers various features to help them with managing even invitations, registration, and tickets all in one all-inclusive Email Plus Plan.
Last but not least, as a beginner, you’ll be happy and safe with this tool, because aside from helping you with your automated emails, it also helps you to build your site with its website builder software which is run by artificial intelligence (AI); this makes it one of the best AI marketing automation software.
Pricing: Constant Contact's basic plan starts from $20 per month; an all features inclusive starter pack starts from $ 45 per month.
However, these charges may vary depending on the number of contacts you have in your email list. For more information on how to get started with Constant Contact, do visit their page.
#20. MailChimp
When a visitor is using your site or purchasing your products then suddenly pauses at the final stage, you may want to know why.
Whether they forgot to hit the button or got confused. This is one of the features you get with MailChimp. It lets you send follow-up drip emails on the grounds of the activity and inactivity in your site, abandoned carts, etc..
Additionally, with a combo of MailChimp and other tools such as OptinMonster, you can personalize your drip emails and send them based on your subscribers' chosen checkboxes from the opt-in form.
MailChimp is your all-in-one email automation software that offers you numerous forms of integration to run and host your inbound Campaigns.
Pricing: MailChimp has a Free Plan; there is a paid plan which starts from $9.99 per month.
How to Make Email Automation Effective
-
Measure your results
To make your email marketing more effective, you need to understand what are the needed features to handle. The tools you use may give you comprehensive metrics like clicks, visits and more.
However, you need to go a notch higher and check on important details like the number of customers, visits, and revenue collected as these affect your business.
You can analyze them by using tools such as Google Analytics to help you understand the performance of this strategy. From this, you can come up with ways to improve the underperforming areas and increase their effectiveness.
-
Use a call-to-action button (CTA)
Statistics show that using a CTA instead of text links contributes to about 28% of the conversion rates.
Regardless of the email automation tools you use, ensure each has a well-defined Call-to-Action, to increase the chances to get more customers and potentials clicking through and increase your conversion rates. Check out some feeds on how to create the ideal CTA button.
-
Write great subject lines
As you work out your CTA, you also need to ensure your emails and subject lines catch the reader's attention.
Otherwise, they will not open, leave alone reading your emails. There are different ways to create intriguing subject lines, do check them out.
-
Track responses
When you send an automated email, you can gather more information from your customers. This information can help you know whether or not they open your emails, buy products and much more.
When you know the actions and behaviors of your customers, you can effectively plan your next move.
Why You Need Email Automation For Improved Conversions
Email marketing is one of the means to easily grow not just your subscribers' list but also your revenue. The tools discussed above are designed to make the process easier and more effective.
Some of these Email Automation tools will help you send personalized and hyper-relevant emails to your visitors and subscribers based on their behaviors and how they interact with your site.
You can also combine different tools to meet your needs and create better emails, content, and images that will convert your visitors into leads.
