Nobody likes getting spam. Unsolicited emails and texts erode trust and waste time. Today with the explosion in AI, a whole new industry of marketing automation is now in overdrive, scraping emails and harvesting your contact information via social profiles and public records.
This blog post is used in marketing automation. it has been included in our email newsletter which goes out to everyone interested in Search and Convert. Search and Convert is a strategic digital agency supporting SEO, SEM, and Conversion Rate Optimization.
Email marketing is not the same as spam. It is one of the best ways of getting your message out to those with whom you’ve engaged in the past. From a sales and marketing perspective, it is distinct from “junk” email – it’s an important, powerful, inexpensive ways of communicating for businesses.
Explanation:
How does an agency like Search and Convert execute email marketing
We have 6 basic steps we take each week:
- The editorial calendar is our starting point. We plan two months in advance what’s going to be in the newsletter. If news comes in that needs to be addressed earlier, we adjust the calendar, but for the most part, we follow the calendar.
- Each entry in the calendar includes any reference material to be used in the newsletter, although we do additional research, if needed. AI has a role to play in generating our marketing content.
- Newsletter material is due to the editor by Wednesday each week.
- The editor sets up the newsletter, including doing research for the top part of the newsletter.
- The editor edits the submitted newsletter and gets it ready to post in our email automation system.
- The system posts automatically.
If needed, several newsletter articles can be staged and scheduled at a time, so it’s a one-day task, not an every-week task.
Go Deeper:
Isn’t email marketing just spam?
Like anything, email marketing can be used for either good or evil (spam). Every day, we’re inundated with annoying emails from companies we’ve dealt with in the past. It can be a pain to unsubscribe to all the newsletters you get. Most responsible business owners recognize that critical items are communicated by email, and reasonable customers know that they ultimately have control to opt out. Most email occur in this reasonable area. Sadly, unsolicited email takes up time each day for most of us as well.
Sometimes, don’t you still find that subject line, offer, or image that catches your eye? Don’t you search through your gmail for that one company and find good information related to your purchase? Aren’t you more likely to stay loyal to a brand that communicates responsibly to its customers? Don’t you want to be that kind of company?
The title may be about something in which you’re interested. There may be catchy images. When you actually open the email, in those cases, you most likely find some good information, useful to you and your business.
That’s the importance of creating automated email campaigns that actually inform and don’t just yell.
Email marketing isn’t just used for newsletters, though. Depending on the system you use, it can be set up to also remind customers they have an incomplete order, or to thank them for filling out a form or survey. It can even be used to send out a customer satisfaction survey when someone completes their time with you.
Leveraging AI for Content
The practice of using artificial intelligence tools in your web content is called Generative AI. If writing and researching isn’t your specialty, it makes sense to include some amount of Generative AI to highlight your company strength and explain it in clear language. S&C recommends sticking to topics you and your team know very well, to avoid errors in fact that erode credibility.
At Search and Convert, using AI in this way allowed us to double the amount of content we published in half the time. nothing replaces solid editing and a good knowledge of the subject matter. Sometimes one has to wonder if inaccuracies can make it into marketing automation. It certainly can!
The basic principle of email automation is setting up workflows – a predetermined, triggered set of actions you tell the software to take.
Here are some facts about email automation and marketing from Hubspot that should seal the deal:
- Email is the most frequently automated marketing channel with 65% of marketers using it
- 71% of B2B marketers use automation for email marketing
- Email users are expected to number 4.6 billion by 2025, more than half the expected world population
- In 2022, 333.2 billion emails were sent daily. As you can see, it can only benefit your company to use email automation as part of your marketing efforts.
Email automation tools – You’ve decided to start email marketing using automation. What tools can you use? We’re experienced using several programs available to anyone: - https://zoho.com Zoho – This is our primary tool for sending automated emails, like our newsletter. It’s available both as a standalone product and as part of an overall client relationship management (CRM) software package. Zoho allows you to schedule emails and set up workflows so if an action is taken by a client or for a client, an automated, personalized email is sent. We’ve used it for several years as our company standard.
- https://hubspot.com Hubspot – Hubspot’s marketing automation is our second go-to. And guess what? It’s free! It’s pretty versatile and allows you to not only send personalized emails, but also schedule blog posts, along with other marketing tools. Add the other features Hubspot offers, such as CRM, and sales, and you’ve got an all-around tool to take your business further.
The whole package is a bit more expensive than Zoho, but it can be worth it, if you take advantage of it. - https://mailchimp.com Mailchimp – Mailchimp is one of the most popular email automation tools and you can use it for free with the basic plan, depending on how many users you have and the features you want. Plus, it’s really easy to use. It integrates into Shopify and WordPress, which means you don’t necessarily have to set up separate email lists, depending on the plan you purchase.
- https://constantcontact.com Constant Contact – Constant Contact is similar to Mailchimp, in that it’s a standalone email marketing app with lots of plugins for WordPress and other software.
How to create an editorial calendar
At Search & Convert, we use an editorial calendar to schedule our newsletter content. Your editorial calendar doesn’t have to be fancy; a list on a notepad will suffice if you’re the only one writing. For a team, use project management software such as Asana, Trello, Sunsama, or Monday to create it and assign articles to your team.
Look at the newsletters you get every day, especially those pertaining to your industry.
Are there articles that spark your interest?
Is there news in your industry you can weigh in on?
Have you spoken with a customer to answer a frequently asked question?
All these are potential newsletter or email marketing ideas to add to your editorial calendar. Before you know it, you’ll have a month’s worth of weekly emails set up to send to your customers and supporters.
Remember that any marketing effort needs to have a long-term view. You need
consistent, regularly-scheduled great content to reach your audience and turn them into customers. It takes at least five to seven touches for someone to consider taking action, so a newsletter here or there won’t cut it.
Big Picture Takeaway
Email marketing is not only an inexpensive way to market your business, but it’s one of the most effective. Automating the process makes it even easier. Using programs like Mailchimp, Zoho, and Hubspot make the entire process seamless.