You probably know how valuable email workflows are when it comes to taking your time back—but there are some common mistakes that can throw a wrench in the gears. Let’s look at a few of the most common email workflow mistakes we’ve seen— and some ideas about how to avoid them.
No List Segments:
One of the key building blocks to a successful email marketing strategy is list segmentation. List segmentation allows you to send the right people the most pertinent content at the ideal time. You can segment your lists of contacts and leads by data collected on form submissions as well as the specific interactions they have with your marketing after they’re already a lead in your database (via Hubspot).
You can segment your list in many ways: demographics, purchase history, location, gender, downloads, and so on. Your segmentations help you to customize your email workflow within your audience. That way you’re giving each person on your list the most relevant content, dependent on how well they know your brand, and where they are on their buyer journey.
Don’t be afraid of over-segmenting. That’s like saying you’re worried your relationship with a customer will be too personalized to their interests. The more segmented your list, the more customized and targeted your content— and the more your customers will trust you and your brand.
No Data Analysis:
Even though we like to talk about automation systems “doing the work for you”, it’s not something you should set up and never look at again. Neglecting to analyze your email marketing data may be causing you to miss leads, or lose customers. It’s good to ask yourself questions along the way. For example:
- Is my welcome email causing customers to <take the next step: buy a product, course, etc.>?
- What about my re-engagement email? Are customers reading it and coming back within a few days?
- Are my nurture emails working with my up-sell strategy (i.e. someone who downloads free content purchases paid content after reading the emails)?
If you’re not checking on the performance of the content in your automation system, or using its data to learn more about your customers’ buying habits, it could be working against you— not for you.
No Testing:
You may be OK with how your workflow is doing, but without testing you have no idea if it can be doing better. For example, changing the focus of one workflow, or adding a few emails to another, might significantly increase (or stagnate) your sales. A/B Testing is one of the most common tests recommended by marketers. Simply take two emails and change one key element (like the offer or CTA in the subject line). Send the emails out to relevant segments within your list and see which one performs better within each group. It may be that one type of email does better across the board, or that one email does better within a certain demographic than another. The point is—- you’ll never know until you try. Wondering what’s broken in your workflows? We can help you get to the bottom of it.
