Marketing automation is all about strategy, and knowing the basic foundations of email strategy for marketing automation is critical. Email marketing when utilizing a marketing automation tool is very different than simply emailing using an email service provider. The difference lies in how you will be sending the emails and the highly tactical nature of the emails being sent.
1. Autoresponders:
Marketing automation platforms give you the ability to capture lead information via forms and landing pages. The modern best practice is to email content to someone after they have filled out a form. This helps ensure you are given correct email information on the forms. When the form is completed, there is an autoresponder email that then needs to be sent to the person. Autoresponders are a very specific type of email and serve a very specific purpose.
2. Sales Nurturing Emails:
Marketing automation allows you to help your sales team out by creating nurturing programs that can help them scale their follow-up efforts. For example, creating a specific nurturing program that sales can add prospects to will help them stay in front of people over a very long sales cycle. These emails need to be very specific and targeted to their goal.
3. Identifier Emails:
Many times we have to move people through the sales cycle, yet do not know which stage they are in. This is true for leads that we receive at trade shows, from webinar registrations, and from other lead sources. This is the perfect time for the “Identifier” emails. Lizzy Braswell, senior marketing specialist at Silverpop, an IBM company, says, “The most successful emails for those new prospects entering our marketing funnel are the emails in which we offer a variety of content across the marketing stages to best identify where they are in a buying cycle.”
Original source: ClickZ
