5 - Set up Email Automation

Welcome to our 2016 Advent Calendar! We are sharing a marketing tip or trick every day until Christmas. To make sure you receive these updates, don't forget to register here. Happy Christmas!

Email is one of the greatest tools for best return on investment in digital marketing. By setting up email automation you can begin to build a customer relationship with each and every one of your subscribers, keeping them coming back for more, without the time commitment of individual emails or a manual process.

Salesforce listed 7 benefits of email marketing automation, including increasing lifetime customer value, increasing conversion rates and allowing possibility to test and scale up on successes.

There are a number of tools used to set up email automation, both paid and free. MailChimp is a good tool for beginners to set up and trial email marketing.

Automation takes out a lot of the leg work and can be used to send emails, from welcoming new subscribers through to automating your whole sales funnel. This reduces your time needed whilst also encouraging a relationship to develop between yourself and the customer.

Top tip: Build anticipation

By sending regular emails at the same time each day, week or month can help to build anticipation with your subscribers. If you offer good content, advice, thought leadership (and occasionally, offers) on a regular basis your subscribers will come to anticipate your next mail shot and complete an action accordingly.

That's all for today. Stay tuned for more tips and tricks from our free advent calendar.