Email automation: best practices

Mailing is a common practice: we send mailings to our customers and prospects. Unfortunately, the practice has become commonplace. The risk: being drowned out by a multitude of others. Unless... you manage to make yours stand out.

Let's remind ourselves of the objective: to ensure that your e-mail :

• reaches its recipient
• be read
• and leads to conversion

To achieve this, you need to :

• adopt the right reflexes
• the right tools

Mailing is marketing. You need to focus your approach on customer benefits, using the right terms. How do you do this?

See all software Email Marketing

Start with an optimized email template

Optimized means that it is coded in such a way that it adapts to all messaging systems and screen formats. Furthermore, it must not contain any parameters that could impair deliverability. It is always preferable to start with an "in-house" template, such as the one we offer as a free download:

Personalize your message

It 's a pity to write a generic e-mail , as it will perform much less well than a personalized message. Your recipients, not feeling concerned by the message's lack of relevance, will have every reason to garbage can it. On the other hand, a personalized header, with your first name or company name for example, will make all the difference. You're more likely to be read. With CRM software, it doesn't take any longer: you indicate the appropriate field in your database, and the tool will personalize it for each recipient: a way of setting your transactional emails apart.

Adapt the sending time

What's the best time to send? Monday morning, in the middle of a meeting? Or Tuesday at 7 p.m., during an afterwork session? There are no rules... It's up to you to test, and then... let the machine analyze! You can do this with CRMs equipped with a " machine learning" system: each time you send a message, the software detects the time at which the recipient opens the e-mail, and will target this time slot the next time.

Wise scripting

Your leads - sales contacts - interact with you indirectly: by visiting your site, consulting a particular page or article. Rather than leaving them to their own devices, make your presence felt. In the same way as thanking them for placing an order, welcome them at an earlier stage. Signing up for your newsletter, for example, is worth a welcome e-mail. You might also consider that the third article they've read is the right time to suggest that they get in touch. It's a scoring logic, and there are a thousand possibilities. It's up to you to identify yours and structure your conversion tunnel.

Careful wording

The first visible things in your mailing are :

• subject,
• sender,
• catchphrase.

Capitalize on these three elements. Identify your must-have keywords and concepts, and prioritize them so as to break them down in a complementary way. But don't say too much. You need to say enough just to make the reader want to open the e-mail to find out more.

Test

How do you decide which layout is best? With A/B Testing. You send a first draft to a sample of contacts, and observe the impact. You then test a second time, changing certain variables to identify the best one to send to the largest possible number of contacts. The same principle applies to SMS campaigns.

Synthesize your content

Capturing attention is one thing. Then you have to hold it. You need to be concise and effective enough to get your message across. Because the people who open your e-mail won't linger on it. Often, they'll only read it crosswise. You need to structure text and images in an attractive, readable way. This is where the layout of the mailing comes into play. CRMs offer a range of graphic and responsive email templates. Simply drag & drop your content into the template, and it will be compatible on all media: smartphones, tablets and computers.

Be accessible

The terms you use must be easily accessible. Your contacts probably don't know the jargon of your business, because it's not theirs. Do the intellectual gymnastics of putting yourself in their shoes, or test your text with novices. You need to be sufficiently intelligible, while remaining relevant to let your business expertise shine through.

See all software Email Marketing

Call to action

A mailing is all very well, but what's the next step? If someone is interested, what should they do? Contact you? Buy? Sign up? Take a survey? We focus a lot on reaching our target, but too often we neglect the transformation behind it. Where do you want to direct your target? It's important to :

1. decide upstream,
2. express it clearly in your message.

This is what we call the Call-To-Action (CTA). And it's the role of the mailing to indicate to interested parties a way of responding or interacting with you.


Sending a mailing can have a real impact, provided it has been carefully thought out in advance. Personalization, individualized sending times or calls to action are decisive levers that don't take any more time. You define them once and for all, and the software automates them.