Did you know that, according to Finances Online, the number of email users went up to around four billion in the year 2020? Additionally, there’s a forecast of an annual growth rate of three percent, which is expected to result in causing there to be almost 4.5 email users in 2024.

Considering these numbers, it’s no surprise that many small businesses are now using email automation tools to make their email marketing efforts more effective.

However, if you’re a small business leader who doesn’t know which email automation tools to have, this can be stressful.

Fortunately, in this article, we’ll review the different email automation tools you should have. Finally, you can master your email marketing and convert more prospects into clients than ever. Read on to learn more.

Follow-up Emails

When it comes to businesses having successful email marketing strategies, one of the most important moves they can make is to get an email automation tool that sends follow-up emails. Why? Sending up a follow-up email will remind your readers about your business.

After all, people’s inboxes get flooded every day, so even if they’ve received your welcome email after signing up and haven’t seen it, they’ll remember you again when you send them an automated follow-up email.

Some email marketing software options will make it possible for you to track the improvements that come from using this automation tool type.

This is helpful because it can help you understand if you’ve designed and written the copy of your follow-up email effectively.

Autoresponders

One of the most important email marketing tips is to stay in touch with your potential clients every step of the way once they’ve signed up to be on your email list. One of the best ways of doing this is by having autoresponders set up.

“What is an autoresponder?” you might be wondering.

Basically, an autoresponder is a type of script that automates replies sent via email. It’s triggered by someone sending an email or by completing certain actions when on a website.

One of the most common of these is a confirmation email.

Other common autoresponders include the creation of a support ticket, an email is sent after someone signs up for a newsletter via email, a receipt after purchasing something on a site.

Additionally, if someone changes a setting on an account, they might receive a confirmation email demonstrating this.

Another autoresponder is the type that people receive when they’ve emailed someone who’s out of the office.

By having autoresponders set up, you can ensure that you reply to your potential customers whether they’re emailing you or completing actions that prompt an email response on your website.

As a result, you’ll be able to stay in touch with them at the right time and make your brand stronger.

Automated Email Series

Another important email automation tool is the automated email series. With this type of tool, you can automate an entire email campaign to cover every step. These steps could include welcoming new subscribers or nurturing relationships.

They could also include emails that will make engagement levels higher and make it possible for your business to meet its goals.

Look for email automation software that makes it easy to set up these automated email series. That way, you can easily send these out and improve open rates and clickthrough ones.

Over time, this will lead to your business having increased sales.

Advanced Reporting

For an email marketing campaign to be successful, it’s important to get all the right data about your efforts. This way, you can improve your campaign over time, making it as effective as ever. Advanced reporting should include data on:

• Where your subscribers are
• What devices they’re using
• Where they’re clicking

Additionally, advanced reporting should provide you with information on how your email subscribers open their emails. With all this information, you’ll be able to personalize your messages even more and send them messages that they’ll be receptive to.

With advanced reporting, you can customize and compare your campaigns to become more successful over time.

A/B Testing

Another important feature that is essential to email automation is A/B testing. This way, you can learn which of your different subject line options are going to get you better results when you send emails out through your email marketing campaign.

By using this type of testing, you can discover how different subject line elements can have an impact on open rates.

Play around with length, appeal to varying values, and test out specific words to see which subject lines work best. With these insights, you can optimize your future campaigns.

Preview Abilities

When you’re sending automated emails, part of the idea behind this is that you’ve set everything up so that emails are ready to go for a campaign. The last thing you want is to have to worry about what your emails will look like to recipients.

That’s why it’s important to use preview abilities tools when you’re putting together your email campaign.

When searching for this type of tool, find one that makes it possible to check links, preview the subject line, and preview the inbox view.

You’ll also want to be able to see what the email itself looks like.

Search for a preview option that makes it possible to see the email in these various ways on different potential platforms. This way, you can ensure that your bases are covered.

This will boost the performance of your campaign and improve your email open rates because you’ll be able to make any changes before sending the final emails in your campaign.

Survey Creation

One of the most important ways you can get data from your potential and past customers is by sending them surveys. And if you want to make it more likely that they’ll fill these out, you can send them these surveys as part of your email marketing campaign.

But creating surveys can take extra work—and, potentially, time that you don’t have to spare.

This is why it’s a great idea to find an email automation software that has a survey creation feature.

This way, you can distribute and design surveys that are mobile-friendly easily.

You can get customer insights fast, which will make it easier for you to improve your products and services so you can, in real-time, get customer insights.

Remember to search for a survey creation tool that makes it possible for you to design effective surveys even if you don’t have design or coding experience.

Pop-up Form Creation

Another important feature that you should be able to create to make your email automation efforts more effective is pop-up forms. With these forms, you can boost engagement and build up your email list. Search for a service that makes customizable pop-up forms easily creatable.

Scheduling

It’s also important to have an email automation tool that makes it possible to schedule social posts or emails. This way, you can create this content when it best suits you, without having to stress about remembering to send it out later.

Web Publishing

Are your emails valuable pieces of content that you would like to have available even after you’ve sent them out? In this case, you should use the web publishing email automation tool. You’ll be able to put it online through the host, making it accessible via a link to others.

In fact, you could even put the link in an email you send out so that new subscribers still get access to this valuable content.

Custom Branding

When you’re sending emails out in an automated manner, part of why you’re doing this in such a timely way and certain steps is to set up your brand so that your potential clients have you at the top of their minds. And what’s one of the best ways to remind them of your brand?

With custom branding. This is a feature that makes it possible for your brand to stand out the second that someone opens one of your automated emails.

Want The Best Email Automation Tools In Software Form?

Now that you’ve learned about what email automation tools you should have, you might be interested in finding software that provides all of these tools. In this case, you should look no further than VerticalResponse.

VerticalResponse is an email campaign software solution that provides all the tools and features covered in this article, along with many more.

To learn more about VerticalResponse, find out more now.

© 2022, Chris Duncan. All rights reserved.