Bloggers don’t think about email automation enough. They just want to write. But here’s the deal:

Email marketing is essential for bloggers to connect with their audience and drive recurring traffic to their websites.

However, manually sending out emails can be time-consuming, and it can be challenging to maintain consistency with your email campaigns.

That’s where email marketing automation comes in.

With email marketing automation, bloggers can automate their email campaigns, save time, and increase engagement with their audience.

What is Email Marketing Automation?

Email marketing automation refers to the use of software to automate newsletters. The software sends emails automatically based on triggers or actions taken by subscribers.

For example, a blogger can set up an automation to send a welcome email to new subscribers, or to send a series of emails over a period of time to promote a product or service.

Email marketing automation can also be used to send personalized content based on subscriber preferences or behavior.

In practice

Let’s say that you’re a blogger who writes about healthy eating and you have a new subscriber who has signed up for your newsletter. With email marketing automation, you can set up a welcome email that includes a brief introduction to your blog and what type of content they can expect to receive from you.

After the welcome email, you can set up a series of emails over a period of time to promote your upcoming healthy eating e-book. You can create a sequence of automated emails that gradually build up the hype around your e-book, including sneak peeks, testimonials, and discounts.

Using email marketing automation, you can also send personalized content based on subscriber preferences or behavior. For example, if a subscriber has shown interest in vegetarian recipes, you can send them a customized email with vegetarian recipes that you have published on your blog. This will increase engagement with your subscribers and make them feel valued.

Overall, email marketing automation allows you to streamline your email campaigns and provide a better experience for your subscribers, which can ultimately lead to increased engagement and conversions.

Benefits of automation

Pros of email marketing automation for Bloggers:

1. Saves time: By automating email campaigns, bloggers can save time on manual email tasks.
2. Increases engagement: Automated emails can be tailored to individual subscriber preferences, making them more engaging and relevant.
3. Improves consistency: By setting up automated email campaigns, bloggers can ensure that emails are sent out consistently, without the risk of forgetting or missing a campaign.
4. Boosts revenue: Automated emails can be used to promote products or services, increasing revenue for the blogger.

Where to start

1. Choose an email marketing platform: To get started with email marketing automation, bloggers need to choose an email marketing platform that offers automation features. Some popular options include ConvertKit, MailChimp, or ActiveCampaign. My favorite is a relatively unknown service called EmailOctopus*. It’s my choice because it’s easier to use than most others I’ve tried, it offers a generous free plan and very affordable pro plans. Not sure how to decide? Read my free guide!
2. Set up a welcome series: A welcome series is a sequence of automated emails that are sent to new subscribers. It’s a great way to introduce subscribers to your blog and build relationships with them. Why a sequence? You don’t want to stuff every little detail into the first welcome mail, unnecessarily increasing its length and information density to a point where readers drop off. Less is more.
3. Segment your audience: The nitty gritty. By segmenting your audience based on where they signed up, how they found you, or by interests and behavior, you can send more targeted and personalized content to your subscribers. That increases open, click, and conversion rates.
4. Use triggered emails: Triggered emails are emails that are sent automatically based on a specific action taken by a subscriber. For example, you can set up an email to be sent when a subscriber clicks on a link in your email. Just a warning, not every platform offers this feature.
5. Monitor your campaigns: It’s important to monitor your email campaigns to see what’s working and what’s not. This will help you make improvements to your campaigns over time. Little details matter. Key details are open rates, unsubscribe rates, bounces, and click rates.

The bottom line

Email marketing automation is a powerful tool for bloggers to save time, increase engagement, and boost revenue. By setting up automated email campaigns, you as a writer can ensure that your email campaigns are consistent and targeted, leading to a better overall email marketing strategy, and in the end to more and happier readers.

If you’re a blogger, consider implementing email marketing automation in your newsletter strategy to see the benefits for yourself.