In e-commerce, success goes beyond great products—effective email marketing is crucial. The secret is marketing automation workflows, which ensure the right message reaches the right customer at the right time, automatically. Here are six steps to set up a successful workflow as a retailer.
In the fast-paced world of e-commerce, staying ahead of the competition requires more than great products. Effective email marketing is one of retailers’ most powerful tools, but it’s simply not enough to send out mass emails and hope for the best. The secret sauce to success is spelled marketing automation workflows.
These workflows are game-changers for any e-commerce brand. They ensure that the right message reaches the right customer at the right time, automatically, without requiring constant manual effort. They’ll also help create an omnichannel experience that boosts sales and customer loyalty while keeping marketers sane.
Transform your e-commerce email strategy with marketing automation workflows that enhance customer communication. We’ll guide you through the process to make implementation simple and enjoyable!
Before we get started, let’s explain what a marketing automation workflow actually is. In short, it’s a series of pre-programmed actions triggered by specific customer behaviors or data. Think of it as your very own North Star guiding each customer through a personalized experience, from their very first interaction to becoming loyal, returning shoppers.
Marketing workflows are designed to:
Marketing automation done right grows your business by increasing customer lifetime value, improving loyalty, and significantly boosting sales. Just ask:
Malene Birger, whose clever automation workflow helped increase full-price shoppers by 109% or POWER that saw 90% of its sales come from automated workflows. Wow, the results speak for themselves!
Now, let’s dive into the nitty-gritty of setting up your own marketing automation workflow. Follow these six steps to ensure your communication is relevant, personalized, and effective. But first, here’s a pro tip from Polarn O. Pyret (a children’s brand that excels in automation):
“Instead of building many small automations that connect, try to build the entire customer journey into one comprehensive flow. This way, you’ll better understand how each step fits together, making it easier to track results.”
Of course, you can build smaller, interconnected workflows, too. But if you choose this route, make sure customers don’t feel overwhelmed by too many messages at once. No one wants to get spammed!
Start by defining the goal of your automation workflow. Are you welcoming new subscribers, encouraging second-time purchases, or re-engaging lapsed customers?
By making your purpose super clear, you’ll create a flow that supports your customers’ needs and business objectives.
Pro tip: Start with one high-impact area, like welcoming new subscribers, and build from there.
Based on your goals, you can select metrics that will help in tracking progress and optimizing performance. Here are a few examples:
Remember to set clear benchmarks to track performance and identify when tweaks are needed.
Triggers are the actions that set your workflow into motion. Together with entry criteria, they determine which customers will enter your workflow and how often.
Here are a few trigger ideas:
Pro tip: To optimize your segmentation, use tags to group customers into categories. According to premium fashion brand, By Malene Birger, think about grouping your customers by assigning tags, such as bargain hunters, risk of churn, and high CLV. Use the labels to create segmentations and target audiences – and to prioritize what and when communication should be sent to the customer.
For more advice, read the full success case here.
Once you’ve defined your triggers and entry criteria, it’s time to explore the events that will shape your marketing automation workflow. Take some extra time to think here, as creating these events thoughtfully will decide if the customer experience is loved or leads to feelings of wanting to unsubscribe.
Here are a few suggestions for events to add:
Timing is everything in e-commerce email marketing. The worst thing that could happen is sending multiple emails to a new customer… making them annoyed enough to hit the unsubscribe button. To prevent this, add a delay based on the customer’s behavior, customizing it for specific days or hours.
Pro Tip: Think carefully about the optimal spacing between messages. A series of well-spaced reminders can nurture customers through their journey without overwhelming them.
An activity is a specific action triggered within your workflow. These can include a variety of tasks like sending an email, adding or removing tags, assigning special offers, or sending push notifications. Activities add some spark to your workflow, pointing customers toward a desired outcome.
Also, omnichannel strategies are a must for retailers today. Consider incorporating more channels into your workflow to find the right channel for each customer.
A conditional split allows you to segment your customers and send different content based on their behavior or preferences. This is a powerful way to customize your workflows and ensure customers receive the most relevant messages at each journey stage.
When setting up a conditional split, you can create different paths within the workflow depending on certain conditions. For example:
A randomized split and A/B test allows you to test different variations of your messaging or offers to determine what resonates best with your audience.
Pro Tip: Randomized splits aren’t just for A/B testing; they can also be used to keep the customer experience fresh. For instance, instead of always showing the same product recommendations to every customer, you can randomly select products from different categories to keep them engaged.
Lastly, you can incorporate triggers within your workflow to define the specific actions that cause customers to move from one step to another. A trigger could be anything from a customer making a purchase to abandoning a cart or just interacting with an email. These triggers will route contacts to the appropriate parts of your workflow, ensuring they get the right messages at the right time.
Here’s an example of a birthday workflow:
The heart of any effective workflow is the content. Here are some tips to help you create emails that your customers will actually want to open and engage with:
Pro tip: Don’t forget to A/B test your content regularly. Try testing different subject lines, email designs, and promotional offers to find what resonates best with your audience. Here’s what we like to test:
“By testing and changing, open rates have gone up hugely, the engagement has become much higher, and the sales numbers have increased,” says Laufey Lúðvíksdóttir, CRM and Loyalty Specialist at By Malene Birger
Automation is not a set-it-and-forget-it strategy. After your workflow is live, tracking its performance and continually optimizing is crucial. Pay attention to:
Make tweaks where necessary, and always look for opportunities to improve your messaging or timing. Panduro, a DIY brand, emphasizes learning from both successes and failures.
“Learn from what works and what doesn’t when it comes to copy, content, and offers –then take what’s best and make it part of the automated communication.
From welcome emails and birthday offers to cart abandonment reminders and re-engagement campaigns, the possibilities are endless.
Marketing automation workflows are powerful tools for smarter, more efficient e-commerce email marketing. They save time, personalize customer experiences, increase sales, and foster long-term loyalty—all while freeing marketers from manual tasks.
With Voyado, you can work smarter by automating your workflows and working cross-channel, driving revenue growth both online and in-store while increasing engagement and customer satisfaction retention.
Want to take a quick tour in Voyado? Here you go.
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