EP 53 - AUTOMATING YOUR SYSTEMS

This is the last episode in our email marketing series. If you haven't listened to the others, I'd encourage you to start with episode 47 for the email marketing series and if you want to learn a little more about marketing, listen to episodes 44 and 45.

The topic today is a little more advanced. With the exception of the concept around birthdays or anniversaries, I would not suggest you introduce this aspect of email marketing until you have your basic email marketing campaigns set up and running consistently. 

We are talking about automation. 

You might hear the term autoresponders or automation, for email marketing, it's the same concept. Basically we are discussing  a series of emails that you can schedule in advance that are sent based on a certain trigger.  The trigger might be someone downloads something or it's a birthday or they sign up for something. 

It's a series of emails that go out on a pre scheduled basis once the trigger has occurred. You might send one email or you might send a series of 10 emails over the course of 3 months. How many and how often are up to you and over time, things you'll have to measure and probably revise. While for the most part, you set it up and your done, if you aren't getting the responses you want, that's where the revisions come in. 

Many CRM programs have autoresponders built in.

Check with your platform to see how much of this can be done with the system you're already using. If you have an older platform or you aren't using an agency crm, then I'd suggest that you use an ESP (an email service provider). We talked about ESP's in episode 48. 

Integrate them so you don't have to use two separate systems. 

If you are in the process of looking at a new platform, I'd suggest that you look for a platform that can perform these services for you as part of the features they provide. Keep in mind some of the features that you should look for based on what has been suggested on other episodes in this series.

There are many different uses for autoresponders. For this episode, we will focus on 4.

• Automate electronic birthday cards 
• Onboarding process for new employees
• Automated series for new customers
• Automated series for the digital documents that you give away

So let's start with an easy one:

Automated Birthday Cards

• Sending a birthday card is one of the simplest forms of marketing you can do. I love the idea of sending birthday cards in the mail, but if you don't have the budget or if your client list is really to big to do this effectively, I'd encourage you to look at automating birthday cards through email. It's not as effective, but it does work! It's a touch. It's better than not doing anything at all. 
• Here's how I would suggest you do this. Make sure you have the birthday for all of your clients and referral partners.
• Each platform is going to operate differently on how you set up the birthday cards.
• In Constant Contact which is the platform I've used the most, I put everyone with a birthday into a list and its triggered with the date of their birthday and then email is sent automatically. Every year, on January 1, I go in and update the card that is sent, I.e. update the graphic and then the email cards are sent automatically the following year on the right date. 
• Sending birthday emails is automated, it won't get dropped if you get busy because it's automatic. All you need to do is remember to change the graphic once a year, but even if you don't do that, the email will still get sent. 

Use marketing automation to onboard new employees

Think about this - you bring on a new employee and what happens? They have an orientation on the first day, then paperwork for taxes, health insurance, employee handbook, etc and for the first few days can feel  overwhelming. 

Then there's an orientation about where everything is. They are put in front of a computer and depending on their experience level, they might be handed clients to work with and they are off and running. 

Think of your first day on the job. Every company is different, but it's usually on the first day, a ton of information is thrown at you and then you start working! And then you forget some of it and feel embarrassed having to ask about the simple stuff!

But what happens is they forgot about what the kitchen policy is, they forget about what needs to be logged into for the first pay period, they forgot about who they need to contact for taking PTO or working overtime. 

Your onboarding emails can cover these topics or whatever is relevant to your onboarding process. As part of your automated onboarding process, drip out the important stuff over a period of days or weeks to remind them of the things they might have forgotten.

You could do that in all of them. This helps you to know the new employee is engaged and doing what you want them to do. By sending an automated email series using a platform that has metrics built in will also allow you to check if the new employee is even reading the email, much less taking the action you've included.

One of the reasons I'm suggesting that you send more emails than less is that too much information in one email can get lost. When the subject line in each email tracks with the content, it's easier to do a search to get the details. Remember the KISS principle.

Plus, if only one email is sent and it's really long, it's very likely that it won't  get read in its entirety because it is so long. 

So think about your new employee onboarding process. What are the steps that you go through and what could you automate? Once the process is set up, all you need to do is add the new employee's email address and the rest will happen automatically! Here's an idea for a sequence - but I'm sure your sequence would be much better. Keep in mind that I've been self employed for 20 years, working for myself mostly without a staff and things have changed in the onboarding world, so your list might reflect changes in procedures.

• Day 1 - welcome - include a video from the different key staff members to help them get oriented
• Day 2 - list of contact people - maybe include where they can find the list as it is updated or who is leading other departments that they might want to introduce themselves to.
• Day 3 - overview of kitchen policies - lunch etiquette
• Day 4 - employee handbook - highlight 3 items that you want them to understand. Give them an activity to complete on the handbook and that way you know they have  read the email!
• Day 5 - computer policies - email setup, templates, CRM details
• Week 2 - Frequently accessed websites for work to be performed
• Wee 3 - Schedule a meeting or lunch with agency owner (include calendly or scheduler link)
• Week 4 - expense reports, supplies, 
• Week 5 - 30 day check in - what are we doing well, what do you need help with

I've listed 5 weeks worth of emails - 5 in one week and then one a week for 4 weeks, but you could do this as long as you need to. My list only includes a few topics but think about what you cover in y