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 email :

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

To achieve this, you need to :

• adopt the right reflexes
• use the right tools

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

See all software Email Marketing

Start with an optimised email template

Optimised means that it is coded in such a way that it adapts to all messaging systems and all screen formats. In addition, 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:

Personalise your message

It 's a shame to write a generic email , as it will perform much less well than a personalised message. Your recipients won't feel concerned by the message's lack of relevance and will have every reason to bin it. On the other hand, a personalised 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 personalise it for each recipient: a way of setting your transactional emails apart.

Adjust the sending time

What's the best time to send? Monday morning, when you might be in the middle of a meeting? Or Tuesday at 7pm, during an afterwork session? There are no rules... It's up to you to test and then... let the machine analyse! This is possible with CRMs that have a "learning system" (machine learning): each time the email is sent, the software detects the time at which the recipient opens the email, and will target that time slot the next time.

Script wisely

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 email. You might also decide 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.

Take care with the wording

The first visible things in your mailing are :

• subject
• sender
• catchphrase.

You need to capitalise on these three elements. Identify your key words and key concepts and prioritise them so that they complement each other. But don't say too much. You need to say enough to entice the reader to open the email and find out more.

Test

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

Synthesise 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 the email won't linger over it. Often, they'll only read it across. You need to structure your text and images in an attractive and readable way. This is where the layout of the mailing comes into play. CRM offers a range of graphic and responsive email templates. You can inject your content by simple drag & drop, and it will be compatible on all media: smartphones, tablets and computers.

Be accessible

The terms you use must be easy to access. It's likely that your contacts don't know the jargon of your business, because it's not theirs. Do the mental 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 well and good, 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 all too often we neglect the transformation behind it. Where do you want to direct your target? It's important to :

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

This is what we call the Call-To-Action (CTA): the call to action. 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 that it has been carefully thought out beforehand. Personalisation, individualised 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.