Boost Sales and Save Time with Email Automation

System of gears to illustrated automation during the email process.

Generating a side income selling digital products is one of the greatest steps in your journey as a blogger or content marketer. You’re ready to get in the game after hearing from others how awesome it is to have this self-sustaining source of income that practically runs itself. And so you put together a few offerings, maybe a checklist, a How To PDF, or even an ecourse, and start dreaming of what you’ll do with the extra income boost.

Fast forward a few months and you’re tied to your computer, sending one-off emails about products, crafting new sales emails, following up with customers to see if they would be interested in another product, manually tracking which subscribers have or have not made a purchase, and that’s a short list of possible tasks, at best. You’re then doing all of this while trying to develope new products to turn around, promote, and sell.

The self-sustaining income generator you once believed would change your life, has become a monster, consuming your time and attention.

To complicate things even more, sometimes sales are hopping as if it were Black Friday at Bed, Bath and Beyond and sometimes they’re as quiet and desolate as a lone cactus in the Arizona desert. You start to wonder “What is up with this endless cycle of hustle, hustle, hustle? Where’s the flow part? How do other online entrepreneurs make it look so easy? What am I missing?!”

The Missing Link: Automating and Increasing Sales with Email

The self-sustaining and automated part of the cycle is what’s missing. Other bloggers or content marketers don’t necessarily have it easier; it’s where they have invested their time and effort.

Automation begins with your email marketing strategy. If you take the time to craft funnels, create tagging options and thoughtfully plan out your follow-up process once,  you’ll need only minor edits and adjustments along the way. The key here is planning. Not only have you created the customer journey for one product, you’ve created a system for your next.

Added Bonus: Your time will free itself up as things start to take care of themselves.

Simple Ways to Automate Your Self-Sustaining Revenue Generator

  • Ask everyone who makes a purchase if they would like to join your email list. Do this during the checkout process via a Parser within FeedBlitz or using Zapier to connect your shopping cart to your FeedBlitz account.

  • Add customers to a follow-up email funnel to ask how they are enjoying the purchase, offer a discount on their next purchase, and / or ask for a review. This funnel reinforces the customer experience with you, encouraging future purchases.

  • Include your Etsy or Shopify accounts in your email template. Every FeedBlitz email template is configured to feature your most recent products in either online shop. This is a great way to keep subscribers informed of what is available, without having to manually send separate emails.

  • Send Etsy or Shopify-specific newsletters to your list. Using a duplicate email list, skip the content altogether and show 1, 2, 4 or even 6+ products in the email. The product images and descriptions are automatically pulled from your shop in the order they are posted. You can create this email and schedule it to be sent on an automatic schedule (weekly or monthly) or send manually when you have a new product you would like to highlight.

Advanced Methods for Next Level Automation

We recommend working with Zapier to connect your FeedBlitz account with your shopping cart for simplified integration. Doing this allows you the ability to access the advanced methods of tracking and follow up some of the biggest brands in the market implement. Two examples of this would be:

  • Tag customers according to the product purchased in order to add them to a purchase-specific funnel. The benefits here are not only asking how they are enjoying their purchase or offering a discount, but you can begin strategically introducing them to complementary products they may also enjoy, without including them in promotions for products they already have.Once you know your customers’ buying habits and really understand their wants and needs, relating products and creating these funnels will become easier. Always lead with the value these products offer and show how they relate to their purchase before going in for the sale. Value first, sale second.
  • Send abandoned shopping cart emails to customers who did not complete their purchase. A gentle reminder a day or two later can be just what your potential customer needs in order to complete the purchase. The key here is having the customer sign up for an account and agree to mailings while on your site.

The Bigger Picture

It is possible for you to have an automated, self-sustaining income generator selling your products. A well-crafted email marketing strategy can help get you there. Imagine the time you’ll save in the long run to focus on growing your business, creating new products, taking up a hobby or spending time with family. There is a good chunk of work required in the beginning, but you’ll break the cycle of hustle, hustle, hustle with not a lot of flow once your system is in place.

If you have any questions when it comes to email marketing or increasing your online revenue, send our team an email at support@feedblitz.com. You can also chat, check out our Help Forum, or give us a call at 1.877.692.5489. Our Support and Sales Desk is available Monday – Friday from 9 am to 5 pm EST.

 

 

Posted in email marketing