This essay is part of the series, Fix Your Flow: Get the Right Emails to the Right People.
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Email automation without looking into the buyer experience can turn even the most enthusiastic customers into confused – or, worse, annoyed – souls.
In Spring 2023, I had a buying experience that felt really icky. It was a case of email automation gone very, very wrong.
It started with a single email, a reminder that it’s time to renew my annual membership for a business that I actually really like, plus a bonus extra month if I renewed within the next week.
I promptly replied to the email that I wanted to renew. I was super happy to support the business while also getting an extra free month.
And then silence.
I didn’t think anything of it until a few days later when I received yet another email reminding me that it’s time to renew my membership, and I now have three days left to renew if I want the extra month for free.
Was it a glitch? Did my response to the first email vanish into thin air?
To be safe, I replied to the second email: “Oh, hey there. I’m not sure if you got the other email from me, but I’m all in. Please renew my membership.”
And then…crickets.
But that’s not the end of the story, because the next day, I received yet another reminder email, with a dash of urgency mixed in about my time running out to get an extra month for free. Then hours later, a reply to the second email chain from the owner confirming my renewal.
Now, I know enough about email marketing to have an inkling about why I’m getting these emails. But as a customer supporting this business and a human, the process at this point feels optimized for automation and customer retention over relationship building.
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How do we ensure as business owners that we don’t come off as robotic and salesy with our clients and customers with our automated emails?
That’s where the fourth of the 5 Email Automation Pillars comes in: the Onboard Pillar.
It’s the magic that unfolds after a purchase.
Caring for your clients & customers with automated onboarding emails
The Onboard Pillar is when someone on your email list goes from subscriber to buyer.
(Or in some cases, begins that buyer journey when they book a call with you.)
When I’m working one-on-one with my clients, in particular, when I’m doing an Email Automation Audit, I look at what happens inside of their email marketing software when someone on their email list makes a purchase or books a call.
(Depending on how your business is structured and what other software you’re using to run your business, your automated onboarding emails might not actually happen inside of your email marketing software, such as Kajabi, ThriveCart, or your calendar booking software.)
We’re looking it through the lens of what your clients and customers feel so that:
- They know that their transaction went through
- They feel taken care of because they know what happens next
- You aren’t trying to sell something they already purchased
Even when things are automated, your clients and customers deserve to feel cherished and confident that they made the right choice in hiring you or buying from you.
Read the next post in the Fix Your Flow series, Giving Your Email Marketing a Tune-Up