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Automating transactional email with marketing automation

Email newsletters are common method of selling and communicating with customers.

But often overlooked is the idea of using rules-based automation inside the traditional and transactional email exchanges common to the sales process.

Sales people and the marketers that support them can creatively use rules-based email automation to put simple events such as customer birthdays and event confirmations into cruise control. More complex rules such as a timed sequence of emails after downloading a whitepaper, for example, can move passive prospects into the sales pipeline without a major investment of a sales person’s time.

Automated messages create opportunities for cross-sells, upsells or delivery of additional education that might have been overlooked during the early sales process. Automated email transactions build rapport because the email transaction assumes an existing relationship with a prospect or a customer.

Like any piece of marketing or sales communication, t is still important to respect the time of the receiving prospect or customer. A poorly thought-out email or an message that does not respect the customer’s time can offend and possibly cost you a customer.

There are other benefits to automation of low-level email transactions. Most important is the level of customization available through tools such as Marketo, SwiftPage and LeadGenesys. Where bulk email newsletters are sent to people who may or may not be active readers, transactional email is much more closely linked to offline relationships. Further, transactional emails are customized to each reader – which means the reader is more likely to read and respond to the content within.

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