Do you really need to automate your emails?

There’s no doubt email automation allows marketers to save time. But, is it really required?

A few days back, one of the participants of my #0to200EmailChallenge asked me if it is really important to automate the emails? Will it be wise to avoid spending money on any “tech stack” and do the outreach manually?

Well, I really like the idea of automation and the main reason behind that is – it saves times. I love automating things as much as anyone but it should not come at the cost of ‘compromised personalization’.

I use automation because I have to deliver the same content to the entire list. Email automation isn’t really useful in all the cases.

Without adding personalization and value in the email, it’s tough to build a connect with the recipient. You can’t simply send the same script to 1000 people using some email solution and expect quick results. This is how a lot of marketers approach for their outreach campaigns.

I’ve experimented a lot, and I can say that this isn’t the best practice to be followed.

If I would have to get the attention of a marketing head of a potential organization to grab some project, I would rather prefer emails, sent manually “by hand” instead of dripping their inbox with a series of 6-7 generic scripts, sent automatically using an AI-powered email tool.

There’s a lot of freedom in manual work. You can:

• Mention the references, co-workers, latest blog post, latest achievement
• Include a recent project of the company
• Personalize it as per the similar interests and more…

Personalization will enable you to go a long way towards establishing rapport and fostering a strong relationship with the prospect.

This would definitely require more manual effort and research work but it would certainly bring better conversions.

If you have a huge list and can’t invest that amount of manual work in personalization then the last option left is to use email marketing platform for segmenting the list.

Fortunately, every serious email solution provider let you divide your subscribers based on specific criteria including:

• Location
• Industry
• Past activity on your email campaigns
• Product or service purchased / not purchased (cart abandonment)

Segmentation is important. By segmenting your email list based on actions taken by subscribers or other identifying triggers, you’ll surely increase the campaign’s health and the likelihood that recipients are taking the action you want them to take.

Email automation is not important as far as you can ensure the personalization manually. According to me, the time to consider automation in emails should be when you find yourself doing the same thing over and over with little or no variation — AND you’re happy with the result.

There ain’t an email automation tool available that can beat a few minutes of human-brain-powered research and thoughtfulness, no matter how “super intelligent” that tool claims to be.

Don’t get much distracted fiddling around with automation features provided by such software.

Also, don’t be anti-automation. Use it judiciously, and with the right kind of tasks.