Marketing communications continue to change rapidly and to keep them impactful it's important to review where business communications are doing the job and where they are failing your business.

When was the last time you checked on your marketing communications workflows? Which ones do you have in place and are they doing better for you or worse than before?

Having a lot of email communications going out without results is the marketing equivalent of a salesperson that has a booked out calendar but a terrible ‘win rate’.

Before the end of this week, look in your email management client to see if you have these critically important email workflows for customers:

1. Customer Onboarding Workflow - This is the most valuable workflow that most companies don’t have. Studies report these messages, done well, add over 320% more revenue per email than any other promotional emails. {Box insert:

   Onboarding communications must assume zero knowledge of your company’s practices.

2. Customer VIP/Loyalty Upgrade Workflow - The Loyalty and VIP segments are growing rapidly. Companies continue to deal with more restrictive communications standards as they build a brand to be top of mind whenever  customers need another product that you sell.

3. Customer Milestone Workflow - Recognize customers who have been around a while. This workflow can trigger personalized milestones like birthdays and the birth of a child, but can also be a thank you message and gift to customers who have been around for months, years, or decades. Don’t forget to say thank you.

4. Abandoned Cart Workflow - Customers get these all of the time and they are usually appreciated. “I was interrupted and forgot to complete the purchase.” This needs to include at least 3 messages,some companies recommend closer to 10 messages. Two reminders when setting these up; First make the workflow turn off after a purchase. Not setting this up correctly is a real turn off to customers who just purchased the items in their cart! Secondly, make these dynamic so they either tie to the  related products you  sell or to the current specials your site may be promoting. 

5. New Subscriber Workflow - When someone subscribes to your marketing communications, blog, or other communication, build out a 3 to 8 message workflow. In this workflow you will be thanking them, providing examples of how your communications have helped people in the past, or offering a reward or discount to them. Make sure that customers have an incentive  for subscribing right away and have them excited to look for the key value points coming to them in your future communications.

6. Trial Offer Workflow - Trial Offers for Saas are often a great way to get people to try a new software tool. But Trial Offers also occur in consumer soft goods and consumables. “Subscribe and save!'' is an Amazon favorite; saving customers over $1 billion in the last 12 months. And, “Try before you buy!” messaging is all over the internet. 

7. Trial Offer Ending Workflow - When a Trial Offer is ending you want the enrollee to stay on. This can be a recurring order or one time purchase. In either case, let your customer know its ending at least twice and include a few notes about the special value they are getting by moving forward past the trial period.

8. Buy Again Workflow - As with the “Subscribe and Save” offers above, the Buy Again Workflow encourages customers to buy the same item, or a related item, again. These workflows can be simple to set up as the item is the same. The key is to ensure you are driving down your real customer acquisition cost as a percentage of revenue. Without programs like this your initial purchase can end up being the only purchase—just ask companies that spend heavily on ad’s but fail to have rewards programs or follow up workflows. Repeat purchases are foundational gold for any business’ financial health.

9. Cross-selling Workflow - This workflow is for when you sell related items, such as a higher-level service, a related product or device, etc. You can use past purchases as a nice way to build repeat purchases from a customer who likes and trusts your brand already. Don’t ignore this additional way to lower cost per customer for your business.

10. Frequent Site Visitor Workflow - We’ve all been interested in a product and have visited a website over and over. If you’ve taken the time to correctly configure your website analytics , you can know this and then retarget customers on the internet as they surf. Place ads that customers will see on social sites and  even email and SMS text your subscribers directly. You’ve built a site and have good customers. Don’t ignore this as it has a high payback when used properly.

11. Customer Cultivation Workflows - While tempted to call this section a “CatchallWorkflow”, it should be quite targeted to be effective. A Customer Cultivation Workflow takes note of a customer’s past activities, interests, and purchases, then uses this information to ensure they stay aware that you are still around and there to supply and support them. A good example might be that someone was reading your blog on joint health and subscribed from there to your Blog. Make sure you share future information and repackaged, useful additional information for them. They are interested in the topic and you are a trusted resource for them.

Most of this piece focused on emails, but we need to be mindful of the changing ways marketing is communicating with their brand’s public. It is growing rapidly and the increasing email and SMS/texting rules are driving inventiveness into this space.

If you would like a copy of our flier on “Guide to auditing your email marketing workflows” simply let us know here. 

Happy growing!