For every dollar that companies spend on Email Marketing, they make an average of $36 back. Marketers may love ads and social media, but the numbers don't lie — email is the Usain Bolt of advertising methods. So much so that if you're not using email, you're leaving serious money on the table.

For many business owners, however, "Just send more emails!" isn't helpful advice. You're already booking appointments, working long hours, and focusing on your customers. You can barely make time to finish your morning coffee — never mind churning out emails.

But fortunately, there's a solution for that: Email Marketing Automation software.

No matter which way you slice it, automating your email marketing has business-transforming potential. By the numbers, 77 percent of marketers saw increased conversion rates while using email marketing automation.

Imagine getting more leads while doing less work. Imagine how your monthly revenue would change if you were onboarding new clients every week like clockwork?

Now imagine being able to press a button and make all of that happen.

Sound too good to be true? It isn't. Keep reading to see how automated email marketing software can help you get more out of your next email marketing campaigns.

4 Reasons Why Email Marketing Is Serious Business

Okay. So you've seen people talking about the wonders of email, but you're not entirely sold on the hype. 

What do all of these marketers see in email marketing and is it as effective as it's been cracked up to be? Here are just four of the ways that email stands out as an advertising channel.

1. Everyone (And Their Mother) Has an Email Address

No, seriously. In 2019, roughly 4 billion people were considered email users. And in 2020, over 300 billion emails were being sent per day. 

If you want a marketing channel that gives you direct access to potential customers, email is as good as it gets.

2. You Own Your List

In 2021, Facebook went down for several hours. If you use Instagram, Facebook, or WhatsApp to do business, you may even remember this. While some companies were in full-on panic mode, there were a ton of email marketers who used the crash to send promotional emails.

We're not telling this story to rehash bad memories, however. Instead, we're talking about it because it illustrates the reality of using social media platforms to reach clients:

If the site goes down, so do your main channels of communication. Meanwhile, as long as your customers have active email addresses, you always have a way to connect with them.

3. People Want to Hear From You

We've all signed up for email lists only to log in a few days later and say, "I think I'm being spammed.". Although it's been said that too much email is the number one cause of unsubscriptions, that doesn't mean that you should be shy about reaching out.

An estimated 61 percent of consumers would like to receive promotional emails on at least a monthly basis. And over 90 percent said they didn't have a problem with promotional emails.

And on an intuitive level, this makes sense.

If a brand is giving you information relevant to their jobs, their finances, or whatever else, people aren't suddenly going to decide that they don't want to hear from you. On the contrary, they'll want to see your email messages in their inbox more often.

4. You Can Meet People Where They Are

It's been estimated that 96 percent of website visitors aren't yet in buying mode in the customer journey.

As a business owner, you could dump a ton of cash into your retargeting efforts. You could even throw up your hands and say, "I guess this wasn't meant to be.". Email campaigns give you a third option:

Convincing people to buy from you over time. 

The 6 Undeniable Benefits of Automated Email Marketing

You may have looked at the advantages of email marketing and thought, "Okay, okay. You've made a strong business case for using more email. But is automated email marketing software really what I need right now?". 

Here are six reasons why we think the answer to that question is a resounding "Yes!": 

1. You Can (Mostly) Set It and Forget It

Picture this.

You've got a two-day launch planned. And you've thought of everything. 

You coordinated with your payment processer. You've written some insanely good copy. You even hired a tech person to add one of those countdown timers to your landing page. 

This could be it. This could be the sale that puts you on the map.

A few minutes pass and you don't see any sales. Not unusual. People haven't had a chance to see your email yet. 

Then, a few hours pass, and you're still not seeing any sales. A little odd, you think, but maybe folks haven't knocked off work.

And then, shortly before midnight, it hits you. You forgot to send out the email. 

As a business owner, you have a lot on your plate. Between appointments, strategizing, and deliverables, it can be hard to keep things straight. And if a fire needs to be put out or a complex situation hits your desk, you might not realize until Saturday that you were supposed to send an email on Tuesday. 

One of the biggest benefits of email marketing automation software is that it can allow you to give yourself a break. With this, there's no behind-the-scenes scrambling or polite excuses for stepping out mid-appointment. Instead, you can write your award-winning email sequence on Friday and schedule your way into people's inboxes on Tuesday.

2. You Can Personalize on Autopilot

According to Forrester, 89 percent of online businesses were putting money into personalization. Interestingly enough, the companies making these investments weren't fly-by-night experimental marketers — some of the names listed were Coca-Cola and Wells Fargo. 

If you're offering any paint-by-numbers services, like small business tax accounting or a fitness program, it's not easy to offer an intensely personal experience to your clients. But when email marketing is a part of your advertising arsenal, you can leverage one of the most personalized marketing channels there is.

In addition, email marketing software makes it easy for you to send laser-focused content with a single click.

3. You Can Establish Yourself as an Expert Once (And Reap the Benefits Over and Over Again)

You wouldn't hire a tax accountant who'd never heard of the IRS. And a doctor who couldn't tell a spleen from a toe would never be your preferred heart surgeon. 

Why? Because when the stakes are high, you don't want to spend money on people who will make things worse. 

In the medical field, it's easy to vet an open-heart surgeon's credentials. Either they have a medical degree and a board certification or they don't. 

With coaching and consultant work, it's not so simple. Anyone can put up a shingle and call themselves an expert. Moving leads to the buying phase of the marketing cycle requires you to spend time reducing your prospect's fear, uncertainty, and doubt.

Or, to put it bluntly:

You must show them you know what you're talking about. 

But your clients are likely just as busy as you are. They're not going to dig through several years of blog posts and tweets. And even if you've already answered the questions they're asking before, chances are that you've modified your approach over the years anyway.

What industry trends have been getting on your nerves lately? What's the one thing about your field that everybody gets wrong? Is there a point in your previous posts that you could stand to elaborate on?

Email marketing makes it possible for you to gift wrap these answers and deliver them straight to the inboxes of your past, current, and future clients. But that's not even the best part:

When you're using email marketing automation software, you only have to write this stuff out once. Then, the next time that someone signs up for your list or makes a purchase, you can send them the exact same content you've already written out.

How's that for working smarter?

4. Build a More Authentic Brand Without Overthinking It

When it comes to building trust and establishing a brand, perception is very much reality.

If your prospect is in the market to buy now, chances are that your company isn't the only one on their radar. Even if the new lead is already in your building, your competitors are still there doing somersaults in the parking lot and all but screaming, "Look at us! We're here!". 

What can you do to tip the scales in your favor? 

You can write a ton of content to prove that you're the 800-pound gorilla in your industry. And you may even be able to grow a following around it. 

But along with establishing your expertise in a personal medium, email marketing gives you brand-building and soft-selling opportunities galore. No, not just in the form of making fabulous and witty blog announcements although that can help. But in your ability to tell your intimate, down-in-the-trenches war stories.

If your tires are about to give out, who are you more likely to listen to? The mechanic who's changed hundreds of tires in their multi-decade career? Or the friend of a friend who loves cars but has never driven or owned one?

Whether you're selling products, services, or a mixture of both, your clients want to hear about your hands-on experience. How did you help your previous clients overcome the obstacles they were facing? How did you turn around that seemingly hopeless situation in the past?

If you're constantly reinventing the wheel, creating brand authenticity can feel like trying to sprint your way up Mount Everest. When you've got stunning templates and a ton of content raring and ready to go, however, you can use visuals and your battle scars to show leads who you are.

5. Get More Qualified Leads With Email Marketing Software

Nurturing leads is like establishing any other serious relationship. In 99.9 percent of cases, most people wouldn't have turned that casual date into their spouse if they had called it quits after the first meetup.

But in the business world, companies are all too often following up late or failing to go all-out pursuing customers who are already showing an interest in them. In other words, they're fumbling the relationship before the first date.

According to research, companies that made email automation a part of their lead-nurturing process saw a 451 percent increase in qualified leads. And no, there are no missing decimals in that number. Believe it or not, however, that's not even the most intriguing part:

The same statistics indicate that these nurtured leads also tend to spend more money when they do make a purchase. 

If you were to ask small business owners if they wanted to sell more of their most expensive products and services, most would say, "Yes, please!". With automated email marketing software, you could be a few emails and a schedule away from getting these results for yourself.

6. Segment Your List With Ease

When sourcing new leads, there's an essential fact that marketers often forget about:

People use products and services for different reasons.

Sounds super basic, right? But overlooking this detail can singlehandedly derail your email marketing efforts. 

Here's why: 

If most businesses were to ask every customer the question, "How did you find us?". Multiple narratives would probably start to emerge.

This person did some Googling. That person saw the company on Facebook. Someone else might have started off looking for a Christmas present before they stumbled across the site.

And to complicate matters even further, these individuals all might have different reasons for liking the site. 

You might watch every thriller that your preferred streaming services can throw at you. But while you might love action and intrigue, other subscribers might be there for the romcoms and preschool cartoons. 

List segmentation allows you to take a step back and look at a prospect's purchasing history and stage in your sales funnel. You don't want to be sending emails that say, "Thanks for purchasing this year!" to leads that signed up for your newsletter five minutes ago. In many ways, the segmenting capabilities of automated email marketing software are more than worth the price of admission.

The 5 Qualities of Excellent Email Marketing Automation Software

Now let's assume for a minute that all of this has sold you on both email marketing and email marketing automation software. But, of course, none of that answers the million-dollar question:

So how do you go about choosing an email marketing tool?

After all, there are a lot of paid plans and free email marketing automation software to choose from. Here's how you can tell the winners from the duds:

1. The Email Automation Software Plays Nicely With Your Existing Email Marketing Tools

Unless you started building your business yesterday, chances are that you've already got a bunch of software and hardware tools that you rely on to get things done.

Your Gmail account and Google WorkSpace? Yep.

Your Zoom account and your use of Microsoft Teams? Ditto.

Congratulations, you've got a tech stack that needs to be factored into your future tech-related choices. 

In these circumstances, the last thing you need is to be stuck buying more software to make use of the new software. But unfortunately, that's how you become yet another victim of tech-caused productivity loss. 

So here's the bottom line:

You want your email marketing automation software to be the best email marketing software on its own. And you also want it to make your current setup better. For this reason, compatibility isn't just a nice-to-have — it's an absolute necessity.

2. It Should Be Able to Drive Results in Multiple Situations

Remember what we said before about the importance of list segmentation? You need your automated email marketing software to be capable of handling different complex situations.

If someone sets an appointment, what communications do you plan to send them all the way up to the meeting? If that customer has bought a course or a service package from you, how does that affect your plans for future email campaigns? Should someone who fills out a web form be treated like a warm lead or a cold one?

In the face of all this nuance and complexity, your email marketing tool shouldn't be capable of handling a variety of interaction types.

3. It's User-Friendly

Have you ever used a piece of equipment had you consulting the manual every few minutes? Have you ever looked at a piece of software and said, "Nope. I do not have a Ph.D. in Computer Speak and I don't have time to get one."?

Your email marketing automation tool is going to be a key part of your client-facing communications. Sending an email shouldn't make you feel like you're trapped in a maze. Instead, you want to be sure that you're sending the right message to the right person at the right time.

You can prevent mistakes by making user-friendliness a requirement of your new email marketing automation software.

4. It Has Multiple Plans

In marketing, one-size-fits-all solutions will rarely ever do the trick. One of the reasons why we often tell people to choose a target market is because small businesses are often better off cornering a niche. 

Think about it.

An international, multi-arm corporation like Disney will probably have different accounting concerns than your local independent movie theater. And you need a marketing automation tool that understands that.

Is there a free plan or just paid plans? Are there small business-specific features or advanced features that make sense for where your company is right now? That level of flexibility can make a world of difference for both your finances and the mileage you're able to get out of your email marketing software.

5. It Gives You Exactly What You Need

Imagine you're planning a meal. Of course, pizza and cake are always crowd-pleasers. But if those are your staples, filet mignon, fettuccine alfredo, and lobster probably aren't necessary on a normal Wednesday evening.

Sometimes with email marketing tools, you'll see a huge list of benefits and think, "Wow! I must be getting a deal!". But really, these extra marketing automation features are hiding the fact that you're paying more for software that just hasn't been well thought through.

Before you start marketing automation software shopping, you may want to create a list of must-have features and capabilities. After all, you don't want to deal with the chaos and hassle of switching software providers after just a few months or years.

Of course, our Keap-using clients don't have this problem. You can check out our page to learn more about our best email marketing automation solutions. 

We Can Help You Make More Money

If you've ever gone to work and said, "I wish I could clone myself.", you need email marketing automation software. But even if you know what needs to be done, choosing the best email marketing automation software for you can be a real pain. 

You can tinker around. You can struggle to transfer your list when you inevitably find a better option. You can go ahead and waste your valuable, already-stretched-too-thin time with a trial and error-based approach.

Or you can purchase an automated email copy marketing software that will meet all of your expectations and more. In our opinion, Keap is hands down the best email marketing automation software on the market — and it's not even close. From its software integration features to its powerful analytical and marketing automation capabilities, Keap can turn your current marketing operation into a lean, mean, client-generating machine. 

Want to learn more about Keap? We offer DIY and done-for-you solutions. Book your discovery session with us today!