Five Email Automation Ideas for Effective Inbound Lead Generation

Email automation, in particular, HubSpot’s email workflow feature, can be an incredible tool for effective inbound lead generation. These time-saving and customer-centric features, however, can only do the work when they’re actually set up and when that setup is done correctly. 

We’ve compiled a list of five critical email workflows that will enable you to collect and nurture high-quality leads and ultimately improve your inbound ROI. 

1. The content offer workflow that moves users through your funnel

Creating consistent, relevant content is an essential building block of any inbound marketing campaign. It's great to post your content and let visitors download and interact with it, but this is where automation can (and should) step in. Once someone downloads any content offer, enroll them into a workflow that lets them know you have more to offer. 

Let’s say someone downloads an ebook about how to negotiate a manufacturing contract. This customer action can be set as a trigger to send them an email with a link to a piece of content that moves them through the sales funnel (or their buyer’s journey). Sending other helpful resources like a manufacturing contract template or a link to sign up for a webinar about negotiation tactics are also likely to benefit - and delight - them. 

The beauty of workflows is that it doesn’t have to stop with one follow-up email. With proper strategy and setup, emails can be sent every few days depending on how your contacts interact with your content and outreach.

For example, people who click through your offer can be sent to one workflow branch while those that don’t will be sent to another that initiates a different targeted message. You want your contact to almost feel a sense of serendipity as they move through their buying journey, and an optimized workflow can effectively create that experience for them. 

Delighting customers by continuing to answer questions they didn’t even know they had, or offering helpful resources and timely, relevant communication, is a great way to jumpstart a relationship with an interested party.

2. The lead-nurturing workflow that sends the best Marketing Qualified Leads (MQLs) to your sales team

Automated email workflows are all about lead nurturing, but if you can’t use them to actually generate more sales, then they lose much of their value. 

Create an automated workflow that enrolls users who you know are nearing their buying decision. Perhaps they’ve requested a quote or are nearing the end of their free trial. This presents the perfect opportunity to let your sales team know that you have a MQL ready to be followed up with.

Pro tip: You can use marketing automation to notify sales when anyone is enrolled in this particular workflow.

3. The workflow that maximizes your face time 

Events like webinars, meetups and even trade shows, should also play a part in your inbound marketing strategy. Use an automated email workflow to remind people about your event, and follow up afterward. 

Say your business hosts a webinar and a certain question or topic keeps coming up. This grants a perfect opportunity to assemble an email that addresses the issue following the event. Blog posts or other content bits pertaining to the topic can also offer them a hand while showcasing your expertise.

As in-person events start to come back more and more, keep in mind that if you meet someone in-person, you can manually add their contact information to an automated workflow, as well.

4. The persona workflow that proves you know your customers

As general best practice, all of your automated email workflows should be based upon your buyer personas. Use forms on your site to ensure proper categorization of users and take advantage of your dedicated persona research to enroll certain contacts into appropriate workflows.

Keep in mind that you don’t want every email you send to be a sales call in their inbox.

Does one of your personas tend to have an affinity for baseball even though your company has nothing to do with the game? Send a workflow email when the preseason starts to let them know you care about what they care about. The whole point of developing your personas is so that you can better communicate with your leads and customers (so don’t let the leg work of establishing them go to waste!)

5. The engaged customer workflow that delights

Workflows are great for nurturing leads, but they can also be an efficient tool for delighting your already-existing customers.

Once someone becomes a customer, the last thing you want to do is forget them. Now that you have even more information at your disposal, think about how you can delight, surprise and engage with them as much as you did before.

Your best customers, those who visit your site regularly, read your blog and share your content should always be on your radar. Create a workflow that lets you know who these engaged users are, then send them content you know they’ll like and make it easy to share.

In conclusion...

Automated emails and workflows are only as good as you make them. With some strategy, diligence and properly crafting ones that make sense for you and your business, you’ll see your revenues increase while your time spent sending emails drastically decreases. 

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Feeling stuck on where to begin, or unsure of how to optimize your current emails and workflows? Contact ManoByte's team of HubSpot experts to guide your automation strategy and implementation for maximum ROI.