
Email marketing has been around the block, but automation has truly transformed it for online stores. Now, marketing feels personal, connecting with your audience at just the right moments.
With email automation, you can:
- Welcome new subscribers with a series of messages
- Remind a potential customer about their abandoned cart
- Follow up after a purchase, ask for feedback, and a lot more
Automated emails ensure these messages are timely, relevant, and practically run themselves. This guide covers everything you need to dive into email automation—from the basics to crafting campaigns that work.
- What Is Email Automation?
- Benefits of Using Email Automation
- How to Get Started With Email Automation (Easy Steps)
- Step#1: Pick the Right Email Automation Platform
- Step#2: Verify SPF, DKIM, and DMARC Records
- Step#3: Define Your Automation Goals
- Step#4: Segment Your Email List
- Step#5: Determine Triggers and Timings
- Step#6: Map Out Your Workflow
- Step#7: Make Sure You Comply With GDPR and CAN-SPAM
- Step#8: Create Engaging and Personalized Content
- Things to Do After Launching Email Automation
- Final Thoughts
What Is Email Automation?
Email automation is basically using software to handle your email sending for you. No more hitting “send” a million times. It’s all about getting the right message to the right person at the right moment automatically.
Ever given your email address to an online store? Then, you’ve almost certainly experienced email automation firsthand. Here’s how it works:
- Triggered Emails: These emails are sent based on specific actions. Signed up for a newsletter? Boom, welcome email. Left something in your shopping cart? Here’s a reminder. Birthday rolling around? Happy birthday, email!
- Email Workflows: These are automated email sequences that guide people on a journey with your brand. Think welcome series for new subscribers or win-back campaigns for inactive customers.
Some common types of email automation include:
- Welcome series
- Abandoned cart emails
- Re-engagement campaigns
- Order confirmations
- Post-purchase follow-up
~ Source: Reallygoodemails
Benefits of Using Email Automation
Beyond efficiency, email automation helps businesses save time, scale efforts, and create meaningful connections with customers.
Here’s why it works so well:
- Right place, right time: Automated emails show up when it matters most — just minutes after someone signs up or a few days after they leave something behind in their cart.
- A personal touch: You can use your audience’s information to send targeted emails, giving them a personal feel.
- Consistent revenue stream: Your business doesn’t sleep and the same goes for automation, as it works on autopilot, recovering sales for you.
How to Get Started With Email Automation (Easy Steps)
Now that you have familiarized yourself with email automation and what it’s used for, it’s time to create one of your own. While the setup process requires some effort, keep in mind that once it’s done, it works on autopilot.
Step#1: Pick the Right Email Automation Platform
Before you create an ecommerce store, you must make sure it’s hosted on a reliable hosting provider that prioritizes speed, performance, and security.
And Cloudways is one such provider with over 100,000 satisfied users. Plus, it offers ecommerce-specific hosting features for online merchants. Starting with Cloudways is easy, as you can set up a highly optimized ecommerce store in minutes.
You also get a 3-day free trial to test all the platform features. And guess what? You DON’T need to enter any credit card details, so try it risk-free.
Next step is choosing the right email marketing tool. Look for features that match your needs, like cart recovery workflows or easy-to-use editors. Consider factors such as:
- Ease of use: It’s a good idea to choose a platform with intuitive drag-and-drop editors. Look for one that matches your technical comfort level.
- Automation features: Make sure the tool supports the types of automation you plan to use, such as cart recovery, welcome series, or re-engagement emails.
- Integration: It should be compatible with your CRM or ecommerce system.
- Scalability: Opt for platforms that grow with your subscriber list and also support customizable workflows for ecommerce businesses.
One popular choice is Omnisend, especially for online stores. It offers ready-made email automation flows, or you can build your own. If you’re already using Cloudways, combining it with Omnisend is a smart move.
Cloudways + Omnisend will help you easily target your audience, and your automated emails will actually get delivered, which would result in more effective campaigns and a higher ROI.
Step#2: Verify SPF, DKIM, and DMARC Records
These three things are really important for getting your emails delivered. If you’ve ever done any email marketing, you’ve probably seen these letters. They’re all about proving your emails are legit and not spam.
Here’s the quick version:
- SPF: This is like a list of approved senders. It tells email providers who are allowed to send emails to your website. Keeps the spammers out.
- DKIM: This adds a digital signature to your emails. It’s a way of saying, “Yep, this email really did come from me.”
- DMARC: This combines SPF and DKIM and adds extra protection. Helps prevent phishing and other email scams.
Setting all this up is really important. In fact, just a year ago Gmail and Yahoo announced that it’s obligatory for email senders to have these records set up if they want to ensure that their emails land in their audiences’ inboxes.
Here’s a quick walkthrough of how to verify your email authentication records:
1. Access Your Domain’s DNS Management
- Log in to your hosting account. Don’t have one? Sign up & try Cloudways for free.
- Look for the area where you manage your domain’s DNS settings. It might be called something like “DNS Management,” “Zone Editor,” or “DNS Records.”
2. Add an SPF record
- Record type: TXT
- Name/Host: @ or your domain name
- Value: This depends on your email provider. A general example is: v=spf1 include:your-email-provider.com ~all
Remember to swap out your-email-provider.com for the real SPF details provided by your email service. For TTL, the default setting is generally fine, or you can use 3600 seconds (which is one hour).
Note: If you already have an SPF record, don’t create a new one. Instead, you need to edit the existing record and add the information from your email provider (like include:youremailprovider.com) before the ~all part.
3. Add a DKIM record:
- Record Type: TXT
- Name/Host: This will be provided by your email service, typically in the format selector._domainkey. For example: s1._domainkey
- For the “Value” field, you’ll paste in the DKIM public key that your email provider gives you. It’ll be a long string of characters, something like k=rsa; p=MIIBIjANBgkqh… (and a whole lot more after that).
- For TTL, just use the default value of 3600 seconds (1 hour).
4. Save the Records:
- Save your SPF and DKIM record changes in your DNS settings. These changes can take up to 24 hours to propagate (spread across the internet).
5. Verify the Records
- Many email providers offer tools or dashboards to verify that the SPF and DKIM records are correctly configured. Use these tools to confirm a successful setup.
- You can also use third-party tools like MXToolbox to check DNS records.
Step#3: Define Your Automation Goals
Before you automate any emails, decide what you want to achieve.
What’s the purpose of each email campaign? Do you want more sales? More engagement? Happier customers who keep coming back? Email automation can help with all of these.
For example, you can set up emails to remind people about items in their online carts. This can help get back some sales. Or you can send follow-up emails after a purchase to get feedback and encourage repeat business.
Knowing your goals upfront lets you track how well your emails are doing and make changes as needed.
Step#4: Segment Your Email List
~ Source: Omnisend
Sending the same email to everyone is rarely effective. It’s better to group your subscribers based on shared characteristics so you can send more relevant messages. Here are some ways to segment:
- Demographics: Group by age, location, or gender.
- Behavior: Segment based on actions like purchases or website visits.
- Engagement: Divide into high and low engagement groups.
Segmenting improves email open and click-through rates.
Step#5: Determine Triggers and Timings
Triggers are actions that set your email automation in motion, while timing determines when those emails are sent. Both are critical for delivering emails at the optimal moment.
Common triggers include actions like signing up, abandoning a cart, completing a purchase, or a significant date like a birthday.
~ Source: Omnisend
After determining triggers, think about the best time to send each message. For example, a cart abandonment email might perform best if sent 30 minutes to an hour after the customer leaves their cart.
Another thing to consider is frequency. Sometimes it’s possible that a person enters the same automation more than once. If it’s not specifically intended, it can create a bad customer experience, which you don’t want.
Some email automation platforms allow you to set a frequency cap, how often one person can enter the workflow.
~ Source: Omnisend
Step#6: Map Out Your Workflow
With your triggers, timing, and audience segments in mind, it’s time to create a workflow that guides subscribers from one step to the next.
Think of each email as a step in a journey. Your workflow might include an initial welcome email, followed by a series of emails introducing your brand or offering tips.
Some tools help you build workflows that adjust based on condition. For example, if your ecommerce business is based in Germany, but you have worldwide customers, you can split your automation and deliver emails in German to those based in Germany and in English for the rest.
~ Source: Omnisend
Many platforms offer visual workflow builders, making it easier to organize and adjust each step based on your audience’s responses.
Step#7: Make Sure You Comply With GDPR and CAN-SPAM
So much of our information is now floating in a digital space. And it’s every brand’s responsibility to ensure it’s secured and only used in ways that a person consents.
GDPR and CAN-SPAM are the two most important regulations for email marketers. Staying compliant will build trust with your audience and protect you from potential legal problems as well.
Here’s what you need to know about these regulations:
General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)
Enacted in May 2018, GDPR secures an individual’s personal data within the European Union (EU). Key requirements include:
- Explicit consent: Obtain clear permission before sending emails to EU residents. Pre-checked consent boxes or vague language are insufficient.
- Transparency: Clearly inform subscribers about data collection purposes, usage, third-party sharing, and retention periods.
- Data subject rights: Honor requests for data access, correction, or deletion promptly.
CAN-SPAM act
Established in 2003, this U.S. law regulates commercial emails. Compliance involves:
- Accurate information: Ensure “From,” “To,” and routing details are correct and identify the sender.
- Honest subject lines: Reflect the email’s content accurately.
- Advertisement disclosure: Clearly indicate if the message is an advertisement.
- Physical address: Include a valid postal address in your emails.
- Opt-out mechanism: Provide an easy way for recipients to unsubscribe and honor such requests within ten business days.
Step#8: Create Engaging and Personalized Content
Automated emails don’t have to be boring and robotic. There’s plenty of room for creativity and personality.
Keep your audience engaged by:
- Staying clear and concise: There’s no need for lengthy emails, where the reader has to scroll down to finally reach your call to action button. Make it easy for them to interact by sticking to the point and delivering your message in a simple manner.
- Personalizing your messages: Email automation is already very targeted, but you can also try using dynamic content (meaning that the content is automatically customized based on the user’s behavior or preferences) or product recommendations to suggest the most relevant products from your shop based on users’ purchase history.
- Using strong visuals: Consider how your emails look. Do they have eye-catching images, GIFs, or even videos? These elements can make your emails more engaging; just make sure they are relevant and optimized for mobile as well.
- Providing value: It’s all about adding that extra value for your customer. If they made a purchase, add some information about how to use the product with your order confirmation email. Or if they just subscribed, offer them some exclusive content that’s not available to the public.
~ Source: Reallygoodemails
Things to Do After Launching Email Automation
So, you launched your first automation.
While automation runs on its own, if you want really good results, don’t just “set it and forget it.” It’s worth checking in regularly. We all want to improve our marketing, so make time for some “post-launch care.”
Below are some ideas that will help you perfect your automation game.
Tip#1: Run A/B Tests to Optimize Performance
Email automation usually needs some tweaking to get just right. Regular A/B testing is key. Start with your subject lines; they’re the first thing people see. Try different wording, lengths, and even emojis to see what works.
Try changing things in your emails: copy, images, even the buttons. Small changes can make a big difference.
Always track your results. That’s how you’ll learn what works best and keep improving your automated emails.
Tip#2: Track Key Metrics
Speaking of results, you need to track plenty of metrics.
Keep an eye on how many people open your emails, click the links inside, and complete the action you’re hoping for (like buying something).
But each automation can have more specific metrics, based on its goal. To give you a better idea, here’s what else you can track in some of the most common automation:
Welcome Emails
- Subscriber growth rate: Reflects the impact of your welcome series on turning new subscribers into engaged contacts.
- Time to first purchase: Measures how quickly a new subscriber transitions to becoming a paying customer after receiving the welcome email(s).
- Unsubscribe rate: Helps identify if the content is relevant and engaging or if it discourages new subscribers.
Post-purchase Followup
- Customer Feedback: Track how many recipients submit reviews, surveys, or testimonials.
- Repeat Purchases: Monitor how often customers make another purchase after receiving your emails.
- Upselling/Cross-selling: Measure the extra revenue generated from product suggestions in your follow-up emails.
- Net Promoter Score (NPS) feedback: Gauges customer satisfaction through surveys included in your email.
- Referral activity: Tracks how often customers share referral codes or invite others after receiving post-purchase emails.
Cart Abandonment
- Recovery rate: Measures how many abandoned carts are converted into completed purchases after receiving the email.
- Revenue recovered: Indicates the total revenue generated from abandoned cart recovery emails.
- Time to Purchase: See how quickly people buy after getting your email.
- Average Order Value: Check if abandoned cart emails lead to bigger orders (because of upselling or cross-selling).
Basically, track what matters most to you. Check the results, adjust your emails based on what you find, and you’ll get better returns and happier customers.
Tip#3 Update for Special Occasions
While it’s definitely a “nice-to-have” move, rather than “must-have”, we recommend revamping your automation content for important occasions.
For example, during the Black Friday Cyber Monday (BFCM) period, you can change up the text in your welcome emails, provide a more enticing incentive (a bigger discount, free shipping, etc.), or just update the visual style to match your campaigns. The same goes for any ecommerce event.
It’s a small detail, but it unifies your communication during these crucial periods, resulting in a better customer experience.
Final Thoughts
Email automation is more than just saving time. It actually is an incredible tool to grow your online business, connect with your customers, and increase sales. Also, it helps you reach the right audience at the right time. Be it a welcome email for new subscribers, a reminder about items in their cart, or a message for loyal customers.
But to really get the best results, you should:
- Choose the right email platform with seamless ecommerce integrations
- Authenticate your emails with SPF, DKIM, and DMARC to improve deliverability
- Define clear goals and track key metrics to measure success
- Segment your audience for personalized, high-converting campaigns
- Regularly A/B test and optimize workflows to maximize performance
With the right tools, like Omnisend for automation and Cloudways for optimized hosting, your email campaigns can run effortlessly while driving consistent revenue growth.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q. How often should I update my email automation campaigns?
Review your automated emails at least once per quarter to ensure they stay relevant. Remember to check after major product updates, rebranding, or seasonal promotions to keep your messaging fresh and effective.
Q. What are the key metrics to track for email automation success?
Some of the key metrics to track for email automation success include open rates, click-through rates, conversions, unsubscribe rates, and recovery rates (for abandoned carts).
Q. Is email automation beneficial for small businesses?
Yes. Even simple automated emails (welcome emails, order confirmations, post-purchase follow-ups) increase engagement, build loyalty, and increase repeat sales. Check out some of the best email hosting services for small businesses.
Sarim Javaid
Sarim Javaid is a Sr. Content Marketing Manager at Cloudways, where his role involves shaping compelling narratives and strategic content. Skilled at crafting cohesive stories from a flurry of ideas, Sarim's writing is driven by curiosity and a deep fascination with Google's evolving algorithms. Beyond the professional sphere, he's a music and art admirer and an overly-excited person.