Even as tech evolves faster than ever, email is still undoubtedly the best electronic communication there is and is still relevant in business communication.
So what makes email stand out as a top-tier form of communication? It’s all about the basic principles. The greatest factor in email’s time-tested efficacy is the fact that email is done on your own time.
While instant messaging can be great for chatting with your friends, in a business sense, you will want all the time in the world to properly form your sentences and make sure you are saying exactly what you want to say. Emails allow both sender and receiver the time to respond in the best way.
Plus, when a person opens your email, they are already predisposed to respond as compared to, for example, phone calls. Emails also allow you to communicate information in texts, images, videos, and other types of files in a clear and concise way that will leave a paper trail that could come in handy down the road.
So, what does this mean for you and your animation business? Well, let’s say you have decided to start your animation business and it has been going great so far.
Clients start pouring in after seeing your portfolio, reel, or website. There’s one pitfall you’ve noticed, though: a lack of clear, consistent, and prompt responses to new clients.
The first thing to keep in mind is that this is more of an opportunity than a problem. You are in demand! To answer this question of how you will communicate now with your clients, it is important to understand what automated emails are in the first place.
Automated emails are planned emails to be sent to your clients (or subscribers) at specifically scheduled times or as a response to the actions of your website visitors.
Here we show you the 5 reasons why an animator must automate emails:
1) Saves You Time
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Email Automation Maximizes Your Time
Since this isn’t 1952, we don’t need to worry about writing letters and waiting by the mailbox anymore...yay! The same principle can apply to email: you don’t have to handcraft every response for each individual client. Trying to do sofor all your animation clients will most likely be a bad idea.
At some point, you will have to consider how automated emails will save you time, not because your clients are not important but because they are so important that you need to make sure they get the best of your service and of course, your animation.
Email Automation Is Your Assistant
Email automation helps your clients with the most important and easy-to-answer questions and items of your animation business.
For example, Promoshin’s Instant Quote option allows the client to assess the investment cost he needs to purchase an animated video type.
Not only is this helpful for you (because you don’t need to answer clients real-time whenever they want to know the price of the video product), it is also very helpful for the client, as they can expect answers in an instant.
With this instant quote example, after you get your quote you areallowed to submit your response (whether yes, no, or maybe). In turn, you will be able to receive this email and be able to respond to it at your own time.
It’s a win-win for you and the client. The client will wait with an idea of how much his video will cost and you, as the animator and business owner, will have the opportunity to view his expectations and concerns, if there are.
2) Lets You Communicate With Your Clients Even While Sleeping or Animating
As discussed, above, automated emails help your clients have answers at the moment that they come to visit your website.
Whether you are sleeping (if you are sleeping) or busy animating (most likely), your clients get answers or at least promises further answers.
Here are some other areas where email automation can save the day:
Welcome Emails
Welcome emails are almost usually the first contact a business makes with a client upon visiting your website.
In 2008, 40% of brands sent a welcome message to their new subscribers. Today, 80% of brands send this type of message.
Abandoned Cart Emails
An abandoned cart email is an email that companies send to users that added some products to their shopping cart but left it behind without completing a purchase.
As this where most leaks happen in the sales funnel, automated emails sent for abandoned carts enable companies to allow their customers to return their products and complete a purchase or be interested in other products.
Payment Reminders
Payment reminders, aside from reminding clients to pay, can help your clients organize their resources.
Subscription Expiration Reminders
In case you are charging your customers per subscription basis (for example, Promoshin’s Unlimited Plan with monthly payment), reminding them will help them greatly.
They would not be interrupted by a sudden loss of service just because they forgot to pay for their monthly subscription.
Appointment Reminders
Most animation websites now will have options for their client to book an appointment directly on their website. Appointment reminders will lessen the chance of your client missing your meeting. Now, you just have to worry about you not missing the meeting.
Happy Birthday Emails. Yup!
If your business plan or subscription options allow you to have your clients’ birthdays, automated happy birthdays are not something you want to overlook.
Who knows, you might get invited to their birthday party or might decide to avail your service right there and then.
3) Creates Deeper Relationships With Your Clients
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As contradictory as it may seem, automated messages can actually serve to build up the relationship between you and your clients. Knowing that they can always count on a prompt answer from you will settle your clients’ minds and let them know that they can trust you.
Allows you to personalize your emails
Another opportunity that automated emails provide is for you to personalize your emails in a way that your client can relate to.
Depending on the email automation tool you will use, you may group your subscribers or contacts by classification of interest or email them as a whole. The right content delivered at the right time to the right people
Helps You Retain Repeat Clients
Repeat clients appreciate when they have constant communication from an animator like you who has a brand they patronize.
4) Promotes Higher Brand Awareness Level
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In your animation business, you must keep them wanting your animated videos, especially when they need them (and they don’t know it).
Keeping your clients informed and updated do not involve hard-sell techniques. Most of the time, you don't even have to sell anything.
Through email automation, you can share your recent blog posts that can be very informative for your clients and as well, let them know how your animation videos matter to them - directly or indirectly.
Re-engagement emails after a period of non-activity will be a good way to reconnect with your clients and as well help them remember you.
With a tracker in place, determine which clients have not been engaged to you either by availing of service or email response.
You may opt to think of ways to help them re-engage. Probably a new service you have currently opened up. For example, if you are now offering unlimited revision for your animation then be sure to let them know.
5) Provides You a Concrete Data to Work Upon
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Email automation allows you to have deeper insights and a general view of the results of your automated emails. Let us take, for example, the effect of a re-engagement email you sent, you can ask yourself the following questions:
- It has been a month since my email has been sent. How many clients have responded to it? 30 out of 100, or more?
- Based on the response or the non-response of my clients, are there things that I could probably add to make my emails more interesting?
After answering the questions above and more, you can adjust and modify your emails according to the developing needs of your clients and/or spot the rising trends among your clients today.
It Is Better To Start Sooner Than Later
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If your intention for your business is to grow and to have more clients, it is very important to start sooner rather than later. Especially if you are just starting or just about to start your animation career or business -the best time to start is now!
Remember that how you communicate with your clients reflects on the quality of your brand and yourself, as the person who is in charge.
Automated emails help us balance our lives and the amount of work we’ll have to pour into communication. It keeps customers updated in real-time. As we send more and more highly beneficial and personalized emails, it develops deeper relationships with our clients.
Finally, by being able to be constantly in touch with our clients, it will increase the odds of them patronizing your animation service.
We hope that with these 5 reasons, you may be convinced of how important it is to get an automated email service for your business. Should you want to know more about how to utilize and maximize your email marketing skills as an animator, join our free masterclass and check out our free marketing handbook.