When you set up email marketing sequences, it’s far too easy for them to get lost and forgotten, with staff turnover and programs continuing to run on autopilot. Revisiting your email marketing flow chart and marketing automation should happen regularly.
We’ve been running automated programs for many years here at Act-On, and eventually ended up with 37 different sequences running! Now, that might seem like a lot (and it is!). But really, what caught our attention was the results. They weren’t terrible, but they weren’t fantastic either. Average at best. And we wanted better than average, and I bet you do, too.
So, we did a complete overhaul of our email marketing flow chart and automated programs, which resulted in a near tripling of our email open rates, with a 2,900% increase in click-throughs.
And I will tell you exactly how we did it, the lessons learned, and my best tips to replicate our success, but first things first.
What is an Email Marketing Flow Chart?
An email marketing flow chart is a visual representation of the steps and decision points involved in an email campaign, helping marketers design and automate customer interactions. It outlines the sequence of emails based on triggers, customer behavior, and engagement, ensuring a structured and strategic communication approach.
Typically, a flow chart starts with an initial action, such as a user subscribing to a newsletter or abandoning a shopping cart, followed by decision branches based on responses—such as opening an email, clicking a link, or making a purchase. Each decision point leads to a specific outcome, whether it’s sending a follow-up email, segmenting the audience, or stopping the communication. By mapping out the email journey, marketers can optimize engagement, improve conversions, and create a personalized experience for recipients.
Our Big Overhaul: Step-by-Step Process
The first step was inventorying what we had. We looked at our existing programs and discovered that audiences were flowing in and out of our nurture sequences, but that flow didn’t necessarily make sense based on the buyer’s journey.
People entered our programs based on their ideal customer profiles (ICPs), and while this was good, it wasn’t as personalized as it could be.
For example, financial services marketers aren’t all at the same point in their buyer’s journey and aren’t all interested in the same things.
So it’s no wonder our open rates weren’t great! A financial services marketer interested in email marketing isn’t likely to open an email on social media marketing. We had to get more personalized.
This need for greater personalization required us to focus more effectively on two areas: the stage in the buyer’s journey and specific interest. Here’s how we tackled the process and how you can build and improve your email marketing flow chart:
Inventory What You Have
Before you start building your email marketing flow chart, look at current program metrics to determine what messaging is working and what isn’t. One thing that stood out for us, is that some of the programs had instances of duplicate content. An insurance marketer, for example, might receive the same eBook twice (oops!).
Additionally, some program assets were outdated and needed refreshing to stay valuable to the target audience.
Align with Intent and the Buyer’s Journey
Our goal was to create programs that closely aligned with a person’s intent and his or her journey. So, we evaluated our audiences to determine what messages resonated best with the ICPs but also aligned with a person’s specific interest and stage in their journey, whether that was top of the funnel, middle of the funnel, or bottom of the funnel.
We kept messages that performed well, but reframed them to fit better with the buyer’s needs.
Create Streams Based on How People Enter the Database
A person might be a financial services marketer but be interested in email marketing. In this scenario, we wanted to speak to their specific interest in our automated programs, but this required understanding how they entered our database.
Did they download an eBook? Attend a webinar? Or interact with us in some other way? We needed to capture this data and make sure they were tagged appropriately so we could account for this in our email marketing flow chart and get them into the correct sequence.
Now, here’s the fun part: This meant we had to go back and find how a person had entered the stream and ensure they had been tagged appropriately at their lead source. Doing this ensured we had the correct data points moving forward.
Our Results Six Months Later
After about six months since we overhauled our email marketing flow chart and automation programs, the results were amazing. With the previous programs, we averaged a 25% open rate among all our programs, with a 1% click-through rate and roughly 1.4% opt-out rate. Decent results, but not fantastic.
With the new program, the average open rate spiked to 59%, click-through rates jumped to 31%, and we have a 2% opt-out rate (which is still within normal range, and hey, we’d rather have you opt out than struggle with deliverability issues, right?).
We also downsized from 37 programs to just six – a testament to the fact that more can be less!
It’s also evidence that if you deliver what people need, based on their intent, where they’re at in their journey, and who they are, success is much easier to achieve.
Getting Started with Email Marketing Flow Charts
The best starting point for your email marketing and marketing automation flow charts is always to follow the data. What’s working and what isn’t?
And these insights don’t need to be limited to your automated programs. Speak with your sales teams to learn about what they’re hearing from your ICPs. Also consider:
- Who are we trying to target?
- How are they finding us?
- What do they need from us?
- What are our current wins, and how can we replicate them?
Once you understand all that, you can ask: How can I simplify the process of finding what’s needed for my audience? Because it’s all about being helpful, right?
In other words, if a person is trying to find information about email marketing, how can you simplify that journey so they don’t have to find material on their own?
And remember, less is more sometimes. You don’t necessarily need programs for every persona type and industry. Think more about what a person is interested in, where they’re at in their journey, and how you can best serve them (that’s how we got from 37 programs down to six!).
Go back to that core problem you’re trying to solve for an audience, come up with something, and then iterate on it. Then, test, measure, and pivot as needed.
Plus, here’s another thing to consider: A big part of success is having the right marketing automation platform behind you. If you’re feeling limited by your current platform, or just frustrated, we’ve got you covered! Check out our guide for successfully switching platforms, so you can hit your marketing goals easier:
