It’s no secret that most cannabis and marijuana-related businesses use at least one common form of automation: automated email campaigns. While this is the easiest way to nurture and engage your leads, there’s just too much noise in the world of automated email marketing.
Consequently, many automated emails end up in the Promotion tab of your prospect’s inbox, and this can significantly drop the open rate of your emails.
Personalized and humanized messages can go a long way in educing better results for your brand. A recent survey indicates that when done correctly, email marketing can generate an ROI of 122% — about four times higher than any other digital marketing channel can deliver.
So, as a cannabis business owner or dispensary manager, how do you make your automated emails more human? Let’s dig in and explore.
1. Provide a credible sender name
People don’t want to feel like they’re part of a crowd when it comes to cannabis business communications. General emails with business names seem to refer to a group of people rather than individuals. They also seem bot-generated, therefore lacking that human touch.
The first effective way to humanize your messages is to send emails from your individual email address and name, rather than from a generic business name. Giving a face to your communication makes the receiver of the email feel like someone took their time to email them, therefore encouraging a response.
Note that emails sent by a personal name address have a higher open rate than those with a general email address. They also have a similar lift in CTR.
For instance, you’ll get better results by using a specific contact person, like [email protected], than a general address like [email protected].
2. Keep the conversation natural
To make your emails sound less robotic, keep your emails casual. Write like you speak, and as though you are addressing a recipient personally. In other words, try to draft emails that sound more like a conversation than a sales pitch; keep the focus of your email on helping the recipient.
An email that is warm and friendly with a little bit of humor tends to elicit a connection, encouraging communication. So work on an email that looks like it’s coming from an individual who understands the needs of the receiver.
When you write an email in a language and tone the receiver can relate to, it’s likely that they will respond. Just remember to be cautious with humor as it can be quite challenging to get the right tone across in an email.
3. Always add context to the email
Automated emails can be vague sometimes, especially when it is a follow-up email. If an email cannot establish a link with the previous communication, it loses meaning. Such emails tend to come off as misplaced, especially if the receiver never opened up the original email.
To ensure your emails always have a clear purpose, context is vital. For example, for every follow-up emails try to recapitulate the previous interaction in brief so that the receiver can connect with the latest email.
4. Set a “reply-to” address
If leads are what you’re after, then sending emails through a “reply-to” email address is vital. This is because besides clicking your CTAs, people have questions. And if they have no way of communicating with you, they feel short-changed.
The “reply-to” email address allows those who want to inquire more about the message in your email do so. Questions elicit engagement and engagement can get you clients. A no-reply email address is a dead giveaway that emails are auto-generated and human interaction is at a minimal.
5. Always have appropriate time-intervals between automated emails
Automated emails can be overwhelming when they start flooding subscribers’ inboxes. Too many emails within a short time can be a turn-off, and you might end up losing some of your subscribers. Your emails can also be marked as spam, lowering the open rate.
To ensure your emails don’t lose that human factor, maintain a reasonable time interval between each email.
Also, make sure they bear relevance with each other. This means follow-up emails should be in line with the previous communication lest they lose meaning and confuse your subscribers.
6. Schedules emails for appropriate times
Nothing screams automation like an email that lands in your subscriber’s inbox at 2.A.M. While some people might be awake and active at that time, most people aren’t. For that human touch, you want to consider the time your subscribers are active and when they are likely to appreciate getting your emails.
Appropriate timing also means your email will not be lost in the crowd. Sending your email too early can result in your message getting buried in the heap by the time the subscriber wakes up; considering you are not the only person emailing them.
7. Shorter is always better
Short emails are easy to read and can easily encourage constructive engagement. Shorter emails seem like a busy human being took some time off their busy schedule to draft the email. Your subscriber will likely appreciate the effort and also take time to reach out to you.
Shorter emails will also indicate that you value your subscribers’ time and wouldn’t want to burden them with paragraphs after paragraphs of content. Make things easier for yourself and your audience by keeping it short and clear.
Finally
Automation should never be a “set it and forget it” solution to your email campaigns. Remember to check from time to time and fine-tune your messages to ensure they stay fresh and relevant to your target audience as your enterprise grows.
By finding the right balance between automation and humanization, your businesses will massively benefit from automated marketing campaigns. For instance, cannabis retail stores can employ humanized automated email marketing not only as a way to stay in touch with customers but also to offer upsells and special deals.
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Which other method do you use to make your automated email campaign feel more human? Leave a comment below.
