![8 email automation workflows for creators that want to increase their income [+ templates]](https://media.kit.com/post/HERO-email-automation-workflows.jpg?fm=webp&q=50&auto=format&w=2496&h=1242&dpr=2)
In this Article
Ready to sell digital products around the clock to people across the globe?
But unless you’ve always dreamt of staying awake for 36 hours for the love of the #hustle, there’s no way to do this without support.
The best option is email marketing automation to promote your products. Think of this strategy as a digital email assistant that sends the right emails at the right time to boost sales.
Curious? Whether you want to create your first automation or experiment with an advanced sequence, we have templates for everyone.
What is an email automation workflow?
An email automation workflow is one or more emails sent automatically based on a trigger from a subscriber and spaced out with specific time intervals.
Other names for email automation workflows are ‘ drip campaign,’ ‘ email sequence,’ or ’email automation.’
For example, if you’ve ever bought something online and received an email a week later asking you to review the product—that’s email automation.
No one at the company is manually sending out these review request emails. Instead, the emails are pre-written and triggered to send to a customer exactly one week after they buy a product.
How automatic email workflows help creators scale their business
Along every creative entrepreneur’s journey, there comes a point when trading your time for money no longer feels sustainable—that’s where email automation comes in.
Here’s how it can help your business.
- Deepen relationships with your audience (leads and customers): Email automation feels like a personal conversation between you and your customers, even though it’s automated. Plus, your audience can reply directly to automated emails and get a personal response. In short, email automation makes your brand more personal and accessible, which helps strengthen audience relationships.
- Enables you to sell consistently and passively: If you stop promoting your work, sales will eventually drop off. But it’s hard to juggle marketing existing products and creating new ones. To free up time, create email workflow automations that work even when you’re busy doing other things.
- Increase engagement and conversions through personalized marketing: Timing matters! Subscribers only receive automated emails once they’ve completed specific actions or passed milestones. That means they get a relevant, personalized email and not constant sales pushes. Better marketing leads to higher sales.
- Improve customer retention: Email automation isn’t all about acquiring new customers. It also goes a long way toward keeping your existing customers happy—which is important for monthly recurring revenue (MRR). Automations fuel your email marketing flywheel, which is a strategy that builds lasting relationships with subscribers that grow and deepen over time.
8 email automation workflow examples for new and pro creators (+ templates)
There are many types of creators, each with different goals. This means you need to customize email automations for your business and audience.
For example, a new creator might automatically send a single welcome email when someone uses their newsletter sign-up form, while a more advanced creator can have multiple entry points for three personalized sequences.
As we explore the eight automation workflow examples, keep an open and curious mind about how they fit into your business. Every workflow has a template (and some even have simple or advanced versions!). Use these templates to get a head start and then personalize them with your unique forms, tags, and emails.
1. Welcome email workflow automation
Welcome emails are a subscriber’s first impression of your email list because you send these messages as soon as someone signs up for your newsletter or downloads a lead magnet.
Welcome emails are the first automation you should set up because they are sent to every new subscriber and start to build the relationship immediately.
Your first welcome email should be sent immediately and thank them for joining you, re-introduce yourself, and let them know what to expect from your emails.
Then, later welcome emails can promote your top content, ask them to share about their goals, or introduce products.
Welcome email ideas for different types of creators:
- Food bloggers can ask new subscribers to click on a link to indicate their dietary preferences, cooking goals, or skill level. Bonus: you can use link triggers to add a tag to subscribers so you can segment your content later.
- Authors can have multiple welcome emails depending on where a subscriber signed up, like your novel’s free first chapter lead magnet versus your self-editing checklist
- Coaches can share why they started coaching or how they help their clients
- Podcasters can share their other social media channels or reiterate where to listen to new episodes
- Musicians can share a link to your latest album or social media channels
Simple subscriber welcome workflow template
Email automation trigger: a new subscriber signs up for your newsletter by joining a form
Make it your own:
- Identify your sign-up points. You may only have one newsletter sign-up form to start. That’s okay! As you grow, you’ll add lead magnets and campaign-specific landing pages that all connect to the same welcome sequence. This will maximize your exposure and sign-up rate.
- Choose what content to send. The welcome email for your general newsletter should include links to your best content. If someone signs up for a specific resource, include related resources for that topic to share your expertise and build trust.
- Write a welcome email. If you have a lot to say in your welcome email, consider splitting it across a few messages. Use the first email in the sequence to thank subscribers and let them know what types of content you’ll send. Extra messages can invite them to follow you on social media, check out your latest work, or tell you about themselves.
Advanced welcome workflow with segmentation
Email automation trigger: a new subscriber signs up for your newsletter by joining a form
Make it your own:
- Choose your segments. Email segmentation helps you customize the content you send to your audience, but the segments need to make sense for your content. Choose segments that fit major themes of your content or relate to your paid offers. Two to five segments is a good spot, but more than that, it gets confusing to manage.
- Start fresh or add to your current welcome sequence. You can use this welcome series in place of your simpler sequence or add this flow after your current welcome email.
- Explain what you’re doing. You don’t need to be secretive about segmentation—let your subscribers know they can click on an option in the email to help you send them relevant content.
2. Lead nurturing email workflow automation
Lead nurturing email workflows are all about building relationships with new subscribers—especially if you want to make a sale in the future.
Use email tags in your email workflow, like noting which lead magnet someone downloads or what webinar they tune into, to help personalize your lead nurture flow. When you customize the content and advice you send subscribers, you help them with a topic they’re interested in and prime them for a sales pitch.
Lead nurture email ideas for different types of creators:
- Coaches can promote their monthly webinars on a particular topic after a subscriber downloads a related resource
- Bloggers can share related blog posts after subscribers click a related link in their newsletter
- Podcasters can share multiple episodes on a given topic after a subscriber indicates their goals
- Musicians can share media from past concerts after a subscriber signs up for concert alerts in a particular region
Simple lead nurturing workflow template
Email automation trigger: a subscriber joins a form but has already gone through your welcome sequence
Make it your own:
- Decide where welcome emails end and lead nurture begin. If you only have one welcome email, your lead nurture sequence is the emails you send afterward to further introduce new subscribers to your content. However, if your welcome series already builds trust over multiple emails, you might not have a separate lead nurture sequence.
- Choose how many tags you’ll use. You can have a single lead nurture sequence after your welcome email that sends more top content, add a branch for a single tag based on interests, or use multiple tags across different lead nurture sequences.
- Survey your audience. Send a survey or ask subscribers to respond to an email to share what they want to learn or see.
Advanced lead nurturing with a webinar automation
Email automation trigger: a subscriber joins a form
Make it your own:
- Consider how your webinar and products relate. Your lead nurture sequence should build on subscribers’ interests and prepare them for a product pitch. So, create a trigger, webinar automation, and product pitch on a single topic to make the sales process seamless.
- Create a full webinar sequence. Your webinar marketing needs separate messages to announce your webinar, thank and remind registrants, share replays, and ask for feedback.
- Set up multiple entry points. Add subscribers to the lead nurture series through a dedicated webinar landing page or a link trigger in your newsletter.
3. Email workflow automation to promote your product or service
Automating email workflows to sell your product and services helps grow your business on autopilot, so getting these sequences right is important.
Your sales emails should feel relevant to subscribers—like the pitch is just for them at just the right time. Segmentation and automation help you customize your product pitch series without personally recommending options to every subscriber.
Sales email ideas for different types of creators:
- Coaches can promote different courses or programs depending on the subscribers’ goals
- Authors can pitch their entire book after a subscriber downloads the free first chapter
- Bloggers can tag interested subscribers over the year and set up an automation to begin in the month leading up to launch for everyone who has expressed interest
Simple product promotion template
Email automation trigger: a subscriber joins a form for a free resource or is added to a tag when they click a link to access content
Free course promotion + digital tip jar
Make it your own:
- Warm up leads with free content. You should give new subscribers time to get to know you before you pitch a paid product or digital tip jar. Consider offering a free email course or rely on your lead nurture series to get subscribers ready to buy.
- Give your automations a little breathing room. Don’t pitch a product as soon as someone joins your email list—use Kit automations with customizable delays to pace your emails.
- Relate your pitch to the content. If you don’t have a paid product yet, you can promote a general digital tip jar. If you do have products or services, pitch them after subscribers receive related content.
Advanced product launch workflow
Email automation trigger: a subscriber joins a form for your product release or is added to a tag when they click a link to express interest
Make it your own:
- Decide who to send your product launch to. Your product launch email will drive more sales if you’re intentional about who receives it. Rather than sending it to everyone, segment your email list and use email tags to send the emails to subscribers who are most likely to buy.
- Customize dates or time delays. You can wait to send launch emails until your new product or service is live.
- Organize your tags. Before your big launch, make sure you don’t have duplicate tags and everything is labeled appropriately.
4. Customer onboarding email automation
A customer onboarding sequence is a series of emails sent to people who have recently bought your digital product. It is designed to make sure customers use your product fully and reduce customer churn.
Onboarding email ideas for different types of creators:
- Course creators can send extra support and prompts to reach out for help to new students
- Coaches can send reminders about student communities to new clients
- Food bloggers can send links to their favorite kitchen gadgets or tips on how to troubleshoot common issues after someone buys their cookbook
Simple onboarding workflow template
Email automation trigger: a subscriber makes a purchase
Make it your own:
- Ask for feedback. If you aren’t sure what to include in your onboarding sequence, ask past customers! They can tell you what they wish they knew or what they struggled with after buying your product or service.
- Start simple. You can start with a single onboarding message that lets new customers know they can respond with questions or concerns.
- Use link triggers. Add link triggers to helpful materials in your onboarding emails to see how many subscribers use them
Advanced onboarding workflow with upsell automation
Email automation trigger: a subscriber makes a purchase
Make it your own:
- Onboard before upselling. Upsell automations should happen after your standard onboarding content so customers have a chance to see the value of one product before you pitch another.
- Only upsell related products. Upsells should feel like you’re trying to help customers further their journey—not sell at all costs.
- Don’t upsell immediately (unless customers are ready). Use link triggers so subscribers can let you know they want to learn or do more or build in delays so you don’t pitch another product immediately.
More automated email workflows to monetize your email list
5. Abandoned cart email workflow
Sometimes, a person checks out your product or service and doesn’t buy. That doesn’t mean they’ll never buy. They may have made a mental note to consider it, and then life got in the way.
In these cases, you can use a follow-up set of emails to check in with people who abandoned their cart before completing their purchase.
What does this look like in practice? When you mention your course or program in an email, you can add a link trigger to mark anyone who clicks as “interested” in the product.
Then, have your automation wait a few days. At the end of the two days, the automation will check if the person has purchased the offer. If they haven’t, the automation sends a follow-up email.
Email automation trigger: a person is added to a tag when they click through to your sales page, but they don’t have a ‘purchased’ tag after a few days
Make it your own:
- Choose a product. Start with automation for your big-ticket offers before following up on other courses, programs, or ebooks.
- Write your abandoned cart email. Approach this message as a friendly reminder with some extra info or testimonials to help someone decide.
- Set up the automation trigger. Choose what event will start your automation, like someone looking at a product. Then add a time delay, so you don’t follow up immediately after the person leaves your site.
6. Discount email workflow automation
Discounts can be a nice surprise for subscribers that makes them feel appreciated (and boosts your sales).
Use an automation with a delay to send a discount code to subscribers after they’ve been with you for a month or after someone buys one of your products.
Email automation trigger: a person is added to a tag with a time delay
Make it your own:
- Decide what to discount. You can either send a small discount for any product or service or select a particular promotion for subscribers to take advantage of.
- Share the discount details. Use the email to tell them how to use the discount, what it applies to, and how long the offer stands.
- Consider segmentation. You can get a bit more advanced and send discounts on items or services related to your different segments’ interests.
7. Automated newsletter referral program workflow
If you’re looking for a new way to grow your email list, look no further than your subscribers. A newsletter referral program incentivizes your audience to share your content with friends and family. In exchange for referring you, subscribers earn rewards.
The Kit and SparkLoop integration automatically tallies a subscriber’s referrals and sends rewards. You can introduce the program to everyone who has been on your list for at least a week. Then, you offer increasingly valuable prizes as people refer additional new subscribers.
You can also use Kit’s Creator Network to participate in paid recommendations that incentivize fellow creators to promote your email list and let you earn money for recommending others.
Email automation trigger: a subscriber is added to a form with a time delay
Make it your own:
- Pick an incentive. You can use existing content, like a free chapter, as a referral incentive. As subscribers refer more friends, increase the value of the reward.
- Decide when to introduce the program. It’s best to wait at least a week after someone joins your list to share the referral program. You want to give people time to use and enjoy your work.
- Write the introduction email. Dedicate an email to telling subscribers about your referral program. Explain why you use it, how they can get involved, and what they’ll gain.
8. Paid subscription email automation
Paid newsletters and fan clubs offer your audience more content and a closer connection. As a bonus, recurring income helps smooth out the peaks and valleys of creator finances.
An email sequence to pitch your paid subscription should go to engaged subscribers—people who have been with you for at least a week, have clicked on content in your newsletters, or purchased other products.
Email automation trigger: a person is added to a form
Subscription workflow automation
Make it your own:
- Choose a format. Do you want to offer a one-time joining fee or a monthly subscription? What will happen in the fan club? Ironing out the details first makes writing your emails quicker.
- Create an introduction email. You’ll need to write an email that tells subscribers about your fan club and how to join. If you’re considering the idea, you can create a link trigger and ask people to click if they’d be interested in joining. This way, you have a segment of interested fans if you decide to set up a fan club.
- Make a fan club landing page. Setting up a dedicated fan club landing page gives you a place to lay out all the details.
Best practices to build and manage email automation workflows
Email automation workflows are highly customizable, which makes them a powerful tool in your creator business, but also an overwhelming undertaking. Here are best practices to keep you on the right track as you create your first (or next!) email automation.
Keep your email list super organized
Organizing your email list with tags and segments preps you for personalized and relevant email automations. Email tags note a specific trait about a subscriber, like a product they purchased. Email segments, on the other hand, group subscribers together, like free vs. paid newsletter subscribers.
Utilize link triggers to organize your email list automatically
Link triggers are links in your email that automatically add a tag to a subscriber account when they click on them. For example, if you ask subscribers to click on their top goal in a lead nurturing email, you could use link triggers to automatically segment subscribers based on their response. In addition to using link triggers to organize your email list constantly, you can use these actions to start new automations.
Personalize all your automated workflows
Even though email workflow automations scale your reach, they shouldn’t feel distant or cold. Something as simple as adding a subscriber’s name to the subject line or email greeting adds a personal touch.
Customizing your sequences and emails for different tags and segments is another powerful way to make emails feel more personal. You can even experiment with dynamic content that changes the content in a section of your email based on who opens it.
Test and monitor every email automation
Email automations have a ‘set it and forget it’ quality, but you still need to check in on them. Monitoring email marketing metrics and KPIs like unsubscribe rate, open rate, and deliverability rate signal whether subscribers like the content you send (and if it even makes it to their inbox!).
How to create email automation workflows in Kit
Creating an email automation workflow in Kit is simple because the process was designed with creators in mind.
Case in point?
Kit email automations can be built visually instead of just in a list.
Here are the steps to get started:
- Sign up for a Kit account
- Go to the Visual Automations page in your account under the Automations section
- Decide if you want to build a new automation under ‘My automations’ or start with a template under ‘Templates’
- If you’re building a workflow from scratch, select a starting place (or “trigger”) that will kick off your email automation, such as someone joining your email list via an opt-in form or someone buying a product from you
- Click the + button and select “Email sequence”
- Start typing to create a new sequence, such as a “Welcome Sequence”
- In the new window that opens, write the emails for your sequence
- That’s it!
You might find it helpful to watch this video walking you through the process.
Start building your digital product empire with email automations
Somewhere along every creative entrepreneur’s journey, there comes a point when trading your time for money no longer feels sustainable.
Digital products like courses, memberships, and digital downloads allow creators to get paid for their skills and expertise without requiring nearly as much time as a 1:1 service, custom product, or content creation.
However, to scale your digital products business, you have to scale your marketing with automated email workflows.
Email automations allow you to show up consistently for your audience and send out targeted sales messages without requiring you to work on your marketing 24/7.
And you can start using Kit today to build your digital product empire.
