5 Easy Steps to Setting up Your Email Marketing Automation

Mar 27, 2025


Email marketing automation is a game-changer for businesses looking to engage customers, nurture leads, and boost conversions without spending hours on manual outreach. By automating your email campaigns as a small-to-medium business owner, you can ensure the right message reaches the right audience at the right time. But, the right software coupled with a little expert help goes a long way, and that’s where our award-winning digital marketing team comes in.

If you’re ready to set up your email marketing automation, follow our five simple steps to success.

Step 1: Choose the Right Email Automation Platform

The first step is selecting an email marketing tool that fits your business needs. Some popular platforms include:

Mailchimp: Great for beginners with easy-to-use automation features.

HubSpot: Ideal for businesses that need advanced automation and CRM integration.

ActiveCampaign: A powerful tool for creating highly personalized automation workflows.

Klaviyo: Best for e-commerce businesses with deep data analytics and segmentation.

When choosing a platform, consider factors like pricing, ease of use, and integrations with your existing CRM or e-commerce system.

Step 2: Define Your Goals and Audience

Before setting up automation, you need to be clear about what you want to achieve. Common email automation goals include:

  • Welcoming new subscribers
  • Nurturing leads through a sales funnel
  • Recovering abandoned carts
  • Engaging inactive customers
  • Sending personalized product recommendations

Segment your audience based on demographics, behavior, and past interactions to ensure your emails are relevant and engaging.

Step 3: Create Automated Email Workflows

Once you’ve set your goals and audience, it’s time to design your email automation workflows. Here are some key automation sequences.

Welcome Series: Introduce new subscribers to your brand with a warm welcome and helpful content.

Lead Nurturing: Guide prospects through the buyer’s journey with educational emails.

Cart Abandonment: Remind customers about their abandoned carts and offer incentives to complete the purchase.

Re-engagement Campaigns: Win back inactive subscribers with a special offer or compelling content.

Most email marketing platforms provide drag-and-drop workflow builders to make automation easy. The key is getting the most value for your available budget. To find out how much email marketing and automation with a local agency may cost your businesses, check out this blog we wrote.

Step 4: Craft Engaging Email Content

Automation won’t work without compelling content. Make sure your emails:

  • Have a clear subject line to increase open rates.
  • Include personalization (e.g., using the recipient’s name).
  • Provide valuable content that educates, entertains, or solves a problem.
  • Have a strong call-to-action (CTA) that tells readers what to do next.

Use dynamic content to personalize emails further, such as recommending products based on a customer’s browsing history.

Step 5: Test, Optimize, and Scale

Once your automation is live, regularly monitor its performance and optimize for better results. Key metrics to track include, open rates, click-through rates, conversion rates, and unsubscribe rates

A/B test subject lines, email designs, and sending times to improve engagement. As you refine your strategy, scale your automation by adding new workflows to cover different customer touchpoints.

Email marketing automation saves time, increases efficiency, and boosts engagement when done right. By following these five steps—choosing the right platform, defining goals, creating workflows, crafting engaging content, and optimizing performance—you’ll build an effective email automation system that nurtures leads and drives revenue effortlessly.

Trust Jacksonville’s Top Email Marketing Agency

Ready to get started? At Fable Heart Media, we are your one-stop shop for all things digital marketing, SEO, and website design. We’ve helped businesses across the city of Jacksonville, FL, and beyond supercharge their email campaigns with engaging content, innovative and up-to-the-minute metrics and much more. The proof is in the results–check out some of ours on our case study page

And, when you’re ready to take your email marketing campaigns to the next level, book your complimentary consultation with our Founder and Creative Director, Nick Leonard. Don’t let your competitors steal any more of your business–now it’s YOUR chance to rank first in your customers’ minds.






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We are Fable Heart Media, a digital marketing agency in Jacksonville, FL, that focuses on driving measurable growth and obtaining results for our clients. Whether you own a small company or lead a marketing team, our team can help you achieve your business goals. We love creating stunning websites and writing awesome blogs, but for us, nothing tops the feeling of watching our clients grow online due to our marketing partnership.