What’s the difference between broadcast emails and automation emails?

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In this post I’ll be breaking down the difference between a broadcast email and an automation email or sequence so you can leverage both to your advantage. You’ll find out when to use each and how they work in tandem to help your subscribers find the solution to their problems (hint: buying your products).

What’s the difference between broadcast emails and automation emails?

There are a lot of different terms used in email marketing, and if you’re new to emails you may be wondering what the difference is between broadcast emails and automated emails (which are sometimes referred to as an autoresponder).

I think the biggest tripping point for most people is that broadcast emails can be set to send automatically, but that doesn’t mean they’re an automated email or an autoresponder in the true sense of the word.

So let’s dig in to learn more about email automation vs email broadcast.

What’s a broadcast email?

A broadcast email is an email that is sent out to your list (or a portion of your list) on a given date. The trigger for the email is the date it’s sent.

Your broadcast email strategy may be your monthly newsletter, your weekly update or even your daily message.  There are no rules on how often you send your broadcast emails, you choose your schedule.  

However the key is to be consistent and create a strategy around your broadcast email plan to fit your schedule.

Even if it’s just a monthly newsletter update, you’ll want to commit to this schedule so that your readers know what to expect and you keep your connection with them warm.

If you’re an ecommerce business with several products to sell, I’d suggest a schedule of 3 emails a week at the minimum. 

You can send these to all your subscribers, or keep some of your broadcast emails for customers only – those who you know have enjoyed your products in the past and are probably eager for more, especially if you create or design new versions of your products regularly.

What’s an automated email sequence or autoresponder?

These words are used interchangeably but the gist of an automated email is that it’s triggered by a behaviour that your subscriber takes.

That’s usually something like signing up for a lead magnet or discount code, purchasing a product, abandoning their shopping car, or  even clicking a link in a broadcast email (or another automated email sequence).

For more information on the types of automated email sequences you can send, take a look at this post where you’ll learn 5 smart sequences to automate your ecommerce business.

Once your subscriber has taken the prescribed behaviour an email or sequence is triggered in response.

Depending on how complex you want your automations, you can set up a whole host of triggered sequences that lead your subscribers and customers on a journey through your content and products.

Can broadcast emails be automated?

The simple answer to this is yes.  Like I mentioned in the introduction to this post, a broadcast email can be set to automatically send so that you can get ahead on your email and marketing plan. 

In fact I highly recommend that you do this so that you’re planning ahead and have a proper content and promotional strategy in place so you are organised with your email sends and product promotions.

This is particularly important if your business is seasonal or uses seasonal promotions as part of your business plan.

When broadcast emails become autoresponders…

Generally broadcast emails and autoresponders are completely separate entities, however, if you send a broadcast email that gets a lot of engagement or generates more than average revenue, then you might want to consider using that email within an autoresponder.

For example, say you sent an email talking about one of your top-selling products to educate your subscriber about it and it did very well in terms of seeing an uplift in sales, then you might want to consider adding that email to your nurture sequence or post purchase upsell journey to offer this product as part of your funnel.

Using broadcasts to test before adding them to your automations is a great way to see how to make the most of your customer email sequences and journey’s.

How to use  broadcast emails and automation emails

For an effective email marketing strategy you’ll want to plan out both your broadcast and automated emails.  Your broadcast strategy is an ongoing process that you’ll plan each month or quarter depending on what products you’ll be focusing on. 

While your automated emails are a more of a set-and-forget strategy, although forgetting about them isn’t really the best way to go about it.  You’ll always want to keep looking at the metrics and data results from your automations so that you can see what’s working and where things may need to be tweaked. This is what’s called optimising. 

You look at trends within the data, extrapolate meaning from them and continue to test new techniques to see what happens. This may include rearranging sequences to test messaging points, subject lines, CTAs (call-to-action) and other copy techniques.

You may also want to look at the customer journey behaviour to see when people are more likely to buy a product – if they need more education or persuasion as part of the process.

I hope this gives you a better understanding of the difference between broadcast emails and autoresponders. I have another post that you may find useful regarding the four types of emails you can send to your subscribers.

If you need a helping hand to create an effective email sequence strategy, then see how I can help you with my services here.