How To Write Great Automated Email

Updated March 3, 2025

Saving  Time and Improving Results

As marketing automation becomes more commonplace, and the usage of tools like Mailchimp become wider and wider, more thought is going into writing the perfect automated email. Instead of email being a one-to-one communication tool, it’s now much more common to get automated responses to inquiries. The following are six ways where your brand can connect more effectively without losing touch.

How to Write a Great Automated Email

Get Clear on Purpose – Why are sending this automated email in the first place? Does it require a response from the recipient? Or, are you sharing some content, or information with them? You need to have this goal clearly defined before you start. Whatever your goal is, the whole focus of the email needs to be on that, and that alone. Second, never send an email that requires more than one action to be taken because 1) it’s unlikely your instructions will be followed or 2) it’s confusing.

Use the Power of Subject Lines – According to HubSpot, 33% of email recipients decide whether or not to open an email based on the subject line alone. Subject lines that are short and sweet work since 40% of emails are opened on mobile first. Words like “newsletter” can decrease open rates by nearly 20%. Jazz things up with action verbs and enticing (and accurate) phrasing.

Get In Tune – Pick the right tone of communication for your emails. This partially depends on the topic, and partially on the general tone of content elsewhere on your website. If you’re creating an automated email to send from customer service then the tone should reflect your brand’s standards on customer interaction. For example, you’d expect an automated email from Southwest Airlines to be very different from British Airways. 

Personalize – One of the benefits of marketing automation tools like MailChimp is that they allow you to add some customizable information. Adding first names or the client’s company name might not seem like a big deal, but it helps to make the customer feel like they’re being communicated to directly, even if the email is a mass mail.

Timing Is Everything – Think carefully about when you’re sending your email. Ideally, you want it to be top of the person’s inbox when they check it.  Timing also depends upon time zones. MailChimp suggests that you send it around 10:00 am on a weekday, before Friday, to get the best results.

Segment Your Lists – Make sure you’re only sending messages to people who need them. If you’re increasing your fees for 90% of your clients, but some are unaffected, don’t mail to that group. By breaking down your mailing list into specific subcategories, you can increase read and CTR (by only sending them appropriate emails) and also personalize the messages better for each different section. You can segment by lifecycle stage, content engagement, and industry sector and much more.

If you make sure that these six conditions are present in your automated email you will see open and reply rates increase. Are there any do’s and don’t’s of automated email you think we’ve missed?