How to Set Up Advanced Email Automation with Make.com!

Email automation can be a real game changer for any business, especially when it comes to saving time and improving customer engagement. If you’re not already using email automation, here are a few reasons why you should start:

• Save time by automating repetitive tasks like sending welcome emails or follow-ups.
• Engage your audience with timely, personalized emails based on their actions.
• Reduce human error by setting up consistent, automated workflows.
• Scale easily without needing to manage every email manually.

This guide will walk you through setting up advanced email automation using Make.com, a powerful tool for automating workflows. Whether you’re new to Make.com or want to learn more advanced techniques, you’ll find everything you need here. Let’s get started!

Why Email Automation Is Essential for Your Business

First, let’s talk about why you should even bother with email automation. If you’re still manually sending out emails, responding to customer inquiries one by one, or managing your mailing lists, you’re spending time on tasks that could easily be automated.

Here’s why automating your emails can make a huge difference:

1. Save Time: Manually sending emails is time-consuming, especially as your business grows. Automating this process lets you focus on higher-level tasks.
2. Reduce Errors: Automation reduces the chances of human error. No more accidentally sending the wrong email to the wrong person or forgetting to follow up on time.
3. Increased Engagement: Automated emails can be triggered by user actions, meaning you can send personalized, timely messages that are much more likely to be opened and clicked.
4. Scalability: As your business scales, so will your email marketing efforts. Automation allows you to manage hundreds or even thousands of contacts without breaking a sweat.

With Make.com, you can automate everything from welcome emails and follow-ups to advanced, segmented campaigns based on customer behavior. Sounds exciting? Let’s get started!

Getting Started: What You Need

Before we dive into building workflows, let’s talk about the tools and services you’ll need to set up advanced email automation.

Here’s a quick checklist of what you’ll need:

• Make.com account: This is the platform we’ll use to create automation workflows.
• Email service provider: This could be Gmail, Mailchimp, ActiveCampaign, or any other email service that integrates with Make.com.
• CRM (optional): If you want to add contacts to your customer relationship management system as part of your workflow, you’ll need a CRM that integrates with Make.com.
• Google Sheets (optional): You can use Google Sheets to store information like new subscribers or people who click certain links in your emails.

If you don’t have an account on Make.com yet, head over to their website and sign up for free. They offer paid plans, but the free version is often more than enough to get started with email automation.

Step 1: Setting Up Your Make.com Account

Once you’ve signed up for Make.com, you’ll be taken to the dashboard. The dashboard is where you’ll create and manage your automation workflows, also known as scenarios. Each scenario connects different apps (like your email service, CRM, and analytics tools) to automate tasks.

Here’s what you’ll see in the dashboard:

• Scenarios: This is where all your automation workflows will live. You can create new scenarios, edit existing ones, and monitor their performance.
• Templates: Make.com offers pre-built templates for common automation tasks. You can use these as a starting point if you’re not sure how to build a workflow from scratch.
• Connections: This is where you’ll connect your apps, such as Gmail or Mailchimp, to Make.com.

After familiarizing yourself with the dashboard, it’s time to connect your email service and get things moving!

Step 2: Connecting Your Email Service to Make.com

The first step in setting up email automation is connecting your email provider to Make.com. Luckily, Make.com integrates with almost every major email platform, including:

• Gmail
• Outlook
• Mailchimp
• ActiveCampaign
• Instantly
• and many more…

Let’s walk through how to connect your email provider, using Gmail as an example:

1. Create a New Scenario: From the dashboard, click on “Create a New Scenario.” You’ll be taken to a page where you can choose the apps you want to automate.
2. Add a Trigger: In Make.com, everything starts with a trigger — an event that kicks off the automation. Type “Gmail” in the search bar and select Gmail from the list of apps. You’ll be prompted to connect your Gmail account.
3. Authorize Gmail: Make.com will ask for your permission to access your Gmail account. Click Authorize and follow the on-screen instructions to log in.
4. Choose a Trigger Event: Once your Gmail account is connected, you’ll need to choose what event will trigger the automation. For example, you can select:

• New Email: The scenario will trigger when you receive a new email.
• Email Sent: The scenario will trigger every time you send an email.
• Email Starred: The scenario will trigger when you start an email.

For this example, let’s say we want to trigger an email every time someone subscribes to your newsletter. In that case, we’ll use Mailchimp as our trigger app instead of Gmail. The process of connecting to Mailchimp is the same as Gmail.

Step 3: Creating an Email Automation Workflow (Triggered Email)

Now that your email provider is connected, it’s time to create a basic email automation workflow. The most common type of email automation is a triggered email — an email that gets sent automatically when a specific event happens.

Let’s start with a simple scenario where a welcome email is sent whenever someone subscribes to your newsletter.

1. Select Mailchimp as the Trigger: Once you’ve connected your Mailchimp account, select the trigger event. In this case, it will be New Subscriber.
2. Set Conditions (Optional): You can add conditions to the scenario if needed. For example, you might want to send a different email based on whether the subscriber signed up for a free trial or a newsletter.
3. Add an Email Action: After setting the trigger, you’ll add the action that should happen next — sending an email. Search for your email provider (e.g., Gmail or Mailchimp) and select Send an Email as the action.
4. Customize the Email: In the email settings, you can customize the subject line, email body, and recipient’s email address. Make.com allows you to use variables like the subscriber’s name to personalize the email. For example:

• Subject: Welcome to Our Community, {{first_name}}!
• Body: Hi {{first_name}}, thanks for subscribing to our newsletter. We’re excited to have you here!

5. Test the Workflow: Before you activate the scenario, it’s always a good idea to test it. You can do this by adding a test email address to your Mailchimp list and seeing if the welcome email gets sent.

Step 4: Adding Follow-Up Emails

A single email is great, but automation can do so much more than just sending one message. Let’s take it to the next level by adding follow-up emails. This is where things start to get more advanced, but don’t worry — I’ll guide you through it.

A follow-up email is usually sent after the initial email if a subscriber doesn’t engage (open the email, click a link, etc.). With Make.com, you can automate this process easily.

Here’s how to do it:

1. Create a New Scenario: Go back to the Make.com dashboard and create a new scenario. This time, set the trigger to be an Email Not Opened event. If you’re using Mailchimp, you can trigger the follow-up based on whether someone opened the first email or clicked a link inside it.
2. Set Time Delays: You can specify how long to wait before sending the follow-up email. For example, you might want to wait 3 days after the first email was sent. Make.com has a built-in time delay feature that makes this easy to set up.
3. Create the Follow-Up Email: Just like we did before, add the Send Email action, but this time it will be a follow-up message. Personalize the subject and body to re-engage the subscriber. For example:

• Subject: Did You Miss Our First Email, {{first_name}}?
• Body: We noticed you haven’t opened our first email. We wanted to check in and make sure you didn’t miss out on our exclusive offer!

4. Test the Follow-Up Workflow: As always, it’s a good idea to test your workflow to make sure everything works as expected. Subscribe with a test email address and see if the follow-up email is sent after the specified delay.

Step 5: Building Drip Campaigns

A drip campaign is a series of emails sent to a contact over a set period. For example, you might send an initial welcome email, followed by an educational email two days later, and then a promotional email a week after that.

Here’s how to set up a basic drip campaign using Make.com:

1. Trigger: Start with a trigger — let’s use New Subscriber in Mailchimp again. When someone subscribes, this will trigger the drip campaign.
2. Email Series: After the trigger, create a series of emails with time delays between them. For example:

• Email 1: Welcome Email (sent immediately after subscribing)
• Email 2: Educational Email (sent 2 days later)
• Email 3: Promotional Offer (sent 7 days later)

3. Adding Delays: For each email, add a time delay between the steps. Make.com allows you to customize the delay to match your campaign timeline.

4. Custom Conditions: You can add conditions to your drip campaign. For example, if the subscriber opens the educational email but doesn’t click the link, you can send them a follow-up email with more information.

5. Testing the Drip Campaign: Before you go live, test the entire workflow to ensure the emails are sent at the right intervals.

Advanced Tips and Best Practices

1. Segment Your List: Not all subscribers are the same. With Make.com, you can segment your email list based on actions, behaviors, or demographics. For example, you can send different emails to people who clicked a certain link versus those who didn’t.
2. Use Webhooks: If you’re using a more advanced CRM or sales tool, you can use Webhooks to trigger email sequences based on specific customer actions, such as making a purchase or filling out a form.
3. Monitor Performance: Make.com allows you to monitor the performance of your scenarios, so you can see how many emails were sent, how many were opened, and which ones led to conversions.
4. Automate Re-engagement Campaigns: For inactive subscribers, set up re-engagement campaigns to win them back. You can trigger an email series if someone hasn’t opened your emails in 30 days.

Final Thoughts

Email automation is a game-changer for your business. With Make.com, you can create advanced workflows that save you time, increase customer engagement, and help you scale your email marketing efforts. Whether you’re just getting started or looking to build more complex campaigns, automation allows you to focus on what matters most: growing your business.

I hope this guide helps you get started with email automation in Make.com. If you have any questions or need help setting up your workflow, feel free to reach out — I’d be happy to help!