With Marketing Automation flows, you can set up a series of automated processes. This will enable you to execute different messages and actions to your target audience, at any desired time.
Here are 5 examples of Marketing Automation practices that can help you get the best possible engagement from your customers. Let intelligent automated flows do the work for you.
1. Set Up a Welcome Flow
Once people have signed up to your newsletter, it is important to make them feel welcome from the start. A warm welcome is without doubt one of the most important of all marketing automation flows. It may be your only chance of making a good impression. So do not blow it!
Use this opportunity wisely. It is here where you will commence to build your relationship, to ensure your new subscribers remain on your list. Research has shown that emails from a welcome flow typically have higher open, click through and conversion rates.
Here are a few ideas on how to increase and maintain a welcome flow:
a) Raise brand awareness.
Help your recipients understand what you are all about and what you have to offer, and why it would benefit them. Keep them intrigued, by drip feeding them with information. This will build confidence and trust. The length of emails will depend on the size of your company and who you are dealing with. B2B will be a longer series of emails than B2C.
b) Provide content of interest and success stories.
Providing content of interest is the very reason why someone may have signed up to your newsletter. Provide clear, concise and personalized messages. By educating them on your product(s) you can help them better understand the benefits. This can be backed up by testimonials and social proofs; satisfied customers, company awards, product awards etc.
c) Offer an incentive.
A discount of “up to 50% off when you sign up” can lead to various emails in your flow. As a result, a customer may be inclined to make the most of a great opportunity. Firstly, deliver on your call to action and provide the discount. Then follow up and ask for feedback on the product. Another email in the flow can be with “Did you know?” facts about the product and so forth.
2. Create a Loyalty Program
By creating a loyalty program, you will be building your own VIP club. People love to feel privileged and valued. When they commit to a loyalty program, they are expecting special treatment in return.
When a VIP customer makes a purchase or provides a review, you can follow up with a reward or special offer. This can also trigger other opportunities such as referral programs. So, you could end up with a situation where your customers are selling for you. The opportunities here are endless.
3. Dynamic Segments
Segmentation can be categorized by geographic, psychographic, demographic, firmographic and behavioral patterns. By collecting data from your recipients, you can use this information to assist you in creating dynamic segmented email flows.
This will help you eliminate dead end campaigns and leads. It will also guide you to targeting your recipients with relevant content. All without the need for you to do the additional work. The marketing automation flows will do this for you, saving you time, while directing traffic to your end goal and obtaining higher conversions. Examples for dynamic segmented emails can be; related products and/or new and improved versions of exciting products.
4. Re-engagement
Some customers may have fallen off the bandwagon. Therefore, they are not engaging with you. Although there may be many reasons for this, it does not necessarily mean they are lost customers. Potential sales may still be there. You just need to re-engage with them and try to trigger a response.
Ideally you would like to understand why they have stopped engaging with you. Could it be that your emails are not interesting enough? Or perhaps they are dealing with one of your competitors? Whatever the reason may be, here is your chance to win them back. Bring them back from the dark side. Who knows, you could wake up a sleeping giant.
You can dangle a carrot and see if they bite. Offering rewards or incentives may get them back on track. For Example: “We’ll beat any price by 10%”. If you find they are still not reacting then it would be wise to remove them from your list, in order to reduce the risk of your emails ending up as SPAM.
Another possible scenario is automatically pushing inactive users to a retargeting list on Facebook. Here people can be reminded about products they have purchased or viewed in the past. This could also be a trigger point to get them to re-engage.
5. Customer Focus
At MarketingPlatform, we know how important customer service is. We make a great effort on focusing on this part of our business. And we think you should too. Ultimately your business is driven by sales, but customer focus is an integral part of obtaining a sale.
With Marketing Automation, you can be as creative as you like in your dialogue with your customers. As good as a sale is, the real reward comes with customer satisfaction. Customer satisfaction can lead to repeat sales and referrals of new customers. This can be achieved by:
- Obtaining product reviews and ratings.
- Sending follow up material supporting products purchased.
- Sending information about new products of interest.
On the Road to Success
The use of marketing automation flows is an integral part of any marketing campaign. By applying these processes, you are sure to benefit from maximizing the potential outcome of your customers. More engagement leads to more opportunity, which leads to more success.
This blog post has also appeared in a MarketingPlatform Newsletter.
Author: Alex Trajcevski
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