The complete guide. to marketing automation

Transcription

1 The complete guide to marketing automation

2 The rise of marketing automation Before social media, before PPC, before content marketing there was . isn t just any, old marketing tool, it s the marketing tool. And it s been that way for years! The reason marketing is so successful is because it is loved by marketers and consumers alike. And because of this, marketing can boast an incredible ROI of 4,300%! So, we know what marketing is and why it s so great. But what about automation? marketing automation allows marketers to utilise the right messaging at the right time. Marketers have more data, resources, and behavioural signals to work with than ever before, allowing them to enhance value and save time. Automation is still a rising trend. Monthly searches for marketing automation have grown by 22%, from 12,100 in Feb 2014 to 14,800 in January

3 And, it s no wonder that the trend is on the rise when you consider companies using marketing automation generate twice as many leads as those just using software. Automation can be a very powerful tool, but actually very easy to use! In this complete guide, we re going to take a look at the what, why, and how of marketing automation. This ebook will give a comprehensive overview of automation that will explain exactly what it is, how to use it, and more specifically, how to go about putting it in place within your business. 3

4 1 Use cases There are almost limitless use cases for automation, but for the purposes of this ebook, we will discuss five of the most common. 1. Workflows A workflow is, quite simply, a series of automated actions triggered by a customer s behaviour. Workflows allow you to take lead nurturing to the next level. For example, if a customer signs up to your newsletter, then they will automatically enter into a workflow. Typically, this workflow will ensure a welcome is sent to the customer, then maybe a follow-up a week or so later. Presumably, the data you have about your customers will grow and grow within your workflow, so you will be able to send more and more relevant, automated s. Market2Lead found that leads that go through automated workflows have a 23% shorter sales cycle. 4

5 2. Birthdays Automation isn t a substitute for personalisation, but the two can work hand in hand. And what s more personal than a birthday message? Showing you ve taken the time to remember a customer s birthday with a targeted offer will strengthen their relationship with your brand whilst encouraging them to spend more money with you. This birthday from Subway is thoughtful and also gives the customer a generous window in which they can redeem the offer. 5

6 Automation presents you with such a wealth of data that you can use it to think outside of the box when it comes to birthday offers. The below is a perfect example: With the engaging copy, great offer, and perfect timing, this is difficult to ignore. This probably explains why automated birthday s can result in a 30% lift in opens and a 60% increase in clicks. 6

7 3. Anniversaries Birthdays are not the only anniversaries worth remembering. Holiday and travel companies have recently started using the data they have on their customers to send out automated s. These can be s that entice the customer back to their previous holiday destination, or that remind customers that they went on holiday this time last year: Here s an example of a workflow for this kind of 7

8 However, this trend is not just for travel companies. Any product that customer s buy regularly can become the basis for an automated campaign. For example, the protein powder below: By simply calculating the estimated date that the product was due to run out, this company was able to send a tailored, targeted, and timely campaign that will no doubt be very much appreciated by the customer. 8

9 4. Booking confirmations It s essential to automate booking confirmations as they are very time sensitive. Booking confirmations need to be sent immediately after a transaction to give the customer peace of mind. This is a good example: It only includes the necessary information, no more, no less. Sometimes this can be used as an upselling or cross-selling opportunity. For example, if there is a product that will improve the usage of the item a customer has just bought, you could link to this in the booking confirmation. A workflow for this would look like so: 9

10 Booking confirmations can also be followed up by a customer satisfaction survey that will help you improve services based on customer feedback. If you have lots of regular customers then they may not appreciate getting multiple booking confirmations fortunately, Instiller can control this for you! 10

11 5. Drip feed or welcome programme If is the best way to contact customers, then content is the best way to nurture them! In this age of content marketing, it s increasingly popular to send out content to help people get the most out of your product or service. These drip feeds or welcome programmes are best started with a soft-sell sent no longer than 2 days after the customer has shown interest in your service like this: Dear Mr Smith, I would like to take this opportunity to welcome you to the Club and thank you for joining us. You are now part of Xercise4less. We hope that you make the most all of our amazing facilities and if there s anything we can do to make your membership more pleasurable, please do not hesitate to let myself or one of the team know. We are dedicated in working with you towards a fitter, healthier and happier lifestyle! You can find lots of information on all our Xercise4less gyms at our website or if you have any further queries or suggestions then please give us a call or the club directly. 11

12 After this initial , more automated s should be sent out at a steady pace. This is designed to nurture leads into becoming loyal customers. Here is the next that this customer received from the same company: This was sent one week after the original welcome . Each within a drip feed should be more focussed on selling to the customer and it works! Retailers that send a series of welcome s see 13% more revenue than those that just send one. 12

13 2 Problems & limitations Personalisation is incredible for businesses, in fact, it s essential. A study by ExactTarget and Forrester revealed that 84% of digital marketers reported personalisation as having a direct impact on customer retention and loyalty. However, this impact can be both good and bad. For example, if you send out an addressed: Dear Customer, this will most likely have a bad impact on customer retention. s need to be personalised in order to capture the attention of users and increase their engagement with your s. Personalisation is key to creating successful automated marketing s the more personalised, the better. But, before personalising anything, make sure you know your audience and that the data you have is correct. When personalisation goes wrong, it can go really wrong... A good example of this (or shall we say a bad example) is when Pinterest sent a congratulatory to female users that had pinned various wedding-related items. The subject of the was: You re getting married! 13

14 Unfortunately, many of these women were single, and they were quick to take to social media to roast Pinterest for the mistake: Pinterest managing to pull it back with a witty apology: We re sorry we came off like an overbearing mother who is always asking when you ll find a nice boy or girl. However, some problems caused by inaccurate personalisation are more damaging. Photo service, Shutterfly, made a similar mistake, except they sent the following to the wrong people: 14

15 This caused offence among childless people that were sent the To prevent personalisation from going wrong you need to remember 3 things: 1. Know your audience Before setting up any automated , you need to ensure that you have analysed your data completely and understand your audience. It s important to know exactly who your users are and what makes them tick in order to serve up relevant content through your automated s. 15

16 2. Understand user intent Use the signals you have available to you to help you understand what a user is looking for. This will give you the best chance of satisfying that need. 3. Build trust Trust is a vital element in building positive relationships with your customers. To build trust with your customers, be transparent about the data you are able to access about them. You can do this by asking users to read a privacy policy when they sign up to your newsletter. 16

17 3 Setting up an automated campaign Before you set up an automated campaign, you need to ask yourself three questions: When? - When will you send the ? What? - What will the content be? Who? - Who will receive it? A good starting point for your campaign would be to collect basic information about your customer and place them into a workflow that is necessary for their stage in the buyer s journey. For example, when a customer signs up to your site they should be place in your welcome programme, and when they purchase an item (or do something similar but relevant to your brand i.e. sign up for the service) they can be moved from the welcome programme to the customer workflow. Sending s With automation, each part of your workflows can be controlled by data. This means that you can control which s you send to who, and when making your campaigns a whole lot more targeted. 17

18 For example: A user is added to workflow A when they fill in field B. When they fill in field B, send an immediately and then wait for C days, unless they click D, in which case send E. Don t worry, it s not as complicated as it sounds when you use Instiller s Automation tool but more on that later! Delay Similarly, you can delay s and send them at a certain time period, instead of sending s based on certain triggers by the customer. A good example of this is when a customer books a holiday with a travel company. The company could put a delay in their campaign until one day before the customer is due to go on holiday, then they could send an automated Don t forget to pack . They could also send a customer satisfaction survey three days after the customer has returned from their holiday. 18

19 Decision point Decision points act like forks within workflows so users can be directed one way or the other based on certain conditions. For example: send dormant users to one workflow, and active ones to another. You can add multiple conditions to make your workflows as detailed as possible. End point When a user reaches an end point, this should not mean that your communication with them should stop. Instead, you should evaluate what path the user took to get to that end point and then use the data to calculate what to do next. For example: send the customer into another workflow or set up a trigger for a year s time. 19

20 About We are the world s only marketing solution that s dedicated solely to agencies. Instiller is a powerful and easy to use solution that provides all of the tools needed for agencies to deliver a complete marketing service to clients. With our simple drag and drop design and our new automation tool, it s easy to create focussed workflows and deliver timely, relevant, and highly personalised s. Get in touch to find out more! Call: hello@instiller.co.uk 20