Let's learn about - What is marketing automation? How does it work? How to leverage it for better conversion? What tools can help with marketing automation?
What is Marketing Automation?
Trust me when I first heard about Marketing Automation, I assumed it would be a very complex and difficult concept. However, in reality, it is a simple but a very powerful concept.
The best part - We see multiple use cases of marketing automation every day in our life to relate.
Marketing Automation is all about automating regular tasks or workflows for marketing and sales processes.
These tasks may involve anything such as - Sending a push notification to user about product availability, Sending a message to a high intent user about discount coupons to make a quick purchase, Sending a mail about a shipment delay to any user who placed an order, and etc. Most importantly, these notifications can be personalized for each user.
Sounds amazing, right? I told you so!
Marketing automation streamlines, automates and increases the productivity of marketing communication for an organization. This communication can be maintained via multiple channels like email, social media, SMS, etc.
Just FYI, the number of Marketing Automation vendors grew 27% in 2018, a clear indicator of the burgeoning market demand.
Marketing Automation affects the bottom line of any organization very strongly. Why? Because it can impact your conversion rates positively.
How does it work?
I will be explaining few concepts with an example. This will help in understanding basics of marketing automation.
Customer Segmentation - For any communication to be effective, you need to send it to the right audience. It is very critical to understand who is your target audience, and this begins by segmentation of customers.
Example:
I want to run a campaign for Male customer living in Mumbai who have added a shaving care product to their cart but haven't placed an order. Therefore, my target Audience is the Men living in Mumbai who have added shaving care products in the cart but not placed an order.
Entry Triggers - An entry trigger is an indication of an event. We can set up different conditions for a trigger.
Example:
In the above example, entry trigger is adding a shaving care product in the cart, but failing to place order within next 2 days.
Exit Triggers - It is important to have an exit trigger. This will ensure that you are not sending a message to the same customer repeatedly even after the intended action has been taken.
Example:
In the above example, exit trigger is when the customer places an order with shaving product in the cart/when the last configured message has been sent to the customer.
Communication Message - Now comes the most exciting part of any marketing campaign - Communication Message. Your message should align with your audience, and most importantly, it should lead the customer towards the intent you are aiming for.
Example:
In the above example, your communication message could be
'Hi Samarth! Your Gillette shaving kit is waiting in your shopping cart. Click here to complete purchase now!’
The hyperlink embedded in the message will lead the customer to the Shopping Cart page of the mobile app.
Communication Channel - "The medium is the message" - Marshall McLuhan
This term signifies that every medium (or channel in our case) has its own social aspects. We need to be cognizant of the limitations, significance and impacts of every channel. This research can help us decide which channel to choose for our communication.
Example:
In the above example, you may choose Email or Push Notifications on the App as your communication medium. However, sending a flyer to the customer would be highly unwanted.
Personalization - Your communication message can be personalized to include the name of customer, product added to the cart, the number of items in the cart, etc. The hyperlink can also be personalized.
Congratulations, now you understand the basic terminologies and concepts of marketing automation. Let's jump to understanding how can you put it into place. '
In order to do that, you need to create workflows.
Workflows are sequential flows which put all of these into user journey. Below is an example for cart abandonment scenario which we discussed above.
How to leverage it the best for your organization?
As an organization, you should have a clear strategy in place for your communications. Utilizing marketing automation technology for your communication requires a strategy and an enthusiastic team. Let's have a step by step look at how can we leverage marketing automation.
Step 1: Understand the sales process of your organization
Step 2: Prepare a detailed layout of the customer journey and customer profiles
Step 3: Devise your communication plan, Prepare all required materials like creatives and messages
Step 4: Run multiple experiments for each goal and campaign
Step 5: Regularly measure the performance of each experiment
Step 6: Revise your campaigns on the basis of experiment results
What tools can be used for Marketing Automation?
There are many marketing automation technologies in the industry today.
I have personally used a tool called WebEngage.
The reasons I like WebEngage are:
It is extremely simple to use.
You can create workflows via drag and drop methodology
You can do cross channel engagement
You can dynamically personalize the message
Some of the known organizations that are using WebEngage are Goibibo, Unacademy, Unilever, Bajaj Finserv , etc.
You are free to explore and figure out what best suits for your goals.
See you later in the next post :)
Chaitali Bansal
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