Marketing automation solutions are a must-have for today’s marketer, who needs to get more done, in less time, and with fewer resources. With more cross-platform, omnichannel campaigns to run than ever before, there is so much to accomplish, and consumers expect brands to have their marketing locked down. Automating the key operational aspects of B2C marketing campaigns enables marketers to get more done with fewer resources, increasing efficiency, output, and effectiveness.
With marketing automation tools at their disposal, marketers are able to double down on high-quality content creation and strategic planning. For B2C marketers, automation means more chances to get in front of the right consumers for higher conversion rates and increased revenue. So, how exactly can marketing automation platforms help marketers do more with less?
Here are just a few ways they can help:
1. Reduce Cart Abandonment Rates
Abandoned carts are an ongoing plague to modern marketers. According to eMarketer’s Q1 2016 research, the digital shopping cart abandonment rate is high worldwide, at 74.3%. Marketing automation can help reduce cart abandonment rates, by automatically sending triggered emails to those who left unpurchased items in their cart. Automation tools help marketers optimize these emails, including how long after logout to send reminder emails, and even help generate the most compelling subject lines to ensure the emails are opened.
2. Increase Email Open Rates
B2C marketing automation helps brands increase overall email open rates, by utilizing A/B testing across all email components. Automation tools actually store historical consumer data to help optimize email open rates.
Whether through subject line optimization, or ensuring an email is populated with the right content and sent at just the right time, automation solutions result in data-backed decisions and results. Of course, this helps marketers rest easy knowing that their emails are being noticed.
3. Segment and Target Audiences
Sophisticated marketing automation platforms can collect immense amounts of data and, in turn, create holistic consumer profiles. These profiles can then be analyzed and segmented into highly targeted audiences to ensure the right message gets to the right person, at the right time.
With continued automation and data collection, these profiles are constantly updated and augmented for the most up-to-date engagement possible. Marketers can forget about sifting through spreadsheets and old email lists to build the right audience for each campaign. With marketing automation, this is all accomplished automatically.
4. Boost Revenue Through Upsells
Consumers have grown accustomed to receiving emails that include a section along the lines of “others also bought” or “similar customers looked at”. These recommendation emails can be automated and are specifically tailored to individual consumer buying preferences or previous browsing history, which is a powerful personalization component. Marketing automation platforms can analyze consumer purchase data and automatically send out these upsell emails in a state more likely to drive new revenue, relieving marketers once again of the duty of manually slicing and dicing the data.
5. Automate Loyalty Programs
Loyalty programs are a great way to utilize marketing automation across all channels, offline, online, or both. Whether a consumer is in a physical store, on a website, or on social media, automation solutions can register their loyalty information and send them real-time deals and incentives through multiple channels.
Marketing automation also comes into play when persuading consumers to sign up for loyalty programs. Loyalty programs help marketers reduce customer churn, create advocates, and grow a true culture of retention and, most importantly, customer appreciation.
6. Trigger Email Offers
Triggered email offers are perhaps the most traditional use of marketing automation. At its core, marketing automation is a solution comprised of actions and results. Consumer actions trigger marketing campaigns, which then feed the cycle and create a continuous circle of engagement between customer and brand. Email marketing is the bread and butter of any B2C marketer’s strategy, and marketing automation makes it easier than ever for marketers to achieve maximum results and ROI.
Final Thoughts
Marketing automation is a great way for B2C marketers to easily get out in front of large consumer audiences with proactive, real-time campaigns. The continuous cycle of testing, refinement, and feedback ensures that workflows are always changing and growing for maximum impact and effectiveness.
How will you incorporate marketing automation best practices into your marketing strategy?
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