If you’re unfamiliar with marketing automation – or understand it but are unsure how it fits into your overall marketing strategy – now’s the time to dive in and harness the power of marketing automation.
If you ever filled out an online form or completed an e-commerce transaction, then you’ve likely received an instant confirmation email for your interaction. That email that arrived in your inbox was you experiencing marketing automation firsthand.
Marketing automations, also known as workflows, are turnkey activities that enable businesses to seamlessly automate communication with customers and prospects. When executed effectively, you end up with a customized communication experience that is triggered by a customer action, like placing an order, watching a video, or simply visiting a product page on a website.
Most email marketing platforms – like Salesforce, HubSpot or Sharpspring – have various automations built into their service. These programs can save your team a lot of time by not having to individually reach out to customers for routine processes. The drawback is it can require taking a step back to set up the service before being able to maximize its effectiveness.
This is where SWBR comes in. We have a track record of success using many different marketing automation programs to aid our clients. We can either help you get set up and running as quickly as possible so your team can take over, or we can help you build and execute multiple workflows as an extension of your marketing team.
However you choose to operate, it’s a good idea to add marketing automation workflows to the list of tricks used to better communicate with your customers.
Below are a few proven examples of marketing automation workflows that can be implemented to help your business improve customer communications.
Marketing Automation #1: Welcome Campaign
Imagine the moment a new contact signs up for your email list and then immediately receives a welcome email so they can learn more about your brand, products and services. This automated action allows you to reach clients at a time when it’s right for them, and in this case new customers want to learn more about your company.
If they take additional actions from that welcome email, like visiting a specific product page on the website, then you can trigger additional emails off that activity. The goal is to engage with customers when your brand is top of mind for them because that’s when they are open to hearing from you. If you wait until your next regularly scheduled email, it’s possible you’ll lose momentum.
Marketing Automation #2: Last Engagement Campaign
This automation is perfect for those hot leads that are going cold. In HubSpot, our preferred email marketing software, you can catch those prospects while they are simmering and ensure they are not getting lost in the shuffle. Setting up a trigger in a workflow, such as the last time a customer interacted with your brand. From there you can initiate your automation to send out an email with a call to action related to that activity.
Marketing Automation #3: Request Feedback Campaign
Understanding your customers’ feedback before it hits your Google My Business Profile is critical in helping you be proactive in addressing customers’ needs. A product review automation is your chance to hear about your customers’ experience with your product firsthand. These automations can also be set up with a time delay so you are contacting a customer, for example, a few days or a week after they completed a purchase. This gives them time to assess the product, and hopefully, this email reaches them when they are ready to write a positive review.
Pro Tip: Use positive feedback to create testimonials. This feedback can easily be retooled for other channels, giving you content to publish on your website or via social media. When buying online, customers don’t have the luxury to test the products in person, so reviews are more important than ever.
While these are great ways to engage customers, there are endless possibilities when it comes to curating relevant and timely experiences for your customers through marketing automation strategies.
Ready to get started? Contact us and let the experts at SWBR help you and your business with a tailored strategy.
