As reported by the Direct Marketing Association, as a marketing tool, email is dramatically outperforming social media. A November 2012 report from IBM Digital Analytics Benchmark only proves this statement: figures show that the number of e-buyers making purchases after clicking through from social platforms dropped by more than 26% in comparison with 2011 figures. It turns out that a significant part of holiday sales are triggered by good old email.
Even though email marketing has been around for years, today’s effective email marketing based on automation is a completely different story. If you haven’t upgraded your automated marketing techniques yet, it’s the right time to do that. Here’s a little inspiration.
Present-day marketing automation
Clever marketing automation is a great way to unload your workflow and improve your targeting by reaching an engaged audience. Automation makes it easy for businesses to trigger marketing campaigns based on the visitor’s actions on their website. However, despite its enormous popularity, marketing automation is used for all the wrong reasons by some companies. As a result, best customers are sometimes ignored, while email lists are expiring by 25% a year.
The scourge of our times online
It’s easy to take email marketing automation for granted and, as a result, fail to get your marketing message across. The evolution of marketing automation isn’t over yet, so there are many aspects that can be improved. According to HubSpot marketing experts, the major marketing automation sins are forgetting that your email list expires, taking no notice of your customer’s behaviour, losing focus on content and others.
Email marketing that works
To avoid over-automating your relationships with customers, it’s essential to follow two principles highlighted by HubSpot marketing gurus. First, marketing automation should go in line with the customer’s changing and evolving. Second, marketing automation shouldn’t replace personal attention to the customer but enrich it with the help of cutting-edge tools.
Tricks of the trade
To update your marketing automation strategy, use the following tips.
- Integrate several marketing channels. Automation will bring better results if you integrate email with social and your blog. Purchasing decisions are not just made using one source; email, social media, search as well as peer reviews are all important players.
- Use marketing automation to understand what your targeted audience wants. Ignoring the customer’s online experience is a missed opportunity so gather the purchase history, website, social, blog and other behavioural data on your leads to target cleverly.
- Ensure your marketing automation tools personalise messages based on customer experiences to convert one-time buyers into loyal customers.
- Focus on content to give customers what they need. Avoid sending spammy emails with irrelevant content over and over again.
It’s possible to save yourself a lot of time by taking advantage of marketing automation. However, make sure you set up the message properly as poor quality automation can do more harm than good.
Photo Credit : Send Email / Send Group Email
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