Understanding Automated Marketing
Automated marketing fundamentally changes how businesses engage with their customers — enabling businesses of any size to affordably deliver timely, personalized, and relevant communications at scale. And, with automated marketing programs, you can focus attention elsewhere while your marketing systems do the heavy lifting.
Here’s how to leverage automated marketing for your business.
It All Starts with Data. All automated marketing is powered by data…and the quality of that data will make or break your campaigns. Start by cleaning and unifying your customer data from all available touchpoints—your CRM, website, email platform, and more. The more comprehensive and accurate your data, the more precise your automated campaigns will be. Pro tip: Use your marketing automation system to message customers and ask them to grow & keep your data up to date. For example, asking customers for their birthdays gives you more data points for automated marketing campaigns and allows you to reconfirm key customer fields such as their location.
Segment Your Audience Like a Pro. Segmentation is the key to personalizing your messages. Rather than blasting your entire email list with the same generic promotion, create audience segments based on behavior, demographics, and lifecycle stage. The more granular your segmentation, the more relevant your communications will be. Pro tip: Not all segments are created equal. Be sure to use a system for automated marketing that differentiates between a segment that exists at one point in time — for example, “All Customers” — and those that grow every time someone meets the segment criteria — like “New Customers”.
Master Omnichannel Automation. When it comes to automated marketing, email is just the beginning. Today’s customers interact across multiple channels—email, SMS, social media, mobile apps….and even direct mail. Your automated marketing strategy needs to reflect that omnichannel reality. Pro tip: Include as many response options as possible in each message. In personal financial services, for example, many customers prefer to text an inbound SMS shortcode rather than getting on the phone with. an agent.
Leverage Dynamic Content for Personalization. Static messaging won’t cut it anymore. With automation, you can dynamically insert personalized content into your campaigns, whether it’s product recommendations, specific offers, or customized imagery based on the customer’s behavior or preferences. Pro tip: You may have a segment of users that have abandoned items in their ecommerce shopping carts. Try including images of these items when you re-engage the customer to encourage purchases.
In conclusion, Automated marketing offers incredible potential to boost your business’s customer engagement, retention, and revenue. But to get the most out of your automation efforts, it’s crucial to focus on data, segmentation, multichannel coordination, and dynamic personalization.