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Marketing automation is a real revolution for e-commerce, opening up new opportunities. By automating your marketing activities, you can save time and better reach customers at crucial moments in their purchase path. How to use marketing automation effectively in an e-commerce shop? Let's go through the best practices that will bring real results.
What is marketing automation?
Marketing automation (marketing automation) is a set of tools and processes that enable the automatic management of repetitive marketing tasks and customer communication. These activities are based on data analysis.
How do you use marketing automation in your online shop?
1. customer segmentation
Automated marketing is based on precise customer segmentation. Instead of targeting mass messages to everyone, it is useful to segment your audience base on the basis of various criteria, such as:
- Purchase history,
- Site behaviour (e.g. products viewed),
- Age, gender, location,
- Engagement (frequency of visits, level of interaction with the brand).
Segmentation allows the creation of personalised content and offers, which are much more responsive to the needs of different audiences. This makes marketing messages more relevant. This, in turn, increases the likelihood of conversion.
2. personalisation
Personalisation is key when you want to build customer loyalty. Marketing automation allows you to dynamically adapt the content that customers see - from a name in an email to product recommendations based on their previous choices.
In practice, this means that your shop's marketing automation system can:
- Send reminder emails about products the customer has viewed,
- Recommend similar products that may be of interest to the customer,
- Present dynamic adverts tailored to his or her preferences.
3. recovery of abandoned baskets
One of the key applications of marketing automation in e-commerce is the recovery of abandoned shopping carts. Customers often abort the purchase process. This can be due to a number of factors, such as distraction or uncertainty about the purchase.
The automation system can:
- Send a reminder with information about the abandoned shopping cart,
- Offer a discount or free delivery,
- Recall products on other platforms, such as social media.
By focusing on abandoned baskets, a large proportion of potential orders can be recovered.
4. welcome messages
Many online shop owners underestimate the importance of welcome emails, and these have huge potential in building relationships with new customers. A welcome script is a series of emails that can be automatically sent to someone who has signed up for a newsletter or created an account with the shop.
What should welcome messages contain?
- A brief introduction to the brand and its values,
- Welcome offer, e.g. discount on first purchases,
- A guide to the most popular products or categories,
- Encourage interaction (e.g. liking the brand's social media profiles).
These automatic messages make new customers feel valued and get to know the brand better, which increases the chances of future purchases.
5. use of Lead Scoring
Lead Scoring is a technique for assigning points to customers based on their engagement and interest in an offer. It enables the identification of those most likely to make a purchase. This allows sales and marketing teams to focus on activities that will deliver the best results.
Using Lead Scoring you can:
- Personalise offers and discounts for the most engaged customers,
- Focus on customers who are likely to buy.
- Create specific remarketing campaigns targeting customers with a specific score.
6. campaign automation
Occasional campaigns, such as birthday or seasonal campaigns, are a great opportunity to increase sales and build relationships with customers. These types of campaigns can be programmed in advance and run automatically.
Birthday messages, purchase anniversary reminders or exclusive Black Friday offers, the options are many. Automating campaigns allows you to constantly remind your brand and encourage repeat purchases.
7. Monitoring and optimisation
Marketing automation does not end with the implementation of the system - ongoing monitoring of results and optimisation of campaigns is key. Analyse metrics and check which scenarios work best.
Systematic optimisation makes marketing automation work ever more effectively and produces better results. Simply - analyse, test, improve.
Summary
Although marketing automation is not a replacement for face-to-face customer relationships, makes them more effective and professional. It is a powerful tool that allows e-stores to manage processes more effectively and build lasting relationships with their customers.
