by Kathleen Booth, on Mar 23, 2021 9:00:00 AM
As a small business owner or online retailer, are you feeling overwhelmed trying to keep up with your ecommerce marketing goals? Is your team spread thin or struggling to keep up?
Lucky for you, there are a number of marketing automation tools out there that can help you get better marketing results for your ecommerce business without a lot of added effort.
What is Marketing Automation?
Instead of manually writing and rewriting individual marketing emails, working to nurture contacts toward purchase, increasing repeat orders, and trying to track the activity of each of your customers, marketing automation software manages all that work for you, so you can focus on other areas of your business.
Sending out one-off newsletters, thank you emails, and personalized messages is simple enough when you are just starting out, but as your customer base grows, this will become less and less manageable.
The old manual ways of trying to track who your customers are, where they are coming from, and what they are buying are not only going to overwhelm and absorb much of your time, but also will stunt the growth of your business as the problem compiles.
Setting up an automated marketing platform is an investment in a simplified and streamlined marketing process that will allow you to expand your contacts and customer engagement while also shrinking the amount of time you spend doing so.
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Which Platform is Right For You?
There are a number of automated marketing solutions out there, but it's important to make sure you're setting yourself up with one that fits your specific business needs.
Here are some things to consider:
- Price: There are a wide range of marketing automation solutions available, at an equally wide range of price points. Be clear about what you're looking to get out of your marketing automation solution—and the amount of bandwidth your team has to fully use all of the features—before deciding which one to purchase. Don’t go for the biggest price tag if it doesn’t fit your needs and expenses, but do keep in mind that if you have the ability to fully utilize a robust platform, it may well be worth it to pay more for some of the advanced features on the more expensive platforms.
- Having the right metrics: Each platform offers something different. Make sure the one you implement offers the kind of tracking and analytics you're looking for. To learn more about what kind of metrics you should be keeping an eye on, you can read more our blog about ecommerce anayltics.
- Integrates well into your established business: Another thing to consider is how well the new software will work with other aspects of your business, as well as the rest of your tech stack. Even if one seems like it has what you’re looking for, if it's going to disrupt your day to day more than necessary, it's probably best to keep searching.
Here are some of the top automated ecommerce marketing software solutions (along with links to their respective websites) to help you get started:
We recommend you consult software review sites to read up on each of these, compare their features, and see what their existing customers have to say about them before you make a decision on which one to purchase.
Customer Relationship Management and Automated Marketing
This is perhaps the most significant benefit of automated marketing. By giving you the tools you need to properly engage with your customers with ease, you will build a healthier and more intimate relationship with your shoppers that will have them returning to your business.
Segmentation is the first step in discovering who your customers are and what each one wants.
Take the time to use the tools in your given platform to break down your leads and contacts into very specific groups. If possible, list contacts by demographics like location, age, average cart value, what products they converted on, and how much time they spend on your site.
By figuring out who subscribes your newsletters, who's buying what from where, and who hasn’t recently returned to your ecommerce site, you can personalize email marketing to have specific effects on specific groups.
For example, if you have people who have not subscribed to your newsletter, you can email them specifically and as a group—instead of writing individual emails—with a discount code or another promotion that would reward them for signing up, without bothering customers who have already subscribed.
Taking it a step further, you can list people by what kind of products they bought on your site. Put images of these kinds of products in front of them within your automated emails in order to increase the chances of catching their attention and bringing them back to your business.
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Effective Ways to Engage your Audience and Increase Your Revenue
Most automated marketing products give you a lot of flexibility when deciding how to trigger automated emails. Here are some ideas that will help you build trust with your customers and keep them coming back to your ecommerce site.
- Welcome Email
Set up an automated email that triggers when a new customer converts on your site. Keep it short but let them know you are excited for them to get to know your brand, while also putting some images of similar or popular products that may encourage them to return your site.
This kind of attention lets the shopper know you are excited about their patronage, while also giving them a reason to return.
- Reduce Cart Abandonment
A really simple way to decrease cart abandonment rates and increase your revenue is to set up an email that is triggered when someone decides to abandon their shopping cart.
Send them an email that you're sorry for losing their business and offer them a discount code or similar promotion to encourage them to return on your site.
- Win Back Campaigns
Another useful metric to track is how long it has been since a customer has returned to your site. By making a category of shoppers that have not made a purchase in a given amount of time, you target them all at once by offering them a promotion that will drive back to your business.
Don't harass them with regular emails, but when the time is right make sure to reach out to see if you can interest them in a new product or deal.
- Personalization
This can go a lot further than just putting a customer's name at the top of the email. If possible, try to cater the emails specifically to a customer's experiences with your product.
Tell the customer all about their favorite products they are buying off your store. Tell them how useful or popular they are, what others are saying about them, and some results they or others have had using your products.
- Make Sure to Put Images of Your Products in Your Emails
We have touched on this but it is important to give it its own time. Putting images of popular products in your automated emails plays a huge role in driving traffic back to your website.
If possible, find out which customers bought what and design an email around their specific tastes. This will increase the likelihood of them returning to your business.
Wrapping up
If you haven’t already adopted a marketing automation solution for your ecommerce business, you should consider taking the time to explore your options.
There are dozens of “set-it and forget it” solutions out there that will free up huge amounts of your time while operating at a level of efficiency you would not be able to accomplish on your own, freeing up your time to tackle other areas of your business while also increasing your ability to market towards specific audiences.
