Like everything in the business sphere, marketing has undergone a significant shift in recent years, and 2019, in particular, has seen the need for marketing budgets and focus to increase ten-fold as eCommerce comes to the fore. Now, making sure customers can find you through their inboxes, search engines and social media accounts is key to success. What’s more, using big data to target those marketing efforts is an absolute necessity.
This is fantastic news for reaching audiences on a broader, national scale. The problem is that with these rising marketing processes comes the pressing need to automate. Big data marketing analysis in itself is too time-consuming for manual processes, as is regular email marketing and search engine efforts you can trust.
If you’re to stand any chance of staying ahead into 2023, then it’s fundamental you get on top of the best marketing automation available alongside the 67% of marketing leaders already tackling this. Luckily, we’ve got some automated marketing strategy suggestions to take your efforts here up a gear.
Capturing leads and customers is, fundamentally, at the heart of every marketing effort you’ve ever implemented, but as potential markets grow, capturing quality leads becomes even harder.
Luckily, these techniques play a huge part in marketing automation, and that focus doesn’t look set to change. Ultimately, the lead capturing capabilities of automation strategies start the moment you tailor ads for specific keywords or focus areas. Still, you’re going to need to take things further if you’re to keep your head above the marketing water.
Into 2023, companies look set to use automated lead creations to add value and interest for new consumers across the board. Automated email sign-ups across various forms of content are a common way to achieve this, as are social media automation tools that target people talking about services just like yours.
In both instances, automation allows you to add interest to audiences who don’t know what you offer and then meet their market needs on the back of these initial interactions. This makes way for tailored and efficient marketing every time, and opens you up to potentially higher conversion rates as a result.
Once you’ve generated interest, it’s time to consider nurturing those leads into conversions. Of course, lead generation followed by conversion has been a marketing staple for years. What you should be asking now is how you can automate these repetitive processes for more efficient results.
Primarily, email marketing automation tools should be at the heart of your efforts here. Well-timed, personalised email automation can increase click-through rates and conversions by as much as 2.5 times compared with less tailored manual digital marketing campaigns. And, they do it all without any added effort on your part. Instead, automation platforms appeal to your target audience using everything from purchase histories to browsing habits and beyond.
Still within the email sphere, automated campaigns can also prove invaluable for targeting potentially conversion-losing issues like shopping cart abandonment. As competition and cost comparisons increase online, the rate of shopping cart abandonment is up to around 75.6% at the moment. And, it’s a problem that tailored follow-up emails can help you eliminate. Automation in this area alone can help you to get the best possible value out of every lead your marketing efforts create, every single time.
Solely lead-focused automation alone won’t be enough to stand above the 2020 crowd. Remember, after all, that true profits come from lifetime customer value. This becomes an even more pressing automation priority when you realise that acquisition actually costs as much as five times more than retention efforts.
To stand any chance at seeing real returns from your automation next year, then, you should also focus your attention on improving the eCommerce customer experience for those already on board. Too often, post-purchase automation falls under the business radar, but the results of this effort speak for themselves.
By keeping up with customers using post-sale emails or even tailored discounts, you guarantee that loyalty keeps pulling you a profit. With existing consumer information to play with, automation can especially come into its own for tailoring marketing efforts with much higher chances of conversion across the board.
Suggested reading: Want to learn how to improve customer experience in eCommerce? Read our blog '5 Ways to Improve Customer Experience in eCommerce'.
For old and new customers alike, promo code automation also looks set to explode into 2020 and beyond, as 75% of consumers now expect discounts of some kind. Automation software that allows for personalised discount codes is especially useful in an age where 72% of consumers will only interact with offerings tailored to them.
In many ways, focusing efforts here can bring you a step closer to every other automation method already mentioned. Influencer-targeted unique codes can drastically improve consumer acquisition, while email-focused discounts surrounding everything from browsing history to shopping cart abandonment are sure to boost profits from existing consumers.
Of course, benefits aside, a failure to approach unique promotions in the right way is guaranteed to lead to increased expenses and issues with productivity.
That’s where automation yet again comes to the rescue. By using unique code generators that take care of promotions for you, you can achieve discount codes across the board for less cost and less workload. What’s more, automated software can help you to track and centralise every single code to guarantee you don’t fall foul to issues of code misuse or improper placements. By using these benefits alongside A/B testing, automated code generators can even help you to increase conversions based on past performance.
All you need to do is consider which code implementations would best serve your purposes. Again, A/B testing can be a huge help here once promotions are underway. Turning to methods like influencer marketing and website pop-ups from the off can also guarantee that you’re starting unique promotions on the footing most likely to reap the rewards with a 2023 market.
Marketing needs are ever-growing, and every automation strategy mentioned here provides you with a sure way to tailor your efforts to meet with those changing priorities. By getting ahead as we move into 2023, you stand to ride the marketing wave right to the front of the crowd.
All you need are the right strategies and tools to give old and existing consumers precisely what they want without fail.