Marketing Automation

How to successfully implement marketing automation in 7 steps.

Data, data, data. There is no shortage of data. What is missing are practical solutions that can turn data into revenue. The goal is clear in essence: those who operate e-

commerce need a system that collects data from different sources and correctly assigns integrated customer profiles, segments customers and delivers personalized messages via

the most important channels (website, SMS, e-mail) that leads the individual recipient to conversion due to their high individual relevance. That system needs to be the best,

fast and efficient, in real time and automated.

First step to marketing automation: Build a single customer database.

The biggest obstacle to efficient data recovery is storing data in separate silos instead of integrated customer profiles. Example: A user looks at your website garden

shredder (browser data). Unfortunately, no shredders appear in the content of the next newsletter, because e-mail marketing does not know the browser data.

The Way Out: Sort data by customer, not sources, and merge them into one centralized database. With a powerful deduplication software and the consent of the customers, this

can be technically and legally implemented. The effort is worth it. A single customer view database is the key to automation, multichannel marketing, real-time communication,

and personalization-everything that will drive successful marketing.

Second step to marketing automation: Create segments that fit your conversion goals.

Segmentation is the secret hero of data exploitation.

Segmentation means bringing together customers with similar behavior . A group that is similar in terms of a particular pattern of behavior can be specifically targeted with

matching messages. And the better the message fits the individual's behavior, the higher the likelihood that the recipient will react in the desired way. A single customer

view database makes it much easier to extract the patterns and relationships that are critical to purchasing from the data.

For example, using built-in root, browser, email, and transactional data , you can see that iPhone users between the ages of 30 and 50 have the highest opening and click

through rates in the newsletter and pay for the largest shopping carts. You can increase sales to this premium segment by sending the recipients long-formatted newsletters

with many high-priced products and offering discounts for more difficult customers.

Third step to marketing automation: Start with the relevant data sources.

Nobody reaches the goal of consolidating all customer-related data in a single database overnight. So start by bringing together the data that will help you generate the

fastest extra revenue. Above all, this is the behavior on the website in the e-commerce sector. These data signal preferences and acute buying interests. In order to be able

to assign the web analysis data to individuals, the integrated collection by first-party cookies is recommended to overcome the limited views of post-click analysis (only sees traffic from the newsletter) and post-login capture. It also eliminates interfaces to web analytics solutions. Also included in the starter setup of a single customer view are the opening and clicking rates from email marketing. They show how committed a customer is and what meaning this ROI-strong channel has for him. So diligent openers and clickers should be considered more frequently and with longer newsletters than the segment of the less committed. The third indispensable source of data is buying

behavior.

Using the transaction history, you can differentiate VIP customers from standard customers and both from card-rich individuals and target all of these groups, for example, by

showing more expensive products to VIP customers in the newsletter and on the website. In addition, meaningful up-sell and cross-sell impulses can be derived from the

purchase history.

Fourth step to marketing automation: standardize processes.

Sneakers, rental cars, lawn mowers, loans or vacation packages: Regardless of the product, the business processes in e-commerce are (almost) always the same. Therefore, the

processes of data analysis and communication necessary for marketing automation are similar. New customers are always welcomed, encouraged to buy for the first time,

motivated to return in case of shopping cart cancellations, encouraged to make further purchases with cross and upsell impulses and reactivated at the end of the customer

lifecycle.

If you've been systematically studying Conversion Rate Optimization before, you probably have a clear overview of the process chains. With each decision, the customer moves

from one segment to the next along these process chains: newly registered, re-registered without initial purchase, re-registered without initial purchase with newsletter

opening, etc. By linking each segment to an automatic content trigger, they develop the customer in an efficient way.

Fifth step to marketing automation: start with the e-mail.

There are good reasons for it. The e-mail is closely linked to all e-commerce processes. It is still the king of the ROI. And it's easiest to integrate into a marketing automation solution. Therefore, the findings from the data analysis should first be used to adapt e-mails in terms of time and content as precisely as possible to the individual behavior of the recipient. A good place to start is reminder emails to the person who dropped out.

Based on a single customer view with integrated e-mail, website and CRM data, shopping cart cancellation triggers are easy to set up. (Plus, these campaigns are very

lucrative, giving you the best argument for expanding the marketing automation solution: revenue.) Data integration not only allows you to set up personalized cart abandonment programs, but also other triggers, such as a browser conversion Program that offers customers, after visiting the site via e-mail, the products they have looked for.

Sixth step towards marketing automation: Strive for multichannel marketing automation.

Anyone who can dynamically design content and delivery time for e-mails can also do so in terms of the website, app, SMS and all other digital touchpoints. Because individually relevant, automatically triggered impulses via e-mail are only the entry into an ambitious multichannel solution. Thanks to the uniform customer view, you can segment customers according to preferred channels. A recipient does not respond to emails, but he does to push notifications?

Then he gets push notifications instead of newsletters. Segments can also be transferred to direct marketing or the call center, if nothing works on the digital touchpoints.

In short, a powerful single customer view database has the potential to become the backbone of all your marketing activities.

Seventh step to marketing automation: test everything.

Every day, new competitors, new products, new technologies, new media and new devices are coming onto the market. In such an environment of constant innovation, there are no

irrevocable certainties and rules, but always temporary ones. So find out which specific rules of segmentation and communication apply to you. Split segments. Perform A/B

tests. For example, try out whether your customers approve of cross-sell and up-sell stimuli or not. An agile business that is constantly evolving and optimizing is far

superior to static business models.