People will forget what you said. They will forget what you did. But they will never forget how you made them feel.
Maya Angelou
Email marketing automation aims to do just that, it enables your communication with a prospect or existing customer to be more personalized and timely. Communication between your business and your clients should feel like a 1 on 1 conversation that is tailored for their wants and needs. When it comes to retaining a client, the deciding factors encompass the entire buyer journey that they have gone through. It’s not just about providing a stellar product or service but also the support that comes after it. The entire buyer journey has drastically changed in a short span of time, and will keep on changing as the world develops. According to Leadsquared, a customer finishes almost 60% of their buyer journey before approaching your sales rep. Social media reviews, tutorials and word of mouth suggestions are all pit stops before a client decides to move forward with their purchasing decision. This is where a marketing automation solution comes forward, it enables you to build trust and influence a lead from the first step to the last in the purchasing cycle. The ability to send out personalized emails based on what stage of the buying process a prospect is, can tremendously improve your ROI and sales numbers. Let’s look into how email marketing automation software can help transform your marketing outreach.
Email Automation Uses Analytics to De-code the Customer
Marketing automation statistics give you insight into a wide array of customers traversing through your businesses’ buyer journey. This will basically enable you to cater to different audiences more effectively by showing them what they are already likely to be interested in. Your prospect will appreciate the straightforward approach and be more inclined towards becoming a customer once they understand the value that they are receiving. Personalized emails have an increased conversion rate of around 10%. Here’s an example of HubSpotsending different types of promotional emails based on what stage of the buying cycle the prospect is currently on.
Early in the cycle:
Further in the cycle:
Improve ROI Using Email Automation:
Converting a prospect to a customer is a huge task in the first place, but getting the customer to purchase again is an even better achievement. It’s 5-25 times cheaper to keep an existing customer than to acquire a new one. So efforts need to be increased after you made your sale because there is real money to be made in doing so. A customer is 5 times more likely to purchase from you again if they have already bought once. Here is an example of a brilliant campaign by Misguided to try and persuade previous customers to purchase again with a small discount.
Improve Your Customer Experience by Nurturing Client Feedback
What better way to understand your customer than to ask them directly. Providing a product or service that caters to the pain points of the consumer is next to impossible without valuable feedback. You need a deep understanding of what your consumers actually want and automated and personalized email marketing can help you do just that. A small quiz or survey is a great way to keep the feedback interactive and allows the customer to open up about what they like and dislike about your product. Here is a simple yet effective template that Campaign Monitor uses to gain insight into their customer’s preferences.
Keep Your Audience Up-to-date
Automated email marketing is essential for maintaining and nurturing a continuous relationship with your prospect and client base. Not only does this help in converting more leads but also helps in retaining your customer base, it strengthens not only familiarity but also trust. Use automation to deliver personalized deals and discounts based on your buyers' preferences and purchase history. A small token of appreciation can go a long way to build a loyal customer base. Here’s Omaha Steaks' way of delighting their customers with a free cake for their birthday.
Wrapping Up
Having an integrated email automation system can help expand and advance your business without much investment needed. In this digital world’s abundance of digital ads, social media, and promoted content you need to find a way to cut through the noise and mark your targets. Remember these key points as you go about configuring automated emails for your business
- Always aim to provide a personalized experience.
- Look to build relationships through regular updates.
- Evolve through constructive feedback.