Marketing Automation

Digital Marketing - Study Notes:

What is marketing automation?

Three key principles of email marketing are segmentation, personalization, and timing. A fourth principle is marketing automation.

Sometimes known as automated email, marketing automation is simply sending out emails to customers automatically using software. In other words, these emails are not sent by a person: they are sent automatically by a piece of software.

Once someone completes an action on your website, also known as a trigger, your automation software can send them an email based on what they’ve done and how you’d like them to respond. Examples of these triggers include:

• Filling out a lead form
• Buying a product from your ecommerce store
• Simply waiting a period of time.

For example, six months after a customer makes a purchase, you might set your email system to automatically send them a special offer as a means to drive repeat purchases.

Tracking recipient actions

Most marketing automation tools track people who have been on your website via cookies, html tracking pixels, or other methods. They can then match website visitors, the pages they visit, and the forms they fill out to individual contacts you have saved in your CRM. So, you can click on a contact in your CRM and see almost every website interaction they have had! You can also see what emails they have received, opened, and clicked.

When you link your automation software to your marketing channels such as Facebook, LinkedIn, and Google Ads, you’ll be able to see if they clicked your social posts or PPC ads too. Any of these can be used as triggers to send emails or personalize other content for these contacts.

So, first you map out the various touchpoints you have with your most valuable customers. And then you can create a series of actions that will happen automatically based on how they engage with your business. This will allow you to manage your communications with them automatically, based on how you plan to set up the workflow.

Automated email in action

Let’s look at when automatic emails might be sent to customers:

• Customer lifecycle stage campaigns – for example, new customer welcome emails or lapsed customer reactivation
• Transactional or functional emails – for example, shipping confirmation and order receipts
• Behavioral campaigns – for example, emails triggered by subscriber behavior, such as an abandoned cart reminder or a post-purchase upsell or cross-sell offer
• Reminders or alerts – for example, notifications to customers on an upcoming event or that a favorite item is back in stock
• Date-driven campaigns – for example, birthday, anniversary, expiration, and renewal campaigns
• Upselling or cross-selling – for example, product recommendations that complement or extend their previous purchase

Note: Transactional and functional emails are not regarded as marketing emails.

Case study: Louis Vuitton

Louis Vuitton improved its website conversion rate and captured cart abandoners using email automation.

The challenge

Louis Vuitton aimed to address the issue of low conversion rates on its website, specifically focusing on the high number of potential customers dropping off at the checkout page. It needed a solution to recover these abandoned carts and increase overall conversion rates.

The strategy

To tackle the challenge, Louis Vuitton implemented an email automation strategy specifically targeting cart abandonment. When potential customers left items in their carts without completing the purchase, they received a series of automated emails. These emails included helpful tips on how to use Louis Vuitton products and featured discount codes to incentivize them to complete their purchase.

The results

The implementation of the cart abandonment flow had an immediate impact on Louise Vuitton’s revenue. In just the first week, it earned an impressive €60,000 from the cart abandonment emails. This revenue was directly attributed to customers who returned to complete their purchases after receiving the emails and utilizing the provided discount codes.

The cart abandonment flow not only generated additional revenue but also led to a significant increase in conversion rates. Louis Vuitton saw its conversion rates rise from a mere 1% to an impressive 4%. This improvement demonstrated the effectiveness of the email automation strategy in motivating potential customers to take action and complete their purchases.

Lesson learned: The benefits of email automation

By implementing a targeted email automation strategy for cart abandonment, Louis Vuitton achieved remarkable results. The benefits of this approach include:

• Recovery of abandoned carts: Email automations provided an opportunity to recover potential lost sales by reminding customers about their abandoned carts. By offering helpful tips and discount codes, Louis Vuitton successfully re-engaged customers, persuading them to return to the website and complete their purchases.
• Revenue boost: The implementation of the cart abandonment flow directly resulted in a substantial increase in revenue. The emails acted as a gentle nudge, prompting customers to reconsider their purchase and offering an incentive to finalize the transaction. This revenue boost significantly impacted the company’s overall financial success.
• Improved conversion rates: The email automation strategy played a vital role in improving conversion rates. By sending personalized and timely emails to customers who abandoned their carts, Louis Vuitton successfully addressed potential concerns, answered questions, and provided extra incentives to encourage conversions.

As you can see, Louis Vuitton successfully addressed the challenge of low conversion rates by implementing a cart abandonment email automation strategy. By offering helpful tips and discount codes, it not only recovered abandoned carts but also significantly increased its conversion rates and revenue. This case study highlights the power of email automations in recovering sales and optimizing website performance for ecommerce businesses.