Hello there! It’s been a few weeks since our last post. We’ve been busy working with companies to set up their marketing automation campaigns for 2015 … and with loads of Christmas shopping!
Yup, we’ve all been making our lists and checking them twice. But we haven’t been running around to the stores much. (Except for the awesome locally owned shops here in Skaneateles — seriously, they are outstanding. You should come out and visit us.) ANYWAY, lots of us here at Lake34 prefer to shop from the comfort of our own home. If you’re like us, chances are you’ve ended up on Amazon.com more than once this season — or will by the time the holiday gets closer, thanks to their amazing selection and 2-day shipping.
Do you like multi-tasking? We like multi-tasking. While you’re accomplishing holiday tasks, you can learn something about marketing automation.
If you manage a business with an e-commerce site, we encourage you to use your holiday shopping as an intro to how marketing automation can multiply your profits in 2015. As you shop, notice the many strategies top companies use to keep you thinking about them and their products.
The research on the effectiveness of these strategies is intense. Over and over, marketing automation has shown itself to be insanely good at increasing sales and boosting profits. If you’re making your plans for 2015, we’d love to have the opportunity to come into your business and walk you through what marketing automation can do for you. Once you know what you’re dealing with, it’s a no-brainer for most companies. And you will be shocked at how low the price is.
But if you’re not ready to meet in-person, no problem. You can see marketing automation in action as you shop online. All you have to do is browse for gifts on a good site like Amazon, then watch what happens in the coming days. You’ll get a good idea of some of the things that can be accomplished with marketing automation when you run an e-commerce site.
Marketing Automation Feats to Look For While You Shop Online
We’re not affiliated with Amazon in any way. We just mention them because they are so darn good at what they do. That company has marketing automation down to a science — a very, very profitable science. Below are just a few things you can learn from them:
1. Give your customers more of what they want.
Your goal should be superior segmenting. Amazon does an awesome job at segmenting their customer lists so they have real time info on what customers have browsed and bought. They use marketing automation to trigger extremely personalized marketing campaigns so their customers buy more from them. You can easily do this, too.
2. Improve your customers’ shopping experience.
When you visit Amazon after shopping there a few times, you’ll notice the home page seems like it was designed just for you. Amazon is the Queen of creating customized shopping experiences. With marketing automation, you can customize landing pages to reflect individual customers’ interests. Widgets and other site elements can also be customized for a more personalized experience. For example, by providing extensive customer reviews and automatically recommending the types of products each customer is most likely to want, Amazon helps their customers to make their buying decisions more easily, so it’s more pleasant to shop with them. It also gives the customers new ideas for things they want to purchase — so they buy more from them.
3. Better your business by listening to your customers.
Amazon has built its empire by listening to its customers through passive, automated campaigns. By observing and keeping good data on web browsing and purchase histories, as well as through feedback with surveys and customer service, Amazon has been able to deliver a shopping experience that closely matches customer desires — and they are always improving!
Will their competitors ever be able to catch them at this rate? It’s hard to say. But that’s another lesson for e-commerce businesses out there: there’s no time to lose. The evidence for the effectiveness and ROI of marketing automation is crystal clear. Don’t let your competition get ahead of you in the game.
There are lots of examples of marketing automation that you’ll see as your do your online holiday shopping. Items you browsed may show up in your Facebook feed. Or you might receive an e-mail about a product commonly purchased after customers buy something you bought — that you actually want! What are some examples of marketing automation for e-commerce that have worked (or failed) on you?
