5 incentives to keep your customers engaged in 2023

5 incentives TO keep your customers engaged in 2023

Even though gaining new customers is very important to develop a successful company, customer retention is one of the quickest ways to achieve such vital business goals.

According to a report by Invespcro, attracting new customers is five times more expensive than retaining one. Moreover, selling to an existing customer is 60-70% more likely than selling to a new prospect. It also states that increasing the customer retention rates by only 5% increases profits by 25% to 95%.

Keeping your customers engaged and loyal to your company is key to reaching new heights in the market. Fortunately, retaining every one of them is not completely necessary. Only a small fraction of customer retention would mean a huge grow in sales.

If your company has reached the phase in which it needs to focus on retaining customers and increasing their loyalty to your brand, it is advisable to start developing and implementing special strategies to achieve these objectives.

How to do so in 2023? In this post, let’s have a look at the best practices to implement a great incentives program. Later, we’ll give you five incentives ideas that will keep your customers engaged and interested in your brand, products, and services.

How should your company implement incentives for engaged customers?

How should your company implement incentives for engaged customers?

If you want to get the most out of an incentive program to retain your most faithful customers, you should look at these recommendations.

Establish a clear objective for your program

What are the reasons why you need an incentive program in your company? These programs are not only about increasing your sales or keeping your clients loyal to you. There are also some neat consequences if you launch a program with a specific objective in mind. For example, incentives may:

  • Promote trials for new services.
  • Increase sales of specific products.
  • Boost awareness of some products and services.
  • Re-engage with customers that left for competition.
  • Increase the number of referrals.

Keep faithful to your brand culture

It’s important for your company to never lose track of its brand culture while developing a new incentive program for engaged customers. In the end, they are not only staying with you because of your products and services. Clients also treasure the values your company offers them each time they undergo another sales process.

Find the correct target for your incentives program

Remember that not every client is at the same stage of the customer journey. For this reason, your program should focus on the most high-value clients, because they are most likely to keep buying from you. This way you will also know which is the best incentive for them and develop a program that fits their needs.

What incentives should your company offer to keep customers engaged?

What incentives should your company offer to keep customers engaged?

Loyalty programs

Let’s start with one of the most common incentives out there. Loyalty programs are an excellent way to treat the most important customers in your portfolio, either VIPs or those who have been around for the longest time.

This incentive encourages them to take specific actions, such as purchases. Through them, clients will earn points which can be redeemed for exclusive rewards. Take into consideration that these perks must be designed according to your clients’ needs to let them feel that future spending will be highly beneficial to them.

Exclusive early access to sales and experiences

Sneak peeks and priority access are great incentives for customers that are invested in your brand and want to be part of the next line of products and services from your company as soon as possible.

Although those who are part of your loyalty program (if you decided to implement one!) should be the first in the line, don’t forget about other customers that may not be part of it, but are interested in your products. Besides, these early access events must be designed as unique experiences, be it online or physical events, and should offer special rewards to those who attended.

Referral programs

Word of mouth is one of the keys to success for any company. Being recommended by your customers is highly profitable. Besides, it increases brand awareness and market positioning.

Referral programs exist to reward those customers who spread the word about your brand and praise your products and services, so why not implement one to let them know your company is thankful? These perks may include discounts, coupons, stackable rewards, free upgrades to services, free software, etc. Just remember to always be on brand, offer valuable rewards, and keep things simple.

Free upgrades

Not everyone will be able to enjoy the multiple plans your software or app may have. However, it’s possible to give them a little taste of your tool’s best features by giving your customers free upgrades.

These are one of the best incentives a tech company can offer to their most loyal clients. They’ll be excited about trying new and hidden features. Besides, offering this reward for completing positive tasks such as feedback surveys, referrals or special events like webinars or focus groups will ensure these people will stay with you for a long time.

Gifts and discounts

These are the quintessential incentives that every company should include in their rosters. Receiving one of them feels special and encourages clients to spend more and keep in touch with your brand on the look for more.Gifts are perfect incentives for customers who have completed certain purchase requirements. These are also perfect during special occasions, such as the company’s anniversary or your client’s birthday. Coupons and discounts are also interesting perks, especially for those who have made their first purchase, subscribe to your newsletter, etc. However, don’t forget to set a discount cut that doesn’t affect your income.

4 Real Estate Marketing Ideas for Christmas

The best time of the year has arrived, that’s right, it’s time to focus on Christmas. Whether you like it or not, it’s here and you have the great challenge of creating a Christmas real estate marketing campaign that stands out not only from your competitors, but also from thousands of advertisements to which your target will be exposed.

Of course, you should start working on the Christmas campaigns now so that it is not too late and you do not lose business opportunities.

Make offers and promotions

Christmas is the best time to launch offers and promotions on your products. I’ll give you some ideas:

Draw tickets for a play or discounts in restaurants in exchange for registering and leaving your data. Then you can make a list with all potential registered customers and start sending them marketing campaigns.

Offer a discount on the price of the property. It is a well-known commercial and marketing action that will always attract the attention of customers.

A Christmas gift card to everyone who enters the premises or lists a property. Again, you can ask for their email to later use it in marketing campaigns.

You can also ask your customers who have bought from you to leave good reviews on Google in exchange for a gift. Having good opinions will bring you new potential customers.

Again, these are just a few ideas. Then each real estate company is a world. Think about the strategy that best suits your strategy and needs.

Send an email marketing campaign

Spread the joy of the Holidays through your newsletter. One of the most effective types of marketing during the Holidays is mass emailing. It is also extremely cheap, and sometimes even free. Remember that with Emblue you can send up to 5000 free emails.

You can invite your subscribers to visit your website and offer an exclusive discount during the Christmas Holidays. As you draft your newsletter, make sure you think outside the box, as you won’t be the only company sending out a Christmas email. Some ideas for you:

Start a countdown before a specific date

Creates the urgency to buy by reminding them that there are only a certain number of days left until a particular date.

Share a list of projects

You can send a list of real estate projects or types of apartments.

Engage your audience with videos and GIFs

These are two engaging forms of content that will get your visitors interested in your email.

Send a Christmas gift

As we saw in the “offers and promotions” you have several options to make your email much more attractive.

You can select and edit HTML themes on BeeFree, they really have a lot of free Christmas email templates.

Or you can also opt for one of the hundreds of free Christmas email marketing templates that you can find on Emblue. Request a demo, choose the one that works best for your campaign and start using it for free.

Create content for social media

Another idea to increase your sales at Christmas is to prepare extra content on social networks.

What actions can you perform?

Prepare a content calendar

This can help you organize holiday promotions and real estate that you want to highlight this holiday season.

Conduct surveys

With this resource you will know what your followers want the most to offer tempting offers that meet their expectations. Take advantage of Instagram stories for this kind of initiative!

Add a bot to your profiles

On these dates, user queries increase considerably. A chatbot can help you automate customer service, improve the user experience and thereby sell more.

Take advantage of the potential of video

Platforms like TikTok or tools like Instagram Reels have become enormously popular. You could take advantage of the video to show the properties, their characteristics, distribution and location.

Create a Christmas landing page

If you really want to have an impact campaign and sell more with your Christmas marketing, create a specific landing page for your offers on your website, where you can list the outstanding properties of the season.

To this page you must drive the traffic of all the promotional marketing campaigns that you carry out.

For your Christmas landing page to be successful, you must make it clear to the client that it is a special Christmas offer, include calls to action that encourage conversion, as well as give reasons why it is a special promotion, highlight the price , if it includes a discount, and the rest of the aspects that differentiate you from the competition.

Give a Christmas touch to the design of this page and use quality photos of the properties, since they considerably influence web conversion rates.

Marketing Automation Trends that every CMO should Watch in 2022

It seems that the world is in a recovery mode, even though there’s still a long way to go, and the past two years have tested and impacted everyone, resulting in game-changing challenges for brands and their perspective about marketing in their future.

Marketing Automation emerged and grew considerably; many brands considered this technology thanks to the excellent results that led to better engagement, higher conversion rates, and customer retention during pandemic times.

According to Emailmonday, more than 75% of companies already use Marketing Automation in 2021. Furthermore, in a study conducted by Invespcro, 63% of companies plan to increase their automation budget in 2022.

Our experience has shown that knowing the trends isn’t enough, but it is also important to compare your company and align your marketing efforts to get those predicted results.

Thus, we bring you to these marketing automation trends to look into this 2022 

The All-In-One Model

We are seeing more and more mergers and acquisitions during these last years, leading the Marketing Tech industry to an All-in-one movement, where the brands can find: CRM, Marketing Cloud, Automation Platform, Onsite Pop/Up Banners, Data Intelligence, and multiple channels in the same platform.

Behavioral Data increasing a real Conversational Marketing

The pandemic empowered customers to demand frictionless ad streamlined interactions, pushing for full-scale efficiency for brands and more real 1-to-1 conversations. 

Customers are looking for more relevant communications through tailor-made messages, and each customer’s interests drive that.

It is only possible y companies rely on automated software to simplify the process and give prominence to the whole customer experience. 

Personalized email and communications, Automatically

Email is still one of the most effective channels in the digital world! It is still the channel with the most ROI: 42X then it plays a vital role in digital marketing. 

But getting those numbers is getting harder for brands; they need to think about delivering a tailor-made experience for their audience in every email and direct contact they do.  

Now brands can find Marketing Automation Software that can help them gather customer data from different digital channels, organize it, and provide automated messages through various channels at the right time. Some of those features are part of emBlue’s free plan.

Omnichannel finally will be here

For years we have been talking about omnichannel. Since the last two years, we have seen more receptivity on this therm and more implementations in companies. 

From more than 2,000 customers, our numbers reveal that when companies use more than one channel (email + SMS or Push and Onsite), they get 3x to 4x more on conversion rate.

Marketing Automation enables automated messages for various channels throughout different customer journey stages, improving the overall user experience. 

Two ways communications, The Chatbots and VoiceBot, are here to stay.

One-way communication is like a dead-end. However, customers are demanding brands to engage and interact more, and all the time, 7/24/365 conversational chatbots are one of the ways to address this challenge and will be one of the most important trends to follow in 2022.

It will be the future of direct marketing and one of the most effective ways that brands can demonstrate that they care about their customers.

Personalized conversations are now possible because of technological advancements and are close to imitating a human conversation without noticing it.  

The goal is to encourage seamless conversation, and the human workforce will answer deeper and specific requirements. 

Machine learning and artificial intelligence everywhere

Machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) are predicted to grow exponentially in 2022, allowing businesses to optimize campaigns using all available data; brands can have exponential success when you add marketing automation to the equations.

What is emailing and how to include it in your business?

Email has been in our lives for a long time, even before the creation of the internet. However, it is more current than ever, since it has become one of the most used tools by businesses. What is this about? A that offers the possibility of building a relationship with users and thus increasing sales and loyalty opportunities. To do this, the key is in a strategy known as emailing .

What is emailing?

Emailing is a strategy that consists of sending emails in bulk to a list of contacts. These messages serve, among other things, to inform you of the latest news about the business, such as launches, promotions, events, etc. Above all, They are a key two-way communication piece to maintain and consolidate the relationship with leads and customers.

Why the email? You may doubt the effectiveness of email, considering all the tools that have emerged in recent years. In a world dominated by WhatsApp and social networks, what possibilities does email have? What you have to understand is that they are not competition, but rather tAll are media that can be part of your omnichannel strategy.

Basically, omnichannel places customers at the center, allowing businesses to manage communication with them in a coherent way, through the different channels. The result is a homogeneous experience on all platforms and media in which the user interacts with the brand.

In this sense, emailing is one of the channels that a business can use to interact with its contact list.. According to Statistics gathered by Kinsta , email is one of the top 3 content delivery media for B2C and B2B merchants.

And if we talk about the Return on Investment (ROI), at least 59% of marketers say that emailing is their biggest source of ROI.

So email marketing is more alive than ever; It is one of the most used channels to send content and interact with users; and offers a high ROI compared to other media. What are you waiting for to launch your first emailing campaign? Don’t you know how to do it? Do not worry! For that we have created this guide. Here we share the step by step.

Emailing where to start?

In a list of tasks to do to start emailing, where do you think you should start? It all starts with being clear about what you want to say and to whom. This brings us to two fundamental steps:

  • Define objectives.
  • Create a contact list.

Define objectives

What do you want to achieve with your emailing campaign? Knowing the answer is key before starting. No business should do email marketing without a clear purpose. This would make both you, and those who receive your mail, waste time.

In principle, you would waste your time because you would simply be dedicating yourself to a task that will not give you the results you expect. Users would waste their time because surely, by not having a clear goal defined, your message will not be what they expect.

Defining objectives in email marketing serves to set a course, something like saying, that’s where we’re headed! The rest of your strategy will be to map out the route to get there.

For example, if your goal is to add more subscribers to your newsletter, this will define how, when and where you will place the subscription form on your website.. Not only that, it will also determine what type of email you will send to that subscriber list thereafter.

Create a contact list

The famous contact list is nothing more and nothing less than a list of all users who have given their consent to receive the emails of your emailing campaigns.

Sending emails in bulk to people who did not agree to receive your messages is counterproductive. Basically, because it undermines your strategy of Inbound Marketing that consists of putting the user in the center, generating a link, which is based on delivering relevant content of interest .

If you indiscriminately send emails to an emailing list that you did not create from scratch yourself, you probably will not deliver relevant content for those users simply because you do not know them, you do not know what they expect of you. And if, in addition, you insist and You frequently send those emails that nobody reads, sooner or later you could end up falling into the clutches of spam .

To avoid all this, it is best to start an emailing campaign aimed at a list of contacts who have agreed to receive these messages.. You will create this list over time, through subscription forms on your website or on other platforms where your business is present.

An alternative to attract new contacts through your website is Onsite by emBlue. With this tool you can create pop-up windows to invite to subscribe to your news or events. Best of all, it is a resource that you can fully customize, from the design to the behavior.

How is emailing done? Step by Step

You’ve already taken the initial two steps to get started with your email marketing strategy. But there is still much more to tell you. If you wonder what a mailing should be like, then we give you the answer.

Segment your list

Once you have clear your objectives and your list of contacts assembled, it is time for segmentation . Segmenting is, basically, grouping users based on common characteristics, interests and consumption. The most common is to create different lists based on these criteria. This allows you personalize the messages you send and achieve much more relevant conversations with each person you interact with.

For example, suppose that in your contact list there are users who subscribed to your newsletter , others gave you their data in exchange for a lead magnet and there are those who shared their email with you to receive a discount. They are different audiences, with different concerns. You can create a list for each of them and send personalized messages in each case.

Some criteria to segment:

  • By gender, age or geographic location.
  • By individual behavior in your online store or website.
  • Based on the last purchase they made.
  • According to your most recent activity. In this sense, keep in mind that it is not the same to communicate with an active user than with those who have not interacted with the brand for a long time. Find out how to reactivate users through emailing at this note .

Create clear and direct messages

How should the content of your emails be? Of course, it will also depend on the objectives of each type of message you send and the segment of users you are targeting. But beyond this, there are two premises for the content of your emailing: create clear and direct messages.

At the time of writing each email, remember that users do not read each email in detail, they scan in search of the most relevant information. Thus, you have a few seconds to capture their attention and explain the most important thing: what is the benefit you offer. For example, downloading exclusive content, accessing a discount for a certain time, information about a future event, etc.

In addition to making the benefit clear, you have to directly indicate what they must do to obtain it. For this, nothing better than a good Call to Action (CTA) so your subscriber knows what action to take next.

Let’s imagine that you offer a discount for a certain time, in that case you can clearly indicate how long the benefit expires with a timer. Also, at the end of the email you can include a direct CTA like “Access now” , “Buy” or “Redeem” .

Write an irresistible subject

The subject is the most important element in the email content. Just because it is the first impression you make on the user. Erring at this point can represent a low open rate for your emails.

Our recommendations are:

  • Less is more. Summarizing the content of your message in a single line of text is essential to capture the user’s attention at first glance. Each email provider has a different character limit when displaying the subject line, on average they range from 46 to 70 characters. Also, keep in mind that users are increasingly using mobile phones to check their emails. Thus, use as few characters as possible. Synthesize and you will conquer. For example: Checklist – How to correct all your SEO mistakes (only 50 characters).
  • Take advantage of the preview text. Known as a pre-header or pre-header, this text is what is displayed from your message right after the subject line And it helps make sense of it with the additional information it provides. In many cases, you can supplement the subject with the pre-header. For example: Subject: Let your creativity fly on YouTube / Pre-header Discover the best tools and stand out.
  • Talk about benefits. Regardless of what you offer in your mailing, if you do not make it clear on the matter, you run the risk that nobody will ever find out. It sounds terrible, but it is the harsh truth. When writing the subject, focus on the benefit, is the only thing that interests the user. Whoever receives your message will ask the following: Why should I open this email? The answer to that question is the benefit you offer and you must make it clear on the matter.

Take care of the design of your emails

How to make a mailing more attractive? precisely, taking care of the design. Even if you think that what you say is more important than what you show, the truth is that it is a bit of both.

Wording can look lackluster without good design. A good design doesn’t say anything on its own without proper wording. Incorporating visual elements that help give more strength and clarity to the message is essential to keep the user’s attention on the content of your email.

This does not have to be a problem, you can use templates to do it or take advantage of tools such as the Drag & Drop editor with which you can create exclusive designs in less time and easily. Best of all, you will have the possibility to customize each visual element of your emailing.

Schedule the sending of your emailing campaign

When to send your mailing? As you work on your email marketing strategy, you will obtain very valuable information about your audience. This will allow you to know, among other things, what is the best time and the best day to send your campaigns .

What you should keep in mind is that users receive emails on a daily basis and surely they already have an armed routine or specific times of the day when they check their inbox.

The best thing would be to send your messages at the time when users are checking their mail. This will allow your message to be placed at the top of the inbox and, therefore, you will have a better chance that your emails will be read.

To know this you can base yourself on the past activity of users with respect to your campaigns. For example, what time they usually open your messages, what time of day they have sent you a response, etc.

For many it may be a bad idea to send emails on weekends , however, for other companies this may be the main alternative. Everything will depend on the sector to which your business belongs and, of course, on the behavior of your audience.

Measure the results

Finally, when you reach the end of this journey, it is time to measure your results and then everything begins again .

Analyzing the behavior of your emailing campaigns is essential to optimize your future shipments . In this sense, KPIs or Key Performance Indicators are the key performance indicators that you can use to measure the results of your email marketing campaigns.

Some of the most important metrics in emailing are:

  • Open rate. More clearly describes the level of engagement of your audience. Indicate if your audience is interested enough in your content to open your emails.
  • Bounce rate. Lets know what percentage of the emails you send did not reach the users’ inbox. This helps you evaluate the deliverability of your messages.
  • Click rate. Lets see how many of the people who opened your email ended up clicking a link.

There are many more, of course, but with these you can start measuring the behavior of your campaigns.

So far we have come with this emailing guide. We hope you can apply these recommendations and start creating your email marketing campaigns in your business.

Do you need an email marketing solution? Discover everything it offers you emBlue !

FAQ about emailing in your business

What is emailing?

Emailing is the sending of e-mails in a massive way . With its implementation it is possible to establish a two-way communication channel between brand and customer.

What is emailing for?

Mainly, an emailing strategy serves to retain your audience, drive traffic to your website, make sales and communicate important promotions or announcements. It also allows brands to establish a non-invasive contact channel in which the user decides which communication to receive and which not.

How to put together the best emailing?

To create the best emailing campaign, you must take into account:

  • Define the objectives.
  • Create a contact list.
  • Segment your base.
  • Create clear messages and impactful topics.
  • Automate shipments
  • Measure the results

What is the customer journey and how to identify its stages

Do you know the path that your clients travel from when they meet you until they choose you? Do you know all the moments and points of interaction they have with your brand? When we talk about sales, there are different stages that you must identify within the purchase process of your customers, better known as Customer Journey , to provide a better brand experience 🙌

Believe it or not all companies have a Customer Journey, but only some have it well mapped. Many times this path can be so short for the client that it only takes a couple of minutes or so long that it requires months to close the sale, it all depends on the type of product or service you offer.

Providing a good experience has become one of the most important pillars for loyalty , due to the high competitiveness and constant innovation of the market, but what is a Customer Journey? And how can it help you better understand your users? Let’s see 🤓

What is the Customer Journey?

It is said that 70% of the Customer Journey has been completed long before customers arrive at your virtual store . How so ?! We live in the digital age and consumers have at hand all the information they need about the products or services they are looking for.

This allows them to make comparisons between brands and make much smarter decisions , which gives greater relevance to the shopping experience and any added value that brands offer as a differentiator against the competition.

The Customer Journey can be defined as all those stages that our clients go through from the moment they are aware of their need until they acquire our product or service. This model allows us to know your problems and needs in addition to measuring the quality of your shopping experience to keep them with your brand 🔒

How does the customer journey work?

The customer Journey consists of identifying the stages that customers go through when making a purchase or a valuable action for our brand , so being clear about this process will help you understand them and detect opportunities for improvement 🔍

Knowing which events or actions are the most significant within your Customer Journey will also allow you to establish content and strategies that better connect with your customers and positively impact their experience with the ideal message at the right time.

What are the stages of the customer journey?

We can divide the Customer Journey into 5 stages, one for each situation in which potential customers find themselves , both at the level of predisposition and interest. The first 3 phases lead to the buy action and the last 2 to the recommendation, after the sale is completed.

Discovery

At this stage, consumers recognize in themselves a need that they do not know how to satisfy, they feel frustrated and begin to do some research in search of solutions. Here the most important thing is to evaluate the channels that are most relevant to your customers, generate valuable content in them and get your brand to remain present in their mind 🧠

Consideration

Customers want to make the purchase but need to evaluate different options to make a final decision. To achieve this, they will once again carry out a much more specific investigation including specific brands, this with the aim of finding more detailed descriptions and knowing the attributes of their products or services.

All the information that allows them to make a comparison with the competition will be very useful, so having elements that differentiate you from other brands can directly influence the purchase decision of your target audience 🎯

Also having a Marketing Automation strategy can increase your results considerably, since it allows you to identify the actions that customers take in your business and send automatic communications in order to recover abandoned carts and boost your sales 🛒

Purchase

Here customers have already made their decision. This process should be as easy and fast as possible , provide as much information as possible and clarify delivery times if necessary. A plus? Establish return policies.

Including a customer service channel to resolve any inconvenience during the purchase process will also help you convey confidence and security to your consumers at this decisive moment 😉

Retention

Not everything ends with the purchase, the idea is to turn the new client into an ambassador of your brand . You can thank them for their purchase with a personalized email, offer them discount coupons, send them a newsletter with valuable content and exclusive promotions.

Recommendation

Measuring the quality of your customers’ experience and knowing if they were satisfied with your product or service is essential at this stage . Tools like the NPS can help you carry out surveys through banners Popups or Email Marketing campaigns to find out the opinion of your consumers 💬

If their experience was satisfactory, it is very likely that they will buy from you again and recommend you to other users. Remember that social networks and word of mouth are two of the most influential channels in the market , so good management of your post-sale process can have a very positive impact on your brand recognition.

As you will have noticed, Accompanying your clients at each stage within the Customer Journey will allow them to receive the information they need at the right time. However, having a strategy of Marketing Automation can facilitate this process and help you integrate all your channels to create automatic action flows that boost your results 📈

Were you aware of the steps your customers take to purchase your products or services? We encourage you to discover them and propose a marketing strategy for each one. Remember that with emBlue you can stay present at the key points of your customers’ Customer Journey and achieve your company’s objectives faster.

Are you ready to implement a Customer Journey strategy in your business?

10 reasons to incorporate marketing automation into your strategy

It’s a fact: Marketing Automation is the trend of the moment. However, we know that many businesses have not yet considered it within their strategy. Reasons for not doing so include lack of knowledge and mistaken belief that it is too complex to implement. Today we are going to tell you what are the main reasons to take it into account.

It’s natural to feel out of our element when we first come across a new concept. If you are just learning about the existence of the Marketing Automation You may feel some uncertainty. You may wonder what it is and above all, why it is relevant to your business. That is precisely what we are here for. We will solve these doubts below.

What is Marketing Automation?

75% of all companies in the world already use some type of marketing automation. This tells us that businesses are responding to the trend. From this we could also infer that there are plenty of reasons to incorporate this kind of tool in any company.

But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. ✋ First things first: What is Marketing Automation? In general terms, it is the use of a tool that allows automating various activities related to the marketing of a business and interactions with its users.

If we expand the concept, we can also say that Marketing Automation is software and other technologies that help brands to:

  • Collect user data.
  • Optimize interactions with leads and customers.
  • Strengthen the omnichannel strategy thanks to the integration with different contact channels such as email, website, SMS, WhatsApp, social networks, chats, among others.
  • Classify leads through lead scoring.
  • Segment potential customers to nurture them through relevant content.
  • Accompany users with content linked to their interests.
  • Guide them until they become clients and, finally, promoters of the brand.

Marketing automation is then a methodology that uses technology to help companies automate all or most of the processes of their strategy. Among them, we have already mentioned the collection of user data, segmentation, automation of communication flows or workflows, lead nurturing and campaign management, among others.

The purpose of Marketing Automation, as you can see, is to accompany and guide leads during the Customer Journey. That is, lead them on the journey they take through the experience of linking with the brand until they achieve the desired conversion.

Marketing Automation: 10 reasons to incorporate it into your strategy

Times change, technology advances. In various sectors there are specific software designed to streamline procedures and improve day-to-day activity. For example, digital accounting systems, management platforms or human resources software. But, in marketing, until a few years ago, there was no comprehensive and at the same time specific solution to streamline processes and improve day-to-day tasks in the area. There wasn’t, until automation came to marketing.

There are many reasons to adopt this methodology within a business. Regardless of its size, all companies, large or small, need to automate activities within their marketing strategy. For this reason, we will tell you below 10 reasons to incorporate Marketing Automation in your company.

# 1 Deep knowledge of your target audience

Knowing what does not work within your strategy is very valuable for continuous improvement. Only then can you get the results you want in your marketing actions. But the truth is that to get to that point, you first have to know in detail who you are dealing with. That is to say, get to know your audience, leads and customers in depth. How much do you know about them? Do you think you have enough information?

Marketing Automation allows you to gather the data of the users who interact with your brand , recording each of the actions carried out at each stage of its journey. So, you can create a solid profile for each lead , where, in addition to their contact details and demographic information, you can find out how they interact with your business and what their interests are.

# 2 Proper design of the Customer Journey

Without a doubt, the more you know your audience, the better brand experience you can provide. And this naturally translates into a much more suitable Customer Journey design. We could say that it is a personalized tour, tailored to your leads and customers.

Keep in mind that each step that the user takes in this process is known as a microconversion.. This is what brings that prospect closer to the most important conversion: buying a product. Therefore, the transformation of that lead into a customer. To reach this point, it is essential to optimize each part of the journey and Marketing automation can be of great help in this regard.

As we have been saying in this article, automation-based techniques allow us to define interactions in each of the stages of the user’s journey.. This is done through relevant messages that help guide them.

# 3 Better segmentation of your contact base

Many businesses have different products and therefore there are different audiences for each of them. On the other hand, the user’s journey is not always the same, therefore, it is key to make a proper segmentation of the contact base. This implies group them according to their shared criteria : characteristics, interests and consumptions or behaviors.

When making a purchase decision, today’s consumer chooses those brands that reach them with the right message, at the precise moment they need it.. All of this is what marketing automation enables.

# 4 Delivering relevant content for your leads

If you can correctly segment your contact base, you can also personalize your communications. This is deliver relevant content to each group of users. By knowing your audience you can create a unique experience for each user based on their behavior.

This will allow you to generate a link with your potential clients and build medium and long-term relationships. During that time you will be able to educate and nurture those users with relevant content, until they have the necessary maturity to complete the purchase.

# 5 Impact users with messages at the right time

Much of what happens in your marketing strategy is a matter of pace, interacting with users at the right time . When would that be?

If we return to the concept of Customer Journey, we understand that the important thing is to contemplate the total user experience. Therefore, we must consider its entire journey, including key aspects such as: on which channels do you interact, how and when. In this way, you will know when to impact your leads to drive them to conversion.

This is something that you can also achieve with Marketing Automation. Bearing in mind that this methodology allows you to get to know your audience better, design a personalized tour and be there when the user is ready to advance in the purchase process.

# 6 Reach omnichannel

Omnichannel is to provide a consistent and homogeneous experience in all the channels in which your brand is present. The objective of this strategy is engage in effective conversations with your leads and customers , regardless of the channel used or chosen by them.

Currently, you can send communications through different platforms: email marketing , SMS, your own website and social networks, to name a few examples.

But to be present in all these channels and guarantee quality interactions for your audience, it is very important to automate your actions .. This will allow you to increase efficiency and reduce errors.

Marketing Automation helps you maintain the same conversation with your prospects and clients through different channels. Thus, you can accompany him throughout his shopping journey.

# 7 Measure results

KPI, also known as Key Performance Indicator or simply, key indicator, allows to measure the performance of a process linked to a particular objective. Through these indicators you will be able to know more exactly if your strategy is working well or if you need to make some changes.

Precisely, through a Marketing Automation tool you can track and monitor all the actions you carry out with each segment of your contact base. And all this thanks to the metrics that you can use in the process.

# 8 Get better data and make better decisions

“What cannot be measured cannot be improved”, It was the British physicist William Thomson Kelvin who said this phrase. Today, it functions as a fundamental law for many companies around the world. That is what metrics are for, to measure and precisely, to Obtain data that allows you to make better decisions and thus optimize your results .

Thanks to marketing automation, data is now the protagonists. You can know in real time how users behave in relation to your marketing actions and, with this information, improve whatever is necessary.

# 9 Save time and increase efficiency

Knowing what works and what doesn’t with regard to your marketing campaigns helps you avoid taking false steps. This allows you avoid wasting time on actions that do not lead to the desired results. I mean, you can increase the effectiveness of your actions.

In addition, by automating marketing in your business you save many of the repetitive tasks that consume a large part of your time and that of your team. On the other hand, you can also optimize time by getting ahead and scheduling campaigns in advance.

# 10 Coordinated work between marketing and sales

For many businesses the integration between the marketing and sales teams can seem complicated. However, as the user evolves and their consumption habits are transformed, the purchase cycle becomes increasingly complex. Therefore, the coordinated work of both areas is required.

Automation, thanks to its scoring system, allows you to assign potential customers to sales teams. These are users who are ready for conversion, who can be followed up from the sales area to lead them to the purchase.

Examples of Marketing Automation

We already gave you the theory, you can say that you know Marketing Automation. Now let’s move on to the practical examples, to further reinforce the concept. Keep in mind that, as we mentioned before, marketing can be automated throughout the customer lifecycle and across multiple channels. Therefore, this methodology contributes its grain of sand so that your strategy is increasingly omnichannel.

We share two clear examples of marketing automation so that you have greater clarity about this tool.

Marketing Automation – Welcome Sequence

Welcome messages are among the most important automated communications . This is because they capture the most attention from the user , as we already mentioned in this note .. However, it is not reduced to a single email or SMS.

Beyond the “Hello how are you” , what you should understand is that they are the first steps in the user journey. Therefore, you have to guide him to keep moving forward. And nothing like a automated welcome sequence to achieve this.

Suppose the user visits an online store and subscribes to the emailing list, for which, leave your contact information through a form. Then, immediately, the ecommerce sends you a welcome message that arrives directly to your inbox. The matter does not end there. In the following days, the store sends another email offering a 25% discount as a welcome gift.

Best of all, whoever is behind the business didn’t have to sit down and quickly type these messages manually. Imagine doing this with every new lead you generate!

Rather, these communications were already part of a workflow aimed at sending a series of welcome emails to a certain segment of users .

Marketing Automation: abandoned cart

Some insights can be scary, for example, if we talk about online stores, statistics say that on average, 70% of users abandon the shopping cart without completing the transaction. That is not good news, however, in the face of it, there is an alternative: recover some of those transactions through Marketing Automation .

How? Very simple. Once the customer leaves the cart, an email is sent with the details of the transaction that they did not complete. This means that the products you did not buy are listed. In case you do not open the email after one day, you can make a booster send.

These types of flows are used by companies that sell their products through an ecommerce. Remember that from emBlue we offer native integrations with any system that your business uses. For example, VTEX or Magento, among others. Find out more about our integrations .

We believe that you already have a much clearer notion of Marketing Automation. Now you know all the reasons why you should consider it in your strategy. Would you like to know a complete automation tool for your business? Discover emBlue !

Marketing automation FAQ

What is Marketing Automation?

Marketing automation is that digital marketing strategy that seeks to automate responses in the form of messages or actions for each user interaction with a brand.

What is Marketing Automation for?

Mainly, it serves to increase conversions and reduce campaign implementation times. You just have to define what customer action will have a reaction from your brand and make the correct integrations.

What are the best Marketing Automation apps?

There are many examples of concrete applications of marketing automation:

  • Cross Selling.
  • Up Selling.
  • Abandoned cart.
  • Assigning contacts to groups.
  • Send welcome emails
  • SMS sending.