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Sales Funnel: Why Your Business Needs One Now

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Whether you dedicate yourself to digital marketing or are thinking of entering this world, there is a concept that you should know like the back of your hand: the sales funnel . In this article we will tell you a little more about what a funnel is, how it works and why it is key in your marketing and sales strategy.

What is a sales funnel? What does funnel mean?

Before, a distinction. ✋

Funnel is the Anglicism used to name what in Spanish is known as “ funnel ”.

Put this way, the sales funnel, also called sales funnel —And in omore particular cases called a sales tunnel – is the way youA company establishes the different points of contact with its users from the moment it reaches the business, until the moment it sells.

Not sooo long ago we talked about the conversion funnel . No, we do not forget: there is a difference that separates the conversion funnel from the sales funnel. The sales funnel records the steps that the user goes through until the sale or payment of a service or product is made.

The conversion funnelInstead, it identifies all intermediate events that can be considered as conversion. It can be a registration, the installation of an application, the download of software or what your brand considers that is not, precisely, a sale.

What is a sales funnel for?

As we already told you -and as you can imagine-, the sales funnel has a very clear objective: to sell. However, the path to this goal is marked by more specific goals that are part of the final goal.

  • Solve a need of your users. There is no possibility of selling if there is no real interest in offering something to our clients and adding value to them. This contribution usually occurs, for example, if we provide them with content that responds to their queries, fears or wishes.

 

  • Build trust. The pandemic has heightened the need for brands to be – and show themselves – trustworthy. It’s not just about providing a service or product, it’s about building links.

  • Reduce costs. Knowing in advance the stages that the user goes through before buying will allow your company to anticipate decisions, reducing the cost of acquisition per customer.

  • Strengthen the relationship with the commercial team. The sales funnel, in addition to being an ally of the marketing team to know what actions to take, is essential for the sales team, since in addition to using this tool to improve their conversation with users, it nourishes the funnel thanks to its knowledge.

Phases and strategies for your sales funnel

Unlike the conversion funnel , where we can identify the stages where the user is standing in relation to our brand – Top of funnel, Middle of funnel and bottom of funnel – the sales funnel seeks to understand the stages of the sale in a strategy omnichannel. And although there are several ways to build this funnel, this is usually the most used:

Initial contact (brand awareness)

As in Upper Funnel or Top of Funnel, at this stage of the sales funnel, the contact will surely be unaware of the existence of your business or have not considered the possibility that your product or service would solve their need (it is even very likely! that neither he himself knew that he had that problem or desire! ) .

It is, in this phase the objective is to make a first contact with the user so that he knows us. Social Networks, Online Advertising, SEO, Events, Webinars, Press, etc. are just some of the sources.

Interest (awareness)

You have done a great job so far! Users have already been impacted by your brand and can recognize it. However, this is not enough. Now you must generate leads, converting users into traffic, obtaining at least the main contact information: Name, email and a telephone number.

In this phase, the mouth of the funnel has a large number of prospects, many of which will have different states of interest, the most advisable thing is to appeal to marketing automation for their qualification.

Have you considered, for example, a welcome sequence with email marketing for your new prospects? Did you leave your data in a banner pop up of your site? In this case, the recommendation is to start with a greeting and provide more information and details about your business.

Consideration

Or do we better call this stage “comparison”?

In this instance, the user is still not convinced if your business will be the best option for their desire or problem. And for this reason, it is very likely that you are looking at multiple alternatives.

However, there is good news! Impacting the user at this stage is easier than before: You already know who he is, what he is interested in and how to reach him. Take advantage of these tools to drive the consumer through the sales funnel.

At this stage, we recommend incorporating elements that generate an omnichannel experience and personal. That is, where the user is impacted by a congruent message through one or more channels, where they receive from us a response to their doubts, wishes or fears.

In this step, an email marketing sequence could be a great ally to reach the sale. These are some content that you can share through this channel:

  • Exclusive promotions and discounts
  • Benefits of your product, service or company
  • The questions most asked by other users
  • Case studies (Also called “successful”)

Sale

You’ve got it! Your arguments have been convincing and Your value proposition has been superior to that of the competition. In this instance, the user is already willing to buy from you. It only remains for me to do so.

Only a minority% reaches this stage of your sales funnel and there is still a small margin for error. Even in the best strategies, there is a cart abandonment rate of around 70%. And this is where we must be prepared.

To increase the chances of making the sale, we suggest you use two very effective tools: Email Marketing and WhatsApp.

E-mail Marketing

Prepare sequenced communications that can resolve customer doubts – still potential – is undoubtedly an excellent strategy. Here, our recommendation is to create one or more E-mail Marketing campaigns integrated in such a way that a trigger is fired when a user decides to abandon the purchase.

In these emails it is possible to include information about the product or service that was to be purchased, to emphasize the benefit lost by not buying it or testimonials from other buyers (in case the problem lies in trust)

WhatsApp

Undoubtedly one of the great communication channels of recent years: WhatsApp. Start a conversation with the potential buyer of your product or service through this channel It is a way to understand the fears and frustrations that led to discouraging the acquisition, but it is also a great opportunity to provide personalized attention.

In this case, a simple hello and question can completely change the picture. Check out this example!

Seller : Hello, name. How do you feel? I have seen that you have not been able to complete your purchase of XXXXXXXXXXXXX. Can I help you with anything?

Retention

Now yes. Finally. You have sold! And while this is a wonderful result, there is still more to do in the sales funnel. This funnel does not end a Once the sale has been made and the user has his purchase in his hands. Let’s analyze why.

In the retention stage, the objective is that those who have already bought from us choose us again and recommend our business to others, for that it is important that you know their experience: here you can implement NPS surveys .

A fact that maybe you did not know A satisfied buyer is 9 more likely to buy again from us ( which positively affects our costs per sale) .

If you offer a product or service by subscription for example, and you have to send monthly notifications such as payment documentation or updates, then an automated SMS marketing or push notifications strategy is the ideal option.

For this reason, In this instance, the recommendation is to focus efforts on after-sales. That is, continuing the link with the potential client according to what we understand is of value to him —This thanks to the information we already have about the person-, resulted in a more positive experience with our brand.

Conversion Funnel FAQ

What does funnel mean?

Funnel is the Anglicism used to name what in Spanish is known as “funnel”

What is Marketing Funnel?

Marketing funnel is the way in which a company establishes the different points of contact with its users at each stage of the sales process to develop a strategy adapted to each moment.

How does a funnel work?

A funnel works with the logic of an inverted triangle, that is, the value action (sale or conversion), is one of the last steps of the pyramid and graphically the narrowest. In this way, there is a parallel between the number of users who participate in each stage, in order to establish and improve metrics.

What is Upper Funnel?

Upper Funell It is the widest and upper part of our funnel. It tries to reach as many people as possible, and then work to refine their interest and make the conversion more concrete.


What do you think of this information? If you have been curious about how to work on your omnichannel sales strategy, we invite you to get to know emBlue.

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4 examples and direct marketing strategies to scale your business

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The form of communication with which you choose to address your potential clients is a key factor in the results you achieve. Today we come to present you a very interesting alternative, but above all, an option that can give you great benefits: the direct marketing. Have you heard of him? Discover all the details in this note.

What is direct marketing?

Let’s start at the beginning: what is direct marketing? It is one who, as its name implies, speaks directly to a specific group of people. Therefore, when looking for definitions of this technique we have found on more than one occasion the idea of “target”. This is one of the main characteristics of the concept, since direct marketing is directed almost exclusively to a specific target .

When marketing actions are precisely targeted at a specific audience, there are two benefits that become apparent:

  • Actions are better targeted.
  • The investment is less.

Better targeted actions avoid wasting resources, thereby saving the business money. In other words, we could think of direct marketing as a more accessible alternative for small and medium-sized companies .

In some ways, this method bears some similarities to relationship marketing , since it tries to maintain direct two-way communication with users. In fact, according to who is considered the father of marketing, that is, Philip Kotler, direct marketing refers to “Direct connections with individual consumers who were carefully selected to elicit an immediate response from them and cultivate lasting relationships . ”

It is through direct marketing strategies that brands can create more relevant dialogues and conversations with their target audience , which contributes to maintaining and strengthening the bond with this target over time .

It’s all about better engaging with the specific audience we are targeting and building more effective connections. They must be supported, mainly, in bring the right message, at the right time. Something that is also very in tune with him automated marketing .

What is the goal of direct marketing?

Before we mentioned that one of the key characteristics of direct marketing is the target, it is a strategy that is always directed to a specific audience. Now we must talk about another of the pillars of this technique: its objective. What is the goal of direct marketing? generate a precise action by the user. Therefore, all actions include a Call to Action (CTA) or call to action.

In this sense, direct marketing examples would be:

  • Visit our online store.
  • Subscribe to our newsletter.
  • Sign up here.

While other strategies aim to educate potential customers about the products or services of the business, direct marketing mainly seeks to persuade users to take a specific action. As we said before, the key element is the incorporation of calls to action that prompts them to act.

In this way, the success stories in direct marketing campaigns will be those that manage to achieve this objective.

It is important to bear in mind that what is sought through a direct marketing action is not always the sale. Everything will depend on the moment in which the user is with respect to his purchase journey or Customer Journey. Sometimes the goal is for the consumer to fill out a form, download a lead magnet, complete a survey, or any other desired action. Are conversions that bring that potential customer closer to the purchase or collaborate in the loyalty of the customers you already have .

Types of direct marketing

We could say that this marketing strategy was born long before the internet came into our lives. Therefore, when speaking of types of direct marketing We cannot limit ourselves to those that we can find in the online world. So, we will talk about two classes:

Which to choose? Although there are those who would say that both can be valuable for business, the truth is that digital direct marketing strategies allow automating a large part of the process using marketing automation tools. In turn, the results they produce are easier to measure. As we have said before, it is a cheaper alternative.

Digital direct marketing

Direct digital or online marketing uses channels based on new technologies to bring its messages to a specific target. These means are:

Which to choose? Although there are those who would say that both can be valuable for business, the truth is that digital direct marketing strategies allow automating a large part of the process using marketing automation tools. In turn, the results they produce are easier to measure. As we have said before, it is a cheaper alternative.

It is more than clear that if you have to opt for an alternative, all roads lead to direct online marketing.

What are direct marketing strategies? + Examples

We share 4 examples and direct marketing strategies to take advantage of this technique and improve the results in your business.

1- Make good use of your database

We could say that one of the most valuable tools in marketing is the database. This is the list of users who agreed to give you their contact information so that you can send them your brand communications. Thus, you can impact the user with the right messages at the right time , which is one of the techniques that provides the best results in any type of company.

Therefore, the key is to make good use of that database, which implies adequate segmentation.. This is: dividing users into small groups based on the common characteristics they share.

You can use as many criteria as you deem appropriate, from age, gender, occupation and location, to interests, needs, income, etc. This will allow you elaborate highly personalized messages that will be much more relevant for each segment or target .

Direct marketing examples : segment users who completed the registration in the online store, but did not buy. In that case, you could send them an email with a discount to take advantage of their first purchase.

If you want to discover how to segment your customers step by step, don’t miss this note .

2- Analyze in detail the behavior of users and personalize your messages

Now that you have segmented your contact base, what remains is to extract valuable information from each group. Therefore, you must study the behavior of users to understand what their purchase journey is like and what are the patterns that they follow. Based on this, you can create well-targeted messages to generate the desired responses.

Segmentation of your contact base and studying their behavior will allow you to know them in detail. Thus, you can create personalized messages for that audience. This is precisely the essence of direct marketing: impact users with relevant messages that encourage them to take the indicated action , be it registering, completing a form, sending a response, downloading something and even buying.

For example, suppose that a segment of users became interested in a certain product on your website. You can send communications offering complementary articles from the record of consumer activity on the page, this is known as remarketing. Find out what it is and its benefits at this article .

Without a doubt, it is a key resource for your direct marketing actions. Did you know that in emBlue do we have an ideal remarketing tool for Cross selling and Up Selling ?

3- Integrate several channels

Can direct marketing be omnichannel? Should be!

To boost direct marketing actions, nothing like the integration of multiple channels. You can use marketing automation platforms to send messages to users through the right channels at key moments.

For example, the link may begin with the user’s visit to the website. From there, Through personalized pop ups with tools like OnSite you can encourage potential clients to leave their data. Then, you could start an email sequence and even interact through other platforms such as WhatsApp, if the user prefers immediate attention through this channel.

The interesting thing is that you can offer different options so that your potential client is the one who chooses through which channel to interact with your brand .

Of course, ensure that in each of the media that you use in your strategy, the user has the same quality experience, because that is what omnichannel is all about .

4- Measure the results

Finally, the fourth and last of the direct marketing strategies that you should not forget is to measure the results. If there is something that characterizes this method, it is that its campaigns are very easy to measure. If, for example, you want start an email marketing campaign to get users to use a discount coupon through a CTA, it will be very easy to know how many open the email and how many click on the link. Through specific metrics you can measure and optimize your actions.

Some metrics you can use are:

  • Open Rate (OR). Indicate the number of times users opened your message.
  • Click to Rate (CTR). It is the percentage of the number of clicks that the content of your email had.
  • Click To Open Rate (CTOR). It is the number of clicks on your piece, over the number of opens.
  • Bounces. They are the recipients who for some reason could not receive your email in their inbox.
  • Desusciptors. Number of users who have decided to stop receiving your communications.

By measuring and analyzing your results you can improve your campaigns more and more and with it, the results.

If you want to increase your conversions, direct marketing can be a great ally. Are you planning to apply it in your business?

Direct Marketing FAQ

What is direct marketing?

Direct marketing is one that focuses its energy on conversing with clients based on data and interests that define them, to create assertive and relevant communication.

What is Direct Marketing for?

In addition to saving time and resources, direct marketing serves to define specific objectives for each audience . Thus, better results can be achieved with the least effort, defining the stage of the customer journey and creating strategies to meet the objectives set.

️ How to apply direct marketing?

  • Make good use of your database
  • Know and analyze the behavior of your users
  • Personalize your messages
  • Integrate channels
  • Measure the results

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Types of customer segmentation and the secret to selling more

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In order to provide users with exactly what they are looking for at the right time, you need to know them, know who they are. The key to achieving this is customer segmentation . If you haven’t heard of it yet or if you have just a vague idea about it, don’t worry! In this note we will tell you everything.

✋ But before giving you the details about what segmentation is and how to carry it out in your business, some statistics to keep in mind:

  • 91% of consumers say they would buy from brands that provide offers and recommendations relevant to them.
  • 80% of people prefer to buy from a company that offers personalized experiences.
  • Marketers see an average 56% increase in sales when they offer personalized experiences.

What conclusion can we draw from all this? So that your business stands out and you can give users exactly what they hope to get, you need to customize the experience. What is the way to achieve it? Customer segmentation.

Now, the time has come to find out what this strategy is about.

What is customer segmentation?

Customer segmentation is a process by which a company is in charge of grouping the users of its database according to various parameters. In general, these contacts are grouped according to their characteristics, interests and consumption.

In this way, we can say that There are various types of customer segmentation. There is no single way to classify a user base. This is largely due to the fact that within the same audience you can have different needs or objectives, depending on the characteristics of each individual and the moment or stage of the journey in which they are.

☝️ Not all people have the same needs at the same time and not all are impacted in the same way by the same messages.

What do we mean by this? Even if you sell a single product or service, the way you approach each user will not be the same in each case. Once again, the Customer Journey has enormous relevance.

Customer segmentation examples : if a user has just left their details to sign up for the newsletter, we will most likely approach them with a welcome message and some valuable content to start introducing it in the products that the company sells. Above all, we will seek that you understand the benefits or solutions that you can find. But if a user has already bought and we have stopped receiving news from him for a long time, we will surely use recovery emails to encourage you to return. The way to approach it will be totally different in each case.

Of course, this is just one of the criteria that you can take into account when segmenting your audience. Next, we are going to know what other ways you can do it.

Types of customer segmentation

So far we have made it clear that customer segmentation consists of dividing into groups the different users that are linked to your business . The objective of this strategy is to offer increasingly personalized messages and experiences and thus achieve more conversions.

We also mentioned before that there are different types of customer segmentation, do you want to know what they are? Here we go!

Demographic segmentation

This is possibly one of the types of customer segmentation most used by companies. Usually the first criterion to use to group users. When we talk about demographics we mean:

  • Age.
  • Gender.
  • Education.
  • Civil status.
  • Family size.
  • Occupation.
  • Income level.

It is, basically, the breakdown of the users that are part of the company’s database, based on superficial traits such as age or gender .

This helps us answer who these people are in our contact base. Without a doubt, it is the easiest data to obtain, because it is a less invasive segmentation than others. The user only needs to complete their data through a form or a survey and with that we would already have the information.

Segmentation of customers by demographic data saves time and places us more clearly in front of our audience , understanding who we are targeting.

However, we must say that, as we mentioned before, this criterion gives us superficial information, so it does not allow us to know the users in depth. To do this, we will need to combine it with another type of segmentation that we will see in the following points.

Geographical segmentation

If we talk about customer segmentation examples, this is another of the clearest. Is about divide users based on geographic location criteria. In other words, it is a type of segmentation designed to answer where the people in our contact base are. In this way, the criteria to identify when we group consumers according to their physical location are:

  • Country.
  • Region.
  • Town.
  • Postal Code.

This type of customer segmentation can have a significant influence on interactions in physical stores. Therefore, it is one of the criteria most used by businesses that are committed to the local marketing .

In addition, consumers grouped in similar geographical areas may share similar preferences, so applying this segmentation criterion within your strategy can be very useful.

Behavioral segmentation

So far we have presented you with two types of customer segmentation that help answer the who and where of your database. Now we are going to introduce you to another kind of segmentation that can help you answer How do users behave?

This is behavioral segmentation. It is based on the behavior patterns of people while interacting with a brand. Here we delve into the habits of the user; the timing, frequency and level of use of a tool, product or platform; added to the stage in which you are in your shopping journey; and their attitude towards the brand.

Some criteria to use:

  • Purchasing reason. What are users looking for? Best price, quality, or great reviews? What difficulty are they trying to solve?
  • Chance. Users are often looking for a product for a particular occasion or event. This is a criterion to take into account at the time of segment a contact base .
  • Profits. In this case, it is important to identify what benefit potential buyers are looking for: get the latest technology, the safest product, take advantage of the discount, etc.
  • Stage of the purchase journey. In what stage is the user? Are you looking for information for a future purchase or are you ready to try the brand’s product for the first time?
  • Commitment level. Here we will focus on the degree of customer loyalty. Is it a recurring buyer who also recommends the brand? Are you a customer who used to buy and has stopped?

This class of customer targeting can be used to gain insight into user experience . It also helps you identify potential future customers who are more likely to buy a product.

Psychographic segmentation

To close the list of the different types of customer segmentation that you can apply in your business, we must mention psychography. What is this and why is it important to you? Well, although it may seem that the concept is quite far from the world of marketing and sales, the truth is that it is about one of the key criteria for grouping users .

Psychographic segmentation It involves taking into account the lifestyle, beliefs, personality traits and interests of the users. Unlike the demographic or behavioral criterion, the psychographic allows you to answer why a person buys your product .

What is usually taken into account in this kind of segmentation?

  • Hobbies, activities, or interests.
  • Habits
  • Opinions.
  • Personality or attitude.
  • Lifestyle.
  • Social status.

As we can see, this type of segmentation implies a deeper understanding of the audience.. However, by grouping users in this way, the business can be better prepared to tailor its strategies to the expectations of current and potential customers.

How to classify and segment your customers? Step by Step

You already know what segmentation is and what are the main criteria that you can use to group users in your database. What you still don’t know is how to put all this into practice. In other words How to do customer segmentation? We share the fundamental steps to achieve it.

  1. Define targeting targets. Every time we segment clients it is important to have a goal to achieve. Define what problems we are trying to solve through segmentation, what we hope to achieve from this activity, what is the desired result. This objective should be as specific as possible and at the same time, measurable.
  2. Set the characteristics of segmentation. In this case, it is important to establish how many segments are to be created, from what sources the data will be extracted, what tools will be used and what criteria will be applied, among other points.
  3. Gather the data. The key to constituting each segment is the data, without this information it would be an impossible task. This step consists of extracting this data from the sources that the company uses and bringing it together in one place to classify it.
  4. Define the types of segmentation to use. In this case, it is necessary to define what criteria or characteristics will be taken into account to segment customers: demographic, geographic, behavioral or psychographic data.
  5. Develop customer segments. With all the previous steps, we are now in a position to create our customer segments, that is, to distribute the users in each group or category based on the criteria that we have previously established.

Why segment customers?

As we said at the beginning, segmenting customers is one of the alternatives to personalize the user experience. This leads to another advantage: by providing more relevant experiences, the brand can achieve better results. Segmentation is undoubtedly one of the secrets to selling more.

What we must bear in mind is that if a company knows its audience better and understands more precisely what their needs and motivations are, it can create more specific marketing campaigns.. Something like to do one-to-one marketing. The user feels that the brand understands their problem and that it speaks directly to them about what interests them.

If you know who you are targeting, you can implement more effective lead nurturing strategies, incentivize buybacks , and even wake up inactive users .

Likewise, segmentation allows you to take full advantage of marketing automation to automate shipments to each segment , while still personalizing each interaction, but without wasting an extra minute. With Automation you can save a lot of time to grow your business!

In addition, multiple campaigns can be developed, each designed and targeted to a different segment within a larger customer base. It does not matter the size of that listing, You can impact each group with relevant messages that, in turn, can help you close more sales .

As if this were not enough, the campaigns that are better targeted provide another benefit: they allow you to allocate the expenses of marketing actions strategically .

In short, customer segmentation helps to find greater business opportunities, optimize communication, consolidate the relationship with users and achieve better results. Are you ready to implement it?

Do not forget that to implement this kind of strategy you need the right tools on your side. Discover the solution emBlue for your business.

FAQ on Types of Segmentation

What is segmentation?

Segmentation is that technique that is based on dividing and classifying leads, prospects or clients according to some type of interests or characteristics, in order to send personalized messages with strategies for each group.

What types of customer segmentation are there?

  • Geographical segmentation
  • Demographic segmentation
  • Behavioral segmentation
  • Psychographic Segmentation

️ Why segment customers?

Segmenting customers is a technique that will allow you to know who and how many people are in each stage of your customer journey, their level of commitment to your brand and their proximity to the purchase or buyback. You will be able to create strategies to move them towards your business objective.

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What is the customer journey and how to identify its stages

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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?

Try emBlue in my business
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10 reasons to incorporate marketing automation into your strategy

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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.

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Do you want to know the ROI of your Email Marketing campaign? Keep reading

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How do you know if your email campaigns really work? This is probably one of the frequent doubts when investing in this type of strategy. To be certain that you are obtaining the desired results, there is a metric that is key: ROI email marketing. In this note we tell you everything you need to measure the return on investment in your emailing campaigns.

If we talk about the best channels to interact with leads and customers, then email cannot be missing. The years go by, new channels appear, new forms of communication and yet, ROI email marketing is still the highest. According to Oberlo, For every $ 1 invested, the estimated median return is $ 42 .

These are very encouraging figures for any business that implements email marketing as a strategy. But it is also the boost that brands that have not yet taken this step need.

Now, how do you measure ROI in email marketing? And, above all, how to improve it. We give you the details below.

ROI email marketing what is it?

When you decide to invest money in a certain strategy for your business, surely one of the doubts that appears is about how profitable the investment in question will be. Fortunately, there is a way to find out and that is to calculate the ROI. But what is it? What is this about?

ROI is what in English is known as Return on Investiment and in Spanish we call Return on Investment. Basically, it is one of the indicators o KPI’s most important for a business. It is a metric that you allows you to compare the investment you have made, with the results obtained. This is essential to know how effective the actions were taken.

In the case of ROI email marketing , what it allows is to compare the investment in a campaign and the results obtained in it. In other words, how much income does emailing represent for your business.

The comparison between the investment you have made and the profits you obtained in an email marketing campaign is the most important metric, if you want to know the effectiveness of your actions. This will allow you Know if your business is generating income through email marketing , if that income is desired and if it is necessary to make adjustments to improve results.

If you want to know more about the effectiveness of email marketing, we recommend you read this note .

As we saw before, email marketing is the perfect tool to make your investment profitable., since it is a channel that generates great results in sales, but at a very low cost. Do you want to know how to measure the ROI of your emailing campaigns? That’s where we go!

How to measure the return on investment in email marketing?

The return on investment in email marketing is essential to evaluate the efficiency and profitability of your campaigns. Being able to calculate it easily is one of the ways to have this information always updated and available to introduce improvements in your strategy. But How to measure it? Where to start? Help! Calm! That is what we are here for.

The basic formula for calculating ROI is: profit – money invested / money invested = ROI (expressed in percentages).

Among the main mistakes made by SMEs or first-time companies is the lack of measurement of results

It seems very simple right? But measuring ROI in email marketing can be a bit more complex than this. we are going to know the step by step, do not miss any details!

Determine your investment

The first step in getting started calculating your ROI in email marketing is determining your investment . That is, know how much you spend on your email marketing.

In general, here enter the expense corresponding to the payment of your email service provider, that is, the payment of your shipping plan. But there are also other factors that are part of your investment, for example, the time allocated to the adjustments and implementation of the campaign. How long does it take your team to get it up and running? By determining this, you can assign an hourly rate for these tasks.

Then, the investment in email marketing would be equivalent to the cost of your delivery plan + the value of the hours dedicated to creating and setting up the campaigns.

Something interesting that we should highlight about emBlue is that you can start with a free plan, that is, your investment in this case would be much less. If you want to know the details and the value of each plan visit our note how much it costs to start an email marketing campaign .

Identify the income earned

To calculate the income obtained through mailing, it is necessary to go beyond the open rate and the click-through rate. What you need to identify is what happens to the user once they reach your website or the landing that you have created for your campaign.

How to find this information? In this case, your greatest ally is Google Analytics. With this tool, you can know the detailed path of your leads and the conversions they are making on their journey.

Did you know that by using emBlue you can integrate your Google Analytics account? Thus, you can quickly and efficiently view the traffic of your campaigns.

Calculate ROI email marketing

We come to the calculation of the ROI email marketing. Don’t worry, because this part is simpler. What is needed at this stage is gather all the data that you have obtained from your campaign and insert it into a very simple formula:

  • Earnings – investment / investment x 100 = ROI email marketing.

Let’s suppose that your business generated $ 50,000 in profit per year through email marketing and to carry out that campaign you invested $ 10,000. The return on investment calculation would be:

  • $ 50,000 – $ 10,000 / $ 10,000 x 100 = 400% ROI.

As you can see, the formula is quite simple, you just need to gather the correct data. Remember that, for this, the key is to choose the right email marketing tool . One that allows you to obtain precise insights about the operation of your campaigns .

4 ways to improve ROI email marketing

The ROI email marketing depends, to a large extent, on the practices you apply in your shipments. In other words, if you improve some of your practices and actions, you can get a better return on investment from email marketing.

We give you 4 recommendations to increase ROI and improve the results of your emailing:

Automate your email marketing

Automating email marketing can help you reduce costs and increase the ROI of your campaigns. Mainly, because the marketing automation simplifies processes and saves a lot of time .

Automating your email marketing helps you optimize the metrics of your campaigns and ROI is one of them. This is due, above all, to the fact that you can dedicate more time to the task of analyzing and making decisions based on the insights that you are obtaining. That time before you had to dedicate it to shipments, but that with automation is in the hands of the tool.

In addition, marketing automation is a great ally to generate leads.. Thanks to the fact that it allows you to send emails at the right time, it has become one of the best strategies to improve the conversion rate. This, of course, also helps optimize email marketing ROI.

Segment and personalize

Segmenting your contact list will allow you to send emails that respond to the interests of each group.. This is essential to improve your return on investment in email marketing.

Keep in mind that not all users want and expect the same from your business. Thus, It is important to first discover how they interact with your brand and what needs they have. Based on this you can deliver relevant messages.

Segmentation and personalization go hand in hand and promise very good results for your campaigns .

Work the subject line

You have 5 seconds to get the user’s attention and get them to open the email you sent. What you have ahead is the challenge of creating the best subject line for each email in your campaign .

If nobody opens your messages, your open rate can be disastrous, but also, it is impossible to have a good ROI. How do you get a positive ROI if people don’t know what you have to offer?

Therein lies the importance of working on the subject line and creating phrases that motivate users to click on each email you send.

Create better calls to action

All emails within an email marketing campaign have some call to action or Call to Action (CTA). This is one phrase or word that tells the user what to do next : Click here, Visit this note, Sign up now, are some examples.

A good Call to Action helps the user to move forward, to go from your email to the place you want to take it, your website, a landing page, your store, etc. Remember that calls to action should be short and direct. In addition, they must be differentiated from the rest of the message, with a different color or design that attracts attention.

Now you have enough information about ROI email marketing. You can use it to calculate the return on investment in your latest campaigns and discover what adjustments you need to make to improve your results. Time to analyze!

ROI email marketing FAQ

What is ROI email marketing?

ROI email marketing is that economic recovery that originate massive email campaigns, compared to the investment made to implement them.

What is ROI email marketing for?

Know the ROI in your mailing campaigns , It will allow you to know if, in addition to the relevant metrics to the email channel, your business is receiving an economic profit. If not, you can adjust your strategies to achieve it.

️ How to improve my ROI email marketing?

To improve the Return on your Investment in email marketing, you should take into account the following points:

  • Automate shipments
  • Segment and personalize
  • Work on email issues
  • Improve your CTAs or calls to action

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