5 Ways Marketing Automation Can Help You Boost Your Sales

If you are already using marketing automation – great! But are you absolutely sure you are making the most of it?

In recent years, marketing automation has become a standard in e-commerce. Yet, a lot of shop owners utilize only a fraction of available functionalities. The same way people pay a lot of money for the latest smartphone, only to use it for making calls, taking photos and sending the occasional message.

Making sure you implement a whole scope of marketing automation functionalities, will help bring a significant increase in sales and business growth. Often with the same website traffic.

Especially, as the research shows that only 3% of e-commerce visits result in a purchase (Statista)! This leaves a big room for improvement and a chance to implement solutions which will help you convert visitors into buying customers.

But that’s not all. Did you know that once somebody purchases something at your store, the chances that he or she will visit again increase significantly? 30% of buyers are more likely to return to the stores they have shopped in before (KPMG). That’s why it is so important to catch their attention at just the right time, with just the right message.

Check out these 5 marketing automation techniques, which will help you increase conversion rates, as well as the average transaction value in you e-store.

First time here? Nice to meet you!

Or how to convert visitors into buyers.

What can you do?

• Display a welcome message to everybody who visits your store for the first time – you can just say hello, or use this opportunity to say few words about your brand and its values, or to inform about a special offer, available only for new customers.
• Show your bestsellers on the homepage – marketing automation will allow you to modify the look of your homepage based on users behavior. This way, knowing someone is at your store for the first time, you can quickly present your best products.
• Start an “exit-intent” campaign – encourage the visitors to sign up for a newsletter and stay in touch. This way, even if they don’t purchase anything, you increase chances they won’t forget about you.

Is there any way I can help you? We miss you!

Or how to engage inactive users

What can you do?

• Use recommendations engine – show products viewed or bought by other, similar users or ones that are similar to the one viewed at the moment. If somebody is looking at long dresses, show them similar products or products like the most often bought at your store. Inspire your customers to shop.
• Use visual search – a functionality which helps customers quickly find what they are looking for based on the picture they upload. Difficulties finding the right product are one of the most common reasons for leaving an e-strore without any purchases.
• Use retargeting options and remind customers about your products after they left your store. Well configured targeting will not show your customers something they just purchased but instead,, complementary products. (like warm hat and gloves for someone who just bought a winter jacket.)
  

Stay with us – it’s really worth it!

Or how to retain your customers and make them loyal to your brand

What can you do?

To make sure your customers stay loyal, you need to approach them individually. Easier said than done, but advanced analytics based on your customers’ behavioral profiles will help. This way the system will be able not only understand but also predict your customers’ needs.

• Encourage visitors to sign up for a newsletter or push notifications – you can prepare few versions of that and see, which one works best.
• Create high quality, personalized mailings and remember about important milestones. You can message your customers on their birthday or celebrate your first year together. Or simply thank them for being your loyal customers and give them an extra discount.
• Give them earlier access to new collections or sales e.g. only for people who subscribe to push notifications. Let them know about special offers and promotions.

Psst… We have something special, just for you.

Or how to increase value of your transaction.

What can you do?

• Inspire your customers – show them products that match what they already have in their baskets, for example; helping create a whole outfit or design the whole living room in the same style. You can do it not only on the product’s page, but also on the basket’s page or in the form of a pop-up.
• Prepare some special offers for those customers, who have purchased items above a certain value – from additional discount to free delivery, you will add yet another incentive to shop with you.
• Use retargeting options to show products complementary to those recently purchased by your customers. Somebody has just bought a pair of skis? Show them gloves, googles or winter jackets.

Don’t leave it! You simply must have it!

Or how to save abandoned carts.

There are a lot of many different statistics estimating average cart abandonment rate in e-commerce (60-70%). But did you know there are also many different statistics showing how effective different types of cart saving solutions are? For example – mailing sent after somebody just abandoned their cart has about 45% open rate, comparing to a standard 16% (MailChimp). It’s worth giving it a try!

What can you do?

• Solutions are very simple – show an incentive to complete the purchase (discount, free delivery) as an exit-intent pop-up or send it in an email (no longer than 30 min after leaving the store). It really works! That is how we save up to 20% of abandoned transactions.