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Do you want to maximize your sales and get better ROI (Return On Investment)? Then this article is for you.
Here you will find out how with the use of eCommerce marketing automation, you can boost your marketing efforts. When we talk about eCommerce, we mean online shopping. And we have thousands of eCommerce platforms on the web.
To boost sales and promote online shopping brands, we need digital marketing. However, digital marketing is an ever-changing phenomenon. There is a constant race between the platforms' algorithm updates and digital marketers.
For small business owners, it may not be easy to keep up with all these things.
So, you can rely on marketing automation tools. Coupled with the top eCommerce marketing strategies, you are sure to gain better engagement.
But the thing is, you can't apply the same strategy to every platform.
You require different tools and strategies for websites, emails, social media, and content syndication platforms. And with around 4.2 active social media users, you can't neglect eCommerce marketing.
But before we dive deeper, let's understand the meaning of marketing automation.
» What is eCommerce Marketing Automation?
According to Marcus Taylor, the Founder of Venture Harbour, marketing automation is all about optimization.
Marketing automation is much more than using tools to automate repetitive tasks of the online marketing teams. It benefits businesses in several ways! It helps businesses take full control of their digital marketing strategies.
You don't have to handle every small thing about the online campaigns manually. These tools are enough to do most tasks by themselves. When you apply these techniques for eCommerce platforms, you will target better and provide a sophisticated shopping experience to your customers.
With automation, you can create personalized online campaigns that will strike the target audience's emotions.
And you know what that means - better engagement!
These automation tools will help you drive more traffic to your website, double the orders, and influence the customers to return. All you need to do is complete the initial settings and do a few tweakings now and then.
However, before you do all that, you must learn all about eCommerce marketing strategies. Try to avoid eCommerce marketing mistakes if you want to succeed.
» Start your eCommerce Marketing Automation on Your Website
Do you know that retail eCommerce revenues are estimated to rise to 5.4 trillion US dollars in 2022? Even though many people don't use social media, they use online shopping platforms such as Google shopping. So, you must start your automated marketing campaigns right from your website.
1. Persuade the Customers at the Last Stage
When we use online shopping websites, we add things to the cart and abandon them before purchasing. It is frustrating for any business owner. But with automation, you can make this an opportunity.
The people who have left their filled carts only need the final nudge to complete their shopping. So, you can collect the information and send them an email to remind them of the purchase.
You can do this with email remarketing.
Alternatively, with the remarketing code collected, automation tools can show images of the product left in the cart when they visit different social media platforms. Not only that, with Google Ads, you can remind the customers by showing images every time they visit other websites.
Image via Moz
If you keep showing the images and tell them about it, they will soon fall in love with the products again.
2. Provide Discount Offers
Most of us like to purchase only when there is a discount, and it's fine. You can use this to lure leads into making purchases on your website. With eCommerce marketing automation tools, you can show images of discounts to customers who have already shopped on your website.
Alternatively, you may also do email marketing with automation tools. Create attractive emails featuring all the offers and sales you have in store for them. Make sure to add the products that they love or have purchased in the past.
You have to follow a few behavioral email marketing tips to ensure your strategies work well.
Some of the top email marketing tools you may use are:
And more.
3. Make Personalized Promotional Offers for Regular Customers
One of the best ways to boost your marketing effort is by recognizing your daily customers. You know they are important for your business, so you need to make them feel that. One way to do this is by presenting them personalized promotional offers.
You can utilize the data of the products they have purchased before and send them discount offers on them. You may also provide them discounts on bundle products or show them products similar to what they've purchased before.
For example, if you're a stationery brand, show images of pens, markers, and pencils that go along with a notebook that they have purchased. You may also provide discounts on them to make them purchase.
In this way, you will make the customer feel like you are genuine and care about them. It strikes an emotion and boosts your sale. And for this, you may take the help of email marketing automation tools and Google Ads.
4. 'Miss You' Emails and SMS
You must have come across emails and ads showing that a brand misses you, right? With this, they are not only promoting their brand but also reminding you that they exist. It's a remarketing technique!
Moreover, it also helps build a relationship with a customer. The tone of the 'miss you' message should align with your brand's personality. It will help you stay unique when several other brands are doing the same thing.
Image via Pure360
For the last nudge, you may also add a discount so that they return just for the sake of the offer.
The trick with this type of marketing is to send them offers to their email address or phone. When a user makes an account on your website, they will tell you about their email address and phone number.
Using the right eCommerce marketing automation tool, you can send them a 'miss you' email or an SMS. You can depend on email marketing software for emails, but you need a bulk SMS service for sending SMS.
Even the SMS needs to be thought-provoking because it will only contain texts. However, you may also add a link that opens to the template of your 'miss you' campaign.
5. Follow Up Products or Categories
When a customer completes a purchase, you can still market some of the other products. It is called 'Following Up.' You show them products from the same category, so they stop and think about it.
Let’s say, your customer purchased a cake. You can show images of candles and other decoration items along with it after the payment. You can do this with eCommerce marketing automation tools.
When you set it up, you direct the tool to show these images whenever someone purchases a cake from your online store. You may also offer a 10 percent discount on this to make them buy it.
In some cases, you may show similar products from the same category when they add a product to the cart. The eCommerce giant, Amazon, uses this tactic to lure buyers in adding more products to their carts. It also shows a section about what others have bought along with the product.
Image via Amazon
» Use Social Media Automation to Market eCommerce Products
According to SocialMediaToday, 83% of marketers use automation for scheduling social media posts and other tools for marketing. If you want to be ahead of your competitors, you have to keep up with the technology revolution. Now you can find several social media automation tools that can boost your business's sales!
By implementing these automation tools in your social media marketing strategy, you can save a lot of time! There are tons of social media automation tools that can make your life easier.
What Benefits Do You Get With Social Media Automation Tools?
1. Post Scheduling
With most of the social media marketing tools, you have the liberty to schedule your posts. So, if you are launching a new category of products on your eCommerce website and you want to post at the perfect time, you may use the scheduling tool.
You must find the time and day when you receive the highest engagement using analytics. In this way, you will be able to market your products better.
However, if you want to ensure that you are getting high traffic, your content must be engaging. You can go for videos, images, and even lives. According to Wyzowl, 86% of video marketers have said that videos have increased their website traffic.
So, you can't ignore videos.
Moreover, according to the same survey, 87% of marketers said that YouTube is a powerful marketing channel. So, even if you use other social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram, try to upload your YouTube video there.
On Facebook, you may add the link to your YouTube on a post for people to access it. To add YouTube links on Instagram, use the bio, IGTV, or post description section.
Image via Instagram
If you have a product category launch video, you may share the link on social media platforms to gain traffic.
2. Dedicated Platform to Reply Every Message
When you have too many social media accounts for your business, it will become difficult to answer everyone. However, to maintain a good customer relationship, you have to reply to them. Many people even use the inbox section to make their complaints.
So, as an eCommerce business, you should always reply to all the queries at all times. You can make this happen with a social media automation tool. Sprout Social is a popular tool that allows this function.
In this, you will have all your accounts connected to your Sprouts Social account. Then anytime anyone sends a message; you can quickly reply to them. It is called the Smart Inbox, where you can monitor every message.
Image via Sprout Social
3. Manage Your Social Media & Google Ad Campaigns
One of the best features of social media marketing automation tools is getting everything in the same place. Every business has to run pages on almost every popular social media platform. However, it becomes difficult to manage when you have to do ad campaigns at the same time.
But with these automation tools, you can connect your social media accounts with the tool, keep an eye on all the analytics and run your ads accordingly. HubSpot, WordStream, and more have Facebook ad campaign management software for this purpose.
4. Complete Analytics of Every Accounts
As a marketer, you must keep a tab on the analytics. Analytic reports help in building the upcoming strategies for the eCommerce business. But if you try to do it manually, you have to log in to every social media platform to look at the data.
However, with the social media automation tool, you will find every data right in one place. Hootsuite, Sprout Social, and more are popular automation tools that allow this. Moreover, you can see all the notifications on any of the social media accounts you've connected to.
Image via Hootsuite
4. You Can Find Influencers for Collaboration
Influencer marketing is booming. You need its help to achieve your marketing goals. Influencers can help in target marketing.
However, it's not easy to find the right influencer.
But tools like BuzzSumo, Traackr, and more can help you with that.
It lets you find influencers according to the niche. You may contact them according to your budget and their follower count.
Generally, eCommerce websites need to target customers, especially during festival sales. For example, if you want to target the youth for a Valentine’s Day offer, it's best to take an influencer's help. Find the influencer whose audience comprises the younger generation.
With the tool, you can easily contact them and make a deal to collaborate.
Image via BuzzSumo
» Ready to Boost Your Sales with eCommerce Marketing Automation?
In the next few years, the eCommerce industry may become completely automated. So, it would help if you start your preparations from now. By implementing the right automation tools for your marketing, you can be way ahead of your competitors.
Try to incorporate tools in your strategy to start targeting your likely customers from when they first interact with your brand. If it's through a social media ad post, ensure that you are replying to them using the automation tool.
Next, when you bring them to your website, make sure that they are making a purchase. If they abandon the cart, show them similar products and use Google remarketing codes.
You can improve customer relationships by sending personalized emails using eCommerce marketing automation tools. Let them know that they are special to you! It will help them return to your website for the next purchase.
So, experiment with a few of the marketing automation tools mentioned in the article, and let us know your review about them.
