Diving headfirst into marketing automation can be scary for some companies. Of course, there are many marketing automation sequences that are complex, but there are also some very simple ones that just make your life easier when they are in place.
This is what we are going to list in this article: the simplest actions to automate so you can concentrate your efforts on enriching the relationship with your customers.
Your advantage: you will build a close relationship with your customers because automation allows you to send your messages at the right time and use personalization to increase their relevance.
In the midst of a global pandemic, consumers need more than ever to have more enjoyable and seamless experiences with brands. Automation allows you to achieve this goal, thanks to the speed of action and the appropriate use of customization.
These are all solutions that you can do easily with Dialog Insight’s new marketing automation editor!
1. Customer Onboarding
I know, customer onboarding can be scary at times, as it can be complex to set up, but there are ways to welcome your new customers/subscribers/contacts in a simplified and just as efficient way. There is no need to wrack your brain for this type of sequence. The important thing is just to thank your new customers and welcome them. This is the opportunity to make a good first impression.
At its simplest, customer onboarding can be as simple as a single email, sent automatically after a certain period of time following an action, such as a subscription or account creation. This chosen delay will have a great impact on your results. In a client onboarding sequence, it is important to choose it carefully, because it can change everything.
Your message content is the second big piece of a good client onboarding sequence, since it really needs to be thought about. Here are some ideas that are always interesting:
- Sign your email by a real employee of the company or the president;
- Communicate in 1 sentence the customer advantage, your distinction from the competition;
- Indicate 1 attractive offer for the person, whether it is a content or a discount;
- Make sure that customers have interesting exit points in the email, to continue to engage with them.
If you have more technical knowledge, you can also lengthen the sequence and add personalization elements, based on clicked links, consents given, or completed form.
2. New Subscriber
It’s always a great idea to have an automated sequence to thank your new subscribers. For B2C businesses, offering a discount or promotion is a good way to get them to buy quickly, especially when it’s their first purchase with your brand. It also allows you to evaluate where your contacts are in the buying cycle, based on how long it takes them to dive in.
For companies that only send content and don’t necessarily sell a product or service, the choice of your content will be crucial. Your goal will be to show that your new subscriber was right to subscribe to your communications.
In any case, new subscribers rarely give more rounded consents than subscribing to the newsletter, which is always general. Take advantage of this email to invite them to subscribe to your types of communications so that they don’t miss anything and decide what they want to receive.
Finally, this sequence reduces the risk that your subscribers will be interested in your competitors. In fact, if you send a discount or your content is irresistible, your customer will be tempted towards your brand rather than that of a competitor.
3. RSS feed
This type of automated sequence is probably one of the easiest to do. If you have a blog, it’s a good way to promote your content to your contacts. Once programmed into your website, the URL of your RSS feed must be programmed into a tool like Dialog Insight. The content will automatically populate the dedicated areas in an email template built for that purpose.
Very few technical skills are required.
From a B2C standpoint, an RSS feed can be very useful when linked to a product catalog or an image of the day, for example. That way, you can promote your products or any new content published on your website to your contacts.
4. Follow-up after webinar/event
When doing an event or webinar, why not set up a follow-up sequence for all participants. Saying thank you for their participation is the least you can do … plus if it’s automated, it’s easy!
Build your scenario with a trigger that is based on adding contacts to a group or segment that you have named and dedicated to the participants of such an activity. Each time a contact is added to this group, he or she will automatically receive a thank you email.
5. Follow-up after a document download on your website
The best way to follow up when a contact uploads a document to your website is to capture their email address first. So start by linking each document to a form to collect information from your contacts, and then target them after the upload.
This is a tactic we use a lot internally. The information collected is very valuable to have, especially to take the customer relationship further.
Once you have this information, use it for your automated sequence. This sequence can be used to:
- Send the document in question;
- Tell them thank you for uploading your document;
- Encourage your contacts to discover your other documents;
- Direct them to pages on your website related to the subject of the document;
- Add a call to action to convince them to subscribe to your communications;
- Ask if they have any questions.
Several follow-up tactics are possible, find the one that’s right for you!
6. After sales follow-up
This sequence is easy to automate and applies as much to a company that sells products as it does to a service company, in B2B or B2C. This can benefit everyone, especially companies that sell large products or services, such as a car!
Your after-sales follow-up can also be used to make a gift or provide a service to your customer. For example, you are a company that sells kitchen products, and a customer buys a raclette pan. He can easily receive an email thanking him for his purchase, which contains ideas to liven up his evenings with friends. This email can also be followed by an email inviting them to look at products from the same family, such as serving plates.
A follow-up message after a purchase (and not just a purchase confirmation email) shows that you care about your customers, that you care about their business. In fact, for a close relationship, always sign this type of email with the name of an employee or the president. This humanizes communication and makes it more real in the eyes of the buyer.
Finally, don’t forget the contact information for customer service. In the case of dissatisfaction, a technical problem or a simple question, it is important that the customer knows who to contact.
7. Request for an opinion or customer testimonial
Asking your customers for their feedback is a simple step and allows you to collect a lot of interesting data about your products or services. Moreover, if you specify how the customer will benefit from it, it’s even better! (a product as a gift, for example)
Testimonials can be on the product page, on Google, or a tool that has an impact on purchases in your industry (for example a travel review site).
Indeed, 92% of consumers consult customer reviews and 80% trust them for a purchase. Think about offering a reward in exchange for a testimonial from your customers. This way they will be more inclined to give you this service and you will have more testimonials this way.
You can also turn this request into a short and simple satisfaction survey. For example, here at Dialog Insight, we have set up a survey that is sent out after 6 months of using the platform and includes only one question with three choices: Satisfied, Dissatisfied and Neutral. When the answer is Neutral or Dissatisfied, we have an automated mechanism to contact this person and rectify the situation.
It is also quite simple to set up and you will certainly have good data to use to promote your business or to optimize your products and services.
8. Reactivation of an inactive contact or client
This sequence is a must have in your strategy. It would be very unfortunate to lose potential customers because you did not do any follow-up. Some contacts are inactive for a reason, but some will just have forgotten that you exist. So if you don’t remind them, don’t expect them to miraculously come back.
Depending on your company, it will be important to determine how long a contact or customer is considered inactive. In addition, your reactivation incentive should be interesting and demonstrate the value of your business. You should do an analysis of your contacts’ or customers’ behaviors to know what would most encourage them to come back to you.
For this kind of sequence, your message should be as relevant as possible. Put all your efforts into this message, because if you succeed in reactivating a single customer, you are already a winner. Also think about adapting your approach, it will be different if you are addressing a contact, i.e. a person who subscribes to your communications or an inactive customer who has not made a purchase for a while.
Avoid contests for this sequence, because the reactivation will only be temporary … it’s often only for the duration of the contest and not for the medium term.
This sequence should also be done in several communications, and be part of a complete omnichannel strategy and not only by email. Integrate a web banner, push or mobile notifications, social networks, in short, all the channels you can take advantage of.
Remember that unfortunately you will not be able to reactivate all your contacts and that is normal! This is why, in order to keep your reputation as a sender, it is important to keep your database clean and remove the contacts that do not respond to this type of sequence. Keeping inactive contacts in your database could harm you in the long run, and we only want what’s best for you!
Conclusion
As you can see, there are many simple automated marketing sequences that you can put in place to make your life easier AND improve the relationship you have with your customers! That’s a big deal!
So, if you’re worried about automated marketing, take the time to create simple and less complex sequences…these will help you get used to the creative process and then build more complex sequences over time.
If you need help developing your strategies, Dialog Insight offers comprehensive strategic services to brainstorm, create and analyze your campaigns to optimize them. Contact us to discuss it, we will be happy to help you.
