Marketing automation is one of the most misunderstood terms in digital marketing nowadays. This is true even among the marketers. A common belief is that it’s an emulation of the old school marketing tactic of pre-scheduled email campaigns to be delivered at a specific interval. Indeed, this means that many marketers haven’t figured out the allure and, of course, the true power of marketing automation just yet. In this post, we pulled together several key marketing automation terms that we believe every marketer should know.
Term #1: Marketing automation funnel
Marketing automation funnel, similar to sales funnel, refers to the step by steps a prospect or customer needs to go through before they can reach the conversion goal. The most common funnel is the customer journey from awareness to consideration to the decision, it is a ‘migration’ all your customers undergo from one touch-point to another and from one conversion point to the next. Similar to bricks and mortar retail, each touch-point contains different information-based on your eCommerce product or service, your market and your audience-that will enable your lead to convert. A marketing automation specialist must be able to identify the critical conversion path for each these steps.
Term #2: Marketing automation specialist
This marketing automation term refers to someone who has the knowledge and experience to apply marketing automation tactics. He has an in-depth understanding of lead to customer conversion funnel and end-to-end marketing process. The specialist is responsible for design, quality assurance, execution, maintenance and reporting for automated marketing flows and campaign distribution. He supports campaign activation, lead generation and often acts as a marketing power user for platforms such as ContactPigeon.
Term #3: Behavior-based marketing
Behavior-based marketing shifts the dynamic from outbound “push” style marketing to customer-focused approach. This is a tactic where campaigns are targeted to your audience based on their actions and behaviors with your brand. The interaction can take place across your websites such as each page views, clicks, and events (e.g., add-to-cart). Similarly, campaigns can be triggered automatically by visitors interaction with your previous marketing campaigns, social media, email and beyond. Behavior-based marketing is powerful in the personal and timely manner in which you engage a customer. It is the action of your visitors or customers that dictates what campaign they receive, and not a blanket decision made by a marketer. Consequently, 39% of marketer surveyed believe behavior-based marketing is most effective tactics for improving email engagement according to a MarketingSherpa study.
Term #4: Drip marketing
A drip marketing campaign is a predetermined set of campaigns (often in form of emails) triggered when certain conditions are met with one or more possible workflows (outcomes). It is mostly used to nurture leads. The Drip process often involves sending marketing information to prospects over a long period of time with the goal of moving the prospect thru the marketing funnel. For instance, one of the best-known drip campaigns is the welcome series. It is where a business sends a number of email welcoming and engaging a new user after she signs up for the newsletter with the aim to nurture the relationship. Overall, it’s a great tactic to incorporate into your sales or marketing strategies, as companies that excel at drip marketing generate 80% more sales at 33% lower costs.
Term #5: Shopping Cart Fetchback / Abandonment Campaigns
Cart abandonment automated emails are one of the oldest tactics in your marketing automation books. Many eCommerce businesses, in an effort to optimize conversion rates and increase revenue, use cart fetch-back automated emails to “remind” a customer of a potential purchase interest. Additionally to an automated ‘reminder’, many businesses offer incentives such as a discount offers or bonus as incentives to complete. This type of email automation must have specifics like CTA buttons, content density, links and the appropriate tone of voice.
Term #6: Dynamic Content
Dynamic content is the cornerstone in the realm of marketing personalization. It refers to content – text, graphics, or even entire landing pages – that can be changed dynamically based on the audience and the time during which it needs to appear. The simplest form of dynamic content widely used by email marketers is to address each recipient by their name along with unique recommendations based on interests. While on the other hand, you can automatically recognize a visitor to your website based on their device type and present a version of your site that’s specific to their browsing experience. The ability to dynamically change content allows you to tailor make your visitors’ shopping or landing experience. As such, it will lift the overall brand experience while increasing the conversion potential at the same time.
This brings us to the next marketing automation term…
Term #7: Personalization
Personalization or personalized marketing is a technique where marketing messages are tailored and directed to a specific individual. It is accomplished by leveraging data and analytics to enrich the contact’s profile. It could be information such as the person’s name, geo-location, products purchased or viewed, or even number site visits. Insights on individual contact can be used to customize the marketing message that would best suit their interests. Since the message is relevant to the contact, the recipient is more likely to open and act on it. Personalization can be applied in email marketing and is also particularly effective when applied to landing page content, pop-up, and call outs.
Term #8: Segmentation
Market segmentation is the process of dividing a market of potential customers into groups, aka segments, based on various characteristics. Common criteria used for customers are demographics, interest area, purchase patterns, funnel stage, and others. The segments created should comprise of consumers who share common traits and will respond similarly to marketing strategies. Segmentation is a key part of successful marketing and management of your eCommerce business. Being able to slice and dice your audience allows you to be more targeted in your marketing efforts, thereby increasing the chance of success than a generic campaign to all your audiences.
In conclusion, marketing automation is becoming a must-have ingredient of the marketing strategy of any brand, particulary those in ecommerce business. These 8 marketing automation terms will help you build a solid understanding of the synchronous and “up-to-date” email marketing trends and best practices.
