“Everyone knows that providing a structured and automated approach to customer life stages increases engagement and boosts conversion rates across direct channels, but only if it’s done in the right way!
The accelerated development of automation tools has led to a rapid roll-out of poorly designed campaigns for companies and when a new marketing automation tool is implemented, there is the temptation to automate almost everything. This can be a mistake and you should never automate communications ‘just for the sake of it’.”
This can lead to customers receiving messages at the wrong time and being exposed to content that is simply not relevant to them, especially if their buying trends change.
We work with our clients to implement their automations efficiently, which has resulted in significant increases in engagement and conversion rates compared to mass BAU campaigns. These returns have been realised across high value active and reactivation segments of both low and high value customers.
Our clients have been able to execute successful automation routines by following the key principles below:
Launching automations without these principles can lead to the process quickly becoming just a ‘tick box’ exercise, adding very little or no value to the overall customer experience.
Constant testing and updates to automated messaging is essential for continued success. For example, one of our client’s busiest sales periods occurs during November to early December – during this period, the product delivery timings are different and the average order frequency and average spend increases. Offers are often removed from site as they are not needed. Historically, our client’s messaging for their automated campaigns was not adjusted for this time period and remained generic. This led to a dip in overall uplift. We addressed this and reviewed other time sensitive messaging to improve the customers’ experience, which then led to a subsequent increase in engagement levels.
Overall, automations are a key asset for marketeers and should be used as often as possible when trying to convert customers, however, they should not be launched just because there they are a ‘nice to have’.
Without proper analysis of timings, key product and promotion briefing and a testing strategy, an automation will tick along but will not deliver the significant uplifts that would be possible if the customer understanding was considered and maximised as part of the automation itself.”
Guy Swan, Client Strategy Director at XCM