Thanks to the innovative minds hard at work, there are so many technology options available to automate marketing workflows and become more efficient. All marketing activity involves some type of workflow that helps complete a certain task. Workflows can be simple or grow more complex as additional departments, functions, and channels become involved in a particular task.
One marketing workflow might even include another workflow within the marketing department or another department, thereby adding timelines or approvals to the overall process. Marketing workflows also involve matching customer journeys and touchpoints to business processes that can address those.
The only problem is knowing which marketing automation workflows align with your business. Here’s how to select the right marketing automation workflow solutions for your needs.
Understanding marketing automation workflow triggersIn order to determine which marketing automation workflows fit your needs, it’s important to understand what triggers one or more of these workflows. Examples include email activity, list subscribes and unsubscribes, page visits, demo sign-ups, and form submissions.
What each of these triggers has in common is the fact that for each, a customer action has set in motion a marketing automation process. The action tells marketing what type of materials need to be sent and how the workflow should proceed in line with the customer journey and touchpoints.
Must-have marketing automation workflowsNo matter what the size or industry, there are certain types of marketing automation workflows that are critical to every company.
Welcome workflowEvery company should enact this automation opportunity when a user signs up on their app or website. This shows interest in your brand, which means it’s an opportunity to send out an automated welcome email to thank them and start delivering the value they seek.
Re-engagement workflowMarketing automation workflows are also important when customers haven’t opened your marketing campaigns in some time or appear inactive. Retention is generally more cost efficient than acquisition, making reactivation workflows essential.
Identifying at-risk customers is a unique experience for each company. It is important to initiate some type of automated workflow to re-engage with these customers and find out what can draw them back in, such as an automated offer or discount after a certain period of inactivity. If the inactivity continues, another automated workflow might involve asking the customer to update their communications preferences, which can help determine if a database cleanse is necessary.
Feedback workflowEvery company needs to collect feedback from its customers about experiences. When a customer has just worked with the tech support or service representatives, there should be an automated marketing workflow that collects their opinion about the experience and any feedback they wish to give.
This trigger can help guide decisions on what needs to be improved and how those improvements should be addressed. This also lets the customer know there is concern about the experience and how to make it better.
The same feedback workflow can be used for other triggers related to collecting feedback on a new product or service or about a brand refresh.
Content download workflowsContent downloads are a way to automatically capture email addresses of prospects and collect information to guide future marketing campaigns. It also informs what type of content is getting the greatest engagement so you can plan on producing more content that addresses that need.
Upsell workflowWhen customers make purchases, it’s important to introduce an upsell automated workflow that appears at checkout. Think of it like the items found at a checkout counter that often make their way into carts while waiting in line. These impulse purchases are facilitated by availability.
Examples of an automated workflow for upsells include product recommendations and pop-up windows that inquire if the customer might have forgotten any key items that are culled from past purchases or from customers who bought similar items. The upsell workflow can also be introduced after the purchase in a follow-up email.
Lead nurturing workflowIn this case, there are actually quite a few marketing automation workflows to consider that include the sales team as part of the marketing effort. These include automatically qualifying leads, assigning leads, segmenting leads, scoring leads, and responding to leads.
To optimize these workflows related to lead nurturing, it’s important to ensure your technology can integrate the data from marketing and sales. Additionally, on the operations side, it’s critical to have the management and cultural directives in place that embrace working together instead of in silos. This will help ensure that the lead nurturing workflows drive efficiency and return on investment.
For more information about marketing automation, please read:
- Marketing Automation 101
- Do More with Tactile Marketing Automation
- 5 Keys to Successful Automated Marketing
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