Why Do You Need an eCommerce Marketing Automation Software?
Standing in 2022, marketing automation in eCommerce is not a new concept. Companies have invested millions in software testing and development to make automation faster and more efficient. It is predicted that by 2027, the global marketing automation software market will be valued at $11 Billion. Over the period of 2021-2026, Asia Pacific is forecasted to be the most prominent region, achieving the highest growth in this sector.
The marketing automation software is still a fragmented market where the competition is severe, but there are no dominant players as such. Sure, there are big corporations who are looking for the first mover’s advantage, but the market is yet to be consolidated.
So why do you need an eCommerce marketing automation software? That’s what we’ll be answering today.
The ‘WHY’ of the Question
As a seller, If one were to sum up the main characteristics of eCommerce, the common list would look like this:
- Fast
- Simple
- Secure
- Quality Rich
- Social Proof
- Personalised
- User-focused
- Mobile Friendly
- Easy to Use/Navigate
These are exactly what an eCommerce marketing automation software does. It makes monotonous processes, that would otherwise be performed by humans, redundant and saves precious time, manpower and money. So, the ‘why’ is pretty much self-explanatory. Marketing automation software gives eCommerce the much-needed boost it requires to keep up with the speed and productivity demanded in today’s highly competitive market.
Marketing Automation Strategies – The ‘How’
Now that you understand why you need eCommerce marketing automation software, the next logical question is ‘how’ will these software help ‘your’ business? To answer this question, one must have an understanding of what marketing processes they want to automate or make more efficient to streamline their workflow. Let us look at some of the strategies that are bound to give you positive results using automation if implemented correctly.
- If you are looking for providing your users with a personalised experience, then a welcome email might just do the trick. Software like Mailchimp, Sendinblue, Moosend, Drip, EmailOctupus and others make email marketing automation more customised and easy to use for your business. Create email marketing strategies, and make contact segmentation to target a smaller, particular group of users. Build custom templates or choose from pre-existing ones, send welcome emails, cross-sell and up-sell emails, and more via these marketing automation softwares.
- Generate more revenue through promotional offers, customer loyalty programs and abandoned cart reminder pop-ups. A large number of users abandon their cart due to extra costs, account creation prompts, unclear pricing and long checkout procedures. If you navigate past those, then chances are software like Omnisend, Klaviyo, CartStack, Privy, Rejoiner etc. will help you grow the revenue for your business. With real-time abandoned cart recoveries, you will not only build a better relationship with your customers but also enable lost sales recovery.
- Does your website require customers to go through a lengthy process or give additional details in order to check out? Save their time and offer them a seamless experience by implementing auto-fill forms on your website. If you run a small business this can come in very handy. With the help of software like Roboform, LastPass, Keyboard Express, ProntoForms, Repsly and others you can make information input much faster for your customers. There are web browser extensions that do the same and help save time.
- Simplify workflows and allow your customers to get your website 24/7, be it for making payments, addressing queries, syncing inventories, scheduling social media posts or simply printing shipping labels. With softwares like Marketo, SalesMate, ManyChat, Pardot, Keap, Overloop etc., you can streamline processes to increase productivity, get an effective business overview to make critical decisions and drive growth as you deem fit.
Avoiding Rookie Mistakes
So you have the tools, good. You have an idea, great. And you have the power, fantastic! But as the popular quote goes, “Remember, with great power comes great responsibility.”, same applies to eCommerce marketing automation as well. Merely having the software is not enough, one must avoid these rookie mistakes to make the most out of automation and help their eCommerce business scale heights:
- Assuming eCommerce marketing automation is easy and you do not need help.
- Not setting up marketing automation properly – not utilizing the tool’s full potential.
- Not building a team of experts to help with the automation process.
- Blaming automation tools, leads or vendors if there are no positive results.
- Forcing automation into silo marketing; ending up with an omnichannel mess.
- Automating an unnecessary process, or worse, having no process at all.
- Using marketing automation ONLY for email marketing. I mean, seriously?
- Using marketing automation only for manual eCommerce marketing.
Final Words
Summing it up, it is safe to say that eCommerce marketing automation is the way to go in the future. Top players like Microsoft, IBM, Oracle, Adobe and Salesforce have already invested and made millions of dollars through their tools. Customised software can help you automate tasks and help boost your eCommerce business, you only need to know how and not overdo it. Finally, keeping these few points will definitely give you an edge to make better business decisions:
- Communication is key; especially intrateam and with your customers. Use marketing automation to improve your business’s communication.
- Follow up on the leads generated through marketing automation, and keep sending follow up emails to know more about your customers’ requirements.
- Study and know more about the industry leaders, your competitors; how they are using automation and what strategies they are implementing and when they are doing it.
- Segment your customers demographically, geographically, through their buying preferences, intent and engagement level and use customised eCommerce marketing automation to target them.
- Keep a record of your automation strategies and use the effective ones as a reference to implement at later stages. Streamline the ones you think can be tweaked to do better.
- Remarket your ad strategies after a certain period/ time cycle.
Pro tip:
For B2B eCommerce marketing, run your ads in low frequency over a long period.
For B2C eCommerce marketing, run your ads in high frequency over a short period.
Thanks for your precious time reading this blog. By now, we hope we have answered why you need an eCommerce marketing automation software and the pros, cons and strategies around it. Let us know your suggestions and share your feedback in the comment section below. Share it with people who may get help from this. To know more about how your can increase your website’s traffic, get quality leads and grow your eCommerce business ROI, click here.
