As a small business, are you always looking for new ways to boost your sales? While large businesses have the funds to employ extra staff and try out different solutions, you on the other hand often don’t enjoy the same luxury and have to resort to smarter tactics!

In such a world, marketing automation tools have emerged as a great solution for all of your needs. It’s affordable, doesn’t require much learning or new staff to get the hang of it, and is very effective when it comes to boosting your sales.

So how do get started? Keep reading and find out exactly how to use marketing automation tools to take your business to the next level.

Automate Your Marketing Now

Sticking to old practices of sending random emails to visitors or customers, and expecting something new or better to come out of it makes little sense in 2018. The world has moved on and there is no reason to stay on the same course when you have the means to enjoy the benefits of higher customer engagement, retention and satisfaction! How is this done? Welcome to the brave new world of marketing automation!

Marketing automation saves you from the burden of repetitive tasks that involve promoting your business via email for every individual customer out there. Instead, this tool automates all of this for you and, more importantly, personalizes each of your email marketing campaigns for every single customer, based on the sort of interaction they have with your business!

This way, your customers will receive only relevant, timely and personalized emails from you. You’ll not only have more time on your hands to focus on other important things, but also create many satisfied customers who will appreciate your personalized offers and timely feedback. Yet, everything starts with a simple trigger.

Setting the Right Triggers

This is actually simpler than it sounds – triggered emails are sent to your visitors or customer based on their previous interaction with your business. Their actions serve as triggers for sending them the right email at the right moment, such as just after they visit your website, open your email, leave their contact information on your landing page, or buy something from you. In fact you can set a trigger for just about every interaction you can think of.

All of these events demand a specific type of email which are sent by the marketing automation software. For example, if a visitor signs up for your newsletter, this will trigger the automatic action of sending them a pre-defined welcome mail. This action will be completely different from having a user leave their contact information after buying a product. In this case, it could be better to send them a special offer for a complimentary product, in order to grow their interest in your products further.

These triggers can also be based on any lack of action as well. For instance, your user may not have bought any products from you for a long time. The system will take note of this and send them a specific retention email which may include a voucher or discount off their next purchase to encourage them to buy again. In this way, marketing automation helps you create personalized flows for each of your existing or prospective customers, helping you boost your sales with tailored, event-based offers to your customers. With this in place your customers will be more likely to respond to your calls to action as they are presented with more relevant and timely offers than if you attempted this manually.

In order to achieve this, you’ll need to use the right tools, such as the email marketing automation solution by smoove, one of the best in business.

It Works In All Situations

The great thing about automation is that it works for all types of emails. Itcan be used for newsletters, upselling or cross-selling emails, as well giving out special offers to your customer’s such as on their birthdays or holidays.

Here are some examples of how you can make it work for your small business:

• Imagine you own a bike store and you’ve sent out a newsletter with a link about all the new bicycle models that have just arrived in stock.

• • A prospective buyer that clicks such a link is automatically tagged as a “new arrival” by the automation software, and he/she will then begin to receive an email campaign about the advantages of the new bicycle models, different materials, sizes, tires, and so on.

• • At the same time, you may have another prospect clicking a link about frame repairs. The system will tag them as “repairs” and start sending them emails about repairing different parts of the bicycle as well as best practices related to bike repairs.

• Personalization is a key aspect of customer retention. You must show your existing customer that this relationship is truly “personal” by making them feel that they are not just another receiver of your mass promotional emails. This is achieved by automatically sending them relevant content to meet their specific needs based on their previous interactions such as providing special discounts on their next purchase or emails/ebooks  that give them further information on an area of interest to them.

• You can also increase your chances of upselling or cross-selling by automatically offering a complimentary product, once an item is purchased. If timed correctly, this email will easily encourage your customer to buy similar products from you. Your customer should receive it when their interest in the product is at its peak – right after they buy it. Let’s say that someone has bought a bike from you – they may also want to be informed about the chain cleaning solution you happen to have in stock as well!

• Automation also helps your efforts to re-sell an item. Let’s say you just sold someone a bottle of cleaning fluid at your bike store. You know that one bottle can lasts fifteen days on average. You can prepare an automated email that will be sent to them 12 or 13 days after the initial sale, offering them a new bottle, and maybe even a special offer just for them. By sending the email just as their current bottle of cleaning fluid runs out it will dramatically increase your chances of the customer repurchasing the product with you rather than finding an alternative place to buy.

If you do all this correctly, marketing automation can and will help you boost your sales. Statistical data states that using this tool is bound to increase your sales productivity by 14.5% and can reduce marketing overheads by 12.2%! Marketing automation is so important that roughly every second company out there uses some form of it, with 91% of the users considering it an essential component of their marketing efforts.

Get ahead of your competitors and start your marketing automation journey today.

Wrap-up

Marketing automation is the perfect complement to your marketing and sales process and the perfect tool to boost your sales. It allows you to set triggers so you can send out specific, timely and relevant emails based on your users previous interactions.

These triggered events (interactions) can vary in scope and include: a customer opening an email, interacting with your landing page or abandoning your shopping cart. All of these events require sending specific emails for each situation. With marketing automation tools such as smoove’s by your side, you’ll be able to do this in the simplest and most profitable way. It’s also easier and intuitive with smoove, you don’t have to be a rocket scientist, or any scientist, just you is fine.

Marketing automation is not a buzzword or a passing trend but instead is a crucial and helpful technology that will improve both your sales figures, customer relationship and the longevity of your small business.