You hear it more and more often: marketing automation. You may have heard it before or read an article about it online. Is this the first time? No problem, we'll explain to you what it means and why you could use it to be stronger online.

Marketing Automation as part of your email marketing

Marketing automation means that you automatically send emails to recipients who have indicated that they would like to receive your emails. Ideally, you also ask them what subjects they are interested in so that they always receive the most relevant information. A good match between content and interest ensures a higher engagement of the reader.

Not only the content is important, but also the recipient's behaviour. Based on what the recipient then does with your e-mail, you can have various series of e-mails tracked in automation.

Automation

Imagine organising an event and inviting your existing customers to it. If they don't open your first invitation, you can send a follow-up email reminding the recipient. If they have read your first invitation, you can send them a confirmation. Once the recipients have indicated to be present, you can prepare them for the event with teasers and reminders.

Marketing automation

You can set all these things in advance. We provide a visual example to make it clearer.

Tip: You can also use automation to remind people that they have forgotten something in their shopping cart. This can increase your turnover between 25% and 95% according to research.

Click on the images below to see the example in more detail.

Why should you start doing this?

Not one, but several reasons: we give you some scenarios why you should use marketing automation.

  • You want to be in contact with your (potential) customers in a consistent and frequent manner, but you don't always have the time to put this in good order?
  • You want to generate more turnover by encouraging the recipient to make a repeat purchase?
  • Or maybe you just want to stay in the back of the mind of the recipient so that he thinks of you when a need arises?

Whatever the reason, automation can help. The intention behind email marketing is to get the right message to the right person at the right time. If you choose a strong tool like Active Campaign, you will have enough functionalities to do all this easily. 

Initially, marketing automation tools were expensive and were mainly used by big players like Zalando, Ebay or Amazon to remind you that you haven't paid for the toothbrush in your shopping cart yet. Meanwhile, these tools have also become affordable for companies like yours.

Starting up a marketing automation takes some time and investment, but once started you will benefit and save costs because repetitive tasks are done automatically. This frees up more time and space for other tasks. Ideal, isn't it?

Is it GDPR-proof?

From 25 May 2018, the new privacy legislation or GDPR legislation will enter into force. This means that we must handle information contained in our databases in a secure manner.

Is marketing automation still an issue, then? Certainly it is. As long as the people in your database have indicated that they want to receive e-mails from you, you can continue to write to them as before. The only difference is that you have to be more creative in encouraging them to reveal more about themselves so that the content is always written to the recipient's body. Partly you can achieve this based on their click behaviour. Depending on what they click on, you can assess their interests.

How can you apply automation concretely?

In principle, you need 3 things: data, content and the possible paths the recipient can take. In other words, the first steps you need to take are collecting data about your recipients and writing e-mails or newsletters based on the possible scenarios you have devised.

Data of your receiver

The first thing you need is data or data from your recipients. This data can consist of all kinds of items such as name, gender, age, interest or other relevant information. On the basis of this data you can then create segments so that the message is relevant to your sub-target groups or you can respond to personalisation.

Content of your newsletters

Content or content is an important part of marketing automation. Personal and relevant messages are best received and push for more contact moments that can result in purchases.

Have you already sent a series of emails to an existing database? Then you can recuperate these e-mails by having them sent automatically to people who have just subscribed to your newsletter. Please note that the content of these newsletters is always up to date.

Haven't you created any content yet? If so, plan a moment in your calendar where you can create a series of e-mails so that you can place them in an automation scenario. First think about what you know about your recipient and respond to this. Are they in a certain sector? Do you have a service or product that can solve a problem for them in that specific sector? Are you going to respond to the click behaviour and draw up different scenarios or routes based on this?

We will give you a step-by-step plan to get you started right away.

1

Import of existing customer database within Active Campaign.

 

2

Create segments in the list so that you can divide your customer database into sub-target groups.

3

Create forms so that your list can be completed at any time. This is also extremely useful to allow registered persons to update their data so that you always have the latest data available.Maak formulieren aan zodat je lijst steeds kan aangevuld worden. Verder is dit ook uiterst nuttig om ingeschreven personen hun data te kunnen laten aanpassen zodat je steeds over de laatste nieuwe gegevens beschikt.

4

Create forms so that your list can be completed at any time. This is also extremely useful to allow registered persons to update their data so that you always have the latest data available.

5

Create forms so that your list can be completed at any time. This is also extremely useful to allow registered persons to update their data so that you always have the latest data available.

6

Don't forget to test your intent. Do the added links send the receiver to the right place? Is the receiver addressed correctly?

7

Evaluate the results and adjust where necessary.

Need help getting started? Our marketing specialists will be happy to help you!

Which tool should I use?

We ourselves are huge fans of Active Campaign. This tool offers most functionalities for the best price. An affordable tool that is within everyone's reach. Handy to use and shows accurate and useful results. Are you already an advanced user? Then you can opt for tools such as Eloqua, Hubspot or Marketo.

Let us make you just as enthusiastic:

  • The CRM system within Active Campaign ensures that your customer data can be stored securely.
  • You can supplement your database automatically by integrating forms on your website.
  • Active Campaign is a master at segmenting your list so that you can always send the most relevant content to the right people.
  • Make your e-mails dynamic. This means that you will have Active Campaign fill in the content of your e-mail so that it is always a perfect match for your recipient. As a lover of thrillers, don't you want to receive only that selection of series from Netflix?
  • Follow up your results. Not only from your e-mails but also from what your recipient does on your website afterwards. Thanks to the tracking script that you implement on your website, you can also perfectly monitor what your recipient does after receiving your e-mail.