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5 Marketing Automation Hacks

In 2015, it was predicted that marketing automation will be amongst the most piloted marketing technologies, and since then, the term has become a buzz-word for marketers. Now, marketing automation is almost seen as something both necessary for business growth and essential for generating new leads.

In 2015, it was predicted that marketing automation will be amongst the most piloted marketing technologies, and since then, the term has become a buzz-word for marketers. Now, marketing automation is almost seen as something both necessary for business growth and essential for generating new leads.

If you ever thought automation was just a fad that will be forgotten about sooner or later, you might want to reconsider, as the global marketing automation sector is set to grow from $3.65 billion in 2014 to $5.5 billion in 2019, according to Markets and Markets.

Some argue that marketing automation is a simply a quick fix; something that doesn’t set you up for a long-term success and sets companies up for unhealthy relationships with future customers. However, when used effectively, the benefits from using marketing automation are endless. But what are the best hacks when it comes to using marketing automation systems?

Customer incentives

If you are looking to entice new customers, improve your brand loyalty and increase sales, customer incentives are a great way to do so. These could include offering coupons and prizes for signing up to your service, or encouraging customers to refer a friend in turn for a reward.

Automating these incentives requires you to regularly send out emails and texts about the offers they could receive. Some companies even force the circulation of their business amongst a group of people by preventing a customer from continuing to use your service until they’re invited their friends, meaning you could get two new customers for the price of just one.

However, if you do offer customer incentives, remember to reduce the number of hoops they must go through by making it simple. Display your generosity but deliver what you say you are going to deliver, otherwise it might come back to bite you.

Email anonymous visitors

The majority of people visiting your site probably leave without giving you their contact information, making it particularly difficult to contact them in the future and entice them to purchase your services. Smart marketing automation software means you can use cookie matching integration to send personalised messages to website visitors without even having the details to contact them.

According to Ben Kneen, former product manager for PayPal’s ad-focused Data Management Platform (DMP), by putting a DMP universal container tag on your website, which is a simple piece of JavaScript, you can control what pixels are called by a visitor on your website.  

Ben added: “The DMP goes on collecting information on that cookie ID, and in a nightly, hourly, or other regular process, batches all relevant behavioural information it has about that user (at the client's discretion and control) to the DSP, which can attribute the data to the correct user because the IDs are synced.”

Through this process, you can send personalised emails and gain insights of independent visitors; a life changing process for most marketers.

Timing is everything

If you have ever wondered what the best time is to post on social media, send an email or even deliver your weekly newsletter to subscribers, your automation software can tell you, and better yet, take care of these processes for you. Marketing automation can analyse the online activity of your visitors and work out the best time and day to deliver your content, even down to individual preferences.

There has already been a lot of research into data-driven studies and the best time and day to send emails to your consumers, and by using this automation hack you can see your open and click-through rates increase by as much as 70.5% and 152% respectively.

Use customer data to display ads

You’re probably already using ad networks to help you with your branding and marketing, but marketing automation enables you to broaden your horizons greatly. The amount of data you can gain from using automation systems means you can tailor your ads to individuals.

We are all familiar with seeing adverts for items we have recently searched the web for, so why not do this for your business? The majority of consumers (84%) would simply walk away from a brand that they felt didn’t listen to them, whilst a similar 74% would respond positively to brands that understand them. Use these statistics along with marketing automation to your advantage and deliver the ads they want to see.

Exploit push notifications

Push notifications are a good way of sending targeted messages that include relevant content to individuals on their mobiles, which has proven to be extremely effective for encouraging consumers to act. For retailers, this could be scheduling messages to reach consumers at times when they are most likely to shop for a product, such as the weekend.

Not only does using marketing automation make life easier for marketers who have to regularly automate repetitive tasks such as email and social media, it can:  

  • Generate better leads
  • Increase revenue
  • Save you time
  • Energy and more importantly
  • Reduce marketing costs

However, knowing how to utilise it effectively using hacks such as these will ensure you’re getting the best out of your automation system.

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