Automation is the new sophistication.

I speak to many marketers from various agencies, and I know how overwhelming it can be to work in the digital marketing industry. From keeping up with trends, knowing how to engage with your audience, and how to plan the next steps to give your campaign the competitive edge, sometimes you just need to take time-out and see how to tackle the situation better.

Introducing automation, whilst you are busy churning campaign-after-campaign out, take a look at the kind of rules you can set in place to help enhance/engage/coincide with your marketing strategy.

Who to automate too?
1) Take a look at the nurture campaigns, This will help you automate the way you up-sell, set-up your abandoned shopping carts and webinar/events campaigns.
2) Trigger messages, this is where an automated message is set to trigger, at a time you arranged.
An example, if a customer forgets their password, and they click a button to regain it, an automated message will be sent straight to their inbox, so they can continue to peruse your website.

 Develop your rules
Think outside the email (in)box! use a multi-channel campaign to your advantage.
Don't just limit yourself to a one channel campaign, mix it up a little, initiate a text if payment is not received by the first month, send a PDF (e-coupon) if your customers have a high engagement with your site.
Create surveys to send, after every order dispatch, to ensure you are a head of the game, or last but not least, show a video advertisement specially designed for those who live in London, near the fashion week.

Data-Driven Messages
Once you have established your segments, your demographics, and the types of messages you wish to send out, we can start to be really clever, and use our data to enhance what kind of automated campaigns we can send out to increase revenue and ROI.
- If the customer only ever clicks on beach holiday, only show them beach themed images and texts.
-If a customer meets the field, equal to- red boots, then send them a promotional offer related to shoes.

Once you have mastered this, and it does take a couple of months to build follow-ups such as these, you will find you will have more time to be creative, and less time with your head in the screen!

Which, at the end of the day, isn't that what marketing is all about?

4 ways to generate content for automated campaigns

Automated messages can be seen as a profitable way to market, to engage and to increase most businesses ROI. A few examples of the types of automated campaigns that are commonly sent out- Abandoned shopping carts, birthday emails, and drip campaigns.
(If you need any help or questions, feel free to ask me on twitter: SarahLouiseTalb).

The Narrative of your company should first be assessed, this will help  give consistency and a theme when writing your content.

1) Review your emails for copy and images so you can reuse/tweak.
Why? Imagine you currently send out each email individually, and manually. Sending the same type of message, of up-selling, cross-selling of key-products, if the email templates/ images can be transferred into these automated messages then you can quickly launch your campaigns for future series and dynamic content to expand from the single-product focus, if it applies.

2) Keep the process for sending out emails simple!
Perfection is not always a perfect solution, of course, get the foundations and basics right. A presentable email template, and a well designed message, because it is your companies reputation on the line.

3) Incorporate behavioral data. 
Automated messaging makes it easier than ever, to send out a coordinated series of emails. An example, it is easier to write content for an audience who k
nows what they want, and their interests are. Such as purchases, of a sports bra will mean in hindsight, that person will most likely not wish to receive anything about men's jumpers.
An added benefit of doing this right, is the results you get from each campaign, i.e. the click through rate, conversation rates, which can improve the design, and future content.

Remember: PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT.

4 tips for your VIP email campaign.

A lot of agencies would tell you not to give big discounts to already loyal customers, they would tell you to focus on the re-engagement campaigns, the winning of the customers who have not engaged high in your RFM model.
(RFM model- Is a clever way to segment and measure the recency, frequency, monetary of each prospect in your mailing list, to reduce the risk of non-VIPs landing in your best customer program).

How to initiate VIP campaigns.

These are the customers in your list, that are deemed highly active, and have a high engagement with your company. Brand loyalty is everything to a business, and the more you have, the stable your revenue will be.

1) Love at first sight?
You can't rely on your emails to be like love at first sight, just as your customers should not just be reliant on your brand logo popping up in their inbox to gain their attention. Instead, it is what you say in the subject line, as that is the first thing they will judge your message on, be relevant and be personal. No-one likes generic emails. Perhaps start with "Thank you".

2) Personalise.
If you have never heard of WYSIWYG, or smarty codes, don't worry, you probably have, it is just many email vendors on the market call it something else. Basically, a good way of showing your gratitude for their custom, is by personalising the recipient's name, and sign off the email from someone in the company.
Also, why not write the email as though it was coming from you personally, "you, I/we,".

3) Your email template.
I would highly recommend that you re-design your email templates for this message. Make it stand out from the rest, make it feel warm, and them special. It makes the message you are sending look less generic, and less of a broadcast. Tip: Do A/B Testing to ensure the best one is sent out.

4) Make your content dynamic.
If you opt for a more standard template, make sure you include modules that suggest purchases, i.e. £50 gift card. It might sound like a lot, but if you calculate each customer to spend in a lifetime £650,000 with you, then £50 doesn't seem all that much, plus it would increase not only brand loyalty, but how much they spend with you.

If you would like any more hints and tips about your marketing campaigns, feel free to ask me on Twitter: SarahLouiseTalb.

That which is measured is improved: 3 ways to micro-segment your customers.

That which is measured is improved: 3 ways to micro-segment your customers.: If you are a savvy modern marketer, then you know the importance of 1-2-1 marketing, and how it can increase ROI. However, for those of you...

3 ways to micro-segment your customers.

If you are a savvy modern marketer, then you know the importance of 1-2-1 marketing, and how it can increase ROI.
However, for those of you who may not understand, I will quickly brief you.

1-2-1 marketing can be achieved once a healthy email list is constructed, (please see previous posts), then the emails can be sent aiming at a specific segment, i.e. Demographic, age, last purchase and so on.
The way your audience connects to these email campaigns will determine if they have a high relevance/response factor re-assuring that you are sending the right campaigns.
Over time, you will have figured what segment responds well to what content, ensuring a higher ROI as a result.

These micro-segments are audience specific segments, and should be based on the behavioral and demographic attributes that are most important to your business.
An example, specific offerings and product categories; the recency and frequency of how well your audience are interacting with each campaign, to ensure improvements can be made, and also an easy assessment can be made as to what stage of the life-cycle the customer is at, (Lead scoring).

When implementing a sophisticated marketing automation platform, ensure you also implement the right high-level rules to classify your customers' behavior, this will ensure for a high engagement rate, if you would like more advice on setting up rules, feel free to email me at sarah91louise@gmail.com.

 Here are 3 ways you can better your segmenting:

1) Segment based on categories.
It is incredibly important to monitor what your consumer is showing interests in, and by doing so, you should set up your segments based on product category. Here is why. If you have a customer who shows 80% interest in women's fashion, the content you are wanting to show her in your monthly newsletters, wont be interesting to her, if it features men's clothes/ football equipment.

2) Segment based on frequency .
If you are on the market for a new printer, You are probably browsing on more than just one online retailer.
Most of these retailers will not know who you are, however there could be one or two that do, and this is from the last time you went online and made a purchase, or signed up for any special offers in preparation for this moment, and perhaps they cookied you.

Since you have been giving them a strong sign that you are ready to buy, you will be automatically removed from the warm lead, to hot lead segment. The benefits of this would be, that under the right platform, you could send a campaign to the individual, which could have a rule set-up to send a "15% off discount when buying online using this code/link" allowing a more personal online shopping experience for your customer.

3) Segment based on life-cycle.
Using purchase history, or interactive (lead scoring) data, can also prove positive when segmenting your customers into a life-cycle stage. The benefits of the information collected here, are the specially tailored offers that can be created, to help promotions that builds brand relationships.

An example: You wouldn't want to send special discount codes to customers you know shop frequently online with you. Instead, you can send them incentives to re-engage with customers who have not shown activity to up to 6 months.

As the micro-segments build and become more specific and targeted, it can then leave room for marketers to provide great content, and relevant timely promotions.
If you need help or advice setting these up, or which vendor would be best suited, contacted me through:
Twitter: SarahLouiseTalb
or email: sarah91louise@gmail.com

Good luck in your campaigns!

How do you use your email marketing to your advantage?

First of all, you are going to have to work a little harder for your email addresses. Please don't think that buying an email list will help bring in quality contacts, thinking like that, is like trying to throw spaghetti at a wall and hoping it will stick.

Tip: Manage client expectations, give them something they will be happy to see. Start with:
-Welcome email.
-Informative emails.
-Special emails in order to win back repeat custom.
-Viral effect- Send this code to a friend, if they purchase within a month, you get 20% off your next shop.
-Membership advantages.

These are just a few easy to set-up email campaigns.

A few ways you can optimise your database:
1) Harness social media, to attract new customers and prospects.
2) Use special events to drive in opt-ins.
3) Optimise your website and content growth to maximise list growth.

If you would like any extra help or advice, drop an email and I will be happy to help.
sarah.talbot@copernica.com