In the dawn of a new digital era, more businesses are investing in marketing automation platforms to keep up with the constantly evolving consumer demand of contemporary society, and it’s no wonder why. The advantages are endless.
Speed and agility are important qualities that modern-day businesses need to possess to keep up with an increasingly competitive business environment, and marketing automation enables both speed and agility. So businesses that are yet to invest in this type of platform are at a disadvantage.
As a marketer, you have the opportunity to leverage an omnichannel customer journey marketing automation offers for each unique market segment. Combining your brand’s USPs with marketing automation features, you can provide an immersive and personalised experience for customers.
After all, the more refined the customer journey is, the higher the chances of nurturing leads and converting them into successful sales. That said, here is a step-by-step guide on how you can shape the customer buying journey and improve how you approach each stage of it with marketing automation.
Stage 1: Awareness – Make customers aware of your brand by addressing their pain points
Occasionally, potential buyers are not aware that they are missing out on a relevant item or service until they see it advertised on a particular platform. When a customer’s particular pain points or problems are addressed or solved by a particular product or service, they are more inclined to show interest.
Use multiple channels like social media, blogs, ads to your advantage and speak to your buyer persona by showing how your product or service would be useful to them. This includes segmenting potential customers via a marketing automation platform which has been integrated with CRM to funnel customers based on the particular pain point being addressed.
You can use tools like subject line generators for email marketing automation to come up with a catchy subject line that poses a solution to their problem, grabbing their attention and making them aware of your brand.
Stage 2: Consideration – Ensure your brand stands out from the competition
The next stage of the customer journey marketing automation can help with is pushing out content that clearly represents the USPs of your brand so customers are more likely to pick your brand from your competition.
With the help of marketing automation features, you can carefully plan the timeline of your campaign. If a customer shows interest in your product or service by reaching out to you but has yet to make a purchase, you can trigger specific actions using the marketing automation platform to bring their attention back to your brand.
For instance, marketing automation can trigger call-to-actions (CTAs) such as “Complete your purchase” through “your cart is waiting for you” emails. After reaching potential leads with a specific marketing campaign, you can turn to marketing automation to nurture them by giving an offer for first-time purchasers. These sequential actions are more likely to convert your leads into actual purchasers.
Marketing automation can also be utilised to check for optimal posting times for your social media. When you reach out to customers at optimal hours, they are more inclined to favour your brand over other competing brands.
You can even create forms to redirect customers to fill in relevant details that help brands track and analyse their leads. Once they have a better understanding of their leads, lead nurturing becomes easier as you can wire your strategies to resonate with your leads’ preferences.
Stage 3: Decision – Review engagement data and convert leads
The next stage to mapping out seamless customer journey marketing automation can offer is the decision stage. This is where customers are invited to make a decision to purchase the service or product. The key to securing more conversions would be to keep communication channels open and as transparent as possible.
With marketing automation, you can utilise features such as chatbot to engage customers in the absence of a real-life customer representative. This takes away the need for marketers or customer service personnel to be on standby to tend to customer queries.
If a customer decides not to buy a product or service, their data can be collected and stored within the marketing automation platform for future marketing campaigns. Through this data, you can figure out what led to the customer’s decision not to purchase and what you can do to improve in the future.
Stage 4: Post-purchase – Retain customers by tracking customer data
With the funnels, email, social media, and other campaigns that marketers create, there are many valuable data-driven and actionable insights they generate which can be used for better decision-making processes in the future.
As this lets you track campaign performances and customer buying behaviour using marketing automation, you can gain valuable information on which campaigns performed well and which fell short of your expectations, giving you the tools to constantly improve your marketing campaigns.
The interaction with a buying customer does not end with one purchase. Marketers can keep customers in their funnel when they create new campaigns. With marketing efforts such as discounts, offers, promotions, or loyalty programmes, you can extract information from past buyers through a marketing automation platform and match the target audience to the relevant campaign.
This element of personalisation lets customers know that you care for their needs and makes them feel connected to your brand. This is more likely to encourage them to make repeat purchases and build their loyalty towards your brand.
Experience a seamless customer journey marketing automation can offer
It is undeniable that marketing automation offers many benefits to brands. Your marketing automation strategy plays a pivotal role in shaping your customer buying journey and the ROI you can generate.
Schedule a consultation with an automation expert to learn more about creating a seamless customer journey marketing automation can offer you.