As computer technology advances, it has become easier than ever to create smart, clear workflows that automate the most repetitive tasks of the sales team. The manual tasks of engaging future clients are as vibrant as ever. Through the use of timed and triggered emails, it is possible to create more repeat business and more lead re-engagement than ever before. When you take the time to create workflow automation management processes, you make it possible to set-and-forget certain emailing tasks. At the same time, you receive alerts whenever one of those leads re-engages and needs personalized outreach. Use routine tools and you'll save a lot of time in the sales area.
These outreach analytics are good for long-term drip campaigns for leads who have given you their emails. Some tasks must be broken up into tasks that can be automatic and other tasks that cannot. In e-commerce, there are a variety of analytics that you can track and use to automate workflows. The following are some of the best to use to create your next time-saving business process automation.
This email is a simple automation tied to either a subscription to a blog or newsletter or to a first purchase. This email gives you the opportunity to establish a warm connection with the individual that is personalized to the action they took to receive it (i.e. you only mention their purchase in emails triggered by a purchase, only mention signing up for the newsletter to those who've done that, etc.).
You can use this to offer them more opportunities to engage. Indeed, they may find a user's guide or other piece of content helpful, and you can take note of those who do click through to see it using your analytics. You can also use this to make sure they know who to contact for customer support, so that no error or problem goes unnoticed and handled.
When a customer has "signed in" in some way to your site, you can keep track of whether they add items to their cart. Drip campaigns can do many things. For instance, you can automate a workflow that sends an email 24 hours after an abandoned cart, asking if they are still interested in the item. You can make an email that asks if they are still shopping for that item a week later if they still haven't purchased, perhaps offering two other complementary or upsell options as well. These emails can be retargeted, for instance, if the person adds the item to cart again, or for other kinds of behaviors that your lead exhibits on the website.
From printer ink to contact lenses, many products have a fairly regular need for replenishment based on industry averages. Create a workflow that takes into account the average time until a disposable product requires replenishing. Then, trigger an email for all clients who have made this purchase, set to arrive when they are running low. Timing such a workflow well can generate a lot of repeat business and eventually brand loyalty. If the results seem inconsistent, you may want to adjust your window of time and see if you can increase results.
Assigning points to different lead behaviors. This way, you can evaluate whether you have an engaged lead or a lead who only sometimes pays attention to your company. Based on these scores, make different chains of email contact to connect again. This can also be helpful for triangulating whether certain ad spend is worthwhile if it is generating leads that end up with fairly low scores. Note which email messages work well on highly-engaged leads. Other strategies will work well for re-engaging hesitant or inactive leads.
If your e-commerce site offers a wishlist, you may consider automating wishlist reminders after a certain amount of time. A wishlist is like an abandoned cart. The desire is there but not the interest in purchasing right now. Another option for noting prospect interest is to make a special offer for a client who visits the page of a product multiple times but doesn't purchase. The special offer, sent a few days or a week after the prospect showed interest in the product, is effective. The goal with both of these forms of workflow automation is to provide a just-in-time prompt to turn a nearly-convinced shopper into a buyer.
Consider which of your products are useful as cross-sells, or additional products that could be useful to the customer. Also, note upsells, which help the customer to upgrade to a greater level of investment in the product line. With this choice tree mapped, you can create a workflow that sends an email after a purchase is made. This email will offer the customer the best options for more purchases. You can schedule for a suggestion of an upsell option after they've had some time to explore and use their purchase. The way that users interact with your post-purchase emails - whether they open, click through, view multiple pages, etc. - should determine the next round of responses, leading them to a second purchase and greater brand loyalty.
Garnering free information via customer satisfaction emails is a valuable way to understand what delights your clients. It also helps you know what, if any, challenges there are in the purchase process. When you ask the client to rank their experience, you can trigger different email campaigns based on their ratings. You can flag very low ratings to go straight to customer service reps or a sales rep. They can discuss what the client needs to feel ready to make another purchase. This feedback can be integral to finding out what is most effective for reaching your particular clients. Data from websites cannot tell the whole story alone.
This workflow should find prospects and bring them back in. These are long-term attempts to bring a lost lead or lost client into communication with your e-commerce site again. Each email can be the end-point of the workflow if it results in a purchase. It then could trigger a more direct email each time. This starts from an email describing a new product, to an email asking for participation in a survey, perhaps to a personalized request for an email response with feedback. Each email reminds the buyer that they are still invited to participate. Noting which emails in the re-engagement workflow tend to bring back past clients can help you refine and use only the emails that offer robust re-engagement rates.
Eniture Technology specializes in helping e-Commerce merchants grow by providing useful information, digital marketing services, off-the-shelf apps that solve common problems, and custom programming services. Please contact us if you need help growing your online business or implementing the concepts presented in this blog post.
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