9 Best Practices for Efficient eCommerce Marketing Automation

DynamicWeb

1. Understand Your Customers

The term “automation” may conjure up ideas of a mass-produced solution devoid of a personal touch, but that is not further from the truth in this context. With the right approach, marketing automation can help you apply your brand’s personal touch at scale. The key is to have a deep understanding of your target audience. A great way to do this is to create customer personas that paint clear pictures of your ideal customers. Leverage your customer data and market research to compile details like demographics, interests, motivations, and preferences. Identify what inspires your customers, and build experiences based on their economic and emotional goals. Alongside customer persona development, identify your brand tone and use it as a foundation to drive all messaging and content to your ideal customers. 

2. Collect and Integrate the Right Data

Marketing automation means nothing if your tools can’t interface with customer data. The right people need to receive your messages at the right time and in the right way. Properly integrate your CRM with your eCommerce solution to make the most of your automation efforts. CRM integration automates the data flow between your customer records and your eCommerce site, so they work together seamlessly. This improves the customer experience and creates more valuable business insights. To learn more about the benefits of CRM and eCommerce integration and how to achieve this for your business, read our blog, CRM Integration with eCommerce. 

3. Automate Multiple Campaigns

One of the joys of automation is that it is not a one-trick pony. The right eCommerce marketing automation solution can streamline the customer journey at many touch points. For example, you can create automatic email sequences and adjust based on customer behavior. You can also trigger emails or campaigns based on customer actions, like adding products to a shopping cart but not checking out. Building if/then criteria into your marketing automation will increase the likelihood that you successfully reach customers at pivotal points in their journey. 

4. A/B Testing

Marketing automation for eCommerce is both a science and an art. It can take a lot of experimentation and creativity to land a solution that resonates well with your audience, and evaluating your actions along the way is essential. To determine the most effective approach, run A/B tests to test out strategies or content. Compare the performance of each endeavor and proceed with the approach that leads to the best results. 

5. Optimize Your Website for Search Visibility

Like a brick-and-mortar store, your website only means something if it can be found. Optimize your website for search visibility to ensure your target audience easily finds you and chooses your brand amongst the competition. With the right approach to SEO, you can let your website do the heaviest lifting for you. The most important SEO strategies for B2B businesses are to create quality content and attend to strategy on both the back and front of your site. If you have the appropriate source code with a solution like DynamicWeb Swift, you only need to focus on the following: 

• Text content that is interesting and relevant to your audience, with a particular focus on including appropriate search terms on product pages
• Images and video content that performs well with users
• Links that guide search engine crawlers to and throughout your website. 
• Page titles that include the right keywords and align with relevant content
• Meta descriptions that lead people to click on the search results by using keywords you want to be associated with 
• SEO-friendly URLS that tells search engines which topics to assess and rank
• Headings and content structure that is descriptive, keyword optimized, and distinct from other headings on the site

6. Create Multichannel Experiences

When you think of marketing automation, the first thing that comes to mind might be automated emails. However, there are a few more options on the table. Customers engage with brands in many forms these days, and your eCommerce marketing automation needs to span the breadth of touchpoints. To maintain brand identity across channels, nurture visitors via email, social media targeting, advertising, text messaging, and more. When you reach out to customers in various ways, you maximize the opportunities to engage with them productively. Plus, every channel offers a different style and format of communication, which provides you with an opportunity to enrich your messaging. 

7. Sell on Marketplaces, Not Just Your Own eCommerce Store 

Did you know 62% of product searches start on Amazon, not Google? An important marketing automation strategy for eCommerce is multiplying your reach by selling on marketplaces, not just your own eCommerce store. Consider selling on popular platforms like Amazon or even industry-specific marketplaces like: 

• Kitmodo - machinery
• IronPlanet - heavy equipment
• Infra.market – construction
• Elemica – process manufacturing materials
• Chemnet – chemicals
• PartCycle – used auto parts
• Brickhunter (UK) – bricks
• SupplyHog – building materials, tools
• ePlane – aircraft parts
• GoDirect Trade – aerospace parts

To learn how we make omnichannel selling easy, download our free webinar: Expanding Your eCommerce Strategy to Marketplaces. 

8. Upsell and Cross-Sell

Another great eCommerce marketing automation strategy is to build upsell and cross-sell opportunities into your customer experiences, i.e., showing related products at checkout, recommending products on your homepage, or sending a discount for related products after an initial purchase. Leverage customer browsing history, purchase history, and other data insights to make the most of this approach. 

9. Implement Loyalty Programs

Loyalty programs are an easy way to offer preferential prices to customers, boost sales, and increase customer retention. Loyalty programs harness the power of incentives and naturally-developed brand affinity to cultivate even more enthusiasm and trust. Consider automating a loyalty program and making it highly visible and valuable to existing customers so they understand the added benefits of returning to your business. 

To learn more about eCommerce marketing automation, download the free White Paper - Exploring the Experience: 7 Keys to Creating the Best Online Experiences

To refine your marketing automation for eCommerce, contact us today.