Introduction to Marketing Automation

5 min

Develop multi-step campaigns with action- and event-based mailings; perfectly adapted to a highly diverse set of target groups using fully automated distribution cycles. You can create campaigns based on your customer database, then refine them once the campaign is up and running. You have access to the entire platform so you can concentrate on the ad message design.

Lifecycle marketing made easy via drag and drop.

Sustainable, automated cultivation of customer relations.

Effective dialog marketing through customized triggered emails.

Higher revenues through automated cross and upselling campaigns.

To create and manage Marketing Automation campaigns, go to the menu bar and select Campaigns > Marketing Automation.

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Marketing Automation campaigns for a better customer engagement

Using Optimizely's Marketing Automation, it’s easy to analyze potential customers, promotions, and your customer contact histories then incorporate that information into your campaigns. Optimize your customer dialog through a process that lets you improve and refine your marketing strategy. Information gathered during a campaign can be used to augment an existing database. This, in turn, lets you more accurately define segments then roll out more finely-tuned campaigns.

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Campaign examples

Welcome mailings. Welcome new subscribers through targeted welcome mailings. These are based on a multi-stage campaign aimed to introduce potential purchasers to your brand and what it has to offer. First impressions are very important in campaigns of this kind. It’s an ideal phase for introducing your line of products and opening a dialog. Ask new subscriber to complete their data and to enter their interests and preferences. In this way, you know early on whether an addressee would be interested in special promotional offers. And the Preference Center (profile self-administration) lets you inquire whether the subscriber prefers to be contacted on a weekly or monthly basis. Under certain circumstances, it may be worthwhile to include a sweepstakes mailing as part of the series of welcome mailings – to turn an interested consumer into a new customer.

Trigger and transactional mails. Trigger mails help nurture existing customer relationships, ensure consistent sales, and initiate new customer relationships. Distribution is triggered by a special event relating to the subscriber – with Optimizely Campaign automatically sending out trigger mails according to predefined criteria or at a specified point-in-time. In campaigns created with Marketing Automation, each node through which mailings are sent is a trigger mail. This provides a simple tool for automatically contacting customers individually under a variety of scenarios. Transactional mails, on the other hand, are emails sent out subsequent to an order, a purchase, or similar customer action (transactions). See also Triggers. If you use post-click tracking, you can use Optimizely's Marketing Automation to send transactional mails. See also Post-click tracking.

Cross and upselling offers. Product recommendations offer enormous potential. These mailings are prompted by a purchase, a registration or similar action, with contents automatically adapted accordingly. The goal is to encourage follow-up purchases, the purchase of higher-quality and higher-priced goods, or a wider variety of purchasing choices. Cross- and upselling recommendations are made available through a database and content interface or via established web-analysis software in Optimizely Campaign.

Customer care. Establish an ongoing dialog with regular customers through a proactive approach to customer care that goes beyond regular communications. You can measure customer satisfaction, for instance, by means of statistical analyses based on scorings. Ideally, this lets you predict the likelihood of cancellation on a case-by-case basis. Specially incentivised customer-binding mails are sent when certain tolerance limits are exceeded. Concurrently, you can also include targeted customer satisfaction surveys that solicit suggestions on how to improve your services. Also, be sure to closely track changes to customer status. If a customer has a change of address, for example, you can send a mailing with information and promotions tailored to the new location. If you know your customer's age, select mailings with content appropriate to his or her age-bracket. React to the first signs of inactivity by inquiring whether the customer elects to suspend mailings for a time or prefers receiving them less frequently. Contact Optimizely with any requests.

Reactivation. Reactivation by email is an important component of effective lifecycle marketing. Successful reactivation depends on the effective monitoring of subscribers. Early detection of sagging interest or excessive contact frequency helps to avoid customer inactivity and, ultimately, customer withdrawal. First, define at what point a customer is to be considered inactive. Set a timeframe to indicate when a customer fails to open or click your emails to determine his or her status. Possible indicators include not only failure to open or click mails but also a failure to log in to user accounts and communities, or user data not being updated. The timeframe you employ depends on the natural lifespan of your products, services and promotions. Successful re-activations are normally the result of multi-stage campaigns. For example, you may want to request that the addressee update his or her customer information. Those who click the link receive a shopping coupon. And you can incentivise addressees who did not respond your first email by sending a second one.

Tip

Marketing Automation guide

See helpful information, tips, tricks, and examples for successful Marketing Automation campaigns in Marketing Automation guide.