We take a look at the power of personalization in retail. How it helps you deliver unique customer experiences and a boost to retail sales

Great customer experience is about putting the customer at the centre of everything you do. It’s about giving them what they want quickly and making them feel special in the process. But when you’re faced with thousands of customers, it can be hard to put your best intentions into practice. Personalisation changes this.

Does personalization in retail matter?

Personalization tends to be seen as a buzzword. People tell you it’s important without sharing the facts. But there’s hard proof that personalization counts when it comes to sales. Remember the ‘Share a Coke’ campaign with people’s names plastered across the packaging? This personal approach was credited with growing Coke’s sales for the first time in 10 years. The research shows Coke’s experience isn’t an isolated one. 75% of consumers are…

Marketing is the lifeblood of business. After all, your product or service won’t promote itself!

There are many ways to market your products to your target market. Brands will use anything from storytelling to price in order to attract new customers. One of the most effective strategies is forging deep connections with your potential customers. This results in more engaged and longer lasting customer base. [si_guide_block id="58833" title="Download FREE Resource – State of B2B marketing automation" description="CommuniGator and Smart Insights present the latest research in adoption of marketing automation within the B2B sector."/] The downside is creating and maintaining these deep customer relationships become much more difficult as your business scales. Marketing to each customer on a 1:1 basis used to require building large teams who conduct labour-intensive duties. That was until the invention of marketing automation.

What is marketing automation?

Marketing automation refers to the tactics and software used to automate marketing tasks.…

Chart of the Day: Email marketing techniques used

Automation platforms are a big commitment

Why do I say commitment? It's not just a product, it's a game changer, like a car or house. Would you buy a 5 bedroom house when you have no idea what you would use those rooms for? When you view the house, you start planning on what each room would look like. The same reasoning extends to marketing automation. You should have an idea of how you are going to use all the functionality. While I'm on a roll with my housing metaphors, you wouldn't buy a 2 story house if you couldn't climb the stairs. Again, why invest in a marketing automation platform when you don't have a CRM or can't connect with Application Programming Interface (API).

What techniques are used with Automation platforms?

In the chart, we can see…

Which are the technologies that are dominating the Marketing Automation space?

Did you know that when it comes to marketing automation, just six technologies hold more than half of the market share? Well, now you do – courtesy of competitive intelligence and lead generation company SimilarTech and inbound marketing agency Bold Digital Architects. The two companies recently teamed up to create a report on the State of Marketing Automation in 2017 and managed to draw up a couple of interesting conclusions. Before we go into further detail, here’s a short overview for your convenience: Six biggest technologies hold a total of 57 per cent of the market share. A total of 482,765 websites have been using marketing automation technology last year, representing an increase in usage. With more than a fifth of market share (21 per cent), Hubspot has the single largest market share. B2B companies are most inclined on using marketing…

Chart of the Day: Don't forget your Lead Scoring

We all know about Email Marketing Automation, but what is Lead Scoring? In the chart, we can see that Email Automation is the most popular at 65.50%, which is expected. The chart also shows how little people either know or use lead scoring, as it's only at 11.80%. Lead scoring is an excellent way of ranking prospects using a scoring method. These scores will help sales teams to prioritise leads or which should be nurtured by marketing more. In the beginning of the process, marketing and sales need to work together to decide on what their ideal prospect is and what we want them to do on your site. And then assign or detract points from the prospects score for doing those activities. For example: Visited Pricing Page = 20 points Visited Blog = 1 point Visited Careers Page = -20 points Each time a prospect visits one of these…

Simple recipes and tips to get you started with your Marketing Automation

Are you still sending out blanket e-shot campaigns to large, anonymous lists? The latest research from the Smart Insights - GetResponse Email Marketing and Marketing Excellence research 2017 shows that many businesses aren't yet tapping into marketing automation. More than half (54%) rated their use of marketing automation as limited including around 20% who weren't using it all.  If this describes you, then the 'shot' part might turn out to mean 'shot in the dark.' In an age where PPC and SEO let you reach a target audience actively looking for companies like yours, blunt emails are rapidly becoming a thing of the past or should be. Most companies already have all the ingredients - an email platform, a CRM full of client data, and an incoming source of leads gives you everything you need. Getting started can seem daunting,…

Is the Marketing Automation Industry about to be disrupted? 

Marketing Automation software is on the rise. In today's digital landscape, most marketing departments have to automate tasks such as emails, social media, and other website actions. The technology of marketing automation makes these tasks easier, by enabling companies to connect with their various customer segments or personas at designated times, based on set parameters that respond to a customer's relationship or previous interactions with a brand.

As marketing teams are required to establish more frequent and bespoke conversation with customers and other potential clients, marketing automation software has fast become a staple of most marketing teams.  

HubSpot and Marketo are the pioneers in this field, and remain the most widely used marketing automation platforms on the web, with tens of thousands of companies using them to optimize and automate their inbound marketing…

SMEs needn't be left behind by new Marketing Automation technology

A dismal 37 percent of shoppers say that the average retailer “gets” them. It’s perhaps for this reason that consumers spend a lot of time researching online before making a purchasing decision offline. And for the first time ever, - as data shows - there are more online sales than in brick and mortar stores in some sectors. The difference is that the new kids on the block - the ecommerce guys - are making use of technology to improve the customer journey, which is one of the most critical factors to keeping customers and attracting more business. In fact, C-suite executives reckon four particular technologies will be key for marketing success in the future: Cloud computing and services Mobile solutions The Internet of Things Cognitive tools This article examines the top marketing trends for 2017 that are specifically related to these four technologies,…

Chart of the Day: What makes you choose your marketing automation platform?

There is so much choice with marketing automation platforms now, with nearly every Email Service Provider (ESP) adding them to their grades. But what are others choosing their platforms for? Marketing Automation platforms aren't cheap, even the ones that are rather simplistic. So these are expensive investments, but what would drive a business to choose one platform over another? In the chart below we can see that the most important reason why a business goes with a specific marketing automation platform. 54% said that it was the ease of implementation. Now, I have implemented a fair few marketing automation platforms and ESPs, and yes they are a ball ache and can take a lot of time and planning. But is this really a fair reason to go with a specific platform and spend all that money? Just because it's easy? I…

Chart of the Day: Setting Up for Success With Email Automation

How much revenue per person, per campaign, can email automation generate for you? The below chart covers 4 activities, winback, browse abandonment, welcome series and abandoned cart emails. It's then split into average orders from under $50 to over $200. The best performing in 90% of the activities is the abandoned cart email, displaying from nearly $3 per person, per transaction to over $14. The only anomaly is when the order value is under $50, where the welcome email series has $2 per person, per transaction. Source: How segmentation and automation drive email marketing success Sample Size: U.S.–based companies sent in Q4 of 2016 — a total of 1.5 billion emails Recommended Resource: B2B Marketing Automation Guide …