Marketing automation enables you to to send emails to customers, which are triggered by their behaviour. I know of a company that specialises in this area and they routinely quadruple the profitability of their clients.
Customers go on a journey. They move from awareness to brand recognition, followed by trial purchase and then repeat purchase. Marketing automation can help customers to understand your brand, what is different about it and why they should buy from you – as they are receiving information which is appropriate to the stage that they have reached on their buying journey.
Not long ago, marketing automation was expensive. For a few dollars per month, you can now tap into a sophisticated solution and reap the benefits.
‘Automation’ is a menu item within MailChimp, the popular cloud based ESP (Email Service Provider). Please note that Automation is a paid feature. Imagine having a marketing system which reacts automatically to customer actions. This is possible via MailChimp Automation as it combines the segmenting and scheduling tools. If this functionality is used intelligently and with discretion, it can attract customers, build your brand and generate sales. If it is overused, you may annoy customers and lose business.
Within MailChimp, you can create workflows and triggers which enable you to send a single email (“Welcome to our newsletter list”) or a series of emails (“Here is the first part of the course that you requested.”)
An event could be, for example, a new subscription to your list. Or it could be a click within one of your campaigns. MailChimp has included a number of workflows within the Automation section, in order to get you started. Alternatively, you can create your own customised workflows, if you wish.
Automation enables you to create a sequence of campaigns which can be sent over a period of time, i.e. daily or once a week for X weeks. They can be designed and tested within the MailChimp email designer and tracked via Reports.
MailChimp Automation enables you to engage with subscribers in helpful and creative ways. Automation can deliver personalised communication, based on what subscribers choose to do.
Nigel Temple offers MailChimp training courses including inhouse training.
Written by marketing consultant, trainer, speaker and author Nigel Temple.
3,000+ clients over a 30 year period.
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