Marketing automation for online retail

The eCommerce industry plays a special role among users of marketing automation platforms: No other sector uses and requires automated solutions as much as online retail. In this context, online retail not only has the role of the customer, but is also an innovation driver for online marketing and its discipline email marketing like no other industry. This creates a close connection and benefits for both sides.

Therefore, eCommerce without email marketing is hard to imagine. Automated email campaigns are particularly important for online commerce. Often, it’s not even about complex and multi-level campaigns, but mainly about daily handling. This already starts with the registration, which has to be confirmed with a double opt-in e-mail. And so it goes on, whether it’s order confirmation or shipment tracking, the customer is kept up to date by e-mail. These are all service messages that the customer expects and cannot be done manually. Connected to a CRM system and automated, it doesn’t even cost one click anymore.

Competition is particularly fierce in online retailing. That’s why stores are resorting to increasingly creative and unusual methods to get the customer’s attention. In a digitally driven industry, customers also expect to always have access to up-to-date content – ideally adapted to the place and time of retrieval. This situation is a major contributor to the ongoing evolution of email as a medium, and to the increasingly clever integration of multi-channel campaigns.

Therefore, the cloud variant of AGNITAS E-Marketing Manager is the best starting point for good customer communication and thus also for a well-running online store. The integrated whitelisting also ensures a good reputation and more security for your recipients. Depending on your needs, we also offer you our free open source solution, the OpenEMM, the low-cost flat rate variant EMM-Xpress or for special security the EMM Inhouse.    

As an online retailer, you naturally want to draw your clientele’s attention to your own offers. But it often makes sense not to send the same offers to every customer, but rather recommendations that match the interests of the respective customer. Individualization can be based on specific target groups, e.g. female, between 20 and 30 years of age, living in an urban environment, sometimes receiving different offers than the rest, etc. However, completely individualized newsletters can also be sent, e.g. based on which products the customer looked at last time. The newsletter will then contain similar products and/or special offers in that category.

The more you individualize, the more automation is necessary to offer content that is optimally tailored to the customer.

Use automated mailings for transaction-related communication. Many customers are happy with digital solutions so that they don’t always have to call the respective provider and to avoid waiting times. The automatic confirmation of receipt shows the recipient that their request has been registered. In suitable cases, the appropriate customer notification can even be returned directly. It is also possible to provide forms and applications quickly. On the one hand, this reduces your own administrative workload and makes sensible use of your resources; on the other hand, it increases customer satisfaction.

It is also possible to send automated offers to interested parties if your product portfolio is structured accordingly. Follow-up emails can then be used to remind the prospect of the offer or to ask why he or she has not yet decided. If the deal is successful, you can send a welcome campaign directly to the newly acquired leads and inform them about upcoming steps.

Depending on the products you sell, next-best-offer campaigns can be a good addition for you. Based on the contracts and products concluded to date, the surfing and clicking behavior of your recipients and, for example, sociodemographic data, you can issue automated recommendations depending on customer needs. In this way, you can further bind your customers to your company with individualized content and upsell and cross-sell.

The campaigns can be triggered either by triggers (e.g. someone buys a vacuum cleaner and thus also receives offers for vacuum cleaner bags) or after certain time units (e.g. after three months another offer for vacuum cleaner bags comes). The content can be retrieved on a daily basis, so the campaigns do not lose their topicality.

In addition to traditional online retailing, some retailers also offer offline events and workshops for their target group. For example, events in cooperation with manufacturers are very popular with retailers of sporting goods. But customers are also interested in exclusive fashion shows or handicraft workshops. The preparation and execution of events, no matter what kind, naturally requires a certain amount of preparation. The more frequent and larger these events are, the more necessary are digital solutions for inviting and reminding participants, creating and sending tickets, checking participation and evaluating the results.

For the organization of events, we can offer you the E-abo manager as a supplement to the EMM. From the invitation mail to the personalized landing page to the registration – if required with invoice dispatch – to the ticket dispatch with directions and ical file, everything is possible with this software. On site, the participants can be registered simply by scanning the tickets with an app. Subsequently, it is possible to send documents and photos to the participants as well as a survey on how they evaluate the event.

Have you found yourself looking at one or two examples of online commerce? Then let us advise you free of charge on our different EMM variants. Together we will find the right email marketing solution for you!