Marketing automation for B2B brands expanded quickly in the 2000s but it never really made an impact in the B2C spectrum until now. The internet has changed the way B2C works. Today, customers browse through online extensively, looking for recommendations from customers they have never met before and displaying little or zero loyalty towards a particular brand or company before purchase.
Obviously, this customer behaviour is not favoured by small or medium-sized businesses who are on the lookout for creating a strong and loyal database. Yes – there are numerous automation solutions in the market but they are expensive and only focus on one thing: converting leads.
Here, the brand and product are considered way more important than the customer’s relationship with the company. With B2C marketing automation, the sales cycle is cut short and made speedier and merchandising and maximizing the value of the sale are the keys to success.
But is this really the scenario?
According to Adobe “Quarterly Digital Intelligence Briefing” (2014), 8% of B2C and 21% of B2B marketers find marketing automation as one of their top digital priorities. B2B marketers who are using automation for selling everything online – from birthday greetings to bicycles – have conversion rates as high as 50%, states a report by eMarketer “Email Marketing Benchmarks” (2013).
So, no. Even if B2C marketing automation has its quirks, it is not being shunned by marketers as it has allowed them to increase email open rates, leverage partnerships and reduce cart abandonment rates.
From cross-selling and upselling to creating automated loyalty programs and developing trigger emails, B2B marketing automation has changed the “selling game” manifold for upcoming brands.
5 features of B2C marketing automation
1. Focus
This type of automation is perfect for brands and companies that are looking to scale up quickly and without much hassle.
2. Method
B2B marketing automation centralizes customer data to create processes and programs to improve customer engagement.
3. Goal
It strives to achieve four things:
- Frequency compression – shortened sales cycle
- Better loyalty program – better customer engagement
- Increased brand capital – scaling up and also making profits
- Higher redemption rates – “the more you invest, the faster you earn back the money”
4. Features
Apart from attempting to shape the public perception of a brand or company by influencing its online information, B2B marketing automation also helps in nurturing customer loyalty and executing email and social media marketing campaigns – all with one aim – to increase engagement.
5. End game
All automation efforts go into generating more revenue – because that’s what all marketers want to achieve in the end, right?
B2C marketing automation boosts sales productivity by 14.5% and reduces marketing overheads by 12.2%. Basically, the B2C technology is going through the roof. To use this to its full potential and to maximize revenue, here are 5 common ways to best engage the customers:
1. Welcome programs
Automation ensures that once customers sign up for a brand’s newsletter or creates an account, they are sent a welcome email just to inform them about what can be expected from the brand and of course, to let them start shopping.
2. Repurchase emails
If the customers have shopped something, give them an opportunity to give a feedback, share a photo on social media or purchase personalized suggestions based on their previous order.
3. Reminder emails
If a potential customer didn’t click the first email, send another but include an offer or a discount deal to grab his or her attention. Try to garner attention by generating attention.
4. Multi-channel programs
Send out the same message through all platforms – email, SMS and social media. Of course, blasting the message at the same time across all channels is a foolish move. This is the reason why marketers must time different campaigns to maximize their reach without spamming the customer base.
5. Win back emailers
If a particular customer base has become inactive, send an email saying they are missed and then recommend some products that have put in the cart (but have forgotten about) or bought in the past. With B2C automation, it is easy to win back such dormant customers with simple steps.
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Wigzo makes B2C automation easy
No two customers are alike. Every customer is a separate entity, driven by personal preferences and interests. What works for one customer may not work for another. Marketers need to understand these individual “differences” between the customers and then personalize the messages to fit their expectations.
Main aim of Wigzo is to offer solutions that create personalized experiences across all customer touch-points from a single, integrated digital marketing platform. It helps brands to forge an interactive relationship with the customers based on real – time, bespoke communication, spurring them to convert their purchasing intent into action.
With B2C marketing automation, marketers can generate better results by extending the customer life cycle and even increasing the revenue generated by each individual customer.
