Maximizing the Potential of E-commerce with Marketing Automation

In recent times, e-commerce has been experiencing unstoppable growth.

The combination of changing consumer habits, increased competition, a more demanding market, all accompanied by significant technological advancements, has transformed the way companies must reach their customers and generate revenue.

We are, therefore, in a dizzying digital age where the ability to stand out from the crowd is a key factor.

That is why the possibility of using one of the most powerful tools for online businesses, within a well-executed Marketing Automation strategy, can make that difference, allowing companies not only to survive but to grow.

In this article, we will discuss how to apply the use of Marketing Automation within the online promotion and sales strategy in e-commerce to improve performance, efficiency, and results.

What is E-commerce

E-commerce or electronic commerce is nothing more than the buying and selling of products or services through electronic means, which has experienced significant growth in recent years thanks to the internet.

Electronic commerce has changed and we could say revolutionized the way consumers acquire these products and services. From its early versions at the beginning to the current global giant model, e-commerce has generated (and will generate) multiple opportunities for business transactions.

Recent studies indicate that e-commerce has already significantly positioned itself as an important part of retail transactions, continuously growing with no signs of possible future slowdown.

Especially the arrival of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 caused an extreme acceleration in online sales.

However, with the growth of e-commerce come challenges. Market saturation, customer loyalty, and efficient inventory management are just some of the problems online merchants face. This is where marketing automation comes into play.

This does not imply the absence of constant challenges. A large, demanding, and saturated market, exquisite operation management, and a customer who requires special treatment to gain their loyalty are the main challenges online stores face. It is precisely here where Marketing Automation takes center stage.

What is Marketing Automation?

Talking about automation in general means achieving automatic execution of tasks that are usually repetitive. This automation achieves greater efficiency and cost savings in general, eliminating from the process everything that may add little or no value to it.

This is why, transferring this concept to the field we are dealing with, we can simply say that Marketing Automation is the automation of repetitive tasks to improve the efficiency of marketing campaigns.

In a slightly deeper way, it is actually much more than scheduling the sending of emails, as it involves analysis of information sources, audience segmentation, intelligent personalization, and data analytics for decision-making.

It is important to highlight the recommendation to implement continuous improvement processes (for example, based on PDCA). These serve to make improvements in procedures and activities after the analysis that technology will allow to deepen and whose costs will probably be manageable within the business.

Marketing Automation, therefore, allows companies to understand what a customer does and wants, which helps to create much more consistent relationships and thus, ultimately, sell more and better.

The current possibility of "hyper-personalization" offers multiple benefits considering the possible main objectives in the actions.

This is because thanks to Marketing Automation we can act thinking that we can reach our customers or potential customers at the perfect moment, on their used channels, and applying the right message.

How to Integrate E-commerce and Marketing Automation

Advantages and Disadvantages of Marketing Automation

The use of Marketing Automation within e-commerce strategies offers a series of advantages.

Personalization

It allows personalizing, or "hyper-personalizing," each interaction with the customer.

In the digital age, all activities generate vast amounts of data, and through data collection, analysis, and specifically behavior analysis, personalized experiences can be offered that perfectly match their audiences. As a result, customer satisfaction increases, and the chances of conversion activation are higher.

Cost Savings

On the other hand, and no less important, is cost savings, shortening analysis times, and achieving results, which means improved operations within Marketing. Being able to automate processes such as lead tracking, email sending, push messages, messages on other channels, abandoned cart treatment, campaign management, and even integrating them together within the definition of "Workflows" of automation (that act on the Customer Journey) allows for a more strategic focus in Marketing teams.

Conversely, we can say that what are advantages on one side could also be disadvantages on the other.

If we talk about costs, the fact that there are a wide variety of solutions in the market also means a wide variety of prices, so choosing the right tools will be a great challenge. The cost factor must also be added to the great complexity that some technologies may have, which can lead to increased costs, low efficiency, or even reluctance to use them.

Segmentation

Thirdly, segmentation is a key component in Marketing Automation, which implies having a special sensitivity to data quality to reach the greatest detail in segmentation possibilities. A focus solely on data volume can be counterproductive in achieving alignment with the customer in communications.

What Strategy to Follow for Implementation

For a good implementation of Marketing Automation in e-commerce, a clear definition and understanding of the company's strategy and business objectives, as well as detailed and achievable planning, are necessary.

Within the definition of objectives, working in S.M.A.R.T mode (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Time-bound) will allow measuring, analyzing, achieving, changing, or expanding them in an orderly manner.

It will be necessary to design workflows that naturally guide and accompany the customer at each step within the sales funnel. From lead treatment to post-sale and loyalty processes. Continuous analysis will allow the optimization of each action to grow the relationship with the customer.

It is of vital importance to create key performance indicators (KPI's) that can be mapped in the customer journey.

Stages of the Sales Funnel Applying Marketing Automation

Lead Generation

This is the entry point. Any e-commerce has as one of its main objectives in its strategy the generation of leads to capture them as customers.

With Marketing Automation, intelligent forms, surveys, and other valuable information collection techniques can be used.

From this information, leads can later be nurtured with personalized and relevant content that allows for a relationship to be generated even before purchases are made.

Lead Nurturing and Conversion

Being a lead does not mean that they will become a customer since not all leads are ready to become customers immediately.

“Lead Nurturing” involves, through the knowledge (data) acquired about the leads, performing segmentation actions and personalized communication campaigns based on customer behavior (exclusive content, personalized offers, news) in formats such as emails, messaging, push notifications, etc., to nurture the relationship.

It is a “long-distance” race where the goal is to achieve a solid and trusting relationship between the customer and the online store.

Personalization and Segmentation

Personalization is the fundamental basis on which modern Marketing is supported.

Marketing Automation facilitates and allows for the improvement in the quality of highly personalized messages for our customers or future customers.

From communications informing about products, news, exclusive offers, among others, the technology's ability to segment the audience and adapt the content to the activity and preferences of the customers, based on the analysis and quality of the data obtained from them, significantly improves the relevance of the brand and its products and the ties between brand and customer.

Customer Loyalty

The ultimate goal for e-commerce will be not only the first purchase (conversion) but also achieving purchase frequency in our customers' activity using new personalized messages.

The sale is not the end but the beginning of the relationship.

Examining and improving automated post-sale strategies, loyalty programs, and personalized recommendations to keep customers engaged and satisfied will be vital to maintaining the trust relationship established after the first purchase.

Some marketing automation tools and platforms

Tool Description

In today's market, there are many marketing automation tools, all with both common features and those that make them different from the rest.

There are comprehensive solutions like HubSpot, Salesforce Marketing Cloud, or the different Adobe tools (Marketo, Adobe Campaign, Adobe Journey Optimizer) as well as more specialized options like Mailchimp, Mailjet, or ActiveCampaign. Choosing the right tool or tools will be a very important task within the strategy, needs, and specific context of each company.

The different e-commerce platforms such as Salesforce Commerce Cloud, Shopify, or Adobe Commerce also provide administrators with different options to automate marketing actions. While these can serve as a starting point in Marketing Automation integrated with e-commerce, they may fall short depending on the needs or the evolution of the Digital Marketing strategy.

There are manufacturers, like Adobe, that have a complete suite of tools offering an "end to end" integrated work capability for each area within the digital and business strategy. From customer data management, content platforms, and e-commerce to Marketing Automation tools and analytics and personalization, they are good options for companies with the capacity (budget, operation) and focus on management from a single large platform.

Comparison of Features and Prices

The analysis and evaluation of different Marketing Automation tools should be done from various perspectives. We recommend, after an initial screening and discarding of those platforms that do not meet expectations, the creation of a matrix where each aspect of the needs to be covered can be addressed and scored.

These aspects can include ease of use, integration or integration capability with other platforms, extension capability vs. out-of-the-box functionalities, scalability, and of course, licensing model and prices.

Notable topics to consider would be predictive analysis, lead scoring, automatic journey creation through AI, and other AI-related applications.

Other aspects to consider would be the decision to use multiple platforms each with a specific objective or the use of a single global platform. In these models, simplicity can also be taken into account.

The choice of Marketing Automation tool or tools generally represents a significant effort for companies in terms of both economic and time investment, as it is assumed to be a long-term use since they should be able to grow with the business.

As advice, before committing to a platform, it is advisable to obtain product demonstrations, ad hoc demonstrations for the business, and evaluation platforms to conduct tests. Additionally, it would be interesting to be able to talk to other companies that already have experience using them and can serve as advisors or recommenders.

Depending on the company's level of maturity, a plan could also be drawn up where the possible change of tools is contemplated according to the acquisition of new digital capabilities and the achievement and creation of new objectives. Tools should never be the end, but a means to be applied at each moment or context, to achieve the set objectives or their evolution.

Success Stories

Many companies have experienced substantial improvements in their processes as well as in their sales by carrying out Marketing Automation activities within their e-commerce strategy.

In a recent study on Marketing Automation in Spain conducted by SCOPEN called “Marketing Automation Scope,” some interesting data is shown:

• 93% of the respondents (leaders of advertising companies) state that they have already implemented some Marketing Automation solution in their companies
• of the remaining 7%, 60% say they will implement them in the future.
• 70% of the companies analyzed declare having been using these solutions for more than 2 years.
• In typical companies, 25% of the marketing team is already dedicated to Marketing Automation.
• 12% of the marketing budget (€1.5M/year in the sample) is invested in Technology and tools (€320,000 specifically in Marketing Automation).

In general, companies have experienced significant growth by integrating marketing automation into their e-commerce strategies and continue to see Marketing Automation with enormous potential, especially since the establishment of AI (artificial intelligence) within these technologies.

(Source: Marketingdirecto.com)

One noteworthy case is one of the leading communication companies in the classifieds sector to which Seidor Opentrends has been providing service for several years in the strategy and operation of its main tool Adobe Campaign, and which is evolving favorably in achieving its Marketing Automation objectives.

Actions for B2B clients for 4 brands

1. InfoJobs Spain
2. Motor Spain (coches.net and motos.net)
3. Job Market Insights
4. InfoJobs Italy

Some data and actions taken

With nearly 1,000,000 active customers, all kinds of campaigns (newsletters, subscriptions, transactional messages, onboarding, alerts) are carried out throughout the month. The main use cases implemented are:

• Job portal alerts (InfoJobs)

Recurring workflows that impact specific segmentations every day.

• OnBoarding employment portal (InfoJobs)

Welcome journey with a series of communications and offers throughout the first month of subscription to the portal's services.

• Blog Subscription (coches.net)

Subscription landing pages for the professional blog and monthly extraction of new sign-ups to engage new clients with viewed communications.

• Communications that comply with the legal regulations of the motor channel.

Custom template with BCC enabled to send sensitive communication to customers and export shipping markers.

Conclusions

For those companies that sell online and want to grow and stand out within the “jungle” that is e-commerce, the use of Marketing Automation technologies integrated into the sales strategy presents an unparalleled opportunity to achieve this.

Operational efficiency as well as the ability to reach customers at the right time and channel thanks to message personalization are part of the great advantages to be obtained in order to not only stay afloat but also grow.

Current and upcoming technologies are already making the adoption of Marketing Automation in e-commerce a key differentiating factor.