February 23, 2016

Marketing Automation Tips

Today’s guest post is from Ashli Norton, Co-Founder at Kuia, where she helps marketers get more leads and traffic with interactive calculators, quizzes, graphs, & content hubs they can create without developers in 17 minutes. There are many reasons to love marketing automation. It can help you:

Get more leads

Save time on tedious tasks

Stay top of mind with customers

…and the list goes on. But to be frank, it makes you more money (a lot more money). In fact, 75% of all companies using marketing automation see ROI in 12 months! So I’m going to show you 3 marketing automation hacks you can try today to make $31,620 more revenue by the end of the month. Check these out.

Tip #1: Text to get quick results

I hate to start off with math, but… If you have:

10,000 customers

2% conversion rate

$465 customer lifetime value

You could send every customer a text message today and make an extra $17,205. Seriously. Here’s why: Text messages have a whopping 98% open rate and 19% CTR. That means out of the 10,000 customers you text message…

9,800 will open your message (98%)

1,862 will click your link (19%)

37 people will make a purchase (2%) X $465 CLTV = $17,205

[shareable text=“With 10k customers, 2 percent conversion rate, $465 CLTV you could make $17,205 with one text message.” shareable-text=“With 10k customers, 2 percent conversion rate, 465 dollar CLTV you could make 17,205 dollars with one text message.“hashtags=”“] And this isn’t just hypothetical. Papa John’s sent customers a text message during one campaign and increased sales 33%. Ecommerce retailer Julep, sent one SMS Coupon for a $6.99 nail polish and got a 34.23% clickthrough rate and a 17.44% purchase conversion rate based on subscribers that clicked the link. That’s a 5.97% purchase conversion rate based on total subscribers that received the SMS coupon. Now for a little bad news. This can’t just be any text message. To win with text messaging, it has to be short (you’ve got about 120 characters + opt out text), personal, actionable, and perfectly-timed. And marketing automation is the only way to do this. Remember, a good marketing automation tool has all the data you need to personalize and time your text messages perfectly. If you’re tracking things like which customers are referring friends, logging into their account, or visiting your upgrade page you have the power to trigger personal text messages the moment your customers need them. For instance… If you’re a SaaS company, you can send a text to customers that don’t finish setting up your app, like this: Or if you’re an e-commerce company, you can send a text to customers that looks like this: Bottom line: Texting + marketing automation = more mullah.

How much extra can you make with marketing automation? Find out how much you’re leaving on the table without marketing automation.

Tip #2: Message customers on your payment page

There’s no big debate here. Your payment page is the money maker. So why not improve the buying experience and make more money? Think about it. Most people leave your payment page without buying anything (68% of all visitors be exact). [shareable text=“FACT: 68% of all payment page visitors leave without buying anything.” shareable-text=“FACT: 68 percent of all payment page visitors leave without buying anything.” hashtags=“”] If you can get just 0.25% more people to checkout, that’s 25 more customers or $11,625 (using our same 10,000 customers, $465 CLTV example from above.) This requires personal conversations with every potential customer. And this is only possible with marketing automation. Just imagine what would happen if you reached out to a customer who just landed on your checkout page. As soon as they get there, a human face pops up to remind them of the free training session they get when they buy a particular plan. Not only do you have a new customer…you have a happy, lifelong customer. By setting up a simple URL trigger on your website, you know which customers are on your checkout page and can use Headsup alerts to convert them. Besides, even if some of your potential customers leave your site, you can automatically send a personalized email to ask if they need help or offer a promo code they can only use within the next 24 hours.

Tip #3: Mail customers to get action

Yup. It’s 2016 and I’m suggesting you use snail mail. Why? According to the Direct Mail Fallacies and Realities report: 1. Direct mail has a response rate of 4.4% vs. email’s 0.12%. 2. 79% of consumers act on direct mail immediately vs. 45% for email 3. Direct mail campaigns with compelling messages can expect a 10-30% increase in conversion That means a 10-30% conversion rate increase takes our current conversion rate from 2% to 2.2-2.6%. [shareable text=“Direct mail can boost conversions 10-30%. Maybe that’s why hot tech startups use it.” shareable-text=“Direct mail can boost conversions 10-30 percent. Maybe that’s why hot tech startups use it. via AutopilotUS” hashtags=“”] But how much of a difference does that really make? Let’s say we send 1,000 emails and 1,000 direct mail pieces (using the CLTV of $465) 1000 emails @ 2% conversion = 20 customers or $9,300 1000 direct mail @ 2.6% conversion = 26 customers or $12,090 That’s $2,790 extra from direct mail! Now, I’m not saying cancel your email campaigns to start sending direct mail. Quite the contrary. To be clear, direct mail campaigns cost a little more to send. But, with the rich data you can use from your marketing automation tool, using a combination of email, direct mail, and text messaging with smart triggers can make you more money. For instance, when you notice a qualified lead has:

opened 3 emails

clicked on one of the links

visited your purchase page

but hasn’t completed their purchase

Automatically send a personalized postcard with a compelling call-to-action to close the sale. Something as simple as this should work: And I know what you’re thinking…“My customers don’t want mail from me”. But that may not be true:

Almost 2x as many US adults react positively to receiving mail than negatively

70% of Americans say mail is more personal than the internet

Young adults, 24 years and younger, are among the most direct mail responsive

92% of young shoppers say they prefer direct mail for making purchasing decisions (Source)

This means many marketers are missing out on a huge opportunity to connect with their customers, where their competitors aren’t. Oh…and direct mail is not as “old school” as you think. Heal, Sprig, Amazon, Boxed, Blue Apron, Couchsurfing, and Munchery are just a few companies using mail to close the sale. As you can see, a good marketing automation tool takes multi-touch personalization and perfectly-timed marketing to the next level. Start using these hacks today to increase revenue.

How Much of a Marketing Automation Pro Are You? Find out just how much you know about marketing automation with this fun quiz