5 Tips to Leverage the Power of SMS Marketing

Not all SMS marketing campaigns are created equal. There are some companies that fully integrate SMS marketing into their business strategy and others who see it as a side project.

According to a survey by ScanLife, 89% of customers use their mobile phones while shopping, and 64% of Americans own a smartphone as of 2015. Given this, which company do you think will have a more successful marketing campaign?

If you’re already on board with SMS marketing, here are some tips and suggestions on how to maximize your success.

5 Tips to Leverage the Power of SMS Marketing

1. Create an SMS Marketing Team

Large SMS marketing campaigns aren’t DIY. You’ll need a variety of skilled professionals in order to get the most out of your marketing strategy. One or a few people may fill several of these roles, but you’ll need: an SMS marketing program expert, a retail expert, coordinators for on-location signage, digital creative designers, social media experts, a promotions specialist, an ROI, and discount budget analyst, and more.

These areas need to be coordinated, and since the timeline for SMS is getting more and more immediate, the marketing team needs to work very closely and communicate frequently about plans, strategies, and execution. The more complete your SMS team, the greater the benefits you’ll reap from effective marketing strategies.

2. Know Thy Customer

Use a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) app to measure the success of your messages. For more info on the best CRMs available, check out this ultimate guide.

Analyze purchase history and location-based demographics, so you can send the right messages to the right customers. If you’re a cosmetics line, don’t send an anti-wrinkle cream coupon to a twenty-year-old for your store in Houston when she lives in Boston.

Segment your clients for targeted promotions. Send bulk messages for general sales and promotions that anyone anywhere could take advantage of.

3. Write Clear Messages

Get to the point: You have 160 characters to express yourself. Do it in less if you can. Make sure the message is clear and concise, written in plain English. Avoid abbreviations, emoticons, and all caps.

Don’t use open-ended messages. An example of an open-ended message is one that invites clients to a sale but doesn’t say when the sale ends. The client has no idea if it is for a day or a month. By giving a specific date when a sale ends or putting an expiration date on a coupon, clients are more likely to act because you’ve given them enough information and incentive.

4. Use Call-to-Action Buttons

Calls-to-action increase customer engagement with your SMS marketing texts. That’s exactly what you want from them: to be engaged, to value the texts you send, to read them, interact with them, and act on them.

5. Get Your Timing Right

SMS is all about immediacy. It takes people an average of three minutes to open messages. Clients’ responses to sales, promotions, and events promoted on SMS are most effective when they’re last-minute impulses. If you have a store opening event on Friday night, send the message Friday afternoon. If you have a dinner promotion at your restaurant, send it at the end of the workday, not in the morning.

Top 5 Marketing Automation Trends in 2021 [And Beyond]

As a marketer, it’s very important for you to stay at the top of the competition, and keep abreast of the latest marketing automation trends.

We’ve done the research, and put together a comprehensive list of the 5 best marketing automation trends for 2021.

All you have to do is to read this list and think about how you can leverage these trends into your 2021 marketing strategy.

The sooner you adopt these trends according to your marketing strategy, the more advantage you’ll have on your competitors.

Top 5 Marketing Automation Trends

1. Giving customers an omnichannel experience

For those who aren’t aware of what “omnichannel” means, it refers to integrating your customer’s shopping experience across multiple channels and devices.

Say you have a prospect who wants to buy new software. This person might…

Do a Google search and arrive at your website.
Head over to your Facebook page to look at your recent updates.
Email you or send you a message on live chat, enquiring about your software’s functionality.

Regardless of which channel your prospect uses, or what device they’re using, the goal is to provide them with a seamless, consistent experience across all devices and channels.

Omnichannel marketing has always been crucial, but it will become even more important to businesses moving forward.

2. Automated email campaigns will become more interactive

Automated email campaigns have already become every marketer’s bread and butter.

Pretty much every business understands the importance of email marketing and is utilizing automated email campaigns to nurture their leads.

So, what’s the next frontier when it comes to email marketing?

In 2021, we foresee that digital marketers will focus on fine-tuning their automated email campaigns and making them more engaging and interactive.

3. Predictive lead scoring

When it comes to lead scoring, many B2B companies are still relying on manual lead scoring (i.e. calling up leads and asking them qualifying questions).

But, in 2021, we predict that businesses will increasingly shift to using predictive lead scoring to streamline the process.

Manual lead scoring is an outdated method, and it’s a waste of time.

Instead of getting your sales reps to painstakingly call every lead and ask them a standard set of questions, you can simply use new technology to get the job done.

If you’re currently using the best marketing automation software, there’s a high chance that your software already comes with a predictive lead scoring feature built-in.

Predictive lead scoring takes into account various factors (such as demographics and personal information, behavioral data, and social information) to assign a score to each lead that enters your system.

This score tells you how high quality your lead is (and how likely they are to convert into a paying customer). This way, your sales reps can focus their efforts on serving hotter leads, instead of wasting all their time talking to cold leads who may or may not convert.

4. ChatBots will proliferate the web

Back in 2018, we saw many companies jump on the chatbots bandwagon.

Facebook chatbots, in particular, were a huge hit. These are easy to set up (no coding required!) and can help businesses in all industries take care of their customer service needs.

Moving ahead, we predict that chatbots will become even more popular and that even more companies will use chatbots to complement their marketing automation efforts.

Michael Peggs, the founder of Marccx Media, agrees, saying that chatbots are a key component of marketing automation and that companies should use these bots to “intelligently automate (their) customer service”.

5. Marketers will use chatbots to close more deals

On the same topic of chatbots: on top of our prediction that chatbots will grow more in popularity, we’re also predicting a shift to more sophisticated chatbots.

In 2018, chatbots were still a new concept, and most companies that did experiment with chatbots built bots that were pretty basic and straightforward.

These bots are able to provide information to users and/or answer basic questions, but that’s about it.

Now, as businesses are becoming more familiar (and comfortable!) with chatbots, they’ll start moving towards building more sophisticated bots that utilize the power of AI to recommend products and close deals.

If you’re wondering how this translates to real life, in retail, many companies are already using chatbots to provide information and recommend products to their customers.

H&M, for example, uses a bot to help customers build the perfect outfit:

It’s not hard to imagine how B2B businesses might make use of this technology.

For instance, say you own an SEO keyword research tool, and you’ve built a chatbot to help you generate more leads.

If your chatbot identifies that they’re speaking to a first-time user, it might serve up common FAQs to let your user learn more about your tool.

If it seems that it’s engaging a returning user, on the other hand, it could offer an extended trial or a product demo in order to move this user further down the funnel.

5 Benefits of SMS Marketing for E-commerce Brands

Text messages have around a 98% open rate and a 35% click-through rate, compared with just 20% and 2.5% for email marketing. SMS marketing is every marketer’s dream: engaging your customer where they are at, with the message they want to hear.

E-commerce SMS marketing clearly has a lot more benefits than just adding on another marketing channel to your strategy. It is a way to connect with customers in a personal way that increases loyalty, drive engagement, and boost revenue.

Benefits of SMS Marketing for E-commerce

1. High open rate & click-through rate

The #1 challenge for e-commerce brands is to get in front of the customer with the right message at the right time.

Email still ranks high on any marketer’s list as a valuable marketing channel. After all, customers have opted in and you can easily measure their engagement against your own internal benchmarks as well as that of the industry.

Yet, the average email open rates and click-through rates are way lower when compared to SMS open rates and CTRs.

Email marketing: 20% open rates for what is considered a good email, and a 2% to 2.5% click-through rate.
SMS marketing: For e-commerce SMS, upward of 98% open rates can be expected, with a 35% click-through rate.

Want to get in front of your customer faster and more frequently than you need to try text messages. It is the only channel with consistently high engagement rates.

2. Reduces cart abandonment

What would your brand look like if you had a 45% recovery rate on abandoned carts? That’s exactly what happened with Grunt Style after implementing SMS for abandoned carts.

The Grunt Style team saw a 25% CTR on abandoned cart SMS and a 45% recovery rate.

SMS marketing campaigns like this are can be set up easily in your SMS marketing tool.

3. 1:1 conversations with customers

In e-commerce, we often talk about customer loyalty as though it is a holy grail. And while it is very important, we often glaze over exactly what is meant by loyalty. To have a loyal audience, you need to have built a relationship with that audience.

The best way to build relationships with your target customers? Well, that’s 1:1 conversations.

Text messages are one of the only e-commerce marketing channels that allow for 1:1 communication, where it is already expected –– on smartphones.

Compare this with a potential 1:1 conversation via a chatbot on a site. After you get through the bot and finally to a person, there is still a difference in how you communicate. This person on the chatbot is here to help, often with an issue, rather than give you valuable information or insight.

4. SMS can be highly automated

Platforms like Wigzo have pre-built nurtures and flows that you can launch almost immediately to begin testing this marketing channel.

These flows are set up to manage to opt-in and opt-outs in a compliant way so any customers who decide they don’t want your text messages can easily stop them.

The biggest hurdle your brand might have is adding SMS messaging T&Cs to your website. Seriously, that’s it.

5. Customer Segmentation

E-commerce SMS marketing may be best used for your most loyal customers. Your super fans. These people are your ambassadors, and you should treat them as such. Give them exclusive discounts to drops. Invite them to your exclusive events.

Whatever you do, make it clear that not everyone gets this opportunity. And, make it fun and worth it. Notify them of the VIP sales via SMS, which makes sure they see the message and builds a habit around what type of messages your brand sends.

Conclusion

The time is now to get started with SMS marketing campaigns for your e-commerce brand. The numbers speak for themselves and the automation makes it easier to launch compared to an email campaign.

WHY BRANDS SHOULD FOCUS ON A DIRECT-TO-CONSUMER (D2C) ECOMMERCE

Manufacturers and distributors had clearly agreed-upon rules – Manufacturers made products, distributors/retailers bought it in large volumes and sold it to end customers at a higher price.

But that was the case only till eCommerce technologies intervened and changed things for good. Handling end customers is no more complicated, thanks to eCommerce platforms and operational tools that have given the power for D2C brands (Manufacturers) to reach customers directly.

Online spending by “DTC enthusiasts” will increase by 18% year over year – Forrester.

Brands like Warby Parker, Dollar Shave Club, BarkBox, Casper, and HIMs are a few among the brands that brought D2C to the spotlight.

Though smitten by the D2C bug, as a manufacturer still relying on traditional methods, you might be doubtful of whether the approach is necessary. Our blog explains 6 reasons why brands like yours should consider moving to the Direct-To-Consumer eCommerce model.

WHY BRANDS SHOULD ADOPT A DIRECT-TO-CONSUMER (D2C) E-COMMERCE

1. NO MIDDLEMEN MEANS BETTER MARGINS

The D2C model surpasses the middleman – distributors and retailers. As we’ve discussed earlier, manufacturers depend on distributors to sell their products from whom end consumers procure it for a higher price. The price increases at each level, but manufacturers end up getting only a small portion of the bigger pie.

In a D2C model, there’s no such thing as revenue share though the expenses for customer acquisition cost are involved. The markups that once went to the wholesalers and retailers will now be all yours. Depending on the product category, the net margin per unit could double in a D2C model.

Another encouraging factor is the consumer’s intent to buy directly from manufacturers. Interacting with a manufacturer makes them feel like talking to an expert who thoroughly knows the product they are about to buy.

“52% of consumers are already visiting manufacturers’ websites intending to make a purchase, and a third of those actually would prefer to buy from the manufacturer”. – Forrester Research study on behalf of Digital River.

On the whole, the D2C approach allows you to have better control over your profit margins by reducing dependency over distributors and cash in on customer intent to buy directly from you.

2. ACCESS CUSTOMER INSIGHTS – A MANUFACTURER’S TREASURE THAT’S OWNED BY RETAILERS

As you control every step in reaching end customers in a D2C approach, you get access to a huge amount of third-party data. Earlier, manufacturers selling via third-party vendors have no idea of why consumers are buying your products.

According to a 2019 Deloitte report in collaboration with Google, “Retailers use data to fulfill objectives which include improving user experience, enhancing core sales activities and engaging in emerging monetization opportunities”.

Questions like what they like the most about your products, where they expect you to improve, remain unanswered. In other words, to enhance product quality or roll out new products, you depend on the distributor’s / wholesalers’ feedback gathered from customers, which is often not disclosed.

When customers directly buy from your website, you’ll gain insights on their buying patterns, preferences, seasonal spikes, and granular level data like geography and socio-economic data. The insight you receive from being in charge of the analytics will reduce customer acquisition costs and shorten the lead-to-purchase cycle.

3. COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE AND WIDER PRODUCT RANGE

Retailers showcase a limited quantity of products from multiple brands in order to provide surplus brand options for consumers and compete with large retail rivals. Limited shelf space means consumers get access only to a fraction of your product portfolio.

D2C approach overcomes this shortcoming by allowing you to showcase your length and breadth of products in your exclusive eCommerce store. Brands can flaunt patterns, style, color options, multiple variants across a single product without limits. You are no more constrained to carefully assort a limited number of products to sell on a third-party retailer website.

On the flip side, you don’t compete with other brands’ products that would be accompanying yours on a retailer’s website, narrowing down the competition to zero. In the case of a retail brick and mortar store, there’s no risk of a salesperson favoring your competitor’s brand for any reason.

4. INCREASED CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENT AND LOYALTY

“One-third of consumers visiting a manufacturers’ website with the intent to make a purchase prefer to buy from the manufacturer,” says Forrester. Apart from the fact that consumers love to hear directly from a manufacturing brand, a D2C store is also a place where they can find better prices than those marked-up prices provided by retailers.

This self-volunteered consumers’ attitude also means that they expect a great customer experience from the brand’s manufacturer. By leveraging the valuable data that customers provide, brands can delight customers at every interaction.

According to the study, 82% of manufacturers selling directly to consumers improved their customer relationships, and 76% improved customer experience.

Providing a memorable experience could be an after-sales email thanking for purchase along with discounts for the next one or a quick response to an inquiry in customer support. Providing such experiences can build a positive personal connection, which would encourage customers to turn into your brand evangelists.

5. PANDEMIC-FORCED RISE IN DIGITAL BUYING

eCommerce growth statistics YoY is on the rise since its inception, but the COVID-19 pandemic has further fueled the acceleration.

Online sales increased by 76% due to the pandemic – DigitalCommerce 360, July 2020 report.

Digital buying will continue to rise as it is the best alternative for consumers to get the products delivered at the safety of their household. Consumers have started preferring brands that offer additional conveniences like curbside pickup, in-car, and in-garage delivery. More consumers, even those who have relied on in-store shopping, have started preferring digital buying.

The more consumers get accustomed to conveniences offered in online buying, the eCommerce growth graph will continue its upward trajectory. For manufacturers eying DTC models, the time is ripe, and so is the foreseeable future.

What is D2C e-commerce

As times change, more B2B businesses are moving towards D2C e-commerce strategies.

What is D2C e-commerce?

Direct-to-consumer e-commerce, popularly known as D2C or DTC e-commerce, is a term for an e-commerce model where traditional B2B businesses start selling directly to end-consumers. Like for example, farmers selling directly to a customer who will consume their produce.

Difference between D2C e-commerce and a traditional retailer business model?

D2C e-commerce is where the manufacturer sells its products directly to end consumers from their e-commerce store. A more traditional retailer business model goes from the manufacturer > wholesaler > distributor > retailers > and then finally to a consumer.

The D2C e-commerce business model literally “cuts out” the middlemen. Research has shown that 55% of consumers prefer to shop directly with the brand manufacturer over retailers.

The traditional retailer model deals with bulk purchases, so for a manufacturer to start selling direct-to-consumer they’d have to start selling individual items. This essentially is why most manufacturers have not yet switched to a D2C strategy, as their entire business revolves around selling products in bulk.

What are the benefits of D2C e-commerce?

An omnichannel experience

One of the major benefits of having D2C e-commerce is that manufacturers get full control of all their activities, from packaging to marketing, which means they can create a true omnichannel experience for their consumers.

Control over brand reputation

In a traditional business model, a manufacturer has little control when their products are being sold by retailers. A D2C e-commerce strategy gives a manufacturer back control over its marketing efforts and sales strategies, and it puts the D2C brand directly in contact with the end-consumer. This gives a manufacturer total control of its customers’ experience over the entire purchase funnel.

Understanding the customers

Manufacturers who follow a traditional retailer model rarely interact with the end consumers who have purchased their products. So, they don’t have many opportunities to get to know their end-consumers, other than by conducting target market research to try to gain a better understanding of their likes and dislikes.

What are the challenges of D2C e-commerce?

Competing with retailers

With a D2C e-commerce strategy, the biggest challenge for manufacturers is having to compete with big retailers. Retailers already have experience in selling to consumers and a good understanding of their clients and the market.

Order fulfillment

Newly formed D2C companies often struggle with order fulfillment. Not only does a manufacturer have to ship their products, but they also need to compete with the likes of Amazon and other online retailers with one-day or two-day shipping.

Marketing, sales, and customer service

D2C e-commerce also means that manufacturers need to start looking after their marketing strategies and sales strategies. This often requires hiring a new marketing and sales team.

What does the future of D2C e-commerce look like?

D2C is the future of e-commerce. Especially during the pandemic. More and more manufacturers are turning to D2C e-commerce to sell to end-consumers directly.

SMS Marketing for Ecommerce

You can check any online source and they’ll all tell you the same thing – SMS marketing for eCommerce simply works.

It’s not only a great marketing tool for you to market your brand to customers but also to interact with employees and other stakeholders.

But what makes it so great?

Speed: 90% of text messages are read within the first 3 minutes
Convenience: Not everyone has access to a smartphone, but 5 billion people in the world can send and receive texts
Personalisation: 48.7 billion consumers choose to receive business text messages
Customer data analytics: Helps in analyzing who reacts back

These are only 3 among many other benefits of text messaging for ecommerce, and all statistics point towards the fact that text messaging is the preferred form of communication for consumers – which makes it essential for any business’s marketing strategy.

SMS Marketing for ecommerce Customers

1. Creating brand awareness

Creating product or brand awareness requires a huge investment because, at the introduction stage, you need aggressive advertising on multiple platforms to ensure that people get to know your brand.

Well established companies can get really creative when they want to get consumer attention.

In my childhood, I’ve seen huge banners in the sky behind planes for an icecream brand.

But that’s exactly the problem.

Brands throw so much money into advertising that they become bankrupt and fail within the first 5 years.

Text messaging is the perfect solution for this: it’s great for small businesses that don’t have the resources to get creative and it’s a great way for larger businesses to save money that can be better utilised in other departments like R&D.

You can send out thousands of text messages in under $150! And for every dollar that you spend on text message marketing, you’ll receive a $30 return on average.

It’s best to keep your text messages short and to the point to ensure that readers remain engaged.

There’s just one thing to remember.

Text messaging is a permission-based marketing channel so you’ll have to ask customers to opt into your campaign before sending them any promotional offers.

Here’s what your first conversation should look like:

Worried about the technical details on the side?

That’s what SMS platforms are for.

All you have to do is sign up with a platform of your choice, upload your contact list, choose a payment plan and you’re good to go.

Your platform will provide you with the keywords that customers use to opt-in to your campaign, a registered number for your business and an entire database that records all details about your subscribers.

2. Discount offers

This is by far the most commonly used feature of business text messaging.

75% of millennials prefer text message communication for deliveries, promotions and surveys (and that’s basically everything) which makes SMS the perfect medium to promote discount offers.

I specifically chose this text because it has all the important elements that a promotional text should contain:

Catchy heading

Most of your recipients are going to decide whether your text is interesting enough or not based on the notification preview.

That means that the first line of your text should be captivating enough for the reader to know more.

In this example, the word VIP sounds exclusive which intrigues consumers to know more.

Complete information

Usually, hyperlinks are a great addition to business text messages so that users can view details and avail offers.

The idea is to keep texts as short as possible and hyperlinks aid in doing that, but Tommy has efficiently provided all the relevant information for customers to avail the offer without being redirected to another page.

Note that grammar and full sentences aren’t a requirement in text messages because the platform is so personal and direct, and if used right, it can make texts a lot more engaging:

Sense of urgency

This is something most businesses don’t realise, but adding an end date creates a sense of urgency because customers know that they need to avail the offer before a certain time period.

Follows legal guidelines

In the US and most other countries, the law states that businesses cannot send promotional messages to consumers without their consent.

Along with this, businesses are required to clearly state instructions on how consumers can opt-out (since it is a permission-based platform) and Tommy is clearly doing that by adding instructions at the end of the text.

It’s best if you add opt-out instructions at the end of each text that you send to your consumers which ensures that they voluntarily remain subscribed to the SMS marketing campaign.

3. Integration with other apps

This is one of the biggest reasons why business text messaging hasn’t died down and survived up till now.

Why? Because there are a lot of social media platforms that are effective for marketing or brand awareness, but nothing beats the speed of SMS which makes it essential for integration with other apps:

Tracking orders

Email and SMS are the two most common ways to track online orders.

Plus, SMS acts as a double confirmation when you make a purchase online so that you know the payment went through without any issues.

Courier companies also allow you to track orders.

Usually, you text your order to the company’s dedicated shortcode and they’ll give you an update on the current status of your order.

Plus, if you order food, your rider can text you in advance to let you know that your order will arrive soon so that you can keep the payment ready and receive it as soon as it arrives; thus, saving time.

I know I would love to see more companies doing this because I’m always running around last minute looking for cash when the delivery person arrives, and I’m not alone because 64% of consumers believe that businesses should contact them via text more often:

Wallet apps

Financial transactions are the most sensitive type of information obviously because of their monetary value, so a confirmation for them is vital.

Despite safety checks in place, bank theft continues to be an ongoing problem globally as digital transactions make financial information more vulnerable.

If you sign up for text notifications with your bank or financial institution, they’ll update you every time a transaction is made from your account.

This way, you’ll be notified immediately of any unusual activity on your account that you have not made; thus, being able to protect your financial belongings quicker and reducing the likelihood of online hackers getting access to your financial information.

Confirmations

Every time you download an app or turn on double login confirmation for websites, you’ll receive a code via text so that the device can confirm that only the authorised person has access.

It’s a great way to protect information because it’s much harder to hack into someone’s phone instead of an online account.

The security of text message, as opposed to internet-based platforms, is yet another advantage which is why it is used frequently to make confirmations.

4. Invitations

Sure, the personalised ecommerce invitations are nice for really formal and fancy events, but in most situations, you or your consumers don’t have the time for sending and receiving invites the traditional way.

With text, you could send out invitations at the last minute and still get a good turnout because it’s so fast.

It’s great for casual events like gig nights or night-club parties to create brand awareness and recognition.

Plus, if it’s a formal event you can always ask your consumers to RSVP by replying via text or confirming online (use a hyperlink to direct them to the specified web page).

This will help you estimate the predicted turnout so that you can make arrangements accordingly.

However, what do you do when it’s an exclusive event? Use MMS to send your invitees a QR code that they can scan and enter the event:

I personally love this as a consumer because I don’t have to fret over where I put my ticket and going home each time when I realise I’ve forgotten it at home, or worse, lost it!

5 Tips to Craft a Powerful D2C Marketing Strategy in 2021

Over the last decade, D2C marketing strategies have gained fresh momentum, as brands have leveraged social media, viral content, and SEO for great results. Here are six brands that deployed disruptive methods to unlock the benefits of direct marketing to customers.

In a world where giants like Amazon, Walmart, and Alibaba rule retail, how do smaller retailers make their mark? Direct-to-consumer (D2C) marketing is the answer. The current D2C market size backs up this hypothesis.

The number of D2C brands is continually growing, and 81% of Americans say they will make at least one D2C purchase in the next five years. These brands have garnered a loyal customer base, with 63% saying that referrals bring them more business than digital ads. Given this promising trend, it’s imperative that brands young and established brush up on D2C marketing strategies to strengthen their relationships with customers.

5 Tips to Craft a Powerful D2C Marketing Strategy

1. Share deeper insights into the product

A benefit of choosing D2C marketing over traditional sales channels is that you have the full, undivided attention of the customer. Once customers visit your online store or social media channel, you aren’t competing with multiple other products in your segment.

Leverage this attention by sharing enriching insights on how the product is made — this will help to inspire interest, which of course needs to be validated by the product’s quality.

Warby Parker, the D2C eyeglass company, has an entire page dedicated to how its products are designed, produced, and quality checked. Transparency is a watchword here, with Warby Parker deep-diving into the design process, its office culture, and its corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives.

2. Foster a community of buyers

The consumer is a D2C marketer’s biggest asset. They bring in referrals, make repeat purchases, and promote the brand via social media.

That’s why TechStyle set up a membership program that would deliver high-quality fashion products to its customers on a monthly basis. This also includes free shipping and customization as per the buyer’s needs.

In 2018, the company pushed its value proposition even further, by partnering with global superstar Rihanna. TechStyle’s D2C marketing strategy demonstrates the benefits of the subscription model. You can leverage this strategy to ensure a steady flow of customers. As long as your products are on-point, the community will stay loyal.

3. Don’t be afraid to go offline

While it’s true that social media is a vital marketing tool for D2C brands, there are several other options you can explore.

For example, if your brand has garnered interest from a sizeable local audience, it could be the perfect time to open a store. Start with location-specific content targeting on Instagram and Facebook. Once you reach a certain engagement threshold, launch an offline billboard campaign, and finally open the doors to a physical location.

4. Find (or create) your own customer demographic

D2C marketing strategies are all about identifying and speaking to a unique customer segment. Instead of broad demographics based on gender, age, or location, you need thorough market research to identify your customers’ exact aspirations and problem areas.

For example, there have been several reports suggesting that millennials spend more time at home and on self-care than other generations. Insights like this can help finetune your marketing strategy so it finds resonance with your target audience.

UpWest, a direct-to-consumer brand owned by retail major Express, gives this a fresh and memorable spin with its JOMO marketing focus – geared towards people experiencing the “joy of missing out” rather than the more common FOMO. It is looking to market personal care products and leisurewear with this almost revolutionary stance.

5. Sustain customer engagement after a sale

D2C brands are often digital-only, without the offline presence available to bigger retailers. As a result, your customers could just disconnect after buying and might not return, as they may encounter the brand in limited spaces.

To prevent this, it is advisable to establish a post-sale communication strategy. This could include a hand-written note included in the product packaging, follow-up emails, and informative content on any recently purchased product/s.

Indoor plant seller, Bloomscape recognized the importance of this D2C marketing strategy when it started its online-only store in 2017. The company has a rich repository of video content on YouTube, not to mention a unique onboarding kit that guides customers on how to get started with their brand new plant.

5 Ways to Boost Sales Through Marketing Automation

It has become a widely recognized fact that the automation of marketing and sales processes increases the efficiency of business efforts.

According to a Marketing Automation Report by the B2B Technology Marketing Community, 53% of B2B marketers are actively using marketing automation today, and another 17% are currently evaluating adopting it into their current strategies. The top 3 benefits marketers are looking to receive from marketing automation are more and better leads, improved marketing productivity, and improved conversion rates.

The right eCommerce platform and correct business practices can turn your brand into a sales juggernaut. We see more and more customers taking the quick dip into the pool of online shopping and services rather than spending time at the malls/retail stores. Smart software and orchestrating sending out relative content will not only help to build a great sales funnel but also lead to ultimate sales conversion.

Key components of marketing automation to driving more sales:

1. Providing your marketing team with the right tools

With the right tools, your team will be able to spend more time effectively qualifying and guiding leads through the sales funnel vs. manually obtaining, tracking, and passing along leads.

2. Leveraging personal relationships

It’s important for your marketing and sales to lead the process to enable your team to nurture personal relationships. Make sure your system can account for personal referrals, allow for customization to host information you know about your main contacts and allow for you to personalize messages that are being delivered.

3. Identifying the right amount, and type, of follow up throughout the sales cycle

Not everyone is ready to buy right away. Identify the different stages your buyers go through when determining when to buy, and use that to segment future leads and assign the appropriate type of outreach and message for the audience.

4. Shortening the sales cycle

Through automated nurture and scoring programs marketing can deliver more high quality leads to the sales team at a quicker pace.

5. Segmenting your Customers

Do you keep track of all the customers that visit your website/online store? Identifying and leveraging your customers is another important thing to do while you work on marketing automation for eCommerce. Remember your business model depends on your target audience. Now, there are several ways to do this based on Demographic factors, Purchase History, Psychographic factors, and Dividing them into Benefit Groups. All of this helps you in personalizing the experience for customers by providing them with more relevant services on one hand and devise clear strategies for the growth of your online business on the other.

Marketing Automation Best Practices for eCommerce

Customer retention is the most important thing in today’s digital economy, with over 50% of consumers suggesting that they would interact with a company again after only one positive experience. At the same time, you also need to be fostering new leads, segmenting those same leads, and personalizing the experience to engage with potential (and existing) customers across every channel.

5 Best Practices for eCommerce Marketing Automation

1. Segment Your Customers

According to MailChimp segmentation makes a detailed picture of how segmenting your customers can lead to better results.

Using marketing automation, you can segment customers in order to have them convert at the right time. By doing so, you can create better marketing campaigns, understand your customers, and plan accordingly.

2. Personalize Your Site

Customers love browsing websites that have stored information about them and display products that are relevant to them. According to Invesp, 53% of online shoppers find customization to be super valuable and influential in their buying decisions.

3. Improve Customer Satisfaction

Marketing automation typically revolves around gathering new leads and convert them. But we cannot discount the efficiency of automation in nurturing current customers and building relationships with them.

Marketing Automation can help build better relationships with customers. Whether it is assisting them with their order inquiries, customer service issues, or anything else – it can help build a fuller, better, and much better omnichannel experience.

4. Social Media and Chatbots

Another great aspect of marketing automation is the use of chatbots to improve customer experience. Build a chatbot to answer customer queries, regularly engage with customers, and send out weekly updates.

According to Drift, 34% of users use a chatbot in order to get access to a “human” representative. This means that chatbots go beyond simple inquiries, and actually nurture the path to converting a lead.

5. Gain Feedback

One of the benefits of using marketing automation is that it can help you get valuable feedback from your consumers. This is one of the most beneficial things you can do to consistently improve your eCommerce business.

Use Marketing Automation to Build Customer Relationships

Businesses never fared well with the ‘build it, and they will come…’ attitude. They have to reach out to the customers who would be willing to pay them for their offerings. Finding such an audience falls in the ‘to-do’ list of marketing departments. The larger their budget, the better the reach. Though, marketing was never an easy undertaking. A blend of psychology, creativity, risk & the art-of-communication, marketing has always been a decisive factor in the making or breaking of any business.

Marketing= Acquisition + Retention = ‘Another War’

With new businesses mushrooming in the arena, acquiring that precious customer demands a cutting-edge strategy. Even if you manage to acquire some, retaining them is another cut-throat sport. The digital world has opened up a plethora of options for the customers to choose whom to buy from. The power to accept or reject a brand lies with them, not us. And, there is always another competitor ready to steal your ‘acquisition opportunity’ away!

But…Wait for it…

Marketing automation is here to save the day! If customers have the power to choose, businesses have the power to improvise. Marketing automation tools give an unparalleled edge to enterprises, especially eCommerce players. Automating repetitive but key operations like omnichannel communication, email campaigns, push notifications & overall Customer Experience (CX) is the crux here. If this automation can grow ‘intelligent’ over time, then the enterprise doesn’t even need to bother about the marketing intelligence as well.

Why Should You Care?

In a world where 33% of the existing customers would consider changing the brand at a single instance of poor customer service, this proposition of marketing automation sounds promising. Customer Experience is one single metric that can make a substantial difference in how much a business can grow. In fact, companies that are confident in their CX metrics easily charge a 16% premium on their offerings. Needless to say, marketing automation for eCommerce can make a huge difference in the bottom line.

Marketing Automation Powering Customer Relations…

Or more precisely, Customer Experience. But, how does automation manage to create a win-win scenario for the businesses and the customers? Here is how;

Touch of Personalization

Businesses that treat their prospects like any other number are headed towards self-destruction. Your customers love PERSONALIZATION! There is a solid reason behind this. Personalization builds rapport and rapport forges trust. Even if the only touchpoints between a customer and a business is their smartphone, personalization can be a deciding factor for that sales conversion. Marketing automation allows you to scale personalized content & offers for all your customers without any hick-up.

Enhance Retention

As pointed earlier, great customer experience is what your prospects crave for. Omnichannel Marketing Automation allows a brand to build consistent messaging around its offers. This enables customers to keep their trust vested and stick to a brand as long as it matches their experience standards. And, did you know, just a 5% increase in customer retention rate can boost your profitability by up to 75% (Bain & Co.)!! Also, cross-selling and upselling becomes a breeze.

Obviously, there are other benefits of marketing automation tools like enhanced effectiveness, reduced turnaround time for operations & scalability.

Why don’t you test the waters yourself and build a rock-solid brand with an intelligent marketing automation tool? Give Wizgo ago, today!

What is Omnichannel Marketing? How to Use It for Ecommerce

In the eCommerce industry, omnichannel marketing has been a prevalent theme across articles, social media, conferences, and general thought leadership over the past few years.

Everyone is talking about it, but how many retailers are actually using it? How much of this is just theory, and how can we put omnichannel marketing into practice?

What is omnichannel marketing?

Omnichannel marketing is when you create a completely unified and seamless brand experience, no matter what channel your customer uses to connect with you.

Today, to feel comfortable enough to make a purchase, a customer needs 7 touchpoints with a brand on average. This means that each and every time your customer connects with your brand, they move a little further towards purchasing.

Omnichannel marketing ensures that each of those touchpoints provides the same experience with the brand.

So for example, an omnichannel brand would provide the same look and feel, and experience for a customer that started a support ticket on their site, and then contacted via Twitter.

How to use omnichannel marketing for eCommerce

When implementing an omnichannel marketing strategy for eCommerce, there are four main things you’ll need to do depending on how big your store is.

Unify the whole company under the omnichannel strategy

When adopting an omnichannel marketing strategy, you’re ultimately changing the focus of your company to the customer.

If you’re changing the central focusing of your company, it’s not just marketing that needs to be in on that change. This means that customer success, merchandising, and sales need to be a part of these plans.

As channels and apps share customer data, so should you between the different departments of your business. A marketer creating automated campaigns should know what the number one question that’s asked of sales managers is, and customer success should know exactly what promotions are currently running.

This means that customer data needs to be centralized so that each person, much like your channels, needs to be up to date on exactly who the customer is and what they’re looking for.

Collect data on your processes and your customer

One of the first things you need to do when you create an omnichannel marketing strategy is to audit your entire customer experience from each and every channel that a customer might use to connect with you.

This means researching your products on a variety of channels to see what your customers experience, ordering from your store, and going through your own returns and refunds system (including a ticket with customer service). You should be testing engagement with each channel.

Sometimes, we’re too close to our own processes to see potential friction. Bring in friends or family members to help you do these audits.

Another great thing to do is to ask customers for feedback. There is an opportunity for feedback at each step of the customer journey, though most retailers ask for feedback after a purchase has been made.

However, many retailers and brands forget to ask for feedback after a customer service interaction. A great personalized omnichannel marketing experience can include customer service too- think about it, wouldn’t it be nice to not have to re-explain your situation each time you reached out to customer service?

After each customer service interaction, ask customers how they feel with a short NPS (net promoter score) survey. It’s low engagement, and it gives you an idea about how they’re feeling about your service.

Use customer data to segment audiences and set up automation

The idea behind omnichannel marketing is personalization. You want your customers to feel like that email or message was written just for them (even if it wasn’t).

When you use your customer data to personalize your omnichannel marketing campaigns, you will be able to send the right message, to the right person, on the right channel, at the right time.