A workflow is a series of steps or business processes that are taken to complete a task. The task can vary in size and complexity and can span multiple departments, channels, and functions. Workflows can also lead to other workflows, depending on the fulfillment of conditions.
5 must-have eCommerce marketing automation workflows
Without further ado, here are the workflows every savvy marketer needs to have in their starting playbook. Use the structures we have described below as a launchpad, customizing them to suit your goals within your business context.
1. Welcome workflow
When a user signs up, they become a new contact that has displayed an interest in your company. This is a successful conversion, meaning that the contact has moved from visitor status to a registered contact status. In terms of lead qualification, this contact has displayed clear intent and are therefore they are more open to receiving relevant marketing communication – in fact, subscribers who receive welcome emails engage 33% more with the brand.
Typically, a welcome workflow involves an email or a series of connected emails. Whichever route you choose, make sure to send an email right away. The current user expectation is that on registration, an email will appear in their inbox.
So what sort of marketing material can be sent to newly registered users? For a start, there is a welcome email with account information, and a positive note expressing thanks. In other instances, perhaps your product has an onboarding process, so a welcome email campaign would then be a great way to ease a customer into the product.
2. Re-engagement workflow
There could be many reasons due to which an interested contact stops interacting with your brand: change of jobs, interests, or locations are just a few. Re-engagement campaigns are meant to remind contacts of the aspects of your brand that they found appealing in the first place, and to reinforce the value proposition of your business. It costs 7 times more to acquire a new customer than to retain an existing one.
Before diving into developing campaigns though, be sure to define what constitutes an inactive contact within the context of your business. Consider overall typical user behavior for your website: does your business attract daily website visits, or is it something used less frequently?
For example, a banking website would send monthly email statements and reasonably expect a customer to log into their account at least once every quarter. On the other hand, an online grocery store would expect customer interaction on their website or app once every 2 weeks.
Then the all-important question: why has the contact become inactive? Finding the reasoning will have ramifications for the re-engagement strategy.
3. Feedback workflow
Customer opinions matter and they provide a great deal of value for a business. Positive feedback can tell you where you are going right, and you can continue on that path, intensifying effort as you go along. However negative feedback is a golden opportunity to view your product or service from an outside perspective and pinpoint areas of improvement. 65% of customers value customer experience over advertising.
A typical scenario for feedback is customer service interaction. How satisfied is a customer with the level of service they received from a support executive? Feedback helps pinpoint areas for improvement. But that is not the only benefit. Customers experience a psychological lift from being given the opportunity to share their experiences. If there was a negative interaction, it is possible to course-correct in time, and thus retain the customer.
Summary
We picked these marketing automation workflows due to their importance in the contract lifecycle, success rates in converting contacts, or by their applicability across industry verticals. The key to retaining customer interest in your brand is to develop campaigns that contain carefully considered engagement techniques, specific to your business.
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