The eCommerce industry has taken a massive leap in recent years.
Today, it’s becoming increasingly common for people to buy the things that they want and need from their desktop or smartphone. Many of us prefer to shop online than in person.
For business leaders, solutions like marketing automation tools ensure that even without physical shop assistants to guide consumers, they can stay connected with their clients.
Automation software allows companies of all sizes to reach out to customers throughout the buyer journey, offering them guidance, incentives, and support when they need it most.
What’s more, all the while, automation software is removing the repetitive and mundane tasks from the shoulders of marketing teams.
Marketing automation leads to a 12.2% reduction in marketing overhead and a 14.5% increase in sales productivity.
All you need to do is make sure that you’re avoiding the common mistakes that can turn your marketing plan into a flop.
Here are some of the biggest mistakes to avoid in eCommerce marketing automation.
1. Lack of a Solid Plan
Every stage of your eCommerce strategy requires consistent planning and focus. For instance, you need to figure out what kind of financing you’re going to use to get your company off the ground.
You also need a plan in mind for how you’re going to reach and serve your customers.
Start with a list of goals that you want to achieve and think about how you can get there.
Maybe you want to connect with your customers more consistently when they reach out to you online.
If that’s the case, it makes sense to invest in email marketing automation that allows you to send content to a customer’s inbox based on eCommerce triggers.
On the other hand, if your goal is to simplify the buying process on your eCommerce website, then you might decide to automate some of the customer service processes by implementing your own chat-bots and automated FAQs.
Knowing your goals will help you to design a more cohesive plan.
2. Over-reliance on Automation
It’s easy to get carried away when you first start to explore new technology like automation. As the digital environment continues to evolve, automation tools are becoming increasingly impressive.
International trade can be as streamlined as a domestic one. Whether you need to fulfill large orders globally or start shipping because your crowdfunding campaign successfully ended, you grow your business without much hassle with the right solutions.
Today, we even have virtual assistants that can take orders and fulfill requests without the input of any human employee.
However, that doesn’t mean you should be automating everything.
Today’s consumers still want a human touch in their interactions with brands. This is particularly true when something goes wrong with your product or service.
If your customer has an issue with something that they’ve bought from you, then they don’t want a robot to attempt to fix the issue by throwing solutions out at random.
There will always be a time in your customer service strategy when your customers want to interact with a human.
A button on your website or a contact form that allows them to upgrade from automation to human contact is essential.
3. Assuming That Customer Journeys are Linear
When trying to automate a customer journey, it’s tempting to assume that the customer journey follows a pre-set path.
You think that every customer will automatically go from the awareness stage in their buying cycle to consideration and decision.
However, this isn’t always the case.
Every customer responds differently to marketing campaigns and sales strategies. That means that not every client will respond to the same automated messages all of the time.
Today’s businesses need to think about segmenting their customers and sending them on my dynamic customer journeys if they really want to boost their brand reputation.
Also, as you work on growing your eCommerce business, remember that it’s possible for customers to take a step back in their journeys too.
Just because they showed interest in buying a product previously, doesn’t mean they won’t jump back to the consideration stage and need a little extra push to make a purchase.
4. Not Knowing How to Store and Use Your Data
Marketing automation allows today’s companies to do a lot of things well, including gathering and using data.
Over time, with the right tools, you can collect detailed lists of contact information, gather insights into website activity, and even track the performance of various marketing campaigns.
However, it’s important to make sure that you’re using and storing that data correctly.
Today’s businesses need to be aware of the growing problem of data security. After all, your customers should feel safe handling their information over to you.
If you accidentally leaked or lost the information you collected, your entire business could come to a halt. Understanding the differences between cloud privacy options and what do you need for safe data storage is essential.
Once you’ve figured out how to store your data, make sure that you work out how to use it too.
Learn how to derive insights from the information that you collect and use those insights to make changes to the way you connect with your audience.
Maybe your customers respond better to one sales page than another – figure out why that is!
5. Forgetting to Focus on Retention
Increasing customer retention rates by as little as 5% can help to grow business revenue by up to 25%.
Unfortunately, a lot of companies make the mistake of focusing all of their efforts on conversion with marketing automation, rather than retention.
The goal of any business is to sell, but the journey you take with your customers can’t stop as soon as they hit the “Buy” button.
To keep on top of your company’s growth, you’ll need to continue working on a consistent relationship with each of your buyers.
This will help you to maintain a more constant source of income.
Consider using a loyalty program through a mobile app or an automated points system as part of your eCommerce marketing campaign. Not only will this keep customers happy, but it could convince them to refer new clients to you too.
Making the Most of eCommerce Marketing Automation
Today, the world of eCommerce is more advanced than ever, with new features and toolsets emerging all the time to support the modern business.
The key to success isn’t just embracing new technology, it’s learning how to use the solutions available as effectively as possible while avoiding the potential mistakes that could hold your company back.
Stay away from the five issues above, and you’ll be ready to take your eCommerce marketing automation efforts to the next level and drive better results from your customers too.
