In marketing, AI has most certainly been the buzzword of 2017; check Google Trends and you’ll see the term has been sitting above 90 for the majority of the year. But while many of us are talking about Artificial Intelligence, are any of us actually ready to adopt it into our marketing strategies?

The answer is likely no – but it depends on what level of AI we’re referring to. For example, there’s ‘full-blown’ Artificial Intelligence which I would liken to the Internet of Things (IoT); and then there are machine-learning tools – such as Facebook Ads – that focus on smaller areas and which many marketers are already using in their day-to-day. It doesn’t help that the definition of AI has evolved over time, blurring the lines of how it’s viewed person to person.

Here I’m focusing on the marketing aspect of AI and whether it provides the solution to a business’ problems, or whether it’s the antidote to a problem that doesn’t really exist.

We know today’s consumer craves authenticity and for businesses to gratify that need, it’s all down to providing a personalized experience. Delivering relevant communications has always been a challenge for online marketers, especially when it’s required at massive scale – and that’s why we got dynamic content and marketing automation. These two tools in the marketer’s arsenal are readily available and are included in almost every marketing automation platform. What’s more, the democratization of these types of software means automations are relatively easy to implement.

The truth? Many brands are failing to migrate beyond even the most basic of marketing automation programs that have been commonplace for at least half a decade. The proof of this lies in Dotdigital’s 2017 edition of Hitting the Mark: this annual benchmark report zooms in on the customer and email experiences of 100 retailers, from the likes of ASOS to Fingerhut. It was promising to see that 86% of brands had an email welcome program set up, yet it was surprising to see that 60% failed to deliver abandoned cart emails. Cart recovery programs are definitely not a new concept, and we have years of evidence that the time and cost of putting the automation together is far outweighed by the ROI it brings.

A prime example of automation’s success comes from one of Dotdigital’s customers, Forest Holidays, who introduced an abandoned cart program to its ecommerce strategy. The travel company made return on investment from the first booking and in the first 30 days’ implementation, the program rescued £42k of revenue!

If businesses are looking for ways to drive growth, AI is certainly not going to be a cost-effective quick win. I believe it’s time for distracted businesses to revisit the basics because, let’s face it, marketing automation is the foundation of good email marketing in 2017. What’s clear is that, often, the strategies proven to deliver incremental revenue and customer satisfaction are being overlooked.

At Dotdigital, we recently worked with ecommerce and tech expert Chloë Thomas to get her thoughts on whether AI is something we should be paying attention to. Chloë’s business, ecommerce MasterPlan, sees her consulting companies on where they need to focus to get more customers and ultimately increase profits.

The whitepaper outlines the four steps any business should consider if it wants to take its first foray into the world of AI. And it’s totally free.

Pam moved to the UK in the hope that she could live and work in a country where she would be accepted for who she is. So, when she approached me about her plan to set up dotmailer’s first LGBT network, I jumped at the chance to be a part of it.

A culmination of events over the past year have taught me that many people do not get to enjoy the same sense of freedom and inclusivity as I do; just look at what’s going on in Chechnya and you realise that the world still has a long, long way to go. It makes events like LGBTQ Pride more important than ever in 2017.

Thanks to Pam’s dedication, we had the opportunity to take part in the Pride in London parade on the 8^th July. And what an incredible day it was! 50 people from the dotfamily joined the 26,000-strong marchers through the centre of London, and the love and positivity from the crowd truly gave me hope for the future. Though after being close to the Disney float, we’re definitely upping our game for next year!

Here are some pics from the day…

If you’re interested in joining in all the fun, we’re recruiting for lots of roles right now!

It’s no surprise then that dotmailer partner Trustpilot has a string of customers who are seeing significant conversion rate and revenue increases from reviews. Customer testimonials can bolster any kind of digital marketing, including PPC and SEM, yet email remains one of the most powerful ways to drive sales to your website. In fact, on average, email drives 18.4% of ecommerce orders[1], making it a very attractive marketing channel indeed.

The challenge for marketers is that not only are their emails fighting against a cluttered inbox, they’re also tasked with encouraging users to click through once the email is opened. Personalization, persuasive copy and relevancy go a long way to enhance the performance of email campaigns, but it’s social proof that adds the all-important layer of authenticity and trustworthiness. After all, consumers are more likely to listen to another consumer’s perspective of a product over a brand’s description.

How can I maximize social proof in my emails?

There are two ways to approach social proof in email marketing:

1. Existing emails

Firstly, there’s the opportunity to add ratings, reviews and trust marks to existing emails. A simple tactic could be adding Trustpilot’s TrustScore to your email header or including a customer review in the footer.

If you’re featuring products in your email, you can also include customers’ star ratings to demonstrate popularity and credibility. In this instance you’ll want to ensure that the product page displays the correct rating and reviews, otherwise you might be doing more harm than good. Thankfully, Trustpilot enables you to add live ratings to your emails and website – so they’ll always be accurate.

Other emails that are worthy of ratings, reviews and trust marks are the welcome series and abandoned cart reminders. Welcome emails are designed to introduce your brand’s USPs and build trust with prospects, and social proof is the perfect way to back up your message. Abandoned cart emails remind customers that they didn’t check out and all it could take is some carefully placed social proof to get them across the line.

2. Emails built around social proof

While your existing emails can benefit from a peppering of ratings and reviews, social proof can also define a new suite of campaigns:

• Top reviewed products

You could create an email featuring your company’s top-reviewed products of the week or month, along with their accompanying ratings.

• How you’ve used customers’ feedback

An email telling customers how you’ve used their feedback to make improvements to your product or service shows that you listen and act on comments.

• Feedback emails

An obvious one, but email is the best way to collect reviews from people who’ve purchased a product or service from you. You can set up an automated email program to deliver the feedback request at the right time in the customer journey – e.g. a day or a few weeks after the order was placed, depending on your offering.

Social proof can go well beyond making your emails a customer-centric marketing device. In this free guide by Trustpilot and eCommerce MasterPlan, you’ll discover how it can also improve your company’s search rankings, bolster remarketing ads and improve AdWords performance.

[1] eCommerce Pulse – July 2016, Custora, 2016

Before you can do any of this, however, you need to collect those all-important email addresses. Here are three ways you can make your social networks work harder:

Simple sign-up form on your brand page

With a social platform like Facebook, it’s possible to integrate a newsletter sign-up feature into your brand page. If you’ve got hundreds of thousands of likes, this is your prime opportunity to convert sole social followers into subscribers. Check out our support portal to find out how to add a sign-up form to your Facebook page with Dotdigital.

Competitions and prize draws

Who doesn’t love a free competition? Especially if it’s easy to enter and the prize is awesome. Offering up an incentive on social media is a great way to collect email addresses, and for two reasons. Firstly, it’s more of a subtle list acquisition approach and, secondly, the nature of the environment it’s hosted in increases its shareability.

Twitter Lead Generation Cards

Lead Generation Cards allow you gather names and email addresses via promoted tweets. It’s a great way to use relevant content to hook prospects in and ultimately start getting them engaged with your brand. Many companies offer up free guides or training in exchange for people’s details.

The aim after all of this is to start prospects on their journey with your brand, until, in an ideal world, you nurture them into lifetime advocates. In today’s digital world, where customer expectations are constantly exceeding, the need to deliver ultra-relevant communications is essential. That’s why many companies are looking to social media, as it offers one of the richest sources of data for brands looking to connect with their customers on a truly personal level.

Want to learn how you can benefit from data created and stored in another channel? Download a copy of our free whitepaper – Convert data into meaningful customer action.

Here, we share the three guiding principles of great customer experience:

1. Be consistent

Ever spoken to two different people from the same company about the same thing yet been given two different stories? Pretty frustrating, eh. This kind of situation doesn’t fill you with confidence in the brand you’ve dealt with and will likely lose them customers.

Now think about all the other places your customers can interact with your brand – multiple social networks, email, in store – and you realize how potentially big the problem is. What are your in-store salespeople saying versus those in your social media team? And once your customer has let you know what they’re interested in on your website, how do you tailor your next conversation – wherever that may take place – to ensure you’re relevant?

The answer is to take stock of your comms strategy to ensure there are no disconnects in messaging, and look into tech solutions that share live behavioral information about your customers across your business.

2. Be available

Nowadays, most brands are across social media, have a contact center that manages calls, live chat and email, and some even have stores. The key is to let your customers choose how and when they connect with you. And the more options you give them, the more likely they are to get in touch.

Just don’t forget to make it clear when they can contact you through the different channels. If your social media isn’t monitored on the weekend, a customer who’s tweeted you is going to be left narked and in the dark until Monday morning.

3. Be seamless

Consumers are now using a variety of platforms to research and buy things. For instance, they might check prices and reviews on their smartphone before buying on a desktop or in store. Therefore, the need to let your customers seamlessly pick up their journey on a different device is essential.

Can the same content or product be easily found on a mobile as it can on a desktop? And if a customer is logged into their account and places something in their cart, can it be seen when they log on to your site from another device?

Want to find out how to put a customer experience strategy in place? Download our free whitepaper ‘Meeting the modern customers expectations‘.

After all, if dating sites can get the algorithm right then so can you.

Make it personal

Valentine’s Day is all about showing that one person how much they mean to you. And your marketing communications should be given the same level of TLC, too.

Is your customer male or female? Are they single or in a relationship? What’s their sexuality? Where are they based? Then using the data in your CRM software, how much have they spent with you in the past on average? Have they engaged with you in the last two weeks and if so, what have they looked at? These are all clues to help you target your customers with relevant, personalized content. Social data, coupled with the information in your CRM software, is the perfect enabler here.

Take a look at the whitepaper ‘Meeting the modern customer’s expectations‘.

Make it mobile

With more and more people turning to dating apps to look for love, it’s no surprise that more consumers are also shopping on their mobiles than ever before. If you’re sending emails, there are some golden rules to stick to if you want to sweep your customers off their feet:

• Unlike on Tinder, you don’t want your subscriber to swipe right (or even left); you want them to tap and read. That’s why a killer subject line is essential and if you’ve gone to the trouble of personalizing your emails, here’s the place to let them know.
• Make sure you’re using a mobile-responsive template so it can be easily viewed on any device.
• A clear, tappable CTA lets your customer know what you want them to do next. If you don’t then your email’s likely to get dumped.

Make your mobile email designs simpler with a look at our cheatsheet ‘Keep it super simple’, which teaches you the 5 life-changing steps to designing awesome emails for mobile.

Make the perfect landing

A bad email landing page is a bit like a bad online date: the email (profile) says one thing and the click-through (meet-up) presents something totally different. And rather than a swift drink and a “sorry, I’ve got to leave already”, a bad landing page will probably make your customers leg it instantly.

The chances of converting will be reduced or destroyed if a click is delivered to a destination that is inconsistent with your email, fails to meet the user’s expectation/your promise, or is unclear as to what they should do and why they should do it. So put as much effort into your landing page as you do into your email.

Download our ‘Getting the most from your landing pages’ guide to help you improve your customer journeys.

S.W.A.L.K,

The dotmailer marketing team.

We know marketing automation software will ultimately help us scale, be more efficient, save us time (in the long run) and gallop towards greater ROMI, but one of the very first – but pretty fundamental! – things you need to do to maximize the full potential of your marketing automation platform is to be proactive and implement processes right from the outset. According to a DemandGen report, 76% of marketers who have implemented a marketing automation tool said that if they had to do it again, they’d do more preparation by building better processes from the outset. So the more advanced your internal processes are the more successful you will ultimately be at implementing marketing automation for your business.

Marketing automation is not a one-size-fits-all solution. You now need to fully align what you expect to achieve from the implementation with your current business systems and processes. And what’s nice about being a marketer for a marketing automation business is that we are in your shoes. We are marketing ‘Marketing’ to marketers, so we not only need to think and act like you but we are using the very tools we’re marketing for our own purposes as well as helping our customers and prospective customers do exactly that.

So to support you right from the get-go, we thought you would find it useful to have some checklists to work through.

Step 1: Setting the tone

• Who is your target audience?
• Have you defined your sales funnel?
• How do you segment your database?
• Who owns the marketing automation program?
• How will the marketing automation tool work with your CRM system?
• What ongoing training or support will you receive?
• Have you defined how colleagues will be using the marketing automation technology?

Step 2: Implementation & launch

• Have you identified where you are going to start with your first automation program?
• How are you documenting the workflows for the handling and processing of leads resulting from the program?
• Have you set your campaign objectives?
• Have you established the messaging for the program?
• Are you developing the program assets internally or are you outsourcing this?
• Have you defined the program length?
• Have you thought about how the program will be measured?

Step 3: Optimization & Evaluation

• Have you thought about what happens after the program launches?
• Now your first automated program is up and running, how are you going to optimize it?
• How are you going to ensure that the program(s) grow, evolve and scales as time goes on?
• How are you planning to assess the maturity of your program(s) after implementation?
• Have you determined a baseline?
• How are you going to communicate the initial learnings of your first automation program to key stakeholders?
• What next?

Remember, without a successful plan in place you are far less likely to realize the full potential of your marketing automation software. It’s only ever going to be as good as the implementation and commitment behind it. If you don’t have the internal resources to support the process, the investment will be a waste of your budget, so think about hiring a specialist consultant to help you with planning, implementation and of course execution. It seriously will be money well spent.

Marketing automation can truly provide you with a platform to help you manage your programs and increase the impact of your strategy, but having an organized approach can really make all the difference.  Even the greatest of tools are only as good as the people who implement them (no pressure!) and the systems that are built around them. Learn to walk before you run and don’t try and automate 100% of your processes from the outset, but if you commit to it, self-educate and your hard work will honestly pay off. If you successfully implement marketing automation, you’ll be in the top third of marketers, so take those first steps on your journey and join them today. Good luck!

So, automating your email program (providing a better quality experience for your newsletter subscribers) allows you to craft highly relevant content and deliver this content according to our customer’s expectations, quicker, faster and easier than ever before! And if it’s done well, it has the potential to be extremely powerful and effective rather than irrelevant and disruptive.

Remember, marketing automation can help both B2B and B2C marketers:

• Reach your target audience via multiple channels in real-time
• Automate repetitive tasks
• Increase efficiency
• Reduce human error

Getting off the ground

Before you put marketing automation to work for you, you have to work out what you want to get from it. Sadly it isn’t as simple as plonking content into an automation tool and letting it ‘do its thing’ whilst you sit back and watch the results flooding in (wouldn’t that be nice!).  But what it does do is help support you and elevate your marketing strategies to nurture your customers and prospects with useful, personalized content which delights the recipient. A tool (like dotmailer :)) can really help you have those targeted HUMAN 1 to 1 conversations but on a large scale – 1 to 100, 10,000 or even 1,000,000,000 – which would be impossible without this kind of technology.

Start at the beginning and think about your customers’ journey. Understand how it is now, how you need to improve it, what you want to achieve from it and your business imperatives. This approach will mean you are starting with your customer front of mind. Too many marketers are guilty of letting the technology dictate their email programs rather than putting the needs of their customers first. This way, you’ll have a better chance of creating an impact and avoiding sterile communications. As alien as it sounds, these human elements are fundamental to a successful automation program. Remember, people buy from people – so reminding your audience that there are real life people – gasp! – working behind the scenes, will mean your marketing will hopefully strike a chord with the people you are trying to get in front of.

Avoid turning your customers off

For your marketing to engage your customers or potential customers, it needs to have that human touch. Start with ensuring your tone of voice strikes the right note. Be more conversational and friendly in your communications.  Sounds simple, right? However, I am consistently staggered at some of the stuff I’m sent by companies wanting to ‘retain’ my business. I am a person.  Ditch the corporate piffle. Abandon jargon. Inject a sense of humour. Give me content that is relevant to ME – a flesh and blood real person. I’m not just an email address in your CRM system. THAT’S what’s going to make me want to open your emails.

It’s all about engagement through genuine conversations, but be sure to keep your eyes open. There are some automation myths which you need to remember in order to reap the rewards with your own programs:

• One size fits all – this is outdated and does not work with the local consumer
• A marketing autopilot – marketing should not be run by robots otherwise you risk losing that authentic conversation
• It’s just personalization – Marketing automation is not sending a mass campaign to a segment and simply personalizing the ‘to’ name

In short, you need to remember that customers aren’t interested in being ‘retained’ or ‘nurtured’. They want to be treated to a 1 to 1 personalized experience where they feel treated and subsequently rewarded for their loyalty to you.  And whilst you can’t implement marketing automation without technologies like dotmailer, you also need to put some proper time and energy into formulating strategies, creating original optimized content that speaks to your audience as individuals.

The core purpose of marketing automation is to initiate and maintain valuable relationships with the people interested in what your business has to offer them. When done right, it can be engaging, time-efficient, cost-effective and generate you some fantastic results. What are you waiting for?

Before we start, think about this. Marketing automation has actually been around for decades.  Remember the days of ‘mail merge’ where MS Word allowed us to insert personalization on our direct mail letters and envelopes? The only difference now is the ability to do automation in real-time, using the vast amount of data we have collected about our customers (and prospects) via various digital channels.

So we’re here to help you make sense of marketing automation to ultimately assist you with choosing the right supplier. But before you can even think about selecting your ideal partner, let’s go back to basics and get a better understanding of what marketing automation actually is.

Put as simply as possible, marketing automation is all about more leads, better leads, more customers, less time!  Drilling down a little deeper, marketing automation allows both B2B and B2C marketers – via technology – to reach their target audiences more effectively via multiple channels, automating repetitive tasks, increasing efficiency and reducing human error.

Marketing automation has traditionally been associated with large corporates with even larger marketing budgets. Not so anymore, people! Mid-size companies are also tucking into a piece of the marketing automation pie thanks to the introduction of more user-friendly packages (Dotdigital, anyone?) that can be managed by smaller teams at a better price point for both B2B and B2C marketers.  And now it’s trickling down to even smaller businesses where one man bands can really stretch their limited marketing budgets.

So, once you’ve decided to take your first steps into the glorious world of marketing automation, what next?  Here we have compiled a list of tips, questions and ideas to help you make a decision about your automation partner.

• What do you want to achieve?

First thing to remember is you can’t automate processes which haven’t been defined yet.

Before you look to invest in a tool to solve a problem, make sure you create a process to solve that problem. Your process needs to be unified so you need to decide what matters to you as a business then find a platform that will support you.  Bring key stakeholders together to establish your goals.

• How will you manage the buying process internally?

How quickly do you want to be up and running? Who will manage the implementation of marketing automation within your business? Do you have a C-level ‘corporate sponsor’ supporting you? What skills are needed on your team to move forward? Have you thought about your own internal siloes which could prove to be barriers to successful implementation?

• What are your requirements for a supplier?

What will it cost? How will you track performance? Can they cater for your specific needs (B2B vs B2C)? How will you associate leads and opportunities with the automated campaign? How will success be measured? Think about choosing a supplier who enables easy growth and additional sophistication over time.

• Make a shortlist & arrange to meet the suppliers

Think about the capabilities you have, those you would like to have, and those you can’t live without. Rather than buying multiple automation tools, think about whether your supplier will suit each department. Using one platform will unify your company and help maintain a consistent tone-of-voice. Ask the suppliers on your shortlist about their integrations with Ecommerce platforms (e.g. Adobe Commerce) or CRM systems such as Salesforce or MS Dynamics.

• Make a decision

Obviously you want the technology to be right. But you also want to like the company you are selecting. Think about the personality fit of the people you met from your shortlisted suppliers and how you would interact with them on a day to day basis. Make sure you choose a supplier who can provide ongoing support and who have an easy onboarding process.

• Review, analyze and optimize

How well marketing automation will work for you largely depends on how well the user manages it. It takes time for automation to build up to its full potential, so ensure you are continually reviewing, analyzing and optimizing.

Yep we can all get involved so there really is no excuse now.  Break it up into bite size pieces, start slowly, and with some help from us lovely lot here at Dotdigital, you could be well on your way to marketing automation.

If you want to learn more about Dotdigital’s marketing automation solutions, you can watch our webinar or take a look at our marketing automation guide.

We hope to join you on your marketing automation journey soon.