How to increase the effectiveness of activities, improve the customer’s relationship and experience with the brand, and at the same time – importantly – not tarnish the budget and do not spend a lot of time on activities? Marketing automation is a process that helps you meet all these requirements. The first step is to create a Customer Journey Map. The right marketing systems and announcements are enough to create once, and their optimization and development will allow you to enjoy the increase in results.

What’s the point of marketing automation?

Marketing automation or marketing automation is based on creating processes that automatically collect, process data, and send marketing messages to customers, thereby increasing the efficiency of operations.

Feel like a customer of your own company

To be able to create a client path and a map of the client. Customer Journey Map), it is worth considering all possible situations in which the customer is in contact with our brand (touch points). This will allow you to know the path that the consumer is going to take in order to become our customer and prepare appropriate marketing messages. Acting according to the principle: show me where you are going, and I will tell you what you need gives you a chance to know exactly the mechanisms and needs. Behavior scenarios and messages vary by industry – other actions are taken for typical e-commerce, others for stationary sales.

Example 1. Customer Journey Map – mobile phone purchase flow

One example where a customer is dealing with a brand in the form of omnichanneling is the purchase of a mobile phone. The map shows step by step when the customer decides to buy in the store and online. If not everything goes our way, the scenario in which the customer abandons the purchase is taken into account. The answer to the lack of finalization is prepared marketing messages tailored to this situation.

Source: http://www.miscmagazine.com/customer-journey-mapping/

Example 2. Customer Journey Map – purchase flow

The second example of the customer’s path is a description of the experiences of a couple who are planning to buy a holiday tour. This diagram clearly shows the data and shows the level of engagement of travelers and satisfaction with the place. The more processes to pass (laborious typing of personalities, credit card details, waiting for confirmation of purchase and flight ticket), the higher the level of frustration and discouragement. It may therefore turn out that the next steps will distance the vast person from buying the product, giving them time to doubt and reflect.

Source: http://www.bhavacom.com/2012/08/

Example 3. Customer Courney Map – shopping at IKEA

A third example is the IKEA map, which shows the customer’s experience from arriving at the parking lot to the end of a visit to the store. You can see for yourself the extent to which it reflects your feelings when shopping. What is puzzling and important “self-service” belonging to the ikea business model receives a bad rating. Perhaps this is influenced by the fact that customers (with printed item numbers) have to look for them themselves in the thicket of a large warehouse. In addition, heavy items (desk or bed) customers have to put on a trolley and take them to the tills. Compensation for heavy purchases turns out to be a gastronomic offer. Hot-dog or ice cream are supposed to soothe the slashed nerves of distraught consumers and wipe out bad memories. After all, the crossing is a success – in addition to buying a dream piece of furniture, we still have a hot dog or ice cream. Is there anything in the maps that needs to be improved and changed?

Source: https://marketingexperiencial.wordpress.com/2015/03/07/customer-journey-map-o-mapa-del-viaje-del-cliente-para-gestionar-la-experiencia-de-cliente/

Now some of my ideas on how to convert leads to customers and prepare relevant marketing messages in the context of marketing automation.

Convert leads to clients

As we know, this process is crucial for us and we try to convert the customer in many ways. Although many of them buy the product immediately after registration, there remains a large segment of people who abandon the final purchase. This is referred to as an “abandoned basket”. Currently, there are many ways to find out at what point the customer abandoned the shopping cart and what really decided about it. In this situation, the best solution is to create a marketing message that will remind the customer about an unfinished purchase or registration on the site. In my actions I am guided by the principle of 1-3-7. The sequence of these numbers is not random because it specifies the frequency of days with which the customer will receive notifications about their unfinished purchase. In this way, we influence the purchasing decisions of the customer. It is important that the first message resembling the recipient receives up to 24 hours – then his desire to buy is the greatest. To increase the level of engagement, it is also worth proposing the same purchase e.g. with a 5% discount. These methods work invariably.
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Welcome newsletter and onboarding mailings

When a customer completes a purchase, they often receive an email thanking them for the trust they have placed in the brand. In addition, it is informed about how to contact the company, where to reach it on social media, and sometimes even a proposal for another purchase. It’s hard to decide on another item when the package you ordered haven’t reached the customer yet, right?

It turns out to be a mistake to forget about a customer who does not receive any more messages until the next sale / cross-sell. There is another way to greet the customer – onboarding, or “guiding around the brand”. In this direction, you can create a series of mailings that maintain a sense of contact with the brand. With marketing automation, you can submit purchase documents, invoices and terms and conditions, present where the customer is to contact the company, give him phone numbers and current e-mail addresses, present the nearest establishments, where he can go if necessary, new product categories. In addition, e.g. after a month, it is worth preparing instructions on how the customer should use the product, provide a discount coupon encouraging subsequent purchases or ask the customer if any of his friends would not be interested in the same product / service. A series of emails (not spam!) will increase the likelihood of customer action.

Example infographic:

Source: http://www.sparkpage.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/2.jpg

Trigger mailing

Another good action is trigger mailings, that is, triggered by the user’s behavior – whether on the site or as a reaction to the e-mail sent, eg, opening a link in it. Used in marketing automation, trigger mailings can also be correlated with the user’s behavior on the site, e.g. when he clicks on the appropriate category of products in a particular store. Monitoring such behavior allows you to send a discounted mailing at the right time for the purchase of products in this category, which the user of the network had just viewed.

Reminders

A good way is to send reminders m.in customers, including those who have overdue payment for a product, service, or unpaid product installment. Mailings sent in accordance with the aforementioned rule 1-3-7 bring good results. For better results I propose after 7. days to no longer send an email, but only an SMS reminder for payments. As a rule, SMS messages are more personal and therefore have a better impact on customers.

Surveys and NPS

Throughout the customer lifecycle, customer journey map must also not miss submitting relevant surveys and NPS surveys. The latter may be sent to the customer every 3 months (in case he is obliged to have a one-year contract with the company). This allows you to regularly track your brand engagement and changes. When we are informed that a customer is less involved at the end of the contract, we can offer them a better offer for the next month and make them happy to sign another contract.

It often happens that companies starting marketing activities do not have the idea and resources for extensive marketing communication. With the help come social media – Facebook. Proven ideas from an internet marketing specialist and numerous case studies help to significantly increase reach and effectively inform users about their existence. Here are 10 tips to help you successfully promote your brand with a small budget or even at no cost.

1. Get on Facebook!

At the beginning of our activities, we expect a large number of likes and comments, which seem to determine the popularity and effectiveness of actions on social. We add new posts, photos, quotes, but at some point the number of followers stops increasing. Why and how to remedy this? Like and comment on related pages, respond to user comments, solve their class issues, and always substantively. Speak as an expert and share your knowledge with your users. You will not create competition with this, but you will strengthen your position.

2. Collaborate with bloggers from a similar industry

We all know that bloggers have their own opinion, often avoiding controversy, but they can also become the best promoters of the brand. You do not have to immediately establish cooperation with the “stars” of the blogosphere, it is better to look for less popular bloggers who are happy to engage in the action, if you have a common goal, for example, in the form of promoting a particular idea, lifestyle or passion.

3. Don’t limit your own offer – write Instant Articles

It’s nice to write about your own offer, achievements, ongoing projects, but not only such content is expected by the community on Facebook. It is worth writing about articles and news from the industry, events, new tools or publications. Users will appreciate it and come back for another dose of knowledge. You can also use Instant Articles, a new way to present articles that load on Facebook instantly.
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4. Frequency of entries

The frequency of posted information will certainly affect the popularity of the fanpage. Of course, they must be properly selected and interesting for the audience. Anyone who likes a Facebook Page will be looking forward to more and more useful information. Surely 3 to 6 posts a day to begin with is enough.  

5. Encourage discussion

People often like to make their say – especially on the internet. So it’s a good idea to ask users on Facebook for advice and to express their opinion on the topic. However, this is not the end. If you don’t get involved in the discussion properly, readers will certainly notice it and won’t be willing to re-express their opinions. Whether the comment is positive or negative, you need to respond!

Source: http://seopressor.com/blog/science-behind-best-worst-time-to-post-social-media/

6. Analyze audience activities

We can easily increase the number of users if we see how they behave. This is especially true for paying attention to popular posts with more likes, share’ów or comments. Adjust the time of publication and keep the right form – Facebook users want to quickly view posts rather than read essays, so form and content must be accessible.

7. Record and stream videos

Do not be afraid to show and express your own opinion. Short interesting videos from the life of the company are happy to be viewed by users. If they have an entertainment form, then they can have viral potential. Follow the industry and boost your creativity! Not so long ago, Facebook gave the opportunity to stream live video for Fanpages called Live.

8. Follow your industry

You need to keep up to date and react quickly to news and interesting content from the industry. They must first and foremost be dynamic. The Internet is developing very quickly and just as quickly “promotes” new content. 

Source: http://www.slideshare.net/propointgraphics/ppg26624-ppt-d-33848102

9. Tag everything you can!

This is not an exaggeration – people interested in a particular topic will be happy to look for additional information. Create your own hashtag for each topic on Facebook (e.g. tips, trivia), and you’re sure to get people used to the topics of your posts and create your own search engine.

10. Meritocrasy is the basis

Everything you post on your fanpage must contain substantive information and be useful to users. Form never outweighs content, so try to find out what your users like and provide interesting information about it.

Growth hacking, like most revolutionary ideas, was born out of the need for young entrepreneurs to maximize sales of products or services with a limited budget and huge appetite for success. Thanks to new techniques and creative solutions, he found his wide application in the startup environment.

What is growth hacking?

In Poland, there are still few internet marketing professionals using the term growth hacking. Growth hacking begins where marketing tactics are met with an established product development strategy. Sean Ellis first used the term in 2010, and it was promoted by Andrew Chen. The term mainly refers to optimizing actions for almost every goal on the internet, i.e. maximizing shopping conversions, building reach, increasing the number of clicks or registering accounts. Growth hacking is distinguished by the exceptional effectiveness of techniques that result in an increase in e-commerce rates and the acquisition of more customers. Of course, it does not presuppose the exclusion of paid advertising, but strongly prefers methods that require minimal cost of acquiring a customer. And what competences should a growth hacker have? First, it should move fluently in the IT environment. Secondly, have a well-developed marketing sense.

Source: http://yongfook.com/actionable-growth-hacking-tactics.html

Channels and tools for growth hacking

In order to achieve the goal, i.e. the most common increase in sales, all channels and tools within the internet are used, which allow you to reach the recipient easily and quickly. This can result in increased web page access, increased conversions, or improved ecommerce rate. The growth hacking technique is simply to optimize and intensify the activities carried out on the network. It works well for social media activities when we want to increase the number of registered accounts. Innovative and relatively cheap solutions are very often used, such as viral marketing or more traditional ones like email marketing.

Source: http://www.slideshare.net/BryanFerguson/growth-hacking-10-keys-checklist

How to use growth hacking in your own company?

Growth hacking aims to develop your own e-business in the simplest and most effective ways. Within the internet, the best example is to speed up the operation of a website. If we want to keep a potential customer on the site and convince them to buy and – importantly – keep them with the brand for longer, we need to take the right steps. Following the blow, any customer can become a growth hacker if we encourage them to recommend their services to our client’s or potential client’s friends accordingly. This can work on the principle of giving away bonuses in the form of discounts or giveaways for each command.

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Growth hacking is used in e-mail marketing, where we maintain the customer’s interest in regular but inchable emails reminding us of the offer. It is very effective to use the available information about users, thanks to which we have a chance to personalize the advertising message. We will collect e-mail addresses informing the recipient about the possibility of subscription. Ideally, the information will be well exposed and on popular subpages. It is worth – in the form of an incentive – to give users a discount or free of charge in exchange for a subscription.

An important aspect of growth hacking is finding customers exactly where they are. From the data about them you can deduce which social channels they use and which services may be of interest to them. With such knowledge, you can better construct the advertising message and adapt the offer to potential customers.

Nothing attracts new customers like the recommendation of current users. Therefore, it is worth bragging about their opinions, certificates or awards. In addition, the internet marketing specialist will attract new users by offering bonuses, giveaways, discounts on first purchases. If such a customer becomes faithful to the brand and indues it to his friends, we will achieve the expected goals.

Misconceptions and archaic thinking about marketing lead to companies not taking enough opportunities to grow. Why don’t they see this marazm? Can printing several thousand leaflets per month and the belief that a good website with an expert blog is an unnecessary investment affect the unprofitability of the company? Certainly not always. However, there are brands and industries that, thanks to thoughtful online activities and attractive campaigns (not necessarily costing a dozen or tens of thousands) have increased their popularity and developed their business.

Here is a list of 9 myths that need to be debunked in order for companies to grow and invest in internet marketing without fear.

MYTH 1: Nothing replaces flyers

A readable page and blog certainly won’t land crushed in the trash… According to IMedia, as many as 60% of consumers perceive the brand more favorably through content marketing (Source). Garbage cans filled with crushed leaflets, scary at the entrances to the subway, shops, underground passages, shopping center are symbols of business ignorance, fear or ignorance. Business development through good, valuable, useful content is an inexpensive activity that should be implemented in a thoughtful, continuous way. What are the benefits of good content? Here are a few of them:

• Additional traffic to the site – often affects the increase in sales of products;
• Higher position of the website in Google search – unique content is appreciated by the search engine. Their high search position makes it easier for potential customers to reach the company’s website after entering phrases of interest to them;
• The position of advisor, expert, expert – good, qualitative content will make a brand or company perceived as an expert in its field. It is clear that we are more willing to trust experts who will prove to us that they know what they are doing.
• Viral marketing, or “about us without us” – good content, also visually attractive network users are happy to recommend to others: they like, share, share on social media. What does this mean for your business? The news about it is carried naturally, without sponsored posts, printing thousands more leaflets …

MYTH 2: Only young people use the internet

In the age group 45-54 there are 60% of internet users, that is, more than half of people of this age. What does this mean for brands and businesses that live in the belief that their target audience isn’t using the network? They lose a huge chance to reach potential stakeholders. Moreover, without investing in the activities of younger users, they exclude the possibility of “educating” themselves customers.

Source: http://www.cbos.pl/SPISKOM.POL/2015/K_090_15.PDF

MIT 3: AdWords doesn’t guarantee visits

As long as you use spoofers, honest professionals pay for clicks. How the customer behaves depends entirely on the content and messages present on our website.

MIT 4: Users treat newsletters like spam

Only on condition that they receive them too often. However, in reality email marketing is one of the highest rate of return communication channels – for example, in the UK, the profit is an average of £38 out of one pound spent! (IContact).

MIT 5: Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest and Snapchat are the tune of the future

Is it really worth underestimating the number of users of these services in Poland? Accordingly: 2.7 million, 2.3 million, 1.5 million real users (WhySoSocial) can become potential customers. Thanks to competitions, graphics, photos, snaps, we build user engagement, educate loyal fans of the brand and ultimately increase sales.

MIT 6: Facebook and Google+ don’t sell

Source: http://www.marketingcharts.com/online/b2c-and-b2b-content-marketing-trends-compared-37444/

True, they are not direct sales tools, but the fact that Facebook is the most widely used communication tool in the B2C channel is hard to ignore. Check out how to communicate on Facebook here.

MIT 7: If a site has a high position on Google, SEO is not necessary

Are you sure the competition does not position its side too? Achieving a high position in the search engine does not mean that you should rest on your laurels with certainty that this item is already written to the company forever or at least for a very long time.
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MYTH 8: The Internet will accept everything

The network is not currently an advertising pole, and internet users will not endure everything. On the contrary , the bug can cost a lot, and the image crisis on the net is often a fire that is difficult to put out. It is therefore worth acting prudently and not implementing the crisis plan.

MIT 9: Success equals the end of marketing efforts

Marketing activities, like PR, do not last a week, a month or even a year. These are long-term, controlled steps that need to be checked, improved, changed. Successes in terms of increased search engine position, increased brand awareness, increased sales and product interest will not continue indefinitely if we abandon the actions taken. The success of marketing activities lies, among other things, in their regularity. Therefore, it is worth optimizing your website through Growth Hacking.