Implementing marketing automation is just the beginning of a successful period for your company’s website/app. With right strategy, you can play your cards right and utilize marketing automation correctly if you want to improve conversions and increase sales.
Here’s 5 simple tips to improve conversion with marketing automation:
1. Conduct A/B testing If you want to improve your website’s conversion, you need to keep conducting A/B tests. Essentially A/B testing lets you increase conversion rate. You prepare two different versions of the same object, and put it to test to find out which one performs better. You must have heard this a million times.
Let’s see how it’s easier to do with marketing automation. Assume that you have an email that you want to send to your subscribers. You have two-three options for the subject, variations of the copy but you have difficulty choosing which one is more effective. You can use your marketing automation system’s split testing feature to see for yourself which headline results in more clicks, and which copy leads subscribers to click that CTA. The email that converts more is the winner.
Your goal should be to have several of these A/B tests running all the time because no campaign is perfect. You have to keep tweaking all the time to improve conversions. The same can be applied to building landing pages. This is a proven method for all marketers to find the best combination in terms of design and content that brings in more customers. However, it would be a waste of time to concentrate on things that are irrelevant or have very little impact on prospects.
So, what to test?
Here’s a list of things that you can test in you are split testing email campaigns. • CTA • Email Subject • Testimonials • Layout • Personalization • Email body copy • Headline • Offers
Every single aspect listed above has an effect on the process of conversion. Some directly affect it, while some affect indirectly. However, your testing process depends entirely on your problems or issues that you want to solve first.
2. Create Your Sales Funnel In order to increase conversions, you have to set up a robust sales funnel. And, by set up we mean defining every aspect of it. Not all of your prospects are sales-ready. The truth is most of them are not. Some of them are just browsing by.
Some want to buy but they are in no hurry. A sales funnel typically has three parts to it. The top of the funnel or ToFu, the middle of the funnel or MoFu and the bottom of the funnel or BoFu. You can effectively take advantage of your marketing automation to set up a sales funnel and improve your process of conversion.
You might be wondering… how?
Well, it’s pretty straightforward. Once prospects start coming in from email campaigns, organic search, paid advertisements, etc. you can segment them according to their tastes and preferences using the lead segmentation tool in your automation platform.
Once that is done, you know which segment likes what. Accordingly, you can provide them content to nurture them using the lead management feature in any marketing automation tool.
Now comes the tricky part. Your content must be crisp and relevant. But it should also keep in mind the position of the lead in the sales funnel. Typically you would find the new prospects in ToFu and the prospects who want to buy in BoFu. It would do you no good if you send product features to a ToFu prospect and an educational article to a BoFu prospect. The opposite would be more suitable.
But thankfully, you can differentiate a ToFu prospect from a BoFu one because of lead scoring. With lead scoring you assign scores to every lead based on their action. These scores will in turn reveal a prospect’s position in the buy cycle or the sales funnel. What this ensures is that you send the right content to the right prospect at the right time.
3. Establish Clarity Never try to woo people with fancy language and complex jargon. People will get confused. You are not communicating with a company. You are communicating with a person.
Write as if you are explaining it to a friend. Not only does that make it easier for people to understand, you will be improving your rate of conversions as well.
Simple, yet relevant content goes a long way.
If you keep serving such content to all your prospects throughout their buy cycle, you are bound to see improved conversions.
Along with establishing clarity through usage of simple content, think about your value proposition. What is it that you are offering to a prospect? Why should they buy from you? Your value proposition should be simple yet compelling. The way you present your brand is crucial to establishing a “good” value proposition.
Do you stand out when compared to a competitor? If you don’t, then maybe you should start there.
Use dynamic content that your marketing automation tool offers you to create customized content for every visitor. Be unique. Stand out in the crowd. Address your customers’ and prospects’ needs at all times. Your marketing automation tool gives you ample opportunity to create unique solutions.
Crafting a value proposition is not the end of it. Use email marketing campaigns and segmentation to convey your message to your subscribers and customers. Let each and every one of them know that you will cater to their every needs.
4. Be Honest. Establish Trust Will you buy something from someone whom you don’t trust? You will probably say no. I would too.
So why should someone buy from you? They need to trust you enough in the first place to buy anything.
So, what about new leads? How can you make them trust you?
Well, as they say, trust has to be earned. You have to earn it too through your actions. First of all, you have to make sure that you have a credible website. Mention awards and recognitions that you have won. Cite testimonials from verified customers. Show the visitors that your customers have confidence in your ability.
Take advantage of lead segmentation and dive into each segment with a deeper intent. Figure out what each segment needs. Tackle individual issues and provide them solutions. When your lead sees the amount of passion and effort you put into solving their problems, you will start gaining their trust.
Use your social media channels effectively to show the real faces behind your organization. People will be more trusting when they can associate a face with a company. Make it easy to contact you. It’s the little things that count and marketing automation makes it easy to keep track of these things.
Do not flood your prospects’ inbox with offers and promotions all the time. You will know through their lead score when they want to buy.
Make sure that your products and services have relevant and detailed descriptions. The last thing that you want is to lose a lead because they did not find enough information on your product page.
Add as much information as you can about your product. There’s no harm in doing this as long as it is relevant to the product. Just think about it like this, your product description should be so effective that your prospect does not need to look up anything else on the internet to verify or cross-check any of it.
5. The Power of Incentives As we arrive at the last point, you can say that this point somehow leads us to the final part of a buyer’s journey, the bottom of the funnel. Here’s where most of the decisions are taken.
However, some prospects take longer to take this decision than others. To nudge them towards making a buy, and thus improve your chances of conversion, you can give them incentives.
With marketing automation, you know the leads that are hesitating to buy, thanks to lead scores and marketing automation’s ability to track user behavior. Crafting an email campaign around this will benefit you quite a bit.
Incentives can either be quantity-based or time-based. Let’s say you have only 10 products left. You can tell them that there’s only 10 left, so they should buy immediately. Or if you do not have a scarcity issue, you can offer them a limited period discount.
But always be honest. Do not tell them that your product is scarce just to sell it.
Do not worry about whether you would succeed in your strategy. Just believe in yourself and give it your best shot. You already have marketing automation by your side. With the right strategy and the correct attitude, you can achieve anything you want.
