What Marketing Tasks Can Be Automated?
Ecommerce automation has a significant impact on the business, regardless of what the critics say.
Automation can improve or replace some aspects of marketing. However, other areas will be difficult to replace.
How can you improve the efficiency of your workflow by automating certain tasks?
In this article, you will learn how to determine which tasks in e-commerce you can automate and save time. You’ll also discover what you must do manually to avoid critical failures.
Data collection and interpretation
Automatic Data Collection and Reporting
It’s pretty simple. Numbers and automation go together like cats and kittens. Google Analytics, or another reporting platform such as Kissmetrics, which you can integrate with your ecommerce website, will provide any data that you manually collect by navigating from dashboard to dashboard. They can be set up to report data, including sales, traffic to the site, and emails.
Even though your system is set to automatically collect data and generate reports, you should check manually every so often to make sure everything’s running smoothly. Your automation can only report issues; it cannot respond immediately to them.
Don’t automate data interpretation
Many people are concerned about automation causing the loss of jobs. The importance of data scientists is greater than ever before to interpret your data to determine the next steps. It’s important to understand the difference between reporting data and interpreting it.
It is not enough to decide what you want to concentrate on. This includes understanding the meaning of the text.
The software will only perform as instructed by you. You’ll be able to communicate better with your marketing team about what you want, such as brand awareness, website conversion rates, and site interaction (all of which have their set KPIs).
You cannot automate marketing for eCommerce. The software cannot advise you on which statistics to look at or which strategies to use. You will need to rely on the brains of people to make these decisions. Your marketing team can investigate the reasons why.
It’s all in how you interpret it. Data should be automatically collected, analyzed, and reported. The “why” should come from the user (or whoever is responsible for the fun stuff).
Emails
Automate Your Everyday Emails
Your marketing emails may be used to promote a new brand, attract more leads or extol your savings. They should not appear as spam, but they must be monitored carefully, targeted to certain segments, and updated frequently.
Transactional emails can be sent automatically when certain events happen, like an order or package shipping. You don’t need to touch these messages. Once you create a template, no human interaction is needed.
Ecommerce Email Marketing Automation should cover these transactional emails:
- The email should automatically be sent once the order is received. Provide a link for them to access the order status at any time.
- Notifications for shipping: Customers will be interested in knowing when products are going to ship and when they arrive. Ask them for their feedback once it has arrived.
- If you’re not sure, your automated inventory system will let you know that there aren’t enough items. You can’t send this type of email without a system. You can use it to fill in emails based on what is currently being purchased.
- Ask your customers what they think. Send them a message after every customer service experience or purchase.
Amazon, its sellers, and its vendors know that reviews are the lifeblood of any business. They send out quick emails asking customers for feedback.
They do not require heavy segmentation, testing, or segmentation, because they expect a straightforward, simple email.
(Spoiler: do not automate these)./span> span data-id=”61″>Outreach emails to potential customers are too complex and personal to be automated. The ). outreach emails are far too personal and complex to automate.
You can save time by automating an email drip campaign that drives traffic into a funnel. You can send a series of emails once you’ve captured the lead to help them become a customer. Then you can use the time that is left to find more leads.
Don’t automate sensitive emails
Don’t make customers feel like that. Customer service emails are sensitive and should not be automatically generated.
There are two exceptions. First, you need to send them an automated email confirmation to let them know that you have received their request. This email should include an estimated timeframe for your response (for example within 24 hours).
This is a small sample of the things OptinMonster does:
Automate an email to confirm that the issue has been solved. You should thank them for their patience and ask for any feedback.
Email outreach and media pitches
You should never automate email outreach. Email outreach is another sensitive email you should not automate.
Templated automated emails are not acceptable. Each outreach email should be personalized and demonstrate that you’ve taken the time to research.
Customer Returns
Automate Returns Processing
You will need to spend time with the customer to help them with their return. It could mean repairing the relationship if the client is unhappy, or building future loyalty by making the process as easy as possible.
Ecommerce software automates multiple aspects of return processes, making the process easier for you and your staff. It also helps customers to feel immediately taken care of.
Shopify’s return magic can automate the entire refund process, helping the customer experience and giving more information to customer service.
Customers can view their information about the return process on the same portal. This will help reduce traffic to your phone lines as customers can click the link to see the current status.
Automate your returns analytics. As mentioned above, data collection must be automated. You will be interested in what items are most frequently returned and why.
You can use this information to either improve your processes or focus on errors occurring faster than if you were to track all the data manually (or, worse, not at all).
Do not just focus on the quantitative but also consider qualitative data. Your customer’s emotions can be expressed in the text area of your automated email. You can use Return Magic to give your customers the same options if they are returning an item. You can integrate your existing systems such as Google Analytics and Kissmetrics.
It’s easier to read your tax return if you have them all in the same place.
The final step is to integrate the returns into your inventory management system. This will allow you to update all your sales channels automatically once the return has arrived and been approved.
Do not automate returns processing
Automation can speed up the process and let the client know the status of their return. They should not, however, be used for handling customer complaints or accepting or rejecting returns.
Customer service agents can make decisions based on the information they receive, the history of a customer, and the rules you’ve set up in your software.
Second, you can automate the process of collecting return requests. The second feature is to set up an automated system for collecting return requests.
The Golden Rule of Automation
You can use a simple rule to decide whether you should automate ecommerce marketing. Just because you can automate a certain task doesn’t necessarily mean that you should.
To automate tasks, they need to be repetitive, time-consuming, or difficult for humans to complete at scale.
This should, however, not require context or oversight. While entering numbers from one spreadsheet into another may be repetitive, time-consuming, and prone to errors (not to mention human error), it does not require creativity or judgment.
The Conclusion of the Automation Overload
Ecommerce marketing technologies are best used in the future to complement existing jobs, not replace them.
When you optimize your workflow you’ll wonder how you ever got along without it. You can now focus more on what matters most to your business: creative campaigns, outreach, and better connections with your audience.
Tell us about your success stories in automation. How do you see it benefiting your business? Let’s hear your opinion.
