Boost Your Conversion Rate Optimization Through Marketing Automation

Are you trying to figure out how to take your business to the next level? How to optimize your conversion rate optimization and put marketing automation to its full use? Whether you want to be more efficient or have a clear picture of what you need to control in your campaigns, you are in the right place!  

This article aims to give you a complete and thorough overview of conversion rates, as well as how and why to optimize them. It's key to ensuring we all start on the same page. You'll see that best practices arise from knowledge and experience. 

Conversion rates: the midpoint of your customer's journey story

How many times have you heard that conversions keep your business running? It's the ultimate goal of every strategy and business action. While this is true to a certain degree, it's such a simplistic perspective that it takes away all the nuances of marketing and sales cycles. It is only by combining all your marketing efforts into a big strategy that you'll be able to convert. And there may be more follow-ups before you actually close the deal. 

Conversion rates can also take multiple forms, depending on your strategy and communication channels. As a marketer, you must know what to look for, and what conversions you'll encounter in your day-to-day activities. Hence, typical ones are account registration, newsletter sign-up, online purchase, event registration, social media shares, form or survey completion, feedback or review provided, and download of provided online content. 

However, to make this article as clear as possible and give you a familiar example, let's focus on one area we are experts in: email! In this case, you start by measuring how many subscribers act after receiving your email.

An automated approach to Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO)

Conversion Rate Optimization, or CRO, describes the accelerated process of transforming prospects or leads into actual clients.  

We translate this into email marketing automation to boost campaign performance. Meaning, it’s more likely that your targeted audience will take the intended action. 

What should you consider in the CRO process? There are two main things you need to consider: consumer behavior, as well as all factors that might lead to your lead completing an activity (subscription, account creation, catalog download, offer request, etc.). This is how you identify success patterns for your strategy. 

Boosting Conversion Rate Optimization through email marketing automation

Looking for a powerful tool to develop long-term customer relationships while not costing you an arm and a leg? Email marketing is an amazing option. If you implement it properly, you can use this direct approach to attract consumers and build customer loyalty. 

And don't worry about losing uniqueness and personalization! With the correct message and targeting, you can increase your chances of converting a potential customer. Your best friends in this process are personalized and targeted communication, lead nurturing and engagement, behavioral tracking and segmentation, automated follow-ups, and reminders. 

Also, are you wondering how to save time and money through marketing automation? Or what can this solution do to improve Marketing & Sales performance? Everything starts with your customers' needs. They are constantly evolving, and the purchase decision can be a long and complex process to decipher. However, if you automate all the processes correctly you can predict your buyer persona's future steps. 

Let's say your goal is to increase subscribers or followers on your blog or social media channels. Due to its personal nature and accurate targeting tools, email marketing automation can increase quality opportunities. Hence, it can lead to more traffic to your website, blog, or landing pages. Assisting you in your goal-achieving endeavor. 

Taking things a step further, do you want to set up better and more successful campaigns that result in higher conversion rates? Then, look below at six marketing automation strategies that we have implemented successfully for our Fortune 500 clients. 

Marketing Automation Strategies You Need to Know

Do you want to learn how to build smart and complex campaigns? The temptation to start doing exactly that is strong because you want to achieve as much as possible as fast as possible. However, you might be surprised at how big an impact the basics have! Once you master the following strategies you can play around with so much more.

1. Automated Customer Journeys

Keep track of your contacts’ journey through the different marketing funnel stages practically. It's a double-win strategy: a time-saving tool and a strategy to build brand loyalty and increase engagement and revenue. 

How to increase CRO by implementing easy and practical solutions? Here are some examples you can run through your system right away: 

• Welcome series email campaign: Did a user just subscribe to your newsletter? Send a short introduction followed by a call-to-action message inviting the prospect to take the next action on your website. This is one of the easiest nurturing campaigns! In addition, we have an article for you that breaks down five effective nurturing strategies! 
• Loyalty email marketing campaign: depending on your industry, an increase in customer retention by 5% can lead to a company’s profits growing by 25% over a period of time. Of course, building a strong relationship between your brand and your customers might not be a one-size-fits-all solution. However, it certainly is one you shouldn't overlook. In other words, invest in customer acquisition while keeping an eye on your current customers. How can you do this through email marketing? Offer loyalty cards, free shipping, gift wrapping, samples, etc. Choose depending on your audience, buyer persona, and customer journey stage. Brands offer discounts for referrals, birthdays, or future orders, for example. 
• Anniversary emails: This one speaks for itself. Who doesn’t like thoughtful gifts on their birthday? Send them a voucher with a discount for upcoming orders or a product they repurchased from you.
• Email Alert: When was the last time you forgot to do something you knew you had to do? It happens to all of us. Including your customers. So, make their life easier and remind them when to renew their service, for example, their insurance.

• Abandoned cart email campaign: the average click-through rate for cart abandonment emails in 2022 was 8.38%. Hence, send a reminder to those who added a product to their cart but did not complete the ordering process. 
• Post-purchase emails are automated sales-oriented emails you send to customers who have purchased a product or service from your business. They include things like order confirmation emails, shipping confirmations, surveys, and upsell/cross-sell.

2. Marketing automation workflow triad: Triggers, Time Delays, And Actions 

• Email Trigger – aka the beginning of it all. It’s an event or activity that initiates workflow automation. It “tells” the automated workflow what to do, case by case. 

Behavioral triggers are like the magic wand of personalization. Has a contact subscribed to your newsletter, completed a form, or downloaded an essential piece of content during the product purchase or after-sales process? Respond to them accordingly. The list of possibilities is long: triggers can be set for when a contact adds a product to their cart and doesn't complete it, on birthdays, anniversaries, appointments, back-in-stock notifications, or even in case of inactivity. Consider your customer's journey carefully and you'll be able to sprinkle the appropriate triggers at the right spots.

• Time Delays - Control how fast a contact progresses through an automated workflow. How many types exist? Two: 

Wait for a set amount of time: How long should you wait to follow up with them? Do you need a minute, an hour, a day, a week, or even months? You have full control over this decision.

Wait until a specific date and time: send a follow-up to a particular day or hour and consider a specific time zone.

• Actions - So, you've already added your audience, email assets, triggers, and time delays? Now, what? Do you want to take your marketing automation efforts a step further and manipulate data as you see fit for your goals? Through action tools, you can redirect contacts to another list, campaign, or program to better nurture them, retarget or change their sales process. 

3. A/B Testing

Whether you want to boost conversion rates or find the most effective asset, practice, or action for your audience, testing will give you the clarity you need to make data-based decisions about your campaigns. A/B testing or split testing gives you the opportunity to test two versions of an email, a landing page, a form, or any other marketing asset. Several variables need to be taken into account, so we've compiled a handy list for you:  

• From Name: even if you're a company, don't be afraid to send an email from one of your employees' perspectives. Test it, choose the most effective alternative, and keep it consistent. 
• Subject line: still one of the most effective elements you can test and see results in your open rates right away. 

• Pre-header text/ preview text: you can test the performance of a short and catchy summary or even a CTA directly in the preview! 
• CTA: we recommend you be as clear as possible about what you want your customers to do. Keep your calls to action to a minimum, meaning: one. Keep it simple. 
• Body content: There is so much to explore here, including things like length, layout, design, tone of voice, images, and even plain text. 
• Delivery date & time: what time better suits your customers' behavior? If you're not sure about the answer, you can use Eloqua's Send Time Optimization functionality. Using previous interactions, it sends emails at the optimal time for each contact. 

4. Audience Segmentation

Unlock the power of audience segmentation and boost conversion rate optimization! Let's see, how many segments are you currently tapping into? By categorizing contacts based on profile data and engagement activities, you can tailor your messaging to resonate with each niche and maximize your impact. 

But let's take it a step further. Here are some tactics you can mix to elevate your segmentation game and achieve better results: 

• Demographics - Dive into valuable information such as business industry, job role, level, and company income to gain insights into your contacts' interests and preferences. 
• Psychographics - Discover new depths of understanding. Group individuals based on attitudes, interests, lifestyles, and values to create content and experiences that resonate with specific psychographic segments. Don't be fooled by stereotypes, and research your audience in detail. 

• Engagement - Measure the pulse of interaction. Keep a close eye on open and click rates to gauge contact activity. Segment contacts into active and inactive groups to optimize your campaigns and re-engage those who may have slipped through the cracks. And if you're afraid this process might take too long, automation does the heavy lifting for you! Just be sure to implement it correctly. 
• Marketing Funnel Stage - Personalize with precision! Tailor your emails based on where your contacts are in the marketing funnel. Whether they're brand-new subscribers or engaged prospects, deliver targeted messages that align with their interests and guide them toward conversion. 

As a rule of thumb, don't settle for generic mass emails. Embrace audience segmentation as your secret weapon to capture, convert, and nurture valuable connections.

5. Lead Scoring Model

It's time to delve into data-driven insights and elevate your lead qualification game. 

Gone are the days of relying on guesswork. We are in the era of precision scoring, where every customer interaction and engagement indicator plays a crucial role. Picture this: job titles, company details, and city data blended seamlessly with email opens, website visits, e-book downloads, offer interests, and meeting requests. It's a symphony of valuable information that leads us to the pinnacle of lead qualification. And it's automated! 

As your qualified leads transition from marketing to sales, this information becomes even more powerful. By harnessing these insights, you can enhance lead quality and boost campaign performance. It's a two-way street where alignment between marketing and sales truly comes to life. 

Now, let's talk about lead-scoring models that can make your day-to-day life easier. Based on the data you have in hand, you can create tailored models that resonate with your objectives. Consider these possibilities: 

• Demographic Data – Tap into explicit criteria derived from user interactions with contact forms, campaigns, and websites. Company details, employee count, geolocation, and job titles become your secret ingredients for precise lead scoring. 
• Email and Social Engagement - Explore the connection between user behavior and email campaigns. Newsletter subscriptions, social media likes, comments, and content sharing help you shape your lead-scoring model. 

• Website User Behavior – Users' activity on your website is powerful. Take a close look at their journey, identifying the most visited pages, their time spent on high-interest sections (such as demos or pricing), and their engagement with downloadable materials or form submissions. Let their actions guide you toward optimal lead categorization within the sales funnel. 

6. Email Personalization: mastering the art of customized emails 

You already understand the importance of tailoring content to meet your contacts' unique needs and interests. Segmentation and marketing automation have paved the way for targeted email campaigns based on various key parameters. But now, let's dive deeper into email personalization and witness its true power from an automation perspective. 

• Dynamic Content – Imagine crafting emails that shape-shift based on user behavior, personas, purchase history, demographics, geolocation, and more. With the wizardry of marketing automation tools, dynamic content becomes your masterpiece. Say goodbye to the time-consuming task of creating multiple email versions for different target audiences. Instead, unleash the potential of a single email that dynamically adjusts its subject line, body content, and footer. Personalized content blocks tailored to specific user groups and fields from user profiles become your secret sauce. With one-time configuration efforts, your emails will become more relevant, captivating your contacts like never before. 
• Custom Objects – These are the keys that hold a treasure trove of additional data about your contacts, accounts, leads, and opportunities. These custom records capture dynamic information linked to recent activities, such as product or service purchases and event attendance. With this valuable data in hand, you can create one email with multiple variations, seamlessly alternating text and images. But remember, the key to unleashing Custom Objects' true potential lies in top-quality data. Regularly review your records to ensure consistency and eliminate duplicates, ensuring your personalized emails hit the mark every time. 

Final thoughts

By mastering the strategies in this article, you can elevate your marketing efforts, improve conversion rates, and drive meaningful business results. Remember, the journey to success starts with understanding your customers' needs and leveraging automation to deliver the right message at the right time. 

So, are you ready to optimize your conversion rates and unleash marketing automation's full potential? Let's embark on this journey together and transform your business into a conversion powerhouse. Contact us now to make the most of your marketing automation efforts!