If we had been to ask you what you thought a “fully automated customer journey” would appear like in a super state, you’d probably envision one thing near what Brian Sun, Lifecycle Marketing Manager at Opendoor goals of.
Here’s what he photos: an end-to-end journey the place each attainable a part of the lifecycle and dropoff level is supported by a collection of proactive and reactive messages that routinely nudge the shopper ever-closer to the subsequent step of their journey. Cross-channel communication occurs seamlessly; there aren’t any content material gaps, irrelevant messages, or prospects slipping by way of the cracks.
It’s a dream situation which will appear out of attain, however at Activate 19, Brian did a superb job of laying out an approachable, 7-step framework to implementing a extremely efficient advertising automation technique.
We’ve recapped a small portion of his presentation, however suggest you take a look at the insight-rich presentation in its entirety!
1. Define the important thing occasions within the buyer journey
The buyer journey encompasses the holistic expertise that travels past the normal funnel and as an alternative emphasizes the event of long-term buyer relationships.
These journeys will be difficult to map, so Brian recommends breaking the journey into 5 phases of buyer development: stranger, lead, buyer, repeat buyer, and promoter.
Breaking down the shopper journey into 5 phases helps you assess the wants of your buyer at particular instances.
Next, drill down a layer deeper and determine the “key events” that want finishing earlier than the shopper can fairly advance to the subsequent stage.
The examples listed under are some fundamental necessities that will help you get began, but it surely’s price exploring your business-specific nuances to construct an exhaustive checklist—you’ll want this checklist to drive your advertising automation technique.
Completion of key occasions signifies the development of the shopper journey.
Remember, the extra steps that individuals want to finish of their expertise with you, the extra occasions you’ll have alongside your buyer journey—the Opendoor journey from stranger to promoter is dozens of occasions lengthy!
2. Choose the related channels for every occasion
Messages resonate in a different way on completely different channels, so that you’ll need to strategize the way you method relationships between channel and message content material. Get began by figuring out all of the completely different communication channels out there to your group.
Next, undergo your listed key occasions and ask your self, “When a person completes X event, what are the best channels to follow up with the person to encourage them to complete the next event?”
For instance, you’d ask, “After a person makes their first purchase, what are the best channels to follow up on to get them to their second purchase?” Take observe of all relevant channels that align appropriately with the context of every message.
Choose your communication channels correctly by mapping them beforehand.
Think thoughtfully of the way you’d like your prospects to obtain every of those completely different messages from you. Most of your solutions will naturally current themselves as you discover, however carving out the time to map this out in such element is one thing most of us haven’t taken the time to do.
3. Create an automation blueprint displaying the entire expertise
A blueprint is a visible diagram of all your automated workflows at a look—whether or not it’s easy or advanced, simply placing one collectively is your first step towards success. In the “back of the napkin” blueprint sketch proven under, you’ll see a pattern framework for approaching an automatic buyer journey.
Even the best of workflow mapping will enable you to see the larger automation image extra clearly.
Inside this diagram, every circle represents a collection of messages, sometimes called workflows in Iterable’s Workflow Studio. For instance, “nurture to first purchase” might embrace a dozen emails, push notifications, and textual content messages, whereas one other circle like “abandoned cart journey” might solely embrace a single email. The level is to see all of the workflows for the whole buyer expertise in a single visible.
Remember, it doesn’t should be excellent; you merely want to start out constructing an preliminary basis for you and your teammates to start out revising from.
4. Stitch collectively your advertising stack
Stitching your advertising stack collectively is all about ensuring that information flows seamlessly between every instrument. Automation works as a result of sure information alerts point out that particular prospects have met the suitable standards for sure messages.
Unless you’ll be able to unite your completely different buyer information sources inside a centralized database, a totally automated journey received’t be attainable.
Sit down along with your group and checklist out all of the completely different platforms that comprise your MarTech stack. Identify the forms of information the instruments are housing—demographic, engagement, CRM, and extra—and begin mapping out how that information can get into your advertising automation system.
Naturally, this may very well be an enormous undertaking, which can be unrealistic or just not possible for loads of entrepreneurs. However, there’s a chance to take no matter new information you’ve surfaced within the course of to start out constructing workflows that didn’t beforehand exist.
5. Prioritize the blueprint primarily based on firm targets
When you have a look at your blueprint, you’ll have a pure inclination to assemble your total advertising automation program proper now. However, most of us received’t have the bandwidth nor the sources wanted for a complete build-out.
The questions you must ask to prioritize the phases of your construct are: “What can add the most value now?” and “What will lead to the biggest impact longer-term?” Walkthrough your deliberate workflows and categorize them into three completely different buckets that will help you stack-rank the construct queue:
- New: Workflows and messages that don’t exist but.
- Refresh: Workflows and messages that exist, however you need to make higher.
- Experiments: Tests you need to run to extend conversion.
Put this all in a doc, spreadsheet, or undertaking administration instrument and refer again to it as your grasp to-do checklist when you construct!
6. Build every workflow one-by-one, then rinse & repeat
Start constructing your workflows by first creating the construction of every marketing campaign. Determine what number of messages, the character of every of them, after which construct within the acceptable content material and design. Once you could have your new messages in hand, it’s time to start out tying them collectively in an automatic collection.
Word of recommendation: make the absolute best workflow you’ll be able to at this second in time. If you’re transferring too shortly, you run the danger of delivering subpar campaigns below the guise of, “I’ll fix it later.”
With this in thoughts, investing the additional vitality upfront to key in on high quality will guarantee a future-state the place you’re optimizing for message efficiency.
7. Launch, be taught, and take a look at
Performance metrics matter to any program, and advertising automation isn’t any completely different. Here are the three layers of metrics to concentrate to:
- Overall program metrics: General marketing campaign metrics, like opens, clicks, unsubscribes, and many others., present total lifecycle well being and provide a benchmark for comparability in opposition to particular person marketing campaign efficiency.
- Workflow degree: These present whether or not your workflows are transferring prospects into the subsequent stage of their journey or not.
- Individual message degree: These analytics report particular person message efficiency for measuring their effectiveness at driving particular actions.
Opendoor’s Road Toward Marketing Automation With Iterable
An automated buyer journey that’s designed holistically and rooted in buyer respect will enrich the experiences of all prospects who undergo it, because the advertising group at Opendoor can attest.
With its 7-step framework and sturdy cross-channel marketing campaign administration, Opendoor achieved Iterable’s 2019 Growth Marketing Award for its Most Sophisticated Use of Workflow Studio. With Iterable, automating the whole buyer journey is a dream-turned-reality.
Watch the video under to find out how Iterable powers Opendoor’s advertising automation engine, so its group can take their palms off the wheel and dedicate their worthwhile time to bettering the shopper expertise.
“Depending on the market, almost 50% of our business comes from their repeat offers, and the engine for that is Iterable.” ~ Joey Soriano, Head of Lifecycle Marketing at Opendoor
Interested in studying how Iterable makes all this automation attainable? Sign up for a customized demo at present!