Turning Transactions into Revenue – Relationship One

December 27, 2020 Stan

Leveraging Synergy between your Commerce and Marketing Automation Platforms

Marketers have a lot to consider when planning commerce marketing initiatives. In today’s shopping environment, customers expect fully connected experiences, personalized recommendations, and offers that matter to them. For marketer’s to make this a reality, we must build strategies that hit both short-term objectives and long-term customer loyalty goals. We must create plans and workflows that utilize data, profile information, and activity history to offer targeted campaigns and experiences. For this to happen, a strong relationship among our various technologies is a must. Equally important, we must build a solid foundation to orchestrate marketing communications and experiences that resonate with our audience.

As you develop your customer’s online shopping experience, consider ways to optimize each and every touchpoint. Keep some of these principals in mind as you develop your strategic roadmap.

Integrated marketing campaigns

When customer data is combined with commerce data, your ability to provide a holistic customer experience increases tenfold. Integrating your marketing automation platform with your commerce platform opens a world of opportunity to communicate with your customers in real-time based on their activity history, interests, and purchases. When planning this integration, ensure your data is shared bi-directionally so your marketing automation platform can utilize behavioral and purchase data while your commerce platform can utilize profile and other activity data.

Armed with commerce data, you can begin planning for marketing automation campaigns based on past purchase history, online profile data, specific behavior on your commerce site, wish list data, and so much more. Having this rich data at your disposal, you can create campaigns based on actual events in real-time. Up-sell and cross-sell campaigns will be based on actual customer data and behaviors and can be executed at the exact time when they will have the greatest impact. Re-targeting campaigns can also be planned, so customers receive the information and reminders they need when it matters most.

Triggered communication

In addition to crafting holistic campaigns and re-targeting advertisements, a strong integration between your commerce and marketing automation platforms will provide greater opportunities to trigger real-time notifications to customers. Abandoned cart? Send your customer an email to remind them of the products they left behind. Abandoned browse? Customize your next communication to showcase the products they viewed. Wish list updates? Send offers and promotions to your customers on products they’ve added to their wishlist, or provide them opportunities to share their wish lists around the holidays or their birthday. Abandoned login? Consider sending them a “we miss you” email with an offer to bring them back. When your marketing automation platform is able to utilize data from your commerce system, the opportunities to nurture, engage, and revitalize your customers are boundless.

Personalization

Personalization is nothing new for marketers. We know that personalized content truly drives customer engagement. With the addition of commerce data, we have even more flexibility to personalize our email content for our customers, as mentioned above. However, personalization with commerce can go far beyond just email communication. We now have the ability to personalize the customer’s online experience based on profile, behavioral, and activity data.

When designing your customer’s online experience, consider ways you can customize the look and feel of your site based on their preferences. Perhaps the user interface is slightly different depending on the products and/or services of interest. Offer suggestions and recommended products based on their browsing behavior and past purchases (both online and offline). Change promotions based on what has worked in the past. Utilize their wish list information to personalize content, welcome screens, etc. When they leave your site, retargeting can keep your brand and their products of interest top of mind.

Brand unity

One of the biggest benefits of unified data is a unified customer experience. When your customer’s email, online, app, and advertising experiences are connected, it provides the with a holistic view of your brand. You also become an integral part of your customer’s buying journey, and you stay top-of-mind. If personalization and orchestrated communications are done right, your customers will remain loyal to your brand and even become your biggest advocates.

Don’t forget that constant testing and analysis is pivotal to success. Monitor what works and what doesn’t. Test different online experiences, re-targeting ads, and client communications. Analyze the differences in response among various campaigns and programs, and keep in mind that what works for one buying group may not work for another.

If you’re looking to unify your marketing and commerce strategies and technologies, Relationship One is here to help. As a premier partner of Oracle, we are in a unique position to ensure you maximize your use of the Oracle CX stack.

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