Your Complete Checklist for Marketing Campaign Success
When it comes to a successful marketing strategy, creating engaging experiences across channels should be at the top of your list. Customers no longer shop on a single channel; instead they bounce between several channels during research before ultimately purchasing through their preferred channel, making omnichannel marketing campaigns more valuable than ever.
In an effort to win loyalty, marketers should be creating every possible chance for engagement with their contacts. And what better way to do that than by meeting customers in the channels where they prefer to browse or purchase?
Not all customers will engage with you on every channel you have, but it’s important to offer different channels to ensure you capture all of your contacts’ behavior wherever they prefer to engage with you.
11 Steps to Run a Successful Marketing Campaign
Don’t panic if you don’t have all your channels up and running, there’s still time to lay the groundwork for achieving marketing campaign success. Follow these 11 steps:
- Clean Up Your Data
- Launch Personalization on Your Website
- Set Up a Welcome Series
- Automate Abandoned Cart Emails
- Create Browse Abandon Emails
- Drive Email Subscribers to Mobile
- Lead Mobile Subscribers to Your App
- Start Using CRM Ads to Drive Conversions
- Boost Sales with User-Generated Content
- Generate In-Store Purchases
- Promote In-Store Cross-Channel Opt-Ins
1. Clean Up Your Data
Before you can apply data-driven insights to your marketing, you first need clean data. Before you start planning elaborate campaigns to drive traffic, create a campaign that will clean up your data and ensure your contacts actually want to receive communications from you. After all, engaged contacts will be more valuable to your brand in the long run.
Data Clean-Up Checklist
Segment: Create a segment of all inactive and defecting contacts.
Creative: Focus your message on why customers would want to stay opted-in to your communications. Consider messaging like “Don’t miss out on all the great deals coming up for the holidays,” or “Stay in the know to receive holiday deals.”
CTA: Ask contacts to remain on your list or opt-out from receiving communications from your brand.
Results: This campaign will help you identify email addresses that are no longer valid (or no longer used) and re-engage contacts who may have strayed away. You should only continue to send emails to contacts who are opted-in and want to receive communications from your brand. But again, these contacts will be more engaged and result in better revenue-building opportunities.
➤ Pro Tip: Instead of just sending out communication around “We Miss You,” consider an aggressive discount to re-engage contacts quickly. Sending out a larger incentive or offer to defecting customers will drive quick purchases and keep your brand top of mind.
2. Launch Personalization on Your Website
Your website is your most valuable marketing channel and offers you the chance to delight customers to the point of purchase on your own terms and in your own words. So why not take that a step further and offer a truly personalized web experience for your new and existing customers? Consumers expect personalized experiences and brands that can deliver them have a better chance of securing customers beyond one purchase.
Web Personalization Checklist
Segment: Create a segment of contacts who have purchased from or browsed your website.
Creative: Add personalized widgets to different pages on your brand’s site. These widgets can pull in personalized recommendations based on browser behavior. Focus messaging around the individual, consider phrasing like “Recommended for you,” or “Based on Your Shopping History,” so a contact knows that the messaging is directed at their personal shopping habits
CTA: Ask a contact to convert by signing up for an in-store event or by making a product purchase recommended specifically for them.
Results: Adding personalization to your website will give your customers a truly individualized experience. Doing this before the holidays will set your brand apart from the competition and keep contacts engaged with you throughout their holiday shopping.
➤ Pro Tip: Once you have website personalization built in, you can begin to diversify your calls to action outside of just purchasing recommendations. Have a customer who purchases on a mobile device often? Serve up a CTA asking them to download your brand app for exclusive deals. Your website is a great place to introduce contacts to an omnichannel campaign. The more channels your customer engages with you on, the more chances you have to get in front of them on a regular basis.
3. Set Up a Welcome Series
If contacts give you information willingly, it’s important to use it in a smart and respectable way. What better way to instantly convert contacts to customers than with a welcome email centered around a first-purchase incentive?
Using the data you have compiled for an email marketing campaign is an effective way to capitalize on the organic interest. A welcome email offers you the chance to engage with your customer right away and start the relationship off on a positive foot.
Welcome Series Checklist
Segment: Create a segment of all new contacts with an email address.
Automation: Set up a triggered email that fires once contact information is acquired.
Creative: Focus your message around welcoming the new contact (and hopefully future customer) to your exclusive emails. Consider messaging that introduces your brand and sets expectations for communication moving forward.
CTA: Many welcome emails include a first-purchase incentive. Increase conversion chances by offering a 20% off incentive right away.
Results: This campaign will allow you to engage with your customer quickly and convert contacts into customers.
➤ Pro Tip: Welcome series emails are great tools for getting in front of a contact right away, but email isn’t the only channel where this is important. Once you’ve set up the triggered email, consider setting up your other channels with automated welcome messages. Creating a welcome message for SMS and push notifications is a great way to introduce yourself to new contacts.
4. Automate Abandoned Carts Emails
Abandoned cart emails boast a 44% open rate and a 5% conversion rate, making them a huge conversion opportunity for marketers especially around the holidays. For consumers, research is a huge part of the shopping process. Many consumers find an item they like, add it to their cart and then consider looking for it elsewhere. Keep your brand top of mind during their research by implementing triggered emails.
Abandoned Cart Email Checklist
Segment: Create a segment of all contacts who add something to their cart and leave without purchase.
Automation: Set up a triggered email that fires an hour after cart abandonment.
Creative: Focus your message around the item that was left behind and create a sense of urgency. You could include an image of the product that was abandoned and consider messaging like “[First Name], you left this item behind” or “Other people are looking at this item, don’t miss out.”
CTA: Ask contacts to click through to convert by purchasing.
Results: This campaign will help keep your brand top of mind with customers and boost conversions by capturing purchases that might not have happened without a reminder.
➤ Pro Tip: If you already have a triggered email set up for abandoned carts, consider building out a more substantial automation sequence to drive conversion. Consider building out multiple emails that increase the incentive to purchase with each email. For example, start with free shipping and build up to a discount offer. Also consider diversifying into cross-channel automation to get contacts’ attention on different channels.
5. Create Automated Browse Abandon Emails
Much like abandoned cart emails, browse abandon emails target contacts who leave a site without making a conversion. These emails can help your brand turn window shoppers into buyers by reminding them of what they were searching for. This is incredibly important as most shoppers research before purchase, so make sure you stay top of mind as they browse several sites.
Browse Abandon Email Checklist
Segment: Create a segment of contacts who browse several pages on your website and leave without any conversion.
Automation: Set up at least 2 triggered emails. The first for 30 minutes after a browse abandonment and the second for an hour after.
Creative: Focus your message that encourages your customers to return to the website and complete their purchase. Consider messaging like “You’ve got great taste,” or “Complete your look with 15% off.”
CTA: Ask contacts to continue shopping or activate a discount code.
Results: This campaign will help keep your brand top of mind with customers and boost conversions by capturing purchases that might not have happened without a reminder.
➤ Pro Tip: If you already have a triggered email set up for browse abandonment, consider refining your segment and triggers to drive better conversion. You want to make sure contacts are actually interested in products, so creating triggers should follow guidelines like visiting 1 product 3+ times or visiting 3 different products in the same category multiple times. You can also refine your timing. Try different trigger times to see which cadence best converts.
6. Drive Email Subscribers to Mobile
Omnichannel marketing strategies are extremely effective and important for marketers today. And as time spent shopping on mobile phones continues to grow, brands need to be engaging customers on their mobile devices.
SMS Opt-In Checklist
Segment: Create a segment of contacts with email addresses.
Creative: Create a message that asks users to opt-in to mobile SMS messages. Focus your message on why customers would want these communications. Consider messaging like “Sign up for SMS messages for exclusive deals,” or “Text DEALS to 12345 to be the first to receive holiday deals.”
CTA: Ask contacts to opt-in to receive communications on mobile from your brand.
Results: This email campaign will help you gain cross-channel opt-ins. The more channels you can interact with your customers on, the better chances you have of engaging with them on their preferred site and driving conversions.
➤ Pro Tip: Outside of just email, you have other channels that can drive contacts to subscribe to mobile. Run a more thorough campaign that includes CRM ads, in-store pushes, and other channels like social to increase your mobile user base.
7. Lead Mobile Subscribers to Your App
Mobile marketing isn’t just for SMS messages. If you have a mobile app that you want to drive users to, the best place to start is with your mobile subscribers. Contacts that prefer SMS communication are also likely to engage heavily with apps, so it’s important to drive users to download mobile apps. You can then offer exclusive discounts for app users and add value to their download.
App Download Checklist
Segment: Create a segment of contacts who opted-in to mobile.
Creative: Keep your SMS message brief and enticing. Consider offering a discount and using messaging like “Download our app today for 20% off your first app purchase” or “Download our app for exclusive app-only sales.”
CTA: Ask contacts to download your app to their phone. Once they’ve downloaded the app, make sure to ask for push notification opt-ins.
Results: Mobile phone users spend over 80% of their phone time in apps. Driving downloads ensures you’ll get more interaction from your mobile contacts and have another opportunity to engage with your customers.
➤ Pro Tip: Just like pushing email subscribers to SMS, you should diversify your channel segments to drive downloads of your app. Run a more thorough campaign that includes CRM ads, in-store pushes, email, and other channels like social to increase your mobile user base.
8. Start Using CRM Ads to Drive Conversions
CRM ads offer an easy way to stay in front of customers when they are still researching products. Often appearing in social feeds like Facebook, these ads offer a personalized product or content recommendation within a contact’s social feed. CRM ads can also help re-engage contacts who may be bordering on becoming defecting customers.
CRM Ads Checklist
Segment: Create a segment of contacts who abandoned shopping carts.
Creative: Create a social ad that focuses on the product contacts left behind. Consider using messaging like “Only a few left, don’t miss your chance to rock this style” or “Someone has amazing taste.” Include the image of the product and a strong CTA.
CTA: Ask contacts to click back through to the product and eventually purchase.
Results: Much like abandoned cart and browse abandon campaigns, a CRM ad campaign will keep you top of mind with customers by showing up on a channel the customer frequently peruses.
➤ Pro Tip: Create an advanced segment around lifecycle stages. When a customer is reaching the end of their purchase cycle, serve them ads reminding them to stock up on their product before they run out.
9. Boost Sales with User Generated Content
Social media is a gold mine for marketers. Consumers love reviews and often seek them out when they are researching a product or brand. What’s great for marketers is that when a customer loves your brand, they’re likely to share their experience across social channels. Why not take advantage of the positive reviews and capitalize on user-generated content from social sites (think Instagram images and Facebook reviews) to populate your win-back campaigns?
User-Generated Content Campaign Checklist
Segment: Create a segment of contacts who abandoned browsing or abandoned shopping carts.
Creative: Create an email that focuses on what a user left behind. Layer in user-generated reviews and images of the products to offer real-life social proof.
CTA: Ask contacts to click back through to the product and eventually purchase.
Results: This campaign is designed to set your brand up for success by using happy customers as the bulk of your messaging. Consumers are more likely to trust their peers saying something is great over a brand saying the same thing.
➤ Pro Tip: Create automated emails around your most popular items. Create emails for high-selling products featuring user-generated reviews and pictures to send to contacts that abandon browsing or items in a cart. Once you set them up, you won’t have to worry about missing a sale as they will automatically trigger.
10. Generate In-Store Purchases
For many consumers, actually seeing and touching a product can make a huge difference in their purchasing decision. So why not use your digital marketing channels to drive in-store purchases? Using location-based data, you can steer customers to stores using cart abandonment emails.
In-Store Purchase Checklist
Segment: Create a segment of contacts who abandoned shopping carts.
Creative: Focus on the product and the location of the user. Use messaging like “You’re in luck. The item you left is available at your local store” or “Don’t miss out on this item. Pick it up at your local store today.” Knowing an item is available near them is a great way to drive contacts to your storefront.
CTA: Ask contacts to visit their local store to check out the item in person.
Results: With all the research done before purchase, offering a chance to view the product in person will keep customers thinking about purchasing from your brand.
➤ Pro Tip: Build out your email to create a sense of urgency for buying this product. You can add countdown timers or number-of-items-left widgets to promote a sense of urgency to visit the store or complete the purchase online.
11. Promote In-Store Cross-Channel Opt-in Push
Just like you can use digital channels to drive in-store purchases, you can use your storefront to drive digital purchases and engagement. Use every purchase and store interaction as an opportunity to get customers to sign up to receive communications from your different channels.
In-Store Purchase Checklist
Segment: Any in-store customers.
Creative: You may ask customers in-person if they’d like to sign up for email updates, but you can also create exclusive online coupons that you put in shopping bags as guests check out. Focus cards on messaging like “Sign up for email updates and receive 15% off” or “Download our app and use this special code for 20% off your first in-app purchase.”
CTA: Ask contacts to visit one of your other channels for an extra incentive.
Results: The more channels you can engage with customers on, the better. Plenty of consumers typically shop in-store at certain brands, incentivize them to engage and shop with you on other channels to ensure you’re capturing their attention as much as possible.
➤ Pro Tip: Use special codes for signup so you know what drove a contact to sign up for different channels. You can then deploy different automated campaigns that encourage other channel signups or offers based on the purchase path they’ve taken and their engagement with your brand.
Final Thoughts
Creating an omnichannel strategy is increasingly important as consumers become savvier across channels. As marketers, it’s our job to provide the best possible experience for our customers. Happy customers buy more and stay loyal to a brand.
Not only that, but exceptional omnichannel experiences lead to higher spend and repeat purchases. By setting up these campaigns, you’ll be one step closer to achieving omnichannel success among your customers.
► Creating an omnichannel strategy comes with a handful of challenges. Learn how Emarsys can help your brand achieve cross-channel success with omnichannel marketing.
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