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Marketing Automation &

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A publication of

ECOMMERCE

MARKETING

AUTOMATION

How to Use Automation and

Analytics to Predict Consumer

Behavior and Increase

eCommerce Sales

Learn more about HubSpot’s all-in-one inbound marketing software at

www.HubSpot.com/ecomm

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ECOMMERCE MARKETING AUTOMATION

By Meghan Keaney Anderson Marketing Manager @HubSpot

RELATED RESOURCES

Death by Marketing Automation Rebooting Your Ecommerce Marketing in the Social Media Age HubSpot’s eCommerce Hub

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Table of Contents

Introduction .................................................................................................... 5

Shopping Cart Fetchback: Understanding customer hesitations…………………...7

Free Shipping or Returns: Understanding customer motivations…………….……9

Time to Reorder: Understanding customer timelines………………………………...12

Rave Reviews: Rewarding brand advocates and driving repeat sales…………..15

Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………………………….…18

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Introduction 1

5

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HOW TO USE MARKETING AUTOMATION AND ANALYTICS

TO PREDICT CONSUMER BEHAVIOR AND DRIVE SALES

Think for a moment about how you navigate websites. For most customers, online

shopping is not a linear process. Purchase decisions today are increasingly made

over time and after a number of different touch points. Customers may compare

products reviews, check out the shipping page, or leave and come back after an

email offer. The old way of marketing to these consumers was to send them a

barrage of direct mail and e-communications in the hopes of breaking through.

Today’s marketing, however, has to be more targeted and customer-driven.

Getting found by customers and guiding their decision process now relies much

more on being able to pick up on customer cues and deliver targeted, well-timed

communications.

This eBook will provide you with tips on how to leverage analytics and marketing

automation to help prospects along in their buying cycle and drive brand loyalty

and repeat purchases. Topics covered will include:

I. Shopping Cart Fetchback: Understanding customer hesitations

II. Free Shipping or Returns: Understanding customer motivations

III. Time to Reorder: Understanding customer timelines

IV. Rave Reviews: Rewarding brand advocates and driving repeat sales

6

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Shopping

Cart

Fetchback 2

7

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SHOPPING CART FETCHBACK UNDERSTANDING CUSTOMER HESITATIONS The average delay between the first visit to an online retailer site and the final

purchase is 33 hours and 54 minutes.1 A lot can go wrong in that decision window. A

2010 Forrester Research survey reported that 88% of online shoppers have

abandoned their shopping carts at one point or another.2 So what is it that makes

consumers stall or abandon their purchase all together? The chart below, based on

data from Forrester survey, reveals the top reasons given for cart abandonment.

Survey respondents were permitted to select multiple reasons.

The good news is that cart abandonment is often just the beginning of the customer

relationship. An eConsultancy survey recently found that 84% of companies that sent emails

targeting cart abandonment saw an increase in conversion.3 This is one simple step that goes a

long way. Marketing automation tools have made these email campaigns (often called “shopping

cart fetchback campaigns”) incredibly popular among eCommerce companies. However,

fetchback campaigns aren’t a silver bullet. Before you automate a shopping cart fetchback

campaign, make sure you have all the information you need before hitting send.

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

Shipping was too

high

Not ready to buy Price too high Wanted to

compare with

other products

Put in cart for later

Top reasons given for abandoning carts (in %)

8

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Free Shipping

or Returns 3

9

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SHIPPING OR RETURNS? UNDERSTANDING CUSTOMER MOTIVATIONS

Forrester’s study unearthed a number of different potential reasons for shopping cart

abandonment, but until you examine your own analytics, you won’t know the prime driver of

abandoned carts for your particular site. Knowing these details can bring your shopping cart

fetchback campaign from good to great.

Typical marketing automation campaigns for abandoned carts look something like this.

When a customer takes a given action, trigger a tailored communication. In the example

below, we’ve sent a discount to any customer who abandons his or her cart. But what if it

wasn’t the price of the item that motivated the abandoned cart? If the customer is most

concernerd about the return policy, will a 10% discount do any good?

ALIGNING AUTOMATED EMAILS WITH CUSTOMER MOTIVATIONS

Technology can only take you so far. The best marketing automation campaigns are

driven by content. One of the core tenants to inbound marketing is that content which is

useful and relevant to the prospect will always be more effective than other

communications.

In the case of the shopping cart fetch-back, this means having marketing automation

that is agile enough to respond to the individual motivations. For this, analytics are

absolutely essential. The next section will take you through a few ways that your

marketing analytics can help you better understand and act upon the motivations of

your shoppers.

10

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When used in combination with your marketing automation tool, your marketing analytics

platform can help you send highly targeted customer-serving emails without much added time or

effort. Use analytics to inform your marketing automation campaign. Before you hit send, use

your analytics platform to answer the following questions:

What pages or content contribute to shopper hesitation? Your marketing analytics

platform should be able to tell you which pages led visitors up to the cart

abandonment. These pages will give you a sense of the visitor’s thought process

prior to leaving your site. For example, if you know that visitors who abandon their

shopping carts typically spend more time evaluating the shipping costs page that

will influence what content your fetchback campaign should involve.

What pages or content assist purchases? Now flip the equation. Take a look at the

pages on your website that customers viewed prior to purchasing. Similar to the

abandonment influencers, make sure you understand what pages positively

impact purchases. Then prioritize that content for others. By scaling what’s

working, your automation can drive better results.

How long does it typically take a customer to purchase after his or her initial interest? Is

your product an impulse buy or does it typically require some research and the

prospective customer has just placed the item in his or her cart for safe keeping in the

interim? What supportive materials could you create and automate to help in that

decision process?Answer this question to get the timing right on your emails.

ANALYTICS + AUTOMATION = AN INTELLIGENT SHOPPING CART FETCHBACK CAMPAIGN

Note: If your analytics platform doesn’t enable you to

see a reverse funnel analysis or the pages that

contributed to a purchase decision or an abandoned

cart, you might want to take a look at HubSpot’s

Advanced Analytics (we’re just sayin’).

Oh look! A link!

http://www.hubspot.com/products/advanced-marketing-analytics/

11

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Time to

Reorder 4

12

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TIME TO REORDER? UNDERSTANDING CUSTOMER TIMELINES

Beyond understanding motivations, it is important to make sure your marketing

communications, whether automated or not, reflect the timing of your typical shopper’s

purchase cycle. There are two components to this:

How long does it typically take a first-time customer to buy?

Are there inherent timelines associated with the product purchased?

Time elapsed before a shopper decided to buy

HOW LONG DOES IT TYPICALLY TAKE A FIRST TIME CUSTOMER TO BUY?

Instead of basing your marketing automation timing on generic textbook guidelines,

it’s best to put your marketing automation timing in the framework of your specific

company. Do you sell $40 accessories or $400 electronics? Do first-time customers

typically visit your site and purchase in the same day or is the buying cycle much

longer? Marketing automation campaigns that are staged out over the process of

the typical buying cycle will do better than those based on arbitrary timelines.

You could send the best email

possible, but if the timing isn’t right,

it may fall on closed ears.

Frequently you’ll hear that sending a

communication immediately after a

cart was abandoned results in the

best result, but that guideline isn’t

true for every eCommerce site. [Example of a HubSpot time-to-completion report]

Did you

know?

65% of all online shoppers wait a day

or more to complete an online

purchase.4

13

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Case Study – Alice.com: Clued into the shopping cycles of busy

households, Alice.com is an online source for products like soap,

cleaning supplies, batteries and other home essentials. The site

enables you to set up alerts for products that frequently run out.

Re-ordering these products then become much easier, typically

requiring little more than the click of a button.

ARE THERE INHERENT TIMELINES ASSOCIATED WITH THE PRODUCT?

There are some particularly strong use cases for intelligent marketing automation as a

way of working motivating existing customers -- not the least of which is driving repeat

purchases.

Product driven timelines: Understanding the buying cycle should go beyond the first point

of sale. You can maximize the impact of your post-purchase communications by

connecting a marketing automation campaign to the natural lifetime of a given product.

1. Take a look at your product line to determine which items come with an inherent

expiration date or frequency of renewal.

2. Take your most frequently ordered products and estimate how long it typically

takes for them to expire or run-out.

3. Automate re-order emails to correspond with that typical product timeline.

4. Consider including discounts or incentives for re-ordering through your company.

Customer-driven timelines: In addition to relying on the re-order timelines of given products,

consider providing your customers with the option of setting up their own tailored reminder

emails. A central tenant to inbound marketing is to find ways to be useful to your prospects and

customers. Providing an optional opt-in to helpful emails is a great way to do that.

NOTE: Remember to test and track these reminder emails to ensure that they aren’t overlapping

with others and resulting in over-communication. If you’re just getting started, try scheduling out

these emails with a smaller segment first before expanding.

14

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Rave Reviews 5

15

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RAVE REVIEWS REWARDING BRAND ADVOCATES

According to an etail and power-reviews survey the amount of outside research potential

customers do on ecommerce products is rising sharply. Half of all 2011 respondents

replied that they spent 75% of their overall shopping time researching products as

compared to just 21% in 2010.5 Social media channels, from Facebook to Yelp, are

comprising a significant portion of this research.

SOCIAL SHARING AS A DRIVER OF SALES: 6

More than 35 million people have shared a product on Facebook.

35% of people say they are more likely to buy a product if it has more Likes.

22 million people have been driven to make a purchase based on a Facebook

recommendation.

Brand advocates, customers who promote your company’s products or customer

service online are a highly influential segment of your customer base. As marketers,

we need to find new ways to empower these segments and encourage them to

continue to stay engaged.

USING TARGETED COMMUNICATIONS TO FUEL BRAND ADVOCATES

One of the toughest steps to rewarding brand advocates is having a comprehensive

understanding of who makes up the segment.

Set-up alerts and multichannel analytics

With a number of social media sites and a flurry of activity across channels, it can be

difficult to ascertain just whom you should be thanking. Set up alerts to flag your

marketing team whenever someone mentions your brand on social media. Then,

positive or negative, assign a community manager to respond to mentions and empower

individuals who help promote your brand. Over time you should develop a list of these

brand advocates and regularly email them advanced product notifications or special

deals.

Tie marketing automation to your multichannel analytics

If you have a marketing automation tool, like HubSpot’s, that enables you to trigger

messages based on multichannel data, you can automate this – sending thank-you

emails and special deals as comments and mentions are posted.

16

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USING TARGETED COMMUNICATIONS TO FUEL BRAND ADVOCATES (CONTINUED)

Take the example of the first-time buyer who has a good enough experience to

promote you to his network of followers on Twitter. Take the opportunity to

specially send him a tailored email and Twitter message, then apply free shipping

as a way of saying thank you for his next purchase. Note: Be careful to avoid quid

pro quo rewards. Thank Yous should be sincere and independent of future

promotion on the advocate’s part.

2. Recommended site on Twitter

1. Added item to shopping cart

1 day later

17

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Conclusion 6

18

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CONCLUSION AND ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

The one thing that has redefined marketing strategy today more than anything else has

been the shift of control to the customer. The proliferation of social media tools and

online tools help leads decisions on their own schedule and using their own combination

resources.

Amid this shift in consumer behavior the role of marketing has also changed, from one of

uniformed mass communications to a more nuanced, customer-driven strategy. Using

the tips mentioned in this eBook and the right mix of tools, eCommerce marketers are

now able to scale personal attention in a way that was never achievable before.

At the crux of any marketing automation strategy, however, has got to be the goal of

making customers lives easier while driving sales. Too much focus on the output and not

on the value to customers will always fall short.

19

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HubSpot’s Behavior-Driven Communications Marketing automation should be useful to customers, not just another interruption. It

should focus on the entire experience of your prospects and customers, sending

communications only when it is most relevant to their buying cycle. HubSpot's behavior-

driven communication tool triggers emails and other messages based on your

customers’ full history of interactions on and off your site.

Expand your marketing automation to include SMS messages and internal

notifications

Incorporate social media, helpdesks and billing systems into your campaigns

Deliver information at critical moments in the decision process

Integrate with your existing email service provider

Request a Demo

20

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SOURCES

1. http://www.mcafeesecure.com/pdf/Digital-Window-Shopping_FinaL-web.pdf

2.http://www.forrester.com/rb/Research/understanding_shopping_cart_abandonment/q/id/568

27/t/2

3. http://econsultancy.com/us/reports/conversion-report

4. http://www.mcafeesecure.com/content/mfes/DWSCampaign.jsp

5. http://www.powerreviews.com/assets/download/Social_Shopping_2011_Brief1.pdf

6. http://www.8thbridge.com/socialcommerceiq/