Nearly three-quarters of marketers agree that email marketing is fundamental to their business, and that email marketing produces significant ROI or will in the future (source: class 3 slides). What if there was a way to further capitalize on the effectiveness of traditional email marketing by tailoring it to specific, behaviour-based consumer segments? Software like Marketo and Drip have been developed to accomplish just that.

The idea behind automation is that the information received by the subscriber or user via email is unique and relevant to their past behaviour. For example, if a consumer had been browsing cheap deals on Whistler snowboarding passes three times in the last two days, Groupon (through automation software) would be able to pick up that lead by first marking, categorizing, and tracking that user. Then, it would generate and send a tailored email that included recommendations of different snowboard rental and pass packages available in Whistler as well as Cypress and Big White. In contrast, a consumer who had spent less than five minutes browsing snowboard gear before moving on to other tasks may not be responded to as immediately or in the same format. Email automation is a more effective approach to marketing to a variety of users based on their unique individual wants and needs. Identifying and responding to leads becomes quicker, thus speeding up conversion rates and ultimately boosting customer sales.

Article: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/james-calder/why-marketing-automation-_b_8281832.html

Photo: http://blog.bigcommerce.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/ecommerce-email-marketing-guide.jpg