Imagine a company where no one knows who’s employed. There are no agreements, no interviews. The executives attend meetings with the random people with different levels of commitment and a different profile of qualifications. Sometimes they even don’t understand each other’s languages. It sounds a bit like administrative and managerial hell, isn’t it? Also, this solution might be poor for the plain office employees – they have no idea to whom they should report a specific problem, who coordinates the project, who gets the credits, and who’s standing behind it all.
And now think that this image is common for many ecommerce owners: contacts show up out of nowhere on the page, visit different subsites, add something to the cart and disappear without a trace.
Can anyone run a web business this way? Apparently yes, but for how long? Wouldn’t it be much more convenient to know who comes to the site, what they are interested in, or if they already bought once, and if so, how much they have spent? This is why you should implement the monitoring code from the marketing automation platform and take full advantage of its features. But let’s not get ahead of the story. First, let’s see who, from a technical point of view, you can find on the website and in your CRM.
Anonymous Users
Anonymous is every visitor who appears on the website for the first time unless they were directed there via an external form, ad, or the link in the email sent from the marketing automation platform integrated with the monitoring code embedded on the website.
On the website that can monitor user activity, the information about anonymous visits is collected and stored for several hours and then are removed. However, if the contact performs an action that will lead to its monitoring within 3 hours the anonymous visits details will be assigned to the newly formed contact card.
Remember! If you have the appropriate software, you can communicate even with anonymous users. Marketing automation platform allows you for:
- sending web push notifications (short messages sent by the browser – they do not require leaving an email address or accepting cookie policy; for more information about web push notifications check this article);
- displaying recommendation frames (you can immediately see similar products, complimentary products, and limited offers while watching items from a specified category);
- displaying dynamic pop-ups (data-driven insight into one’s interests, scoring, purchase history and even current URL address, allows you to show everyone the content referring to what they did, and still are doing on the page; for more information about recommendation frames and dynamic pop-ups check this article);
- showing Livechat widget, to respond to the visitors’ questions in the real-time;
It doesn’t look bad, but it’s still not the level of personalization, which could distinguish you from others.
Identified Contacts
Contact’s identification happens when he gives you his email. It can be done via the form on the page, or, for example, via Facebook (Lead Ads). However, the mere possession of the address isn’t the end of this road. As long as you won’t be able to link the contact with its actions, the level of customization you operate leaves much to be desired.
Although this may not be apparent, not every contact that is identified is automatically monitored. It can happen, as in the mentioned case, that someone will fill the form by clicking on an ad on Facebook. Theoretically you know something about this person – you can add the appropriate tag associated with the ad they clicked whether during the contact list import from the file or while using the SALESmanago integration with FastTony.es with which you can create Lead Ads campaigns and set the automatic transfer of contacts acquired through the ad forms straight to your CRM. Transferring contacts takes approx. 6s. Contacts are imported with a proper tag, so the automation rules can be set to send an instant message with proper materials, or just a welcome messages to the newest members of your community.
If we consider the person that the only thing you know about is their email address, the set of available actions is as follows:
- adding to the campaign by tag – you can do this in two ways – by setting an automation rule, or manually – as a mass action, after contacts import;
- sending a message by tag including the launch of the lead nurturing cycle – the simplest thing you can do with an email address; while setting the rule you select that the message should be sent to customers who have a specific tag; remember, if you import a database file, you must run the rule manually;
- setting an autoresponder – you can also set the automatic dispatch of messages in the form of autoresponder for all new contacts in the system, the contacts at a certain level of the sales funnel, or for all contacts with a particular tag (like it was said above, the import from file with tags won’t launch the action);
- adding a contact to the group – go to CRM -> Manage Contacts -> Insert Defined Addressees and add new contacts either by typing their address or by typing in the specific tag;
- monitor reactions to sent messages – on the contact card you can always check whether the contact has opened earlier-sent message, and if clicked on a link sent;
- sending bulk messages, for example. newsletter to the entire database – it’s pretty obvious action: if the contact is in your database, but for example, there is no tag, you can still send them a message addressed to all contacts
- use when creating Custom Audience and targeting a Facebook campaign – to create or edit a Custom Audience one must integrate SALESmanago with Facebook Ads; contact can be added to the Custom Audience either manually or with automation rule;
Monitored Contacts
The third kind of visitors on the website are monitored contacts. Casual users become monitored in 4 cases:
- contact clicked a link from SALESmanago mailing,
- contact filled in a form generated by the system or integrated via API,
- contact clicked a link generated on a contact card,
After this action, the system starts to collect information about users behavior and assigns them to the appropriate contact cards.
Only monitoring of the contacts you manage gives you the opportunity to unlock the full potential of the marketing automation software. You can use on them virtually every action available on the platform (I don’t count, for example, extra-paid mailings to anonymous contacts because there is no need to use this feature). In addition to the actions mentioned above I can add for example those:
- behavioral profiling,
- setting workflow process,
- using RFM analytics,
- sending dynamic 1-to-1 emails,
- rescuing abandoned shopping carts,
- setting personalized banners,
- using the advanced segmentation while creating automation rules,
- using geolocation,
- omnichannel actions,
- etc.
So why you should monitor your contacts?
- You gain knowledge of your audience.
- You create an individual behavioral profile of each user.
- You use the knowledge about user behavior to personalize your message.
- You adjust your actions to the interests of customers.
- You strengthen the relationship with customers and earn their trust.
- You shorten the duration of the purchase process by offering customers what they want.
- You segment your database properly.
- You create a basis for the real-time communication.
- You root your actions not on speculation but on the actual data.
- You can use the automation rules to their fullest.
- You take the full advantage of the marketing automation platform that you paid for.
In case you ever wonder how a random visitor becomes loyal customer don’t forget to check out our newest infographics!
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