Each week, marketers from around the world join the ExactTarget Nexus partner ecosystem on Twitter for a conversation about trends and best practices in the interactive marketing industry. We call the virtual coffee chat the Nexus Café.Last Thursday’s chat featured Caleb Williams, a Technical Marketer from Zondervan Publishers, an ExactTarget client. Caleb shared some insights on marketing automation and the ability to enable automated comprehensive user experiences through marketing platforms. A summary of the conversation is below:
@ETNexus: What is your process for improving emails through automation?
- @caleb616: We piece out the strategy and develop in steps.
- @ETNexus: Marketing automation = strategy development. Each step is vitally important, according to @caleb616
@ETNexus: Marketing automation saves time. Is it like an extra person on the team?
- @caleb616: Absolutely. Sometimes it can be more than one extra person.
- @susanprater: It's like having at least one extra team member! Saves time and money.
- @caleb616: It's more than doing more with less, I really want myself, and my team to be able to focus on #content.
@ETNexus: How does marketing automation free up more time to focus on content?
- @caleb616: We currently send four daily emails. With automation we will send one email and save 10 hours a week.
- @caleb616: 10 extra hours = a lot of good content generation
- @coskier: Being able to do more with less is everyone's dream.
@ETNexus: What are some insider tips for marketing automation?
- @caleb616: I like to turn my #content into RSS feeds. Makes your content mobile.
- @amandaberkey: @caleb616 How does that work? Sounds easy!
- @caleb616: nothing is easy :) but you can use a WordPress or other CMS to mange and send your content.
- @caleb616: For @ExactTarget clients you can use HTTPGet to pull your #content from your feeds too
@ETNexus: What kind of behavior-based campaigns can marketers automate?
- @coskier: I automate content ordering based on click history.
- @caleb616: I like abandon cart, inactive subscriber, and event-based from your website.
- @spencerabrams: Great article on behavior-based campaign ROI: Shopping Cart Abandonment Emails Generate $17.90 per Email
- @caleb616: With workflows you can find people that don't open your emails, remove them (or give them incentives) to save sends
@ETNexus: How much automation do you plan for? How do you balance automation vs. 1-to-1 communication?
- @caleb616: Personalization is the counter-weight to automation.
- @susanprater: I've found with my limited automations, the engagement is awesome. Want to do more for those who have abandoned critical KPIs
@ETNexus: Can you share any good industry articles, books, and resources for more info on marketing automation?
- @caleb616: Automation needs to be so tailored, that you should be a student of your own data.
- @lweatherall: The best #marketing automation resources are those that not only address benefits on a tactical level, but also a strategic level.
- @ETNexus: "Tracking the True TCO & ROI of Marketing Automation" whitepaper from @marketo
- @lweatherall: Methodology is key. I'm obviously biased, but check out this whitepaper if you're interested!
To view the entire conversation, check out the full chat transcript.
Follow @ETNexus and join us for #NexusCafe every Thursday from 11am - 12pm EST to discuss emerging topics and trends from across the digital marketing world. Add the hashtag to your tweets to join the conversation.
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