One of the most underutilized features of marketing automation tools is on-site tracking to trigger events based on user behaviors. The most common example of this is cart abandonment (when a user adds a product to cart online, but leaves the site before purchasing), but triggered emails can be used at many other points during a purchase process. Furthermore this feature has applications across all industries and business models, including B2B service-based businesses. We’ll get to some examples shortly, but first let’s discuss how web tracking works.
Website tracking code for marketing automation tools are similar to scripts like Google Analytics in that they are typically placed on every page of your website and are designed to collect information on site visitors. This information might include what pages they visited, how long they were there, what sources referred them and in some instances, what actions they may have taken such as downloading a pdf or signing up for a newsletter. This information is collected from every users, regardless of whether or not they are in your database yet. Once they open an email from your marketing automation tool, the tracking code should connect their site behavior with their information in the database, allowing you to see quite a bit more about each member of your database and their behaviors. Once a site visitor has provided their contact information to you, a world of re-marketing through triggered communications is available to you. Below are some situations and examples to help you develop your own web-behavior-based plan.
Trigger E-mail Based On Visiting Specific Page
Sales pages or wish list pages are both examples of a specific URL that a user is likely to revisit over time. Using triggered emails based on a recent visit to one of these pages is a great way to get users to complete a purchase they may have been considering. Use special page-specific coupons such as ‘wishlist10’ to provide extra incentive.
Trigger For Users Who Didn’t Visit A Page
Abandoned cart emails are one of the best examples of this type of triggered email. The rule qualifying this program would be users who had visited the shopping cart page, but did not visit the order confirmation page. You can create similar abandonment emails for users who visit a different key conversion page without reaching their confirmation page. A service-based example could be for users who had visited a white paper download page without downloading the white paper or without clicking a contact us button for a new service offering.
Trigger Internal Message For Time Spent On Key Contact Pages
For service-based companies, emergency contact page would be one of the more common examples of this. If a customer is already in your database and finds your emergency contact page, you may want to trigger an internal email or text to your customer service team to follow up and make sure they were helped. Taking this a step further, you can trigger a follow up call 24 hours later to make sure the issue was resolved and a Yelp review request email 2 days later. Something similar could be done for ecommerce customers who have visited a customer service page recently.
Trigger Email Based On Visiting Several Pages In Same Category
Online stores will sometimes offer discounts on a specific category of products for a limited time, such as 15% off a particular brand of shoes, or type of apparel. Instead of offering global sales and sending out an email blast to all site visitors, setup a coupon and triggered email for users who visited any subcategory or product page within a specific category. For service-based companies, this model could apply to developing user interest groups. If someone visits 2 or more pages within a specific service vertical, send them a special email that includes a white paper or case study on a similar topic.
Whether you are planning to develop a detailed plan for triggered communications to site visitors, or are just looking to occasionally send out special site behavior-based promotions, site-wide web tracking is a must have. Consult with your marketing automation provider to determine what capabilities you might be able to take advantage of and start communicating with your database outside of scheduled or load and blast mailings. Not sure where to get started? Contact our team today to get started on your triggered mailing plan.