3 Marketing Automation Tools For Subscription Businesses
Everyday we speak with subscription box companies at all stages. From startups to more established retail companies aiming to turn one time purchases into guaranteed recurring revenues. Subscription eCommerce,or subcom, did not exist 4 years ago and is now a $5 billion market that is growing at a phenomenal rate. Successful sub-com boxes such as BirchBox and Barkbox have inspired existing retail stores and aspiring entrepreneurs to take advantage of this growing trend by delivering curated boxes on a monthly basis. Each have their different target audience and unique marketing strategies. But what they do agree on is the importance of automating their marketing strategies as much as possible in order to keep overheads low and momentum high. In the digital social age there are hundreds of different techniques, options and tools you can use. So where do you start? Well according to Subbly.co customers, there’s 3 marketing automation tools you should check out and use for subscription commerce.
1. Buffer
The simplest but most effective marketing automation tool there probably is. Buffer helps automate your social media and content marketing efforts. Subscription box customers enjoy purchasing within their particular lifestyle and capturing the essence of that lifestyle in your online presence takes alot of work. Buffer helps automate this by allowing you to space out your Twitter, Facebook and Linkedin updates throughout the day. Appearing like your company is constantly educating, informing and ultimately engaging with your customers. It allows businesses and social media managers to better structure and manage their time. Rather than having to constantly search for articles or be tweeting throughout the day. Buffer allows you to schedule your content and updates in advance. You can have your content posted throughout the day, either at random times or whatever your preferred time is. Another advantage is that you don’t flood your followers timelines and give them the impression you are active at all hours of the day! They also have a cool analytics dashboard so you can monitor the effectiveness of your updates.
2. Retargeter
We still remember the first time we tried out re-targeting technology and the amazement on our faces when we saw the results. Re-targeting is perfect for a subcom based business because again you are targeting a customer who is part of a specific lifestyle. Under the hood it’s a cookie based javascript technology that anonymously follows your audience around the web. Re-targeting ROI is higher than other media buying campaigns because it ensures that your advertising budget is being spent on people who are already engaged and interested in your brand. You are almost always guaranteed a higher ROI than other marketing channels, although you should remember that retargeting doesn’t drive traffic to your site like other channels do. It is best used as a companion to other acquisition channels like Google Adwords. There are many retargeting tools out there but Retargeter offers a very robust solution. Others include Facebook’s very own re-targeting tool and AdRoll.
3. HubSpot
In terms of complete turnkey marketing automation solutions, HubSpot could well be the grand-daddy of them all. They have a comprehensive suite of different tools that help you increase conversions, sales and give you awesome ROI. It takes a while to integrate your internal analytics, website and tools to sync with Hubspot but once you do the results are impressive. They have tools like their own CMS so you can manage your blog and a Social Inbox so you can monitor your social media accounts. Their marketing analytics dashboard gives you the ability to take deep dives at every channel you are using and see how they are performing. With integrations to leading CRM’s like Salesforce, they really have got it all. Many of our customers are new subscription box startups that have limited time, budget and resources. Using a tool like Hubspot is like hitting the jackpot. It’s instant marketing automation without the hassle and the perfect starting point for the successful growth of a business.
4. (Bonus): The benefits of Marketing Automation tools
Each business is different and there are hundreds of very useful automated marketing tools out there that can help you grow. The above tools were highlighted as the most popular with subscription box businesses but you should consider what tools your company should use to automate your marketing. Still not convinced you should automate your marketing strategy? Allow us to help change your mind by listing just some of the advantages.
Benefits:
- Measure campaigns in order to optimize, justify and prioritize marketing initiatives
- Save time spend administering marketing campaigns and completing tasks
- Improve sales conversions with timely and relevant engagement
- Brand awareness consistency across all campaigns and channels
- Shorten the sales cycle with quicker response times
- Bespoke marketing to different audiences requirements
- and more!
Automation is here to stay. We built Subbly to empower everyday people to automate their billing and payment problems, something they can only do if they have access to technical expertise. The benefits of operating a successful subscription box business means you have a near automated business once setup. It all goes full circle!
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