This is our second post in the series of articles on Workflow Automation. In the previous post on workflow automation, we gave our readers a walk-through of Walkthrough Automation Technology and shared how it can add value to an e-commerce business.
In this segment, we’ll dive deep into the tool from the perspective of a user to help you on-board quickly and familiarize with all the functionalities.
Betaout’s Workflow Automation helps you leverage all of Betaout’s capabilities, to create targeted, hyper-personalized marketing campaigns across all of the available channels. The tool truly complements each and every functionality, making it a one-stop solution for your customer engagement and business-growth goals.
To simplify your task of rolling out an automation plan – Betaout Workflow Automation has 4 essential elements of building blocks –
Triggers
Actions
Conditions
Delay
All workflows are designed using these building blocks, hence understanding what each one does is crucial.
Trigger is the starting point of any automation. It is the criteria based on which users are dynamically rolled into any active automation and the automation is then initiated for that user. There are 4 types of triggers available:
User Event
User Property Update
Product Property Update
Existing Users
Trigger Type |
Description |
Example Scenarios |
1. User Events |
User Events refers to any act done by a user on your e-commerce store. You can specify the absolute count for an event before the trigger is initiated. Additionally, you can also specify Exit Events based on which the user will be removed from the automation. |
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2. Product Property Update |
Product Property Update refers to whenever the property of a product changes. There are only two cases based on which the trigger is initiated:
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3. User Property Update |
User Property Update refers to a change in user-level properties. Here’s the list of properties based on which trigger can happen:
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4. Existing Users |
Target users based on past behavior or properties. Automation can be initiated for users based on any segmentation conditions. |
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As the name suggests, Actions refers to the activities that you can perform based on your users meeting the logic implemented for the trigger. Within an automation, a marketer can take several actions. These can be from the following.
Send Email
Send SMS
Send Mobile Push
Send Browser Push
Update User Property: e.g. set user’s property such as “Current Status = Prospect”
Remove from Automation: remove the user from another or existing automation
Delay allows you to set up a relative or absolute time interval between the various steps of the workflow. There are three types of Delays you can set while creating a workflow:
Delay Type |
Description |
Example |
For Some Time |
The next step in your workflow will wait for a relative time. |
Wait for 3 days for each user |
Upto Some Time |
The next step in your workflow will wait up to an absolute time. |
Wait for each user until 21 October 2018 19:40 |
Until User Event |
The next step in your workflow will wait until a user event happens |
Wait until a user opens an email |
Conditions are the underlying logic behind any workflow automation that you create. You can configure it according to your business rules.
As a marketer, you can check for certain conditions for a user in automation and take further actions based on whether or not the user matches the set of conditions.
Here’s how it works:
1. Set the customer segmentation criteria based on what condition is to be defined.
For ex: users who have a gmail account
2. Define what happens when user fulfills the condition – Yes.
3. Define what happens when the user doesn’t fulfill the condition – No.
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In this segment, we’ll walk you through the required steps to create an automation in Betaout. Begin here:
Step 1: In the Betaout dashboard, choose the Workflow Automation module and click on Create Automation.
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Step 2: Set a name for your campaign by clicking on the edit icon.
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Step 3: Click on the Add Trigger button to choose the initiation condition based on which users will be added to the automation.
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Step 4: Proceed as follows:
Configure the Trigger Type according to your use case.
Define Exit Event as required.
Set the Frequency for the trigger.
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Step 5: You can now create the required flow using Actions, Conditions, Delay.
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Step 6: Add end automation after the required workflow steps. Click on Save & Exit to activate the automation.
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1. On-board New Customers With Welcome Campaign: Give your new customers a walk-through of your online store or mobile app by sending a series of welcome messages across relevant channels. Set triggers to automatically add new customers to an automation when they sign-up on your online store.
2. Re-target Cart Abandoners Across: Use Workflow Automation to set-up re-engagement campaigns for cart abandoning customers across multiple channels and bring them back to complete the purchase. Set triggers and delays to created a timely flow to target customers.
3. Automate Price Drop, Back In Stock Alerts And More: Send alerts such as price drop, back in stock and more based on user’s browse abandonment behavior, purchase history and items added to the customer’s shopping cart.
4. Maximize CLV With Automated Lifecycle Campaigns: Automate the customer lifecycle marketing for different segments to maximize the customer’s lifetime value. Boost acquisition, engagement, and conversions to strengthen your marketing funnel.
5. Win Back Lost Customers With Incentivized Campaigns: Target lost, dormant and inactive customers with automated win back campaigns. Send unique promo code to each customer to mitigate promo code abuse to boost repeat purchase, and lift your customer retention.
6. Trigger Alerts For Subscription Renewal: Set-up automated, cross-channel drip campaigns reminding your customers to renew their subscription, membership or other services with recurring payments in a timely manner.
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Workflow Automation is a tool packed with unlimited capabilities. Using it to create high-impact marketing workflows across multiple channels can help e-commerce companies with their hyper-growth goals, customer delight efforts and an enhanced brand value.
The tool can handle customer engagement and automated customer lifecycle marketing throughout a customer’s lifecycle, across every touchpoint and moment of influence. Now the onus is on e-commerce marketers to capitalize on the potential of this powerful functionality to its fullest.
PS: Learn more about email marketing for ecommerce.
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