All in all, the idea of marketing automation applications to make it easier to deliver personalized messages is effective. But of course, if the means of communication rely fully on automation then the language used in the message will seem quite unnatural. Therefore, it becomes the responsibility of the marketing team to come up with a strategy that is fit to be coupled with humanistic personalized messages.
However, how can the strategy of sending messages through message automation even work without seeming like it is coming from a robot? Keep reading this article!
What Exactly Is Message Automation, and Why Should You Care?
In an instant, message automation became a buzzword that was widely discussed in business forums. Message automation is a technology that automates the process of sending messages, especially in large quantities. In the process, this technology is believed to be able to improve personalization strategies to be better, where it becomes a visual assistant that helps the team in sending messages via email, short messages, or social media automatically and on schedule.
In addition, the scalability and efficiency of this technology also enable businesses to reach any target audience. Changing communication in business to be more responsive and able to increase customer satisfaction. Not only that, businesses can also increase the level of customer engagement and strengthen the sense of customer connection with the business emotionally.
Why Personalization Is the Key to Winning Customer’s Hearts
We all love feeling special, right? A study showed that 80% of buyers prefer to buy goods or services from companies that provide personalized experiences. The results of this study prove that customers feel happy when they are appreciated and understood, as the term we often hear is “the buyer is king.”
Businesses can provide a personalized experience to win the hearts of customers, especially digitally; it can happen by producing messages with relevant content. Primarily, the message is as follows:
- must be educational and not offensive to any community
- able to present a positive response from the audience
- able to convey messages that can meet customer preferences and needs
Using Data to Make Your Messages Automation Truly Personal
Data is the core of creating personalized messages, here’s where the magic happens. It’s like processing raw diamonds; to make them beautiful jewelry, we need expert craftsmen. Similarly, when creating attractive personalized messages, data as a resource needs to be processed properly by the marketing team. The data collected must be information related to customer preferences and needs.
Data will usually be collected using tools such as integrated CRM so that processing becomes more efficient. Through the collected data, you can do the following:
- Group customer data based on certain characters.
- Create dynamic content based on data to be sent via message automation.
In addition, the collected data can detect customer behavior, such as taking too long to put items in the cart. Based on this data, you can send personal messages to encourage them to continue the transaction. Of course, sending this message needs to be scheduled; don’t send too many messages in a short period of time so that the audience doesn’t consider your message spam.
Striking the Right Balance Between Automation and the Human Touch
Automation is great, but it’s important not to lose the human element. Empathy is a connector that can bridge the gap. The way to do this is by using a friendly and conversational tone of language. It is indeed difficult to show empathy through messages but to add a sense of emotion, show that you are part of the customer, and feel what the customer feels. You can also use emojis in messages sent to customers.
Businesses can use natural language processing (NLP) technology to program automatic responses that have exactly the same pattern as humans and make message automation more realistic. Businesses can also use ticketing features that can connect customers with representatives when questions start to lead to complex problems because Nobody wants to receive a message that feels like it came from a robot.
How to Get Started with Message Automation in Your Own Business
Feeling inspired to start using message automation? There are many types of automation that you can use, such as email automation, SMS automation, live chat, and chatbots for Whatsapp. So, you need to know in advance what type of automation your business needs.
In addition, you also need to think about the chatbot template that you will use. Develop a template with a strong sense of personal, such as mentioning the customer’s name. Create several templates to be sent according to triggers that affect the time of sending messages. These triggers can be:
- welcome message;
- a message to remind abandoned carts;
- to follow-up messages related to service or product feedback.
Message automation can also be integrated with existing workflows. So that, there will be consistency in the service provided to customers. Also, you have to conduct regular surveys for ensuring customer comfort in using automated messages. Based on the survey data, you can continue to make improvements on an ongoing basis so that customer satisfaction increases.
Wrapping It Up: Bringing the Human Element to Automation
It’s all about making your customers feel valued and understood, even when you’re using technology to do the heavy lifting. Don’t let your customers feel left out and make your message automation efforts a failure. Because message automation is basically a way to optimize personalized messages, not to replace humans entirely.
