FMCG is not the first thing that comes to mind when you think about possible marketing automation applications. However, the truth is marketing automation can help FMCG (and B2C in general) companies reach their customers more effectively and streamline marketing and sales-related activities. Let’s talk specifics.
Our experience shows there are five crucial challenges that FMCG companies can deal with using marketing automation (MA):
- Building and optimizing your customer base
- Reaching out to customers using different channels (e.g., push notifications and email)
- Integrating offline and online experiences
- Personalizing communication based on the context and given person’s preferences
- Automating everyday operations
Additionally, FMCG companies usually operate on more than one level. For starters, they use multiple sales channels, including retail chains, online stores, wholesale companies, events, and more. Secondly, they use both offline and online communication channels, just to mention brick-and-mortar stores, on-site communication, social media, and mobile communication.
Of course, ultimately, the goal is to provide customers with impeccable experiences both offline and online. Let’s see how you can solve each of these challenges using MA-based solutions.
Building and optimizing a customer base
First off, we must mention a versatile solution called a CDP – customer data platform. These are online IT solutions that enable your company to collect, structure, and give access to all customer data that is relevant to your business and the user experience you want to achieve. With an effective CDP, you:
- Are not dependent on third-party cookies
- Can easily digitize your business (e.g., by introducing the e-commerce channel)
- Can reach customers more effectively and personalize communication with them
- Can segment your customers depending on your marketing goals, thus increasing the effectiveness of your marketing campaigns
CDPs are, in fact, quite a broad subject; that’s why we decided to create a separate article on our blog just for them: Customer Data Platform – do you make the most of your data?
Reaching out to customers using different channels
Collecting and integrating data about your customers is also indispensable to implementing customer segmentation and personalization. In other words, without it, you won’t be able to benefit from the most effective marketing campaigns. With a full, 360-degree view of your customers, you can reach both current and potential customers more effectively and measure the results of your activities.
Moreover, needless to say, such communication can be far more successful than other marketing techniques, e.g., ATL, BTL, or even PPC advertising. The key to successful marketing in 2023 lies in knowing your customers and answering their needs.
Integrating online and offline experiences
That’s what omnichannel is all about! In this model, you integrate all the channels you use to provide users with top-notch experiences, no matter what channel, offline or online, they choose. With marketing automation, you can reach customers whether they are out in the city or using their smartphones at home. We have solutions enabling communication that’s adjusted to a given customer’s location and even weather conditions. If, for example, you want to encourage your customers to visit the nearby big-box store to try the new product in your offer, you can do so!
In the same way, you can encourage people to download your new mobile app or visit the recently-opened online store. With marketing automation, the offline and online worlds become one, and you can provide users with the same service/experience regardless of their location or used device.
Communication personalization
Integrating all available customer data (e.g., previous behaviors and interactions in online channels, previous actions taken towards the given person, location of the favorite store, etc.) enables you to take personalization to a whole new level. Imagine creating such a marketing scenario involving personalization and real-time weather data:
The predicted weather forecast indicates that hot weather reaching 30 degrees is coming to Katowice. You can send the customer a notification on the phone with similar content:
Hey Mark! Hot weather is approaching KATOWICE. Why not stock up on your favorite beverage [product name]? We hope you will feel refreshed!
Wouldn’t such a short message be effective? That’s what personalizing communication is all about – reaching the right person, with the right message, at the right time. And with marketing automation, it’s all automated (obviously), so all you have to do is set up a specific MA scenarios, and you’re good to go. What’s more, our system can also gather data from external sources (weather is just an example, we can gather data from almost any publicly available source, e.g., the current inflation rate).
Automating everyday operations
Lastly, we need to mention the most apparent application of MA – automating repetitive everyday operations and tasks. With MA, you can easily automate:
- Informing customers about new products in your offer
- Distributing vouchers and promo codes
- Conducting contests and special actions/events
- Gathering and analyzing data about your customers from different sources (e.g., from websites, contact forms, mobile apps, social media, and call centers)
- Measuring and reporting the results of campaigns you conduct
And much more! Take a full list of iPresso features and see how we can make your everyday work more accurate and effective.
How else can marketing automation be used in this sector?
It’s not the end of possible applications in FMCG. With our platform, you can easily:
- Direct traffic to brick-and-mortar stores
- Introduce new products in your offer
- Get customer feedback or opinion (e.g., about the desired new taste of your beverage)
- Use NPS to assess the loyalty and satisfaction of your customers
- Gain more regular customers by reminding them about replenishing their supplies
- Communicate with them via their preferred channel, even WhatsApp
- Integrate your special campaigns with the production line (e.g., to print unique product codes on each box or bottle)
Summary: How marketing automation helps FMCG companies
To sum up, with marketing automation, you can take your FMCG brand to a whole new level, primarily through:
- Building and optimizing your customer base
- Conducting direct, personalized communication with customers
- Gathering more accurate knowledge about customers and their habits
- Conducting special events and promotions, as well as personalized product recommendations
- Making everyday work more effective and less time-consuming
- Maintaining constant communication with all relevant recipients (not just consumers but also stores, distributors, and wholesalers)
- Coordinating work with marketing agencies and your in-house teams spread around the world
It all comes down to this simple equation:
Do you want to know more? We encourage you to take a look at our subpage for FMCG companies. Inside, you will be able to reach out to us with any additional questions. We are also happy to schedule an online meeting with your team. FMCG is one of our enterprise sectors, meaning each implementation of our MA platform is tailored to your needs and expectations. We are happy to guide you through the entire process!
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