Marketing is a relentless race. Consumer behavior and industry trends are constantly changing, and marketers have no choice but to use innovation and strategies. One innovative strategy that has become more popular in recent years is trigger marketing campaigns.
A trigger campaign is not just a keyword; it’s a strategic model that helps businesses engage their audience at the most opportune moment.
Trigger marketing isn’t just about sending a message; it’s about sending it to the right audience at the right time. This concept is a strategy that uses the power of data and automation to create personalized interactions with prospects at suitable times.
This article will provide a comprehensive understanding of the trigger marketing campaign. Let’s start! 🏁
What is a Trigger Marketing Campaign?
Remember that you should first learn to walk before running and understand this concept before creating a persuasive marketing campaign. A trigger campaign is a targeted and automated marketing strategy that responds to your audience’s specific actions or events. These triggers encompass website visits, email opens, purchases, abandoned carts, or other user-interest behaviors.
Trigger marketing uses automation to send personalized and timely messages to individuals based on their actions or behavior. This method allows businesses to engage with their audience at a highly relevant level, increasing the likelihood of conversion and customer retention.
What Are the Benefits of Trigger Campaigns?
In CUFinder, we always start by reviewing a strategy’s benefits. This way, the last doubts about its use disappear, and the fear of “I’m wasting my time” will no longer hit one’s mind in the middle of the road. Let’s get to the point without going too far and suggesting clichéd points.
The first thing to consider about trigger marketing is freeing marketers from repetitive tasks. Just as automatic cars free drivers from the nightmare of constantly changing gears, automation systems give marketers a chance to enjoy their work more. Well, marketers have so much work during the day, and they don’t have time for trivial tasks, right?
If you also think that time is incompatible with your team and you are always short on it, trigger marketing will be an attractive option for you. In the meantime, with the introduction of artificial intelligence to other automation systems, the probability of error has drastically decreased. So you don’t have to worry about the consequences of trusting automation.
Now that we have discussed eliminating repetitive tasks, we must pay attention to one more thing. Punctuality is one of those features that almost all customers love. We love that our Amazon order will be sent on time or that the Microsoft support team will answer us on the first call is a dream come true
Of course, in companies where trigger marketing has become common, punctuality is no longer as scary as the games’ final boss.
According to the points we have made so far, the main advantages of trigger marketing can be summarized in two cases:
✔️ Freeing marketers from repeated tasks
✔️ Punctuality or doing things on time
The benefits of trigger marketing are endless, let’s add a few more. 👇🏼
✔️ Advanced Personalization
Thanks to their automation, trigger marketing campaigns allow the sending of highly personalized messages that fit customers’ behavioral patterns.
✔️ Increase Engagement
Trigger campaigns send the right message to your correct customers at the right time, which increases customer engagement. For example, sending a follow-up email immediately after an abandoned cart can encourage customers to complete their purchase. Also, the engagement rate increases when a suitable message is sent to them with various events such as holidays, Christmas, etc.
✔️ Cost-Effective
When you use automation, you unite the work of multiple experts to create a fully intelligent system. So, it is natural that your current expenses will decrease significantly. To better understand, it is enough to consider a football team that uses a few smart robots to organize things instead of a large logistics team. Such a solution will reduce the costs of the club in the long run!
Types of Trigger Campaigns
You may have thought that trigger marketing is a one-dimensional and straightforward strategy. Well, you are wrong; this strategy takes different forms depending on the situation and goals of entrepreneurs.
So, before you rush to implement it, getting acquainted with its different models is not a bad idea!
1️⃣ Event-Driven Pattern
When used for a specific event, trigger marketing forms an event-driven pattern. Let us express our point with an interesting example: Consider Walmart retail.
This popular retailer usually offers special discounts on occasions such as Black Friday. Its method involves extensive advertising for the desired occasion. Now, let’s suppose Walmart’s marketing team had provided extensive information about Black Friday in its newsletter weeks before.
Only few people consider sending dry and empty emails as a guarantee of a brand’s success. Just in such a situation, trigger marketing shows itself. Using this strategy, you will automatically send a specific message or reaction when users click on email links or even open your email. What are the possible reactions to emails on important occasions? Let’s review possible scenarios.
In the simplest case, users evaluate the products by clicking on the store link. One key automation activity in such a situation is displaying pop-up ads on the side of the web page. This allows users to access product information with one click.
2️⃣ Interaction-Oriented Pattern
More interaction with the target customers is like a professor who must have a good relationship with students to be popular with them. In the business world, the rate of customer interaction is one of the key criteria for measuring brand success. Therefore, it is an important model in trigger marketing.
If we compare event-oriented and interaction-oriented patterns, the key difference is their primary purpose. In the interaction-oriented model, we do not focus on increasing sales; rather, longer customer interactions are considered.
3️⃣ Emotional Pattern
In the same marketing industry, entrepreneurs’ understanding of customers has increased significantly by using psychological techniques. Meanwhile, psychologists always advise brands to focus on customers’ emotions. Emotions such as happiness, fear, anger, or sadness are among the things that brands must react to quickly.
Focusing on customers’ emotions is almost impossible without automation because, nowadays, customers like to see brands following them more than ever. So, in marketing, you are facing a game of seconds. Even a second delay in responding appropriately to your customers’ emotions will put you out of the competition.
Trigger marketing in the emotional model focuses on a brand’s quick response to customers’ emotions. For example, how will you react if customers comment on the company’s interactive voice response (IVR) over the quality of products?
Marketing teams usually define different scenarios as emotional patterns for each action. Therefore, the automation system reacts appropriately to customers’ different emotions without a single moment of hesitation. This way, the customer will be happy to have you by their side.
How to Use Trigger Marketing Campaigns in B2B?
After reviewing the various trigger marketing patterns, it’s time for our golden guide to implement this strategy.
Have you thought we would leave you alone in the marketing ocean without a boat? ⛵
The following section will review the easiest methods to implement trigger marketing with you. Enjoy the ride! 👇🏼
➤ First Step: Understanding Customer Personas
Knowing the customer persona is very important in almost every marketing strategy. This is like the head coach of a football team conducting an analysis meeting of the rival team. In such a meeting, the main characteristics of the opponent are analyzed, and our story’s head coach finds a way to overcome the opponent’s tactics by designing better ones.
You will do this in the market by understanding customer personas well. Since everything depends on your reaction in trigger marketing, you must first know your customers like the back of your hand. Every reaction is based on an initial action. Now, if you do not understand your customers’ actions, will you have a chance to react correctly?
Your work in this section is straightforward. Just collect as much useful information as you can from the customers. For example, in your newsletter, include information registration forms instead of sending emails to users.
In the meantime, you should consider a reward for customers. Otherwise, everyone will ignore your request. If you ask our opinion, bonuses like discount codes would be a great startup idea.
➤ Second Step: Scenario Design
At the beginning of the article, we said that trigger marketing is done with the help of automation. Hearing the name automation, you may be relieved that everything is done automatically.
This assumption is true to some extent, but you should not think that you are not going to touch anything. Determining the scenario for automation is a task that you can only do.
I hope you are satisfied and confident with the task definition above. The main formula is infinitely simple. As a marketer, you must specify how the automation system should react to a specific customer behavior.
For example, if customers pick up a pair of jeans in your online store, what kind of pop-up ad should appear in the corner of the page? All of these scenarios may happen to customers, so don’t rush—put yourself in their shoes.
In addition, the information obtained in the previous step will play an important role in your success. So, if you haven’t gone through the previous step, you should start the work from scratch.
➤ Third Step: Choosing When and How to Run the Campaign
Trigger marketing usually takes on different colors and smells at different times. Just as TV series adapt themselves to different occasions, you must adapt your work situation to the conditions and expectations of customers. Otherwise, the giant of failure will rub your back sooner or later.
Regarding the timing of the campaign, you should pay attention to the upcoming events. For example, the anniversary of the establishment of the brand, Black Friday, or the New Year holidays are popular events that require different reactions from your brand.
➤ Fourth Step: How to Run the Campaign
Then, reflect on how actually to execute the campaign and set goals. Whether you decide to use trigger marketing on your website, social networks, or via email, let your target audience and goals drive your approach. Rather than exhaust yourself from all the hit-and-trial methods, start with a well-researched and structured approach to ensure the highest probability of success.
Remember that you are not supposed to use that method because you are good at using email or websites. Instead, the customers’ taste has the first and last word. So try to be present where customers like and expect.
➤ Fifth Step: Stick to Your Choice
The last thing you should consider is the need to be loyal to your chosen model. If you start using trigger marketing in emails, you should not abandon it tomorrow and choose another method. We recommend focusing on a specific pattern for at least two months. This will improve your impact on the target audience.
KPIs for Analyzing Trigger Campaign Data
Analysis and measurement have always been important parts of marketing, and trigger marketing campaigns are no exception. For this reason, it is very important to learn what KPIs to consider when evaluating and analyzing the results of this type of marketing.
Let’s examine some of them together. 👇🏼
1. Conversion Rate
The percentage of recipients who took the desired action, such as purchasing or completing a form, against the campaign launcher.
2. Click Through Rate
Percentage of recipients who clicked on attached links.
3. Open Rate
The number of recipients who have opened your message or email in their inbox. You can understand how attractive your message was to your audience using this percentage.
4. Generated Income
What is the total revenue generated using the trigger marketing campaign? This KPI is especially important for companies whose goal is to increase sales.
5. Customer Lifetime Value
It measures long-term customer value acquired using trigger campaigns. This considers not only the first purchase made but also repeat purchases over time.
6. Churn Rate Reduction
It is very important to measure the number of people who received the campaigns and engaged with them, and of course, did not abandon the website in the middle of the way.
Conclusion
Trigger marketing campaigns are currently one of the most important and effective marketing methods. They are a dynamic way to engage target audiences, develop customer experiences, and reduce marketing goals to real results that B2B and B2C marketers can use to achieve their sales goals.
It is enough to teach algorithms and automation to adjust and send appropriate customer messages based on what pattern to achieve better marketing results much faster than you think. Use automated lead generation tools like CUFinder as much as possible, monitor trends, and regularly analyze your data.
FAQs
1. What is event-triggered marketing?
Event-triggered marketing includes identifying, categorizing, monitoring, optimizing and executing events (such as channel reconciliation). It can be applied in a multichannel relationship (such as social, mobile, direct mail, inbound call conversions, lead management, and email marketing).
2. What are trigger ads?
Trigger ads are an advertising technique that involves targeted messages or notifications designed for a particular moment. This is a way of customizing advertising and making it more applicable to viewers. Certain “events” trigger each consumer-facing message in this strategy.
3. What is a trigger point in marketing?
It is a marketing technique that triggers the automatic sending of a message to potential or actual customers during the customer journey, for instance after a specific event. This message can be sent by email, SMS, mail, etc.