Marketing automation
Marketing automation for small business, judged on profit
Set a sales goal and Esplanda picks who to contact, writes the email, text or post, and sends it once you approve.
Marketing — Do It Yourself is $199 per location per month, with no contract. Esplanda POS and your website are free to start, with no card needed. See how Esplanda works.
Illustrative example
How a campaign is built
From a sales goal to one plan
A relevant offer to the customers it suits almost always beats a generic one to everybody, and it costs less. AI marketing automation has made writing the message easy. Most local marketing still fails at the first step: the writing is fine, and the list is everyone.
- Goal
Say what the week needs, in dollars
Tell Esplanda the week is running short. The plan starts from that gap, not from a calendar of generic promotions.
- People
Groups from real purchases
Each customer is measured against their own buying rhythm, not demographics.
- Drifting away
- Bought once
- Category buyers
- Due again
- Best customers
- Do not contact
- Messages
Written from your shelf
An email, text, post or ad with real items, today's prices and enough stock to honor it, never past your discount ceiling. The sending side is on our email and SMS marketing page.
- Score
Scored against a holdout
A matched slice of each group is held back before anything is written, so the result is the extra profit, not every sale.
What it earned
Measured in profit, not opens
Esplanda compares the customers who got the message with the matched group it held back. The result is the extra profit over a stated window, less the cost of sending.
- The real number. Most marketing tools report "sales from people who got the email". Esplanda takes out everyone who was coming in anyway, so what's left is what the campaign earned.
- Every campaign on the record. Each result is recorded with what it was expected to earn, so you run more of what pays and stop what doesn't. See how we measure results.
- Opens are a diagnostic. They tell you a message was seen, not whether it paid. Profit is the result.
Social posts count as activity: tracked, and kept out of the dollar total. AI marketing tools for small business can write a campaign in seconds, but on their own they can't see your margins or your stock, so they can't tell you what it earned.
Profit by campaign sits in the same business reporting software as your sales and stock.
Comparing tools
Marketing automation software for small business, compared
Most marketing automation tools were built for online shops and B2B sales teams. For a store with a register, five differences decide what a campaign earns.
| What you get | A general marketing automation tool | Esplanda |
|---|---|---|
| Who gets the message | Lists and tags you build and keep up | Groups from real purchases, each customer measured against their own buying rhythm |
| What the offer says | A template you fill in | Real items at today’s prices, with enough stock to honor it and never past your discount ceiling |
| Stock and margins | Out of view unless you connect and map them | The same system as your register, your stock and your costs |
| How results are reported | Opens, clicks and sales from people who got the message | Extra profit against a matched group held back, less the cost of sending |
| Ads | A separate tool, or an agency fee tied to spend | Google, Meta and TikTok inside a cap you set, with no percentage of spend |
Automations beyond marketing, from reorders to alerts, run in our business automation software.
Ads
Ads on a spend cap, with no cut taken
Google Ads management for small business often comes with a fee tied to how much you spend. Esplanda takes none. You set a cap per channel, the money goes to Google, Meta or TikTok, and every campaign is judged on profit after the ad cost.
- You set the cap. A monthly cap per channel, approved by you. Raising it always comes back to you.
- Judged on profit. Profit is reported per channel. Each campaign is built for your approval, and no ad spend is committed without your approval.
- No percentage of spend. A fee based on spend rewards spending more, not earning more. With a flat price, Esplanda only looks good when the results do.
Ads bring new shoppers; social media automation keeps your store in front of the ones nearby.
Your limits
Your limits, and what $199 a month includes
You set the limits once and decide what runs. Esplanda builds each campaign for your approval, and the journeys you switch on, such as welcome and win-back, go out on schedule inside your discount ceiling.
- How often any one customer may be contacted
- The hours messages may go out
- The deepest discount an offer may carry
- Which groups may be contacted at all
- Texts only to customers who opted in
- Sending stops where results turn negative
| Job | Included each month |
|---|---|
| Customer groups | 25,000 scored contacts, refreshed nightly from purchase history |
| Email and text | 25,000 emails and 1,000 text segments. Beyond that, sends are charged per send, and sending stops at 150% until you approve a top-up |
| Social posts | 60 posts across 3 accounts, plus 2 syndication pushes. See social media automation |
| Articles | 12 published articles, plus 2 news or press pushes |
| Ads on Google, Meta and TikTok | 22 creative variants, with spend managed up to $10,000 a month on your own card, never marked up |
| Listings | 15 listings maintained, Google questions monitored and 12 Google Business Profile posts |
Any ad spend waits for your approval, and you can switch to approve-everything mode at any time. Grow My Business ($699), our done for you marketing, contains this line in full and runs the marketing to a revenue goal you set, so the two are never billed together. Read why Esplanda is safe to trust, or see every line on Esplanda pricing.
Questions
Marketing automation questions owners ask
What are marketing automation tools?
Software that sends messages on a schedule or a trigger, such as a welcome email, a win-back offer or a reminder when a customer is due again, and reports how each one did. Esplanda’s marketing automation also picks the customers from real purchases, writes each message from your shelf and measures it in profit.
What does marketing automation do for a small business?
It picks who to contact, writes the message, sends it at the right time and reports what it earned. For a small business the part that matters most is targeting: a relevant offer to the customers it suits beats a generic one to everybody, and it costs less. Esplanda covers all four steps. You decide what runs, and every result is measured in profit.
How does Esplanda decide who gets a campaign?
From purchase history, not demographics. Each customer is measured against their own buying rhythm, so Esplanda can tell who is drifting away, who bought once and never came back, who buys one category and who is due again. Each group gets a different message.
How do I know if a marketing campaign made money?
Esplanda holds back a matched group of customers from every send and compares the two groups. The result is the extra profit from the customers who got the message over a stated window, less the cost of sending. It leaves out the customers who were coming in anyway, so the figure is what the campaign really earned.
Does Esplanda take a percentage of my ad spend?
No. You set a cap per channel, the money goes to Google, Meta or TikTok, and Esplanda takes no percentage of it and never marks it up. Ad spend is separate from the software price and runs on your own card.
Will marketing automation spam my customers?
No. You set how often any one customer may be contacted, the hours messages may go out, the deepest discount an offer may carry and which groups may be contacted at all. Texts go only to customers who opted in, and Esplanda stops sending to groups where results have turned negative.
Does anything go out without my approval?
Only what you have switched on. Every campaign waits for your approval, and the journeys you turn on, such as welcome, win-back and birthday, go out on schedule inside the limits you set once: discount ceiling, contact frequency, quiet hours, consent and suppression. Any ad spend always waits for your approval, and you can switch to approve-everything mode at any time.
Is marketing automation affordable for a small business?
Yes. With Esplanda it is the Marketing — Do It Yourself line: $199 per location per month, month to month, with no setup fee and no contract, and Esplanda POS is free. Each month includes 25,000 emails and 1,000 text segments. Ad spend runs on your own card, never marked up, and Esplanda takes no percentage of it. Every line is on Esplanda pricing.
Bring customers back, and see what it earned
Start free today, or book a demo and we'll walk through a campaign plan for a store like yours.
Esplanda POS and your website are free to start, with no card needed. Marketing — Do It Yourself is $199 per location per month when you want it.
