Marketing automation is not new and it’s safe to say the honeymoon period is well and truly over. Much to a lot of CEOs disappointment everybody now understands that automation platforms cannot replace the whole marketing team, however, they can make life a whole lot easier and our marketing and lead lead generation a lot more efficient. Here is a quick and easy guide to getting automation right and using it to compliment the rest of your marketing strategy.
First of all, what exactly is it? Marketing automation is essentially software that will enable you to streamline, automate and measure your marketing tasks so that you can be more efficient and grow your bottom line quicker. Its primary task is to nurture and convert them into customers by providing them with personalised and added value content that eventually convinces them that your product or service is worth investing in. It essentially does all the mandrolic time consuming jobs such as responding to emails, posting on social media and monitoring who’s been on your website, leaving you free to look at the bigger picture.
When done right, marketing automation can help you to generate significant new revenue and give you a great return on investment by saving you time and increasing your brand awareness. Here are a few tips to help you get the most out of it:
Know your audience - make sure you have a way of segmenting your data so that you can personalise your approach. This needs to be done first and requires human input.
Get personal. Don’t just spam! Use automation to create work flows that inform prospects based on their preferences e.g. someone who is interested in fast print solutions gets information on your next day services.
Use automation to drive prospects to specific parts of your website – this way you can track their behaviours and interests getting them ready for engagement.
Be careful with over personalisation – just putting a name on an automatic email does not constitute personalisation, it can instead make it look fake and cheesy, especially if you are not 100% confident that their name is correct.
Having reactive content that automatically customises an email to the recipients’ preferences is a useful feature for an automation platform.
Plan out your workflows and how they will interact with each other based on the journey you want your prospect to take. Don’t just create one off the cuff as it could lead to saturating the prospect with emails or content.
Have a realistic lead scoring system and if you are unsure, do your research. Don’t put too much weight on email clicks or single interactions.
Have an end goal. What is the purpose of your amazing content? Always have a call to action and know what you will do when a prospect reaches a certain lead score e.g. will you call them to qualify? Send a message to the sales team to follow up? How will you convert all your hard work?
What Does Good Marketing Automation Look Like?
Good marketing automation will enable you to understand the changing and evolving needs of your prospects. It will help you to track the behaviours they display and how they interact with you across your various marketing channels. By understanding the behaviour of your prospects and the type of content their tuning into, you are able to tailor your message more effectively and build a greater understanding of what they are interested in and what they need. This process of interaction and nurturing will help you to know the right time to make human contact and the optimum time the prospect is ready to buy. That’s what good marketing automation looks like.
