The Do’s and Don’ts of Marketing Automation
Successful business owners realize the ultimate measure of success in their branding and marketing efforts is generating greater revenue for their companies. In today’s digital world, they also know well how challenging it can be to find creative ways to drive traffic to their websites, convert that traffic into leads and turn those leads into paying, loyal customers. In recent years, Marketing Automation is proving to be a powerful catalyst in helping achieve this goal and move businesses to the next level.
In a nutshell, Marketing Automation refers to software that automates multiple marketing efforts and makes them more effective in the end. This customized software is designed to help prioritize and execute marketing initiatives and tasks in a more streamlined and efficient way. It also provides the ability to strategically target ideal clients and send them personalized content, tools and resources based on that prospective client’s behavior. Essentially, it creates the capability to provide potential prospects information they need when they want it, slants their buying decision toward your services or products, and makes their buying decision easier.
If you are considering Marketing Automation to drive sales and greater exposure for your brand, here’s a few “do’s and don’ts” to keep in mind. But, before we get to all the great things you can and should be doing with your marketing automation, let’s get what you DON’T want to do out of the way:
DON'T just automate your current marketing process without revisiting your goals
While it may be tempting to jump into Marketing Automation by simply automating your current marketing routine, be sure to take a moment to revisit your goals before you get started. Be sure to set realistic goals for yourself, like improving lead quality and increasing revenue. You should always have goals set for your campaigns before planning and launching them so you can measure your success.
DON’T think that Marketing Automation will create content for you
Having these false expectations will only lead to a tough reality check if you don’t have strong content in place, or if you’re not considering having a professional or someone on your team create it. Either way, targeted and highly compelling content is the key to successful Marketing Automation.
DON'T just blast or broadcast general messages
With marketing automation, there is no need to send a general, broad message to your entire contact list, that statistics show will end up getting deleted or marked as spam, because it’s not relevant to your ideal, prospective client.
DON’T just set and forget
You’ll get the most out of your efforts by measuring, revisiting, and readjusting your segmentations, automation rules, and other actions you’ve set up within the software. This isn’t as time-consuming as you might think, but many businesses turn to Propel Business Solutions to maintain this ever-important consistency that can make or break success with Marketing Automation.
DON'T forget about your current clients
Selling new business and persuading new clients to do business with you instead of your competition is hard work. It’s easy to get laser-focused on generating new revenue and forget about the value of marketing and upselling to your current clients. Don’t overlook the reality your current clients already trust you and your services/products, they have an affinity for what they are selling, and chances are they would consider doing more business with your company.
Now, let’s look at the “Do’s". By now, are you wondering what you should be doing with your new automation software? See our list below:
DO target and segment your prospects and leads
Take advantage of the rich data provided by Marketing Automation to create more focused lists and campaigns. Do remember the more personalized and targeted your messaging and content, the better your results will be in the end.
DO send highly-targeted and specific content to a more narrow audience
Be certain to provide content, tools and resources your experience tells you your prospective clients will be seeking and always put yourself in the client’s shoes when making Marketing Automation choices and decisions. Consider this scenario: You’ve engaged with a company for some time and you maybe you’ve downloaded a piece of their content and really loved what you read. The next email you get is for a completely different topic that has nothing to do with what you just read. Wouldn’t it be more impactful if you received an email that continued to dive further into the topic that you are interested in? You’d be much more likely to do business with that company since they’re answering your questions, wouldn’t you? With Marketing Automation, you can do exactly this.
DO integrate marketing automation with your inbound marketing strategies
Inbound marketing is all about providing valuable content that aligns with your client’s needs and interests. This strategy should not shift when you begin using marketing automation. In fact, it should enhance your communication and the value of your services or products, as you can provide the content they need at the exact time that they need it.
DO set up client engagement campaigns to keep your current clients happy and coming back for more
We don’t want to make everything all about money, but one thing is true: It’s much easier to sell new business services to someone who has worked with you before. Keeping your current clients engaged with content marketing is an essential piece of your company’s future growth! You can nurture those relationships by sending segmented, client-targeted content that will educate and encourage them to continue to come back for your expertise to help solve their specific challenges. You can also use lead-nurturing capabilities to place new leads on drip campaigns and set up re-engagement campaigns to revive interest in your company for those leads who have gone inactive.
Bringing it all together
Okay, so now that we’ve outlined our Do’s and Don'ts, let’s bring it all back together. Marketing Automation is all about nurturing that leads to increased sales. We avoid the hard-sell approach in favor of content that is personalized, relevant and aligns with what your clients and prospects are looking for. And what’s even better, by implementing Marketing Automation software, this process gets a whole lot easier. You are able to quickly map the entire process and track to your specific marketing goals and easily manage your marketing spend and ROI.
At Propel Business Solutions, our entire team of storytellers, strategists, designers and technologists, are all about generating more business for our clients. During recent years, we’ve seen Marketing Automation produce incredible results and we encourage you to connect with us and explore how we can “propel” your business forward. Contact us today Hello@propelbusinesssolutions.com or visit our Capabilities page to learn more.