Simplify Your Workflow by Adding Marketing Automation

Automation is helping marketers work more efficiently and the transition to automation has been amazing to watch. Suddenly, hundreds of menial working hours can be replaced by one hour of automation. Rather than working day and night to assess data and make strong decisions for a business, tools and resources are doing these things in record time.

If you’re investigating marketing automation this year, or perhaps wondering why everybody seems to be talking about it, we’re providing some answers here. In this guide, we’ll discuss the realities of marketing automation while answering some of the most common questions in the field.

What’s Marketing Automation?

For those starting with no knowledge at all, don’t worry. These days, there are all sorts of software tasked with automating the processes involved with marketing. For many years, marketing departments around the world have been wasting countless hours on social media, replying to emails, and finding the right audiences to target. Now, marketing automation software will look after these simple tasks automatically.

Why Choose Marketing Automation?

As a business, you need to generate leads, convert them into customers, increase your revenue, boost profit, and reinvest this profit.. This has been the formula for businesses for decades. With marketing automation, this doesn’t change. Instead, the way in which we nurture prospects and convert them into customers changes.

The investment in automation quickly brings a return because you’re more efficient in several processes. With software and programs generating leads and sending them the right content at the right times, your employees no longer have to deal with menial tasks. They can communicate with customers, monitor the software, and consider more ‘big picture’ ideas for the future.

Common Mistake with Marketing Automation

Sadly, we’ve seen many businesses make mistakes with marketing automation. In some cases, it has caused them significant setbacks. Perhaps the biggest error is automating the middle of the funnel while completely ignoring or forgetting the lead generation phase. It’s all well and good nurturing the leads when they come in, but this is useless if you don’t have leads to nurture in the first place.

To correct this issue, we see marketers invest in lists of email addresses. At first, this can seem like a great solution because it might just generate revenue. However, it isn’t a long-term solution that allows for organic leads. As soon as the list of email addresses has been used, the only way to get more customers is to get more. On the other hand, having organic inbound leads will allow a constant stream indefinitely.

Marketing Automation FAQs

Q: Should I invest in marketing automation this year?

A: In our experience, the companies ready to invest in marketing automation are those who already produce effective inbound marketing content, see a good flow of leads, but now want to scale upwards. There are only so many hours in the day, so there will come a time where you think you can’t do any more. If you’ve reached this stage, marketing automation will allow you to nurture all leads more effectively. Here are some key signs that your business is ready for marketing automation:

• The flow of new and qualified leads is increasing beyond the means of your business.
• Your sales team can no longer handle the number of leads with which they’re provided.
• You’ve mapped an efficient content strategy to the buyer’s journey.
• There are clearly defined boundaries between which conversations happen with sales and which occur with marketing.
• The digital body language of leads is being tracked across ALL marketing channels and touchpoints rather than just email.
• Your nurturing strategy is tried and tested, but now needs to be scaled.

If you recognize one or many of these signs, now would be a good time to invest. As long as the automation is done correctly, it will integrate with your business nicely.

Read More: AI Will Transform Your Marketing Automation

Before moving on, we should note that the aim of marketing automation isn’t to replace the role of your marketing team. Rather than doing all of the marketing for you, automation is about working more efficiently. When your marketing team needs assistance, you should look to integrate software and various other tools.

Q: What’s the best software for my business?

A: First things first, be cautious choosing software solely based on the recommendations of others. Talking to other businesses and getting their advice is great, but you still need to ensure that the software you choose will be right for your business. Before making any decisions, write down a list of your most important needs. From here, find the software that matches; mold the product to your needs, not the other way around.

Who needs what information? How many campaigns do you have running? Will the same prospect receive several messages? Which are the most important channels, data, and leads? Over time, you can develop a plan, establish some goals, and actually map out the marketing funnel.

When considering and comparing tools, look for those that have multiple functions. If you can find one that improves the function of not only marketing but operations, HR, and sales too, this will be a winner that stays with you for many years to come.

Eventually, you should be able to build a shortlist of names. At this point, feel free to take advantage of live software demonstrations and free trials. Talk to software companies, test them, compare quotes, and get the feedback of the marketing team. If you do your due diligence, you should be able to find the best fit for your business straight away.

Q: How can I ensure successful implementation?

A: When implementing marketing automation, we believe there are two key factors to keep in mind.

• As we saw earlier, the first thing to understand is that marketing automation will not do everything for you. Although this would be great, you first need to build relevant and optimized content that resonates with your audience. Once this foundation is in place, only then can automation be introduced successfully.
• Secondly, no matter what changes you implement in the time ahead, your marketing message should always resonate with the prospective customer at the other end. Just because we don’t know them personally, this doesn’t mean they aren’t a person. Over time, build a profile for a person and then reach out to their interests rather than concentrating solely on the emails they open.

Above all else, understand that this guide is on ‘simplifying’ your workflow by ‘adding’ marketing automation. If you still work hard and keep the foundations in place during the implementation phase, everything you’ve worked hard on so far can continue.

Q: Why do some people speak badly of marketing automation?

A: We’ve heard some say that they gave marketing automation a chance only for it to cause problems. While some businesses just weren’t ready, we believe the majority of problems arise when the foundation at the top of the funnel hasn’t been introduced. Therefore, it can’t support the middle and everything soon crumbles.

Some businesses don’t have inbound lead generation strategies which means that, rather than obtaining new leads, they try to squeeze even more from their limited audience. Why do this when 99% of the target market is still untouched and ready to be targeted?

Others rely too much on email and forget that other avenues of communication exist. These days, email filters are ubiquitous, and customers can instantly delete emails that don’t grab their attention. To ignore other avenues, then, would be a mistake; you would be ignoring other consumers and other parts of the decision process.

Read More: How To Use Reddit in Your Marketing Strategy

Summary

With this, you’re now in a great position to determine whether or not your business is ready for marketing automation. Rather than considering email clicks alone, have a broad perspective and always keep the prospect in mind.

If you want the best marketing automation strategy, consider the customer’s evolving needs. Collect data from multiple channels and send marketing messages on these channels. Suddenly, you won’t rely so heavily on email and buyers can be accessed in new ways.