How-to-Guide: Marketing Automation Strategy

When you think of a marketing strategy, whatthoughtscome to mind? Is it elaborate plans on how to exponentially grow your business? Or perhaps it’s something as simple as using technology to advance your marketing efforts for a greater return on investment.

Many marketing automation companies can assist you with customising a package that will suit your business requirements. Marketing automation allows you to enhance efficiencies in terms of workflow processes and marketing tasks. It also measures the productivity of each task to see if you’re getting a gainful return on investment (ROI).

In this article we’ll walk you through the easy steps you can follow to implement a successful marketing automation strategy. We’ll also explore themes such as how marketing automation assists with customer interactions, better allocation of budgets and providing substantial analytics.

The Four Steps to Automation

Implementing automated processes should not be done before evaluating and establishing a proper workflow. If you first create a workflow process it will make it easier for your team to get ready for the new marketing processes to be implemented. It will also result in your marketing automation systems yielding better results for your company.

The following steps will guide you towards successful implementation:

• List the correct tasks: Determine your team's most cyclical tasks. In this area, you'll derive the most value from automation. Repetitive tasks that eat up a lot of time can now be automated and valuable resources can be freed up. Do a detailed mapping of all your marketing tasks and list those that are time-consuming & admin-heavy.
• Select the most suitable software: There are infinite options available from different marketing automation companies all offering automation software. Selecting the most fitting solution for your business is key. Most service providers offer a free trial so you can test it in your specific environment for a perfect fit.
• Training: The sometimes forgotten step that can cause a lot of frustration and resistance among staff is training. Taking the time and money to properly train your staff is essential. It makes the transition smoother and promotes better adaption to the new marketing processes. Even though automation benefits your marketing team, it’s still important for them to understand it fully.
• Evaluation: Your implementation plan doesn’t end with installing the marketing automation software. On the contrary. You’ll need to regularly review the system to see if there are areas that need improvement. You can also check if certain aspects aren't working well and build on those areas that are working well. It’s a continuous process of evaluating and amending to get to the most optimal state of performance.

Merging Your Marketing Strategy with Automation

There are some effortless ways of introducing marketing automation into your overall marketing strategy. Automation is complementary to your strategy and can easily be included by following theseeasy techniques.

Customer Interactions

It’s important to keep a new lead warm and attended to. Marketing automation helps you to send out timeous email responses acknowledging a request from a customer. It can also support a customer’s journey with the company via simple automation functions such as:

• Chatbots that offer support to customers on your website
• Automatic reminders to call customers
• Text messaging within a specific time limit

Analytics

There’s a saying that goes ‘cash is king’. Perhaps it should be changed to ‘data is king’ to honour the importance of mining and analysing data to determine customer behaviour better.

Marketing automation software gathers data concerning sales, leads, customers and so forth. It assists marketers to evaluate the success of past campaigns and forecast which strategies will work in the future.

Budgets

Every project is governed by a budget. Whether it’s big or small a budget sets the parameters of how much resources will be allocated tospecific activities.

When introducing marketing automation into your business you’re bound to save money as repetitive tasks are automated which requires less staff. You’ll also be able to get more out of your specialist staff as they'll no longer be bogged down by mundane tasks. They can focus on more specialised functions.

How toAdvance Marketing Automation

If you’re considering implementing marketing automation in your company, here are some innovative strategies to assist you:

• It’s important to know exactly what your message is before you launch your marketing campaign
• Customers appreciate content that’s personalised so make sure your automation software can personalise messages
• Automation makes A/B testing simpler and allows you to modify where necessary
• Get the support from your team by keeping communication open and training staff to embrace the implementation of the new software
• The customer experience is the key focus area and the success of implementing automation software rest on how customers respond to it

Final Thoughts

The benefits of marketing automation are numerous. It saves you money, increases productivity and advances efficiencies. Best of all, it lends support to customers throughout their journey.