When operating a business, time is one of the most precious and valuable commodities which needs to be used wisely. Often business owners and employees are time-poor with not enough hours in a working week to accomplish all they wish to achieve, leading to unfinished objectives. Alternatively, people tend to work unhealthy hours to reach these objectives, which can be detrimental to their health, causing physical and emotional burnout.

This is when marketing automation can step in to help your business!

The appealing marketing automation argument

In recent times a large portion of marketing strategies and budgets are focused on the online audience. Analysing the market, communicating with customers, searching for leads and exposing business brands are all key ingredients to creating a sustainable and successful business. However, this all takes precious time and comprehensive planning, which needs financial and human resources to undertake. When you distribute some of this workload to marketing automation, it will relieve pressure on workers and free up valuable time, adding to the appealing argument of its benefit to the business operation.

Benefits of marketing automation:

• Save valuable time
• Great customer insight
• Efficient marketing outreach
• Creates natural leads
• Increased sales and revenue
• Improved productivity

What is marketing automation?

Marketing automation uses software to carry out online marketing activities that would typically be performed by hand. It can be established to suit your business to execute routine tasks that may take yourself or an employee valuable time to complete. Typically the personal touch is still there as the task that the marketing automation software is designed to perform will need to be created by a human. However, you will leave the repetitive and time-consuming commitment to the marketing automation software.

Why set up marketing automation for your business?

Before any marketing automation is implemented, you need to clarify why you are contemplating using marketing automation. You may have read it helps online marketing strategy, which it does, but why do you need it for your business? Is it because you are wasting too much time sending out repetitive emails? Or is it that you need help to boost your online brand to the mobile audience? Perhaps you want an improved relationship with customers, so they return to use your service? Whatever it may be, it is always crucial to know the reasons why you plan to use marketing automation to help you set goals and introduce strategies.

Setting your marketing automation goals

Once the reasons for marketing automation are clear, you can begin to set goals that you wish to achieve with its inception. When you use marketing automation in your business, it essentially is a part of your workforce; therefore, like all your employees, it should have goals it needs to reach. Your goal may be a short-term project where mass outreach and advertising are necessary for an upcoming sale. Or perhaps it is a long term plan to increase new customer leads with a goal and deadline set to give strategic direction. You should record your goals for the business’s benefit and the marketing automation agency if you choose to use one.

Select the right marketing automation software

This next step is the most important but also the hardest if you are not familiar with the software available. The challenge is to find marketing automation software that suits your business, which is easier said than done considering the many choices available. To narrow down your options, it’s best to start by evaluating your budget. 

Evaluate your budget

The cost for marketing automation software can range considerably, so if you are a small business with limited funds, you will immediately slim down your software option. How your business finances are set up will also be a factor. You may prefer month by month payments to suit your business cash flow, or maybe multi-year subscriptions that require a large upfront payment but are more economical in the long term are preferred.

Align your goals

Aligning your reasons and goals to what a certain marketing automation software offers will also help you decide which software is best. Some marketing automation software is more job-specific, for example, focusing purely on email outreach. In contrast, others are more holistic and can offer an all-in-one service if that is what you require. 

Do your research

Eventually, you will need to choose, and some marketing automation software offers free trials or money-back guarantees, which takes away some risks. And as with all non-trialled services, it is advised to do your research by reading the many online marketing automation software reviews and testimonials.

How marketing automation will help your business!

Track the behaviour of your audience

Some may find it weird to track audience behaviour when they visit your web page; however, it is important as it helps create the best online user experience. Marketing automation can collect information on which content is most appealing to visitors, like video content and how they interact. This data can help web page optimisation cater to your audience, creating new leads and greater customer satisfaction. This is a crucial part of successful content marketing.

Get the most out of your social media identity

Social media is a dominant player in the marketing world. It can be incredibly time-consuming for businesses to keep on top of all the different social media apps they have a presence in. As social media is an immediate marketing source and is trend-based, it is essential not to miss opportunities for brand exposure. Social media marketing automation can be a huge support in this area. 

The software enables you to write posts in advance and distribute them at designated times, simultaneously across all social media mediums. It also collects data on post and message reactions and lead results to see what works and what doesn’t work for your brand.

Keep a strong client connection with email outreach

A standout marketing communication constant through the last few decades is email. It may not be as attractive and fancy as modern forms of marketing, but it has many positives. Emails seem personalised as they are sent to an individual rather than shared with the masses, and emails can be sent out without fuss when utilising marketing automation. 

Email marketing automation can be used to keep a strong client connection with thoughtful birthday messages and VIP discounts. It can also help with customer follow up, offering review opportunities and running survey campaigns. Triggered emails can also help with improved sales, with email reminders sent to a user with products in a shopping basket to help complete a purchase, as an example. 

It is also worth mentioning that emails are an environmentally friendly choice, and as we become an environmentally educated society, many are opting for paperless communication and advertising.

Advertise your brand at the right time, in the right place

Big billboard displays and newspaper real estate are no longer the main advertising spaces to spread brand awareness. There is plenty of opportunities to put your business on show online, but knowing when and where to use advertising can be stressful. This is when marketing automation software can analyse your market to understand where to display your ads to attract new leads. 

It may be a Facebook ad to catch casual browsers or possibly a site-specific approach to help lure users who are already exploring services similar to your own. Either way, automated advertising will be able to assess the data and make an accurate and precise drop of your business’s ads, bringing traffic your way.

Making sure the price is right

When you have a service or product to share, it’s hard to put value on it. Your business needs to cover overheads and pay wages all while staying competitive. With pricing marketing automation, you can set your prices to suit your budget and allow the software to make adjustments to improve sales. 

Prices may be too cheap compared to your competition; therefore, a slight price rise can be made without scaring away customers and enhancing revenue. In contrast, prices may be too steep and dropping them marginally can increase conversion rates. All this information can be collected and implemented by marketing automation software, making it the best management tool for businesses with constant pricing variants.

Evaluating the marketing automation performance

It is essential to evaluate the marketing automation performance, the same as you would do with your human employees. The software has a job to do, and you have previously stated why you ‘employed’ its services and the goals it needs to achieve. It is recommended that periodically a comprehensive assessment of the effectiveness is done, comparing the business using marketing automation versus your business without it. 

Results may show marketing automation is a clear winner and is here to stay, or perhaps the strategy needs to be adjusted in certain areas. Or maybe it’s just not the right fit for your business. Nevertheless, marketing automation has so many potential advantages that it is worth taking the automated leap. Before you know it, you could have happy customers, improved sales and time on your side.