You may have heard of marketing automation – also called marketing orchestration – which is a tool designed to streamline and ease the process of marketing. Essentially, marketing automation takes the drudgery out of marketing and allows you to focus on more important things in life! It helps you automate the repetitive tasks that bog you down so that you can get back to enjoying your life.
Many businesses have adopted marketing automation to great success, so it’s worthwhile to explore what this tool is and how it can help your business.
Why Are Small Businesses Embracing Marketing Automation?
Thanks to the rise of the digital economy and the popularity of digital marketing platforms like Google Ads and Facebook Marketing, marketing automation has become widely accessible and useful to businesses of all sizes.
Whether you have a single store or an eCommerce business, marketing automation can help you get the most out of your campaigns by setting goals and measuring results so you can continue to improve your performance and meet new sales objectives. Thanks to automation, you can spend more time on content that matters to customers and less time on administrative tasks that can be handled by employees. Overall, marketing automation helps businesses gain a greater foothold in the increasingly digital world.
Is Marketing Automation Right for You?
It’s important to ask yourself the right questions before considering marketing automation as a solution. Here are some of the things you need to check out before making a decision:
Does your sales process flow without a hitch?
You can’t grow your business without happy customers and repeat customers, so it’s essential that your sales process functions smoothly. If a significant number of your customers have had negative experiences, it may be time to revisit your sales process and make improvements. You can use marketing automation to help you discover and close these gaps in your sales flow so that you can retain customers and encourage them to spread the word about your business. In doing so, you lower your customer support burden and avoid customer churn.
Do you use manual processes to track marketing performance?
If you’re diligent about tracking the performance of your marketing campaigns, you may find that manual processes are cumbersome and difficult to manage. Marketing automation can help you digitize this process and add more transparency and data-driven analysis so you can continue to improve. Essentially, marketing automation makes it easier for you to follow the steps required to market your business and provides you with the tools to do so effectively.
Do you have a single email database for marketing?
If you’re solely relying on email to communicate with your customers, it’s vital that you have a single, centralized database that can be accessed by employees who need to send out emails related to marketing campaigns or offers. The advantage of a centralized database is that it makes it simpler for you to send out marketing emails since all the information required is available in one place. In addition, having a single data source for marketing allows you to track the results of your campaigns and recognize which strategies are proving most successful.
Do you have a process in place for nurturing leads?
Leads are vital to the growth of your business. You’ll want to nurture these leads using various tactics including content marketing, email marketing, and social media. The easiest way to do this is with a simple and streamlined nurturing process. Using automation, you can set up automated emails and social media posts to follow up with leads after they’ve interacted with your content. As a result, you’ll grow your business, increase your revenue, and enjoy a greater degree of engagement with your customers.
Does your marketing budget fit your objectives?
You may be looking to grow your business rapidly, and accordingly, your marketing budget may be expanding to reflect this. Before you rush out and increase your spending, make sure you’ve considered your business goals and whether your budget is currently adequate to reach these goals. There are several options for digital marketing including SEO, PPC (Pay-Per-Click Advertising), and affiliate marketing so you’re bound to find something that fits your needs. It’s important to remember that you shouldn’t solely rely on digital marketing to grow your business; you should also be using the traditional methods of advertising so that your target audience is aware of your existence. Even in cases where you’ve successfully used digital marketing to grow your business, you shouldn’t neglect the value of good old-fashioned word-of-mouth marketing. It’s still one of the most effective and cost-efficient ways to spread the word about your business.
How Can Marketing Automation Help?
The uses of marketing automation are numerous, but it can help businesses gain a greater foothold in the digital world through the following ways:
Email Marketing
Thanks to the popularity of email marketing, the use of marketing automation in this capacity is inevitable. You can utilize automation to help you design and send out quality emails to your customers with relevant, on-topic content.
In addition, you can integrate email marketing with other marketing channels like social media where possible. This would allow you to send out customized emails with content curated from various platforms.
You may want to consider using various email marketing services like MailChimp, Constant Contact, or HubSpot to help you manage your email marketing. These services offer you the tools you need to design custom campaigns, segment your list, and send out effective emails that encourage your customers to action (i.e., make a purchase, fill out a form, or click a link).
Content Marketing
If you’re looking to gain a greater degree of confidence in your marketing efforts, you may want to consider implementing content marketing. This is simply the practice of producing and sharing high-quality, valuable content that teaches, informs, or entertains your target audience. This content may be delivered through various platforms like websites, podcasts, or even magazines. The advantage of delivering content through various platforms is that it provides you with the ability to target various groups of people based on their interests. In turn, this provides you with a greater opportunity to grow your business.
If you want to implement content marketing, it’s important to consider several factors. First, make sure that you’ve got the content strategy planned out before you begin to execute. This includes deciding what content will be released when, where, and how often. It also means creating key goals and metrics to determine the success of your content marketing campaign.
Next, you need to decide what platform(s) you’ll use to disseminate this content. This is a decision that depends on your target audience, existing resources, and budget. If possible, you want to use more than one platform (e.g., SEO, PPC, and social media) so that you can reach a wider audience. Finally, make sure that you’ve got a call-to-action (e.g., a link, an offer, or a request for more information) at the end of every written piece of content.
With these tips in mind, it’s easy to see why so many businesses have adopted marketing automation. It makes the marketing process less tedious and more effective. Furthermore, thanks to the integration of technology, businesses can gain a greater foothold in the increasingly digital world.