A lot of companies now utilize marketing automation software to help them in their business. But what is it exactly and how can it be successful? This article will help you on how to have an effective marketing automation strategy for your business.
What are the terms you need to know in marketing automation software?
Marketing automation software support is a kind of software that automatically creates an integrated marketing strategy that has an automated business roadmap with customer-driven scenarios. Here are some terms that you need to know about marketing automation:
- Customer relationship management. This is a kind of management that manages the relationship between the business, its sales and leads, and its customers. Communication and persona profiling are common ways in enhancing the customer relationship.
- Drip campaign. These are a series of marketing that is given to prospective leads over a period of time to nurture leads. This is done by delivering relevant data to the prospected leads. The end product of the drip campaign is getting a quality conversion.
- There are two kinds of leads, qualified and unqualified leads. Unqualified leads are those potential customers that may need to be nurtured more or does not fit the requirements needed to be a qualified lead yet. They could be an influencer to the business but is not the main decision-maker of their company. They might need someone to educate them on what your products and services are so that they can become qualified leads later on. Qualified leads are the ones that are the decision-makers and know why your products and services benefit them. They may have undergone a nurturing lead campaign or is very knowledgeable about your products and services. They are willing to be your customers and all you need to do is make your sales team earn their trust and get their positive feedbacks. Marketing Automation Tools will focus on qualified leads every time that there’s an opportunity.
- Lead scoring. This is a tool that determines whether or not a prospective lead can be potential customer in the future. It is determined by points and the higher the number of points, the higher the chance a lead can become a customer. Example of a positive point score is when they actively answer your email and a negative point score is when your newsletter is unsubscribed by them.
- Customer Lifecycle. This is a process that finds out what stage is your prospective customer. It starts with the initial point of contact, to interest and education and lastly loyal and repeat customers.
Now you know some terms that would help in marketing automation, why not check out CrowdReviews.com’s Marketing Automation Software Reviews to find out what’s the best software for you. Now, let’s talk about the five ways to have an effective marketing automation strategy.
Dynamic Content
The top marketing automation software always uses dynamic content for their customers. It gives an improved customer experience for them. It also provides your customers personalized content that they quickly become engaged to and stay longer. More often than not, dynamic content is more about personalization. Your customers feel more valued because you know what their likes and dislikes are.
Implementing email marketing automation tools with dynamic content collects all the customer data they have and use all the resources they can find to customize content just for your customers. You can start with just something basic like promoting your products and services or you can have an email promotion offering discounts or the like. For example, if your customer has purchased a lot of mittens and jackets, why not give them a discount of your winter collection? Having email segmentation can lead to a 62% increase in your click rates.
Drip Campaigns
We’re already mentioned drip campaigns earlier. Drip campaigns are most commonly found in the form of email marketing automation where your customers just need a push or friendly reminders to let them know why your products or services are good for them. They can also be in the form of phone-based marketing and direct mail but email is the most cost-effective, easiest to set up and proficient way in drip campaigns.
There was a research done by Emma that people who had gotten drip email campaigns have an 119% increased chance of them clicking the links that was provided. Drip campaigns can also determine the preference of your customers and arrange them accordingly. You can segment them by demographics, their purchase history and their likes or dislikes.
However, one thing you have to remember is that if you bombard your customers a lot of drip campaigns, it will annoy them instead of motivating them. It’s best if you send them quick reminders in a timely manner and be specific in what you want them to do. This will increase the chances for them to interact and take action. Salesforce Pardot has written a great Infographic about drip campaigns if you want to learn more.
Nurture Campaigns
Nurturing campaigns is an important strategy for marketing automation. It is the main factor to connect with your potential leads and establishes customer relationships. It also sustains consistent communication between your customers and leads, increase customer engagement and gives out recommendations for potential leads. To make sure to have an effective nurture campaign, follow the steps below:
- Determine your target market. Find out what specific type of customers or leads you’re starting the nurture campaign. In this way, it will be easier to find out how you can nurture them later on.
- Show them that you’re interested first and value them before you start selling. Don’t just start selling your products and services immediately. You need to build trust first and let them know that you value them even though they haven’t purchased anything yet. You can encourage them by giving out free ebooks or access to free trainings and content. It’s more likely that they’ll stay afterwards because of the good service you provided.
- Set your business goals and objectives. Set up your business goals and objectives. Make a step-by-step process that can attract your leads into potential customers, then potential customers to loyal customers. Find out ways on how to make them purchase and use your products and services.
- Be consistent and timely. Do not rush into the sale immediately. Determine your sale cycle and be consistent. Nurturing campaigns take time so it’s best if you have lots of patience. Don’t worry, it will pay off in the end.
- Evaluate and make improvements. Once your campaign is over, think of what went well and what didn’t went well. Improve and focus on the things that was not very effective. Take note of what went well and include it in your next campaign.
Nurturing campaigns is very powerful because it helps your customers stay engaged with your business. If done successfully, you’ll be able to deliver quality content to your leads and customers so that they’ll keep in touch and always remember you.
HubSpot has a more detailed explanation about the steps in creating a successful nurture campaign. You can also check out CrowdReviews.com’s Top Marketing Automation Software that has the best nurture campaigns today.
Proficient Staff
If you’re planning to have a team dedicated for marketing automation, you need to find out what are the roles and responsibilities of each member of the team. Roles would vary, depending on the company’s size. A bigger company need more because of the tasks they need to do such as more follow ups, more campaigns and more potential leads to cultivate. You can have the following team members if your group is large:
- Administrator or operations manager. The person that is responsible for making the hard decision-making, coordinates and distributes the tasks for each team and sets their goals.
- Program manager. The person that is responsible for determines what are the factors needed for the campaign.
- Lead nurturing expert. The person that is responsible for creating campaigns, schedules and finds out what to write for their content.
- Analytics expert. The person that is responsible for managing the reports, analysis and other metrics needed for marketing automation and for checking the ROI (return of investment).
- Web designer. The person that is responsible for designing your website including the landing pages and the web forms.
- Content writers. The person that is responsible for researching and writing the content needed for your campaigns.
If you don’t have a big group, you can have two main groups or individuals handling your marketing automation. They are:
- Data specialist. They are the ones that provide qualified leads to your sales and marketing team. They are able to track your ROI’s and use analytics tool to help out customers and leads.
- Email specialist. They are the ones that plans campaigns including drip campaigns. They find useful content and utilize them in their marketing automation strategies.
One good thing about Marketing Automation Software is that no matter how many employees you have, it maximizes your employee resources. Even using just one employee can implement complex campaigns and have a great user relationships with your customers.
Having marketing automation is very useful for your business. They can help you connect with potential leads and keep your existing customers engaged. You’ll be able to analyze your campaign’s progress and reports. But just like any other software, for you to be able to utilize this software, you should be able to know the basics and from there, enhance it. Why not read CrowdReviews.com’s Marketing Automation Software Reviews to start your marketing automation today?
Jeev Trika
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