Marketing automation is a software system that assists with the process of sending targeted messages to your contacts and potential customers. It integrates with many different services, making it a robust tool.
Marketing automation systems allow you to organize your contacts into defined groups, or segments. These groups can be created based on specific actions taken by the individual (e.g. filling out a form, purchase history, etc.) or they can be created based on specific categories (geographic, demographical, etc.).
When marketing automation is put into practice, it runs campaigns that send specific messages to particular groups at particular times. For example, if you ran a free training session next week, the campaign would send an email to your subscribers about the session.
There are two main components of marketing automation: intelligent communications and coordinated communication channels.
Once you have mapped out your goals, the next step is to create a strategy for achieving them. This includes deciding which marketing channels to focus on, what kind of content to create and share, and how to integrate these efforts into a cohesive workflow.
Marketing automation allows you to streamline many of these processes, which saves time and enables you to focus on other things. For example, having an automated email sequence means you do not have to create and send emails manually.
You can set up all the stages of the email sequence (such as welcome email, second email with link to subscribe, third email with link to unsubscribe, etc.) and let the system do it for you.
By having your marketing automation in place before you need it, you also prevent any lapses in activity that may hurt your campaign effectiveness.
Before you can develop an automation strategy, you need to know what you want to achieve through it.
Marketing is a never-ending process that requires constant attention. With marketing automation, you can self-serve some tasks which allows you to focus more on other areas of your business.
Before investing in a marketing automation tool, determine the goals you want to achieve through it. These could be things like bringing in sales via email subscriptions or creating brand awareness through social media engagement.
By having clear goals, you can create actions that will result in achieving those goals. For example, if the goal is to increase email subscriptions, then the action could be to send out a welcome email that provides information on your business and what your customers will get from being a subscriber.
It is important to note that while marketing automation can help with producing results, it cannot perform magic. It will take hard work and continual effort to see results through using it.
Once you’ve determined your target audience, it’s time to identify the prospects that would most benefit your business.
You can do this in a few ways. First, you can use the data you’ve gathered about your target audience to identify who would benefit from your product or service.
Second, you can create marketing campaigns aimed at specific groups. For example, you could run a campaign aimed at working mothers who are struggling with mental health issues.
Finally, you can create targeted campaigns based on different stages of the buying process. You can offer them information on your business via email marketing, but also invite them to events or workshops where they can learn more about what you offer.
Either way, identifying and targeting specific groups will help you build your marketing automation strategy.
A customer journey map (also called a customer journey map or consumer journey map) is a way to outline the steps a prospective customer takes on their path to purchase.
It starts with awareness of your business or product, then proceeds through different stages of interest and commitment to buy.
You can include different channels (social media, search engines, etc.) in your journey map where you indicate how prospective customers move from one stage to the next.
This can help you identify which stages of the buying process take the longest and which channels are most effective at moving people through the buying process. It can also help you plan your marketing automation strategies by identifying what emails need to be sent at what points in the buying process. Your automated emails can also be personalized based on someone’s location in the buying process.
Having clear customer data needs is an integral part of creating an effective marketing automation strategy. You will need to understand what customers you have, who their friends are, what they like, and how they interact with your brand to leverage marketing campaigns effectively.
Some tools require you to have certain customer data to add people to campaigns, so it is important to have all the required information stored in one place before adding people to any automation workflow processes.
For instance, if a campaign requires customers to be added to a campaign if they engage in a specific action, then you would need to have access to who those people are and whether or not they engaged in the action.
Having clear customer data needs will help you implement more effective marketing campaigns by ensuring that you have the sufficient amount of customer data required for each campaign type.
Once you’ve decided what channels you’re going to use, the next step is to decide what content you’re going to create for your audience.
This can be done in two ways: You can either create content that your audience wants, or you can ask your audience what they want and provide it to them.
If you don’t know what your audience wants, try doing some research into what they talk about and ask them if there’s anything they want or need. Or do both!
Whether it’s asking your audience what they want or providing content that you know your audience wants, the goal is to make it as easy as possible for people to connect with you and what you have to offer.
Influencers can be social media stars, industry leaders, personality celebrities, or anyone with a large following. Their following is based on their fame, notoriety, or market presence.
You can pay them to promote your product on their social media accounts or through a sponsored post. They may even do it for free if they like your product.
Having your product endorsed by an influencer is very powerful because of their large following. Your product will get promoted through social media posts, which will lead to more clicks and conversions.
Influencers get tons of free products every day so you do not have to spend much to acquire theirs endorsement.
Social media is a huge part of marketing and marketing automation. Most people and businesses have at least one social media account, if not all of the major ones: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube.
However, it is not enough to just have an account. You need to engage with your audience, offer value through content, and build your follower base.
You should assess which platforms your target audience uses the most and make sure you have an account to connect with them. If you do not have an account but need one for marketing purposes, ask someone in your target audience to set one up for you.
Creating an account on any of these platforms is free!
Prioritize which ones will help you reach your target audience the most and invest in an account on those ones.
