Even with the wealth of technology available to us, many marketers are lost at sea when it comes to implementing marketing automation strategies. Of course, you can always opt to go the convenient albeit slow manual route. If your objective is to simply get results, this method seems plausible. However, to truly up your game, you need to step up a notch higher.
Marketing automation softwares are now almost the norm in the digital marketing landscape. Despite the universality of the concept, businesses are not at par with each other. This is because some ventures long decided to keep up with the times. The tech evolution through the years admittedly forced their hand when it came to implementing marketing automation strategies.
A study conducted by GetResponse showed that about 30% of marketers use marketing automation strategies to save time. Another 22% cited the lead generation was the prime reason for their adoption of the technology. We’ll be looking to highlight a couple of noteworthy guidelines on marketing automation strategies. These tips are effective in that they provide a sure way for lead conversion.
1. Dynamic Content
Unique content is all the fuel you need to drive your marketing campaigns. As Joe Pulizzi once mentioned, “Content marketing is all about telling a compelling story.”
Marketing automation softwares are heavily reliant on unique content in order to deliver quality information on leads. Poor content is unlikely to attract many prospects. In fact, poorly crafted content can have a negative effect on your audience. To prevent clicks from bouncing off your website, you need to gain readers trust by coming up with compelling narratives.
Before drafting up content, you need to have an understanding of the recipients, list out their expectations, then, seek to solve them. To further enhance your campaign, it’s always wise to seek feedback from respondents. That way, you can learn about new avenues to improve and what really works for you.
2. Drip Campaigns
Well-crafted drip campaigns can help you bridge the gap between you and your leads. With a drip campaign in mind, you can format your messages to inspire increased lead interaction on your website via emails. Other than influencing a number of marketing channels, drip campaigns also help nurture leads right until they are primed to buy.
With drip campaigns, you can develop a stronger relationship with your leads. All this without necessarily having to interact with them one-on-one. Research by Email Monks demonstrated that drip campaigns tend to increase email open rates by about 80 percent. The increased email opening rate is largely attributed to enhanced levels of credibility and trust. From an operational perspective, this is important since it qualifies for a 33% percent drop in cost.
3. Bridge the Collaboration Gap
To effectively run a large organization, communication is of the essence. Since many organizations are branched into multiple layers, it can sometimes be arduous to get the information to flow. Inter-department exchanges are known to provide a major headache in such circumstances.
By using marketing automation software, you can ensure that all departments are in-sync with one another. In doing so, they are able to interact with each other and improve customer service dispensation. This is especially true since information on clients is available across the board. Real-time updates on what leads do is vital in a streamlined system. This is because all departmental heads are in the loop on the happenings of the sales process.
4. Nurture Campaigns
These campaigns are set up in order to convince leads to complete the sale. The nurturing process makes utility of dynamic content oft tailored for specific leads. This tactic is effective since Forrester research showed that you can generate 50% more sales. Even more impressive is the fact that you can do so with a substantial 33% dip in costs.
Right from the onset, each lead takes a different route. The initial welcoming email is not sufficient grounds for a lead to buy a product. It is through content nurturing that you can assuage their fears and coerce them to buy. By using tools like AgileCRM, Infusionsoft, and Salesforce, you can divide your leads into categories. From there on, you can develop varied strategies to get them in the fold.
5. Boost Loyalty with Marketing Automation
After sale services are equally important as the actual sale. Those in the know will be quick to point out that customer retention is easier compared to seeking new ones. While this is true, many organizations tend to neglect buyers once they buy products. The number reason behind this is because they tend to get stuck on efficient modes to do so.
With marketing automation, the narrative changes. This is because you can track customer loyalty by having queries all through the sales process. You can thus be able to spot the ardent fans and provide incentives for them to further engage. The most popular incentive used is provided through referrals. Offering products to loyal customers at a cheaper rate for every new referral is a fantastic strategy. You get to please existing clients while acquiring new ones. Essentially, you get to kill two birds with one stone. All at the comfort of your desk with the marketing automation software doing most of the heavy lifting.
6. Abandoned Cart Reminders
E-commerce sites tend to experience a large number of customers stacking items in their trolleys. While this is a good thing, the downside is that many willing customers forget to check out. As a marketer, you can make maximum utility of marketing automation technologies by sending reminders. The automated series of emails are usually 3 and are aimed at convincing customers to buy.
Research backs this assertion. On average, forgotten cart email reminders are twice more likely to be opened compared to regular emails. By sending reminders to clients, you are more likely to boost the conversion rate. Ideally, you should set a timeout period (usually 24 hours) which upon expiry, activates the workflow. To boost your overall sales, you can configure the reminder emails to do more by providing coupons. Additionally, you can offer product suggestions and maximize the ROI.
7. Lead Scoring
Not all leads are created equal. Before embarking on mass email distribution, you need to lay the ground rules for qualification. This means that you need to qualify which leads to pursue and which ones to ignore. Since the number of prospects you seek to pursue are usually too many to manually cover, this is where marketing automation comes in.
The lead scoring process entails assigning points to worthy leads based purely on their nature. There should be a number of columns created upon which points are scored for each lead. The award of these points is determined after specific actions that often lead to conversion are undertaken.
8. Onboarding Sequence
You can make maximum utility of your website by creating a series of steps for visitors to your website to sign up. After going through the various stages to confirm their accounts, users can then be able to benefit from the program.
This marketing automation strategy works because it gives visitors a better user experience. In addition to this, user engagement levels are enhanced since website visitors get to learn about various features. The onboarding sequence also makes it easier for you to track your outreach campaign.
9. Social Media
In modern business operations, social media has become integral. The various platforms available tend to influence how users embrace brands. About 50% of all consumers make utility of search engines and social media sites to help them decide on what to buy. In such situations, the companies with the strongest social media presence stand a better chance. This is because their regular posts make them seem trustworthy and worth checking out.
Other than selling, social media can also be used for the sampling of new products and services. Studies have shown that individuals who take samples often fell obligated to buy later on. This trait has been earmarked as being a naturally occurring human need to reciprocate positive intentions.
In order to get the most out of social media, you first need to ensure that your SEO game is on lock. That way, you’ll have a better chance to stand out from the competition.
