Among the best ways to use your company's finite resources more efficiently is to use marketing automation. It helps you to market the right way to the right people at the right time. Here's how you can cut out the waste.
1) Keep Your CRM Up To Date
Your customer relationship management (CRM) system is a key part of your automation setup. The thing is, though, if you don't keep it in good shape it could end up being far less useful than it should be. If you're using outdated information, or not logging communications, then your automation efforts will lose their effectiveness, since you'll be sending wrongly targeted messages. Keeping your CRM database tidy may seem like a chore, but the small amount of time it takes to do will pay off in terms of saved time in the long run. Many modern CRMs automatically update customer and lead profiles, saving you on data entry time.
2) Use Personalised Email Campaigns
There's nothing more soul-destroying than receiving an email that treats you as an object rather than a person. The good news is that the reverse also applies – people love to get emails that are personalised, addressing them by name and remembering details such as whether they've been in touch with you before or whether they're returning customers. Making use of email marketing automation is a resource-efficient way of reaching new leads and existing customers alike on mass, but with a very personal feel.
3) Schedule Your Content
Do you use social media marketing as part of your online strategy? If so, scheduling content to go up at the right time is vital if you want to reach the right people, especially on a high-turnover platform like Twitter. For example, if you're selling to people in Japan or California, you'll need to take account of time zones. More domestically, some campaigns work best during office hours and some while people are relaxing in the evenings. Automation lets you set up your desired times to post, so you can be sure your messages will appear when you want them without you needing to intervene manually.
4) Automate Lead Follow-Ups
It's easy for a busy marketing team to overlook sending a follow-up email to a prospect. That can mean losing any chance of gaining a customer. If you don't follow up, then the prospect may decide your company isn't really interested in their custom and look elsewhere, simply lose interest, or even become irritated that you didn't say anything more. You can fix this issue with the help of marketing automation. Scheduling a follow-up a few days after the original email stops leads slipping through the cracks.
5) Use Lead Scoring
A great way of streamlining your workflow is to enlist the help of automation in prioritising your leads. With an automated tool, your marketing team will be able to find which leads are the most promising – in terms of potential value and readiness to buy. You'll be able to use criteria such as how they behave on your website, whether they're previous purchasers, their physical distance – important for many local businesses – and so on. To save even more time, try getting in touch with a business growth specialist like JDR, who can provide outside insight on customer behaviour and purchase motivations.
Experience How Marketing Automation Can Transform Your Business
Marketing automation is an extremely valuable business development tool. It lets you take less time to get more results: an effective way to grow your business and its profit figures. To find out more, please call 01332 343281.
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