Getting started with marketing automation.

Marketing automation has been around long enough for most people to know what it is, but businesses can be put off by thinking it's not easy to set up or is time-consuming. Knowing where to start can be tricky, for sure, so we've put together a few tips to help.

49% of all businesses already utilise marketing automation to some degree, and more than half of B2B companies are adopting the technology.

What are your goals?

If you want to get the most out of your marketing automation software, then you need to clearly understand what you want to achieve. Is it to save time, to simplify your sales process, or to convert more leads? When setting out your goals, try to make sure they are specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and time-bound (SMART). This will help you identify the most appropriate software for your needs.

Consolidate your tools

Automation software will allow you to manage all your marketing tools in one place and means you don't have to swap from one application to another to get the work done. The beauty with Constant Contact, the software we use and recommend, is, not only does it have most of the tools you need built into it, but it can integrate with many other tools too. Using an API, you can select from a wide variety of popular apps and make them work seamlessly together.

Train your staff

Training your staff to understand and use the software will be vital in making sure it is used to its full potential. Start with the basics and show them the features that are most relevant to your business and their role This will help them get excited about the new system.

Once they've been using it for a short time, check-in with them, see what they're struggling with and if they have ideas of their own on how to extend marketing automation in your business.

Start with the basics

You can get dazzled with the tricky stuff, but starting with the basics is an excellent way to get some wins under your belt. Set up a simple email workflow where a new subscriber receives a welcome email. Or set up automated posts to be published across your social media. Once you have these in place, you can start thinking about your site's triggers and actions. A good test is with the forms on your site. Think about what happens in your business when a visitor fills out a form, and then build a workflow around it to automate some of the steps.

Build a new campaign

With the tools you have in place, you can put together a new campaign, and importantly, see how it is performing. Think of the campaign you want to build and how you'd typically put the pieces together. With the right marketing technology, you'll be able to adjust and improve the campaign, identify which parts of it you can automate and, by monitoring the audience and how it performs, maximise your potential.

Rather than sending an email and forgetting about it, how about a follow-up email to the people who received it, but didn't open it? A 'we don't want you to miss this’ email can work incredibly well for time-sensitive campaigns such as seasonal sales.

How we can help

We use Lead Gen & CRM by Constant Contact for our marketing automation because we think it is easy to use and, compared to other platforms, offers the best combination of features and price on the market, no matter what the size of your business. We can set up the system and guide you on how to use each feature. You can then choose to manage it yourself, or you can take full advantage of our experience and sign-up for one of our managed services.

If you'd like a demo and a free 30-day trial, thenplease book a time slot with us. We'll be happy to answer any questions you may have.