10 Expert Marketing Automation Tips and Techniques Every Small Business Needs to Know About
Marketing automation takes a lot of the stress out of managing key parts of your business. Reaching the largest audience possible is hard work, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t an easier way to do it. Use marketing automation to keep yourself from getting burned out. There is something here for every business, so visit Sharpspring.com to meet your company’s expectations.
10. Abusing Email Will Get You Blocked
It can be tempting to send out a bunch of emails to known contacts in order to get the ball rolling. Intelligent email filters make this impossible to do successfully without getting flagged. Even if you have a good rapport with the consumer, there is a chance that regular marketing emails can end up in the junk mail folder. In a worst-case scenario, you can get automatically blocked from sending emails to that domain. It’s not just frequency that causes this problem, but many other factors. For a company, it is much easier to manage which emails cause problems when you know ahead of time. That means having a separate email list which shows addresses that either blocked or bounced your messages. Limit the resend interval so that you don’t go further down the rabbit hole. If you can diagnose why the message won’t send, change the content of the email so that it follows the guidelines of the domain. For some, it can be as simple as changing from html to text or editing the subject line. Over time, your ‘blocked email list’ can be reintegrated into your normal email campaign.
9. Build From the Ground Up
Any email list that you can buy has also been sold to other individuals. That makes the list not unique, and there is also a chance that your targets are being hit by multiple sources. If you offer a service that is already bombarding their inbox, then it will go largely unnoticed. Email lists are still valuable for a company that wants to mix it in with their own personal lists. This gives you a greater variety of consumers without compromising the core of your base. In order to get recognizable benefits from a purchased email list, you have to start from scratch. Marketing automation helps maintain that list, and can be essential when building the current and blocked email list. High quality management will help you build a solid list of consumers that will give you a general idea of what audience is more valuable to the company.
8. Your Content Should Be Dynamic
Blasting content at any and all customers that will hear your story is not an effective marketing strategy. You will spend more trying to cater to a larger uninterested audience compared to a small focused group. Marketing automation narrows it down so that you don’t waste resources in areas where there is no value on the return. The most important part about dynamic content is creating groups, all with the idea that their content is focused on their needs. There is trial and error with this approach as you group consumers the correct way. In the end, you’ll have multiple ways to rehash content without starting from the beginning. Marketing automation keeps track of key changes in a consumer’s interest so that your content is never stale.
7. Adapt Or People Will Lose Interest
Consumers aren’t easy, and trends change rapidly. There is a limit to what you can keep up with, so sometimes your earlier decisions will come back to bite you. A good example of this is pricing and how you market your products. If your marketing strategy is not flexible, then chances are you will get left behind. There is also the problem of not having the infrastructure to change your marketing tactics due to resources in use, or contracts in place. It is a good idea to use marketing automation from the beginning, but it is also common to insert it into a brand-new marketing campaign. Changes to the way you market can rock your company to the core, but it is more damaging to stay with tactics that don’t work. Marketing automation allows you to make quick changes and adapt before you are too far behind your competitors.
6. A Good Sales Team Compliments Market Automation
When you have everything lined up with your marketing automation, it can be easy to forget the role of the sales team. Your strategy should be to feed your sales team as much information as possible from your system. This gives them a much better playbook to go by when approaching leads. In a perfect setting, you’d want the sales team to have on demand access to the information from your marketing automation. The sales team thrives when their information is current and it can help prevent confusion between the departments. Having out of date information can harm your business, and it’ll show in the stats. If you see that there is a downward trend based on misinformation, then it is easy to correct.
5. Stay In Touch With Your Core Vision
Small companies should not ignore the consumers that helped them grow. Repeat business is just as important as getting fresh sales from new consumers. Marketing automation is not just for building list and bringing in new leads. It is a goldmine of data that shows tendencies for repeat customers, including their updated contact information and their particular interest in your company. With this information you can find out why a loyal customer suddenly lost interest in a particular service or product. You can also see large shifts occur in real time with how your products are received by your most profitable groups. There may be an issue with you current marketing campaign that is lowering consumer expectations. Reach out to repeat customers to ask about their experience with your company and get valuable sales insight. This is easier with a marketing automation system in place, where your grouped lists can tailor customer appreciation/question emails down to the last letter.
4. Don’t Let Software Do All Of The Work
While it is true that marketing software can be largely automatic, that doesn’t mean it should be operated that way. The tools used with marketing automation work best when there is a human element attached. That means using the automated portions as convenience rather than a full crutch. The tools can only show you a problem, it won’t solve them for you. When a current campaign is failing, it is still up to you to look at the numbers and find out why. Leaning heavily on a marketing automation system to do all the work will only make your content seem less organic.
3. Nurture Relationships
This is similar to tip #5, but has more to do with initiation and maintaining relationships. This includes your core audience and new consumers that show an interest in your business. The quality of your relationships will always outdo the quantity. If your budget is limited, it is more value to focus on creating content that matches the vision of your entire company. Branching out too soon to multiple consumers will only slow your relationships with quality leads. This is a temptation when using marketing automation software, since its reach is practically limitless in the right hands. Find your audience, deliver quality content, and then consider casting a wider net.
2. Segmentation Requires Attention To Detail
Technically, you can send anyone anything. It’s unfortunate that content is blasted to consumers that aren’t interested in a particular product or service. Instead of joining the hundreds of companies in junk mail filters, use the filters of a marketing automation tool to your advantage. Filters and groups can be set up anyway you like, and automatically update based on user preference. Take some time to monitor how these groups change over time, making your own personal lists that is separate from the company. You may see some marketing potential down the line that will make you rethink your strategy.
1. Use Your Time Better
By making your content dynamic and smart, marketing automation can take over the tedious bits. Managing lists is less of a pain, and resources don’t have to be dumped on a single marketing strategy. Any unique interests or sales that pop up can be dealt with at a higher priority without changing the way you interact with your core base. Marketing automation thrives when content and lists are used correctly by putting you in control of the important bits. You can make sweeping changes without spending hours managing tedious bits of information.
Wrap Up
Marketing automation is the most effective way to micromanage constantly changing information. You can introduce it to any business, so it is a diverse concept that can be implemented quickly. Give your hard work the boost it deserves by using all the tools available for a successful business. When you set it up the right way, it is like putting marketing on cruise control.
