Implementing automated marketing strategies is a sensitive exercise. On the one hand, a light touch is called for, balancing automated strategies with a more personal approach gently, while on the other, the labor-saving efficiency of automated marketing protocols make them a invaluable aspect of any business.
The fact is, unless you are lucky enough to have unlimited resources, businesses cannot survive without some degree of marketing automation. But how to implement that automation without alienating your prospects?
Clearly Defined Goals
The trap that many businesses fall into is failing to set clear and well-defined aims and goals for their marketing automation. Of course, the goal is a sale or the signing of a contract, but the steps required to make that happen will vary from business to business. There is no off-the-peg, one-size-fits-all approach to automation; instead, businesses must find the optimal channel for deal-closing, and gear their sales funnel towards this.
If you feel that your business’ product or service requires a one-to-one phone call or other personal interaction before the deal can be sealed, communicate this to the prospect early in the automation procedure. If you are selling a physical product, you need to streamline your marketing procedures to make them clear and easy to navigate for the potential customer.
Finely Tuned Protocols
But such fine tuning is not limited to funneling sales. It must also be extended to your lead generation protocols. Let’s say a potential customer answers a call to action and submits their data on your site. They then wait for a follow up email, and they wait, and they wait. When that email finally arrives, they are no longer interested; the lead has gone cold and an opportunity has slipped through your fingers.
Followup emails and prospect outreach following their interaction with your website or other point of contact must be optimized to be as efficient as possible. Lead generation is often about capitalizing on a brief flicker of interest before somewhere else does, so your automated procedures need to be prompt enough to accomplish this.
Targeted Approaches
Data collection is a key part of online marketing, but many businesses succeed in depleting their carefully curated prospect lists by succumbing to the temptations of lazy practices. Don’t be tempted to send out mass marketing communications to your entire contact list, as this kind of untailored approach will lead to irritated prospects and unsubcriptions.
It is time-consuming, but categorizing your prospects in terms of what they need, what they want and how they need to be contacted is a vital part of marketing automation. A good quality sales and marketing platform like Greenrope can help you to achieve this.
Once your prospects have been grouped together, creating targeted marketing strategies tailored to the specific needs of a certain prospect subset becomes much easier.
Optimize Your Site
Successful automation of your marketing procedures requires the implementation of a well-thought-out protocol at every stage. This includes the post-conversion stage, something which many businesses continue to neglect. After your customer has accessed one of your products or services, or downloaded a piece of premium content, they will be directed to a ‘thank you’ page; this is a portion of your site that needs to be optimized to maximize its marketing potential.
A simple page bearing your logo and a thank you message is fine, but it is not pulling its weight in the marketing department. Adding a further call to action – for example, sharing information regarding the purchase on social media, or accessing another product or service tailored to their needs – transforms the page into another aspect of your automated marketing strategy, and can be incredibly useful in boosting your revenue.
It pays not to be too aggressive, but by implementing these automated strategies, your business can achieve its conversion and upselling targets without driving your customers away.
