Automating marketing actions and processes to sell more is possible and within everyone’s reach. But how does it work? What are the benefits of automating digital marketing? How do I implement automation in my company? These are today’s topics.
Nowadays, most companies have the same problem: using dozens of pieces of software that aren’t integrated with each other. With so much software and so many things happening at the same time, the margin for error is huge and, therefore, it would be unthinkable not to automate routine actions as much as possible.
So today we’re going to cover three topics with everything you need to know about marketing automation so that you can grow:
- what marketing automation is;
- 6 main benefits of marketing automation for your company;
- how to create a marketing automation step by step.
What is marketing automation?
In a very simple way, marketing automation is using technology to automate marketing processes and be more efficient. Think of it this way: what would it cost to have an employee standing around waiting for a new lead to contact them and send them an email? And then follow up? Isn’t it more efficient to have emails already scheduled?
“79% das empresas com melhor performance têm automatizadas as ações de marketing”
Source: Agil, October 2022
Some of the most widely used examples of marketing automation are pre-programmed mailings according to the lead’s action (filling in a form, downloading an ebook, etc.) at a set time interval.
Nowadays, it’s unthinkable not to program actions like:
- automatic sending of newsletters according to the buyer’s actions;
- generate reports (parameterized with the data we want to read, on specific days and times);
- create predefined messages with predefined replies in Messenger and WhatsApp,
- and all of this is marketing automation!
6 Main Benefits of Marketing Automation
- Greater knowledge: Automation requires you to stop and analyze the consumer journey, which
create buyer personas and constantly evaluate the defined process, which translates into a huge amount of knowledge about your sales funnel. By doing so, you’ll have measurable data to make the funnel ever more efficient. - The customer is at the heart of the decision: For Hubspot “Automation tools allow you to keep customers at the center of decisions by creating specific rules for each type of audience.” In fact, it is the actions of each customer that will dictate what happens next and, as such, they will feel in control.
- Nurturing Leads: is seen as the greatest benefit of marketing automation, especially in the case of leads that aren’t ready. There are potential customers who are not at the ideal moment to buy and at this stage it is essential to create a relationship – to educate the customer and send them information that will help them make a decision and delight them. By generating credibility and value, they will eventually make their decision!
- Reduces errors: Human error is one of the main obstacles in the process of capturing and nurturing leads, mainly due to forgetting or losing information.
- Conversion: In the sales funnel, when the lead is impacted with the right information at the right time, it is more likely to make a purchase and, above all, to make a large purchase and continue to do so. Ultimately, this is what every company wants: good, loyal customers.
- Climbing: By constantly optimizing processes, reducing errors and increasing productivity, you will have more capacity, time and resources to scale your business. In other words, while the software is working, the team can focus on other tasks. If you need more reasons, consider that marketing automation is responsible for 15% growth in sales e by the 12% reduction in cost operational marketing (source:Nucleus Research).
How to create a marketing automation step by step
It all depends on the stage your company is at. In any case, one thing is certain – skipping steps is a risk you don’t want to take. In this context, we’ve had some fundamental help and we’re going to share it with you – the Task and Flowshe is a consultant who has helped us define workflows and automate certain actions, especially reports that give us an overview of the business.
Below we explain all the steps to create marketing automation and you can also download our checklist to go through all the steps.
- Analyze the consumer journey: Start by segmenting your audience, understanding their buying process and understand what stage of the funnel they are at.
- Establish strategy and metrics: Now, define a strategy for each of your audiences. For example, are you going to make an impact on Facebook? Are you going to send ebooks or satisfaction questionnaires?
At the same time, define the metrics for each strategy.
- Choose tool / platform / software: The tools depend on what you’re going to do. Here at Up We Go, we’re fans of Mailchimp for newsletters, from Etus for social networks and we don’t dispense Klaviyo e Yotpo for e-commerce projects.
- Define the workflow: This is where you define that action X triggers event Z, these are the so-called triggers. You will also have to decide how the interaction with the lead will be at each stage in terms of the communications that will be presented to them (infographics, emails, ebooks).
By structuring all this information, you will have your process.
- Create content for each stage; The hands-on stage: creating texts, images, videos and emails;
- Implement the process: It’s time to put all the previous steps into practice by passing the information on to the automation platforms;
- Automate reports: As a rule, marketing automation platforms have an unbelievable amount of reports with valuable information, which are presented to you automatically. While on the one hand this is incredible, on the other you will be overwhelmed by so much information. A useful tip is to create your statistics dashboard with fewer KPIs and focus only on what you defined in the second step.
- Run tests: Before rolling it out to all your contacts, test and correct any errors. Still, errors will happen and there’s no need to dramatize. Embrace them, even joke about them, and keep optimizing.
- Evaluate: Junte a sua equipa, leia os relatórios, aprenda com o comportamento dos leads e continue o processo de…
- Optimize workflow and processes: There are no marketing processes, even automated ones, that are closed forever. Changing tastes, trends and technology will require constant adaptation.
If you need help,contact us. We’d love to automate your company’s marketing process.
