Struggling With Implementing Marketing Automation? Here’s A Quick Guide

Marketing has never been more interesting than now. Everyday emergence of new technologies are not only transforming the practice of marketing but also the way it is perceived and handled. 

Digital marketing has widened the scope of marketing activities to such an extent that tracking it regularly has become a tedious task for marketers. Since social media has gotten way out of control, with over 200 networks and billions of users worldwide, making it impossible for marketers to constantly be activeon all of them. 

Maintaining a very active profile on one social network seems like a full time job on its own. Then how does one manage to keep up with Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and other social media networks, all at once? Marketing Automation is the answer.

What is Marketing Automation? 

Some people refer to it as a marketing strategy/tactic,some speak of marketing automation software, others just call it customer relationship management. Why don’t we keep it simple? Marketing Automation is a process that carries out any marketing activity automatically with the help of a software.

Automation streamlines your task to produce efficient results by reducing your labour work and the time taken to perform the activities manually. It enables better results with low intake of resources.Marketing automation also empowers organizations with the ability to more accurately predict the ROI of proposed marketing engagement campaigns.

How To Implement Automation in Marketing?

Marketing automation on its own is good, but it’s kind of like having a car with no GPS. You may know where you want to end up, but there’s a slim chance you’ll get lucky enough to arrive there without a road map and a little guidance. 

So, here’s how your brand can start automating its marketing activities:

• Define Your Goals Upfront

Marketing automation is a much deeper process than just sending an email. Right from the start you have to look after your business strategies for it to shape your goals & objectives.Does the brand want more clients? Or just wants to speed up the sales process? Pre-defined goals will help you prepare the right indicators to measure the effectiveness of the automation strategy. Also, it will guide the organization on how the culture will need to change or adapt in order to achieve improved marketing and sales alignment.

• Get In Alignment With Your Stakeholders

The changes required for automation cannot be done in isolation. Anyone who has a stake in the implementation journey, as well as the finished process needs to be informed about the strategy. Important teams to align are, sales management, sales operations, the CRM administrator, IT staff, and a webmaster or digital team. List down the reasons & benefits of the change and circulate that document amongst all the stakeholders.

• Analyze The Data 

By creating a database of your clients you accumulate vast amounts of information. You become aware of what they are interested in, how they behave, what are their demographics, etc. Analysis of this material is an essential element to conducting effective marketing automation. It will allow your brand to create client segments and each of them defines a different message. There is nothing worse than sending the same messages to consumers with different needs.

• Choose An Appropriate Automation Solution

Once a brand has identified its requirements and set a budget/range, it’s important to choose the right marketing automation software solution to implement. The marketing automation industry is becoming a more crowded space every day, with many viable solutions available. So, what should you look for and how do you evaluate potential vendors

Here are 5 primary areas to concentrate on:

• Feature set
• Ease of use
• Integrations
• Support
• Pricing
• Monitor The Process

After choosing the correct automation solution for your brand, you need to monitor its process. Even though automation is adopted for reducing the manual work, a brand has to keep a check on all the automated activities. For instance, if your client has unsubscribed and is still receiving your emails then it might go unworthy. So, to keep a smooth flow and bring out efficiency regular monitoring is mandatory. 

Conclusion

Marketing automation provides your marketing team with a powerful platform that manages your online marketing program while having the right approach that is absolutely necessary for ensuring success. With good planning, clear goals, specialized training, and optimized content, any company can implement and make a great success of marketing automation.