What is marketing automation? 5 steps to getting started with marketing automation campaigns.

Do you run a marketing agency? Are you occupied doing the daily monotonous tasks of sending e-mails, SMS, and posting on social media, etc? If yes, then you should consider automating these daily tasks.

Marketing automation is a technology-driven strategy that is used to manage marketing campaigns on different channels. It uses software to schedule and complete routine marketing tasks?like email marketing, social media posting, and even ad campaigns. It not only automizes marketing campaigns but also enhances the customer experience by tracking their journey through the sale funnel. It analyses various touchpoints of a customer’s journey before they make a purchase, like, visiting the website, social media engagement, adding a product to the cart, etc., and provides them with a unique and personalized experience.

Some examples of marketing automation include-

1. Customer onboarding Emails

2. Abandoned Cart Marketing Automation

3. Re-engagement email marketing campaigns

4. Event reminders

5. Birthday and anniversary greetings

6. Email blasts-?To update customers about new offers.

7. Lead Scoring-?Assigning a numeric score to your leads, the score is based on factors such as the lead’s behavior, their engagement with the brand, and other info. This helps in focusing on the leads that have a higher potential.

8. A/B Testing Email Marketing Campaigns-?They are used to check the performance of different versions of emails in terms of customer preference.

How to get started with marketing automation for your business-

1. Define your Objective-?Identify your goals and objectives. Find out which part of your marketing process can benefit the most from marketing automation, it can be lead nurturing, customer retention, or email marketing.

2. Understand your audience-?Identify buyer persona and segment your audience based on their demographics, behaviors, and preferences. This helps in a well-optimized marketing campaign yielding maximum results.

3. Select a Platform-?There are many platforms like Mailchimp, hubspot, marketo, etc. Select a platform that integrates well with your existing tools, is scalable, and is easy to use by you and your team.

4. Craft personalized content- Create unique content for different customer segments and make sure that it is relevant for customers in their unique stages of the sales funnel.

5. Set up workflows- Track the actions of your customers and analyze what are the encouraging factors for such behavior. Automize triggers for particular actions of the customers to lead them through the sales funnel. For example, abandoned cart marketing automation.

6. Monitor, analyze, and adapt-?Keep track of your automation results and observe what works and what doesn't. Keep adapting your strategies and keep improvising.

7. Train your team-?Train your team beforehand and make sure it is well-equipped to understand the setup, analytics, interpretation, and strategy adjustment. Formulate a Standard Operating Procedure to streamline your marketing process and ensure a smooth process.

8. Scale Gradually-?Start slow with your marketing automation process and up-scale gradually. Learn from the loopholes and keep adding new platforms in the automation.

Marketing automation is a very convenient technology for businesses who want to upgrade their marketing experience. It not only can handle countless number of customer interactions at once but also provide a personalized touch to the customer journey. You may consider using tools like Mailchimp, HubSpot, Hootsuite, etc.