The Top 5 Perks of Marketing Automation – Entrepreneur

There are no downsides to getting on board with the right software.

March19, 20206 min read

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

By now, most business leaders and marketers fully understand the importance of having amarketing-automation software. However, that doesnt mean all of us are actually using one.Being an entrepreneur means you have your hand in basically everything happening within your company. This gives you little time to research enabling tools and products. But if you want your teams to save time, nurture leads effectively, track success from their effortsand consolidate materials and strategy into a comprehensive, linear space, its time to take the plunge.

Entrepreneurs, in particular, need to maximize every effort, every second and every person on the payroll. That makes marketing automation a critical tool when running a tight budget.Whether your marketing is account-based, B2B or B2C, you can almost certainly implement a few more automated marketing perks into your cycle. Here are a few that I find especially useful.

Related: Digital Marketing Hacks for 2020

This is one of the very basic perks that every marketing automation software offers. That aside, it caters to a very specific concern most entrepreneurs have: acquiring leads. These two facts alone are why this perk is probably the most important.Every one of your website visitors should have a simple way to learn more about your company. Whether its a sidebar contact form, a recurring email newsletter pop-upor a call to action at the end of every blog post, the main goal of your site is to convert visitors into leads.

Your software should help you set up these various lead-capturing capabilities pretty easily. You must check your landing pages, formsand blog posts at least monthly to see how well theyre doing with conversions. If improvements are needed, tweak their design or wording and check back again. A/B test the heck out of them, so by the time theyre hitting conversion numbers youre happy with, you can focus on other matters while still bringing in leads.

A good CRM will offer form actions to segment your leads into distinct categories, corresponding to a different drip campaign. By that point, half the work is already done.

Every company is sitting on loads of lost leads people who seemed interested and dropped off the radaror customers who stopped using your product actively, but havent necessarily signaled that they dont want to hear from you again. Many dont know what to do with these leads or havent fully figured out how to use them in a beneficial way. These lostleads are just waiting for you to turn them into an opportunity.

As entrepreneurs, we dont like the feeling of hopelessness, and the simple truth is that if youve still got lost leadsdata, then theres still hope. Re-engagement campaigns are not only useful for reigniting old flames; theyre also cost-effective ways to find new leads. Better yet, automation is perfect for these types of initiatives, since you can reach out to these leads on a wide scale while still personalizing your outreach. You can easily create campaigns that can spark re-engagement and incentivize them to either start using your product againor start a conversation about your product.

Drip campaigns are a given.You want to keep in touch with people whove bought your product, and youll obviously segment your lists because no list is worth maintaining without proper segmentation for a personalized experience.But with marketing-automation software, you dont have to stop there. You can convert standard customer-engagement drip campaigns, including calls for reviews or feedback in exchange for coupons, into greater drip campaigns, such as occasional newsletters or mailing lists.

For entrepreneurs spearheading new businesses, keeping their brands top-of-mind is critical, and well-organized drip campaigns are a big part of that. You dont have to spend tons of time manually segmenting leads and assembling series of emails. Your automation tool does it all for you so you can focus on other important things, like keeping your business thriving.

Going from meeting to meeting to meeting is just another reality for most entrepreneurs. We dont have much time to organize a follow-up, but we all know how much we need a reminder. Your software allows you to set up alerts so that your follow-ups dont become a casualty of your hectic schedule. Whats more, these alerts are configured to hot leadsbuying behavior, so you can be sure only to approach them when youve got a hint that theyre interested.

A good CRM will let you set up alerts for leads, such as when they hit specific tag scores, click a particular link, download a product demo, attend a webinar or visit a unique URL on your site.

Related: 4 CRM Hacks Every Entrepreneur Should Be Using

Spending money on ads that dont deliver isnt something new businesses can afford (literally). This is why having an analytics dashboard that shows exactly where your marketing efforts are succeeding is a major perk of marketing-automation software.

When you have automated marketing in place, aside from creating efficiencies, you can see all the data that comes from each effort. Your software lets you check each landing page, gated content and forms to determine which are converting well and generating more leads. Being able to easily decipher which pages of your site are performing best is a great way to inform your ad spend and digital-marketing strategy.

The beauty of automation is not merely in how it enables you and your teams.Its in the tech that comes with it. Automation, by definition, means you also get the latest digital integrations and analytics data, which can help boost your company and help you avoid wasting time and money.

Follow this link:

The Top 5 Perks of Marketing Automation - Entrepreneur