Marketing automation is driving more innovation in marketing than ever before and for good reason. After using marketing automation, VB Insight found that 80% of marketers saw their leads increase and 77% saw the number of conversions increase.
Although marketing automation is a wonderful tool for marketers, leaning on it too heavily can result in impersonal marketing. In today’s crowded digital space, increased personalization has become the norm due to marketing automation.
Marketing automation is not a crutch for mediocre marketing. Use these tactics to make your marketing automation work the best it can be for you and your leads.
Test Everything
Just because you have a marketing automation tool doesn’t mean it’s okay to set it and forget it.
Marketers need to test and optimize every aspect of the content that they put into their marketing automation system. This includes email headlines, email copy, landing pages, and any content that you may link to in your emails or social posts. They need to figure out what works and what doesn’t. They also need to be testing tactics repeatedly as the tastes of the market and the technology it uses evolves.
Figure out what works. Then figure out when it works. Now repeat it in consistent intervals. With marketing automation, A/B testing tools are usually included in the software, so there is absolutely no reason that you shouldn’t be testing while using it.
Keep Up Communication with Sales
It’s likely that your marketing automation system has some mechanism for passing leads over to sales when you deem them qualified.
Not only that, but both your marketing and sales teams need to agree as to when a lead is qualified. Create a definition of a qualified lead together. This is the only way these leads will have a reasonable chance at conversion.
But what happens when leads aren’t quite ready to buy? Do they just drop out of your funnel?
They shouldn’t.
Make sure that marketing and sales communicate so that leads aren’t lost after sales tries to close the deal.
Don’t Get Too Fancy with It
There is a lot that marketing automation can do but know your limits. If you over automate your marketing, you risk becoming impersonal. This will make your leads really feel that they are just another number in your system, which is off-putting.
Another risk is that your team doesn’t have the resources to backload an overly complex marketing automation system with the content it needs. If you are heavily segmenting a list and need unique content to fill each segment, then you need to have the resources to create that much content for each campaign. Keep your efforts simple to ensure that the leads get a valuable experience.
Take Automation Beyond Email
Marketing automation is more than just an email distribution platform. Many systems include social tools and testing tools like I mentioned above.
Make sure that you are doing more than just sending a monthly newsletter with your marketing automation software because these technologies have the potential to do more.
Keep Repeat Customers In Mind
Create a separate segment for your current or preexisting customers.
This group should not be treated the same as those who have never purchased in your pipeline. Make sure to create special, post-purchase content for this group. They don’t need to be convinced to use your offering, rather, they need content to use your offering better.
Create Content That Converts
It’s important for you to create useful, actionable content for your marketing automation efforts to be a success. Great content is the backbone of an effective content distribution strategy.
But how do you create content that converts? Some of the most popular forms of content include:
- List posts
- Infographics
- Why, what, and how to posts
- Videos
Blog posts of around 1,000 words tend to perform the best. Posts that are over 2,000 words can do even better, so long as they are quality. That’s something to keep in mind when writing long blog posts. Do they need to be that long? Is it worth the time invested to read it?
What tactics do you use to bolster your marketing automation usage? What do you use automation for? Did these tactics help? Let us know in the comments.
Thanks, Acadia for the excellent strategy.
Mary,
Autopitch, Inc.
The strategies that you have mentioned is excellent.In addition, what are the other small aspects that we need to keep in mind so that we can achieve better lead generation with the help of marketing automation tool. Which marketing automation software can I invest in? I have heard that Aritic Pinpoint is a good software, can you suggest me any other software?