Is your inbound marketing strategy falling short?
Are you getting solid traffic, but it's just not converting?
Or perhaps you're bogged down in routine marketing tasks?
If this sounds like your business, it might be time to try marketing automation.
At its most basic, a marketing automation tool is a software solution or web-based service that - you guessed it - automates your marketing processes. It streamlines your marketing and does the repetitive tasks for you.
Tools that schedule your content, sort your customer base into segments and track the results of your marketing campaigns are all forms of marketing automation. They do the legwork for you so you won't have to do it yourself.
Can I take some marketing off your plate?
How can marketing automation help your inbound strategy?
Inbound marketing is highly effective in generating new leads. But like any other strategy, it also has its limitations.
For one, you'll still have to do a lot of repetitive tasks manually, like sending out emails and posting status updates on social media. This can take up a big chunk of your time.
More importantly, however, inbound marketing cannot identify who's receptive to your marketing and who isn't. In fact, many of the people who come to your website might not even fit the profile of your target customers.
But even when leads fit your profile, sometimes they still need a little push for the sale to go through. Unfortunately, inbound marketing relies on the customer to take action when he or she feels ready. Sometimes, that just won't cut it.
Marketing automation tools can make your inbound strategy work much harder.
Here are the top benefits of marketing automation.
Marketing automation's most obvious benefit is that it saves you a lot of time.
It's possible to plan a whole month's worth of e-mail marketing or even social media posts in advance. This frees you up to do other stuff, as you won't have to manually send out your emails or push posts to your business's social media accounts.
Automation also makes it possible to run multiple campaigns at once. Most of the mundane tasks happen automatically, so all you need is someone to oversee the campaigns. This wouldn't be possible if you had to do everything manually.
Just press one button, and you're set for the month
This might sound counter-intuitive, but automation can actually help you make your marketing more personalized to your customers.
Have you ever noticed how Amazon sends you emails about stuff that's similar to what you've bought before?
That's marketing automation, right there.
Automation software allows you to create restrictions based on your customers' needs and preferences. That way, the promotions you send out will be highly targeted and therefore much more effective.
Regularity and consistency are key to a successful inbound marketing strategy.
Unfortunately, there are some days when you just don't have time to update Twitter. Luckily, marketing automation can do that for you, so you won't have to worry about it. No more backdating blog posts so they'll look like they've been posted on schedule, either.
When you're running a marketing campaign, you'll need as much information as you can get. Data is how you learn what's effective and what isn't, so you can tweak your message to get better results.
Marketing automation tracks your campaigns and compiles detailed analytics you couldn't possibly gather manually.
Data. Data everywhere!
Marketing automation might sound like a bad thing, but it's actually a very useful tool. Not only does it save you time and make managing multiple campaigns a breeze, but it also gives you detailed stats on what worked and what didn't. It'll also make your message much more personal to your customers than you otherwise could have made it manually. Used well, it can give your inbound marketing strategy a real shot in the arm.
Are you looking to turbocharge your inbound marketing strategy? Contact us today. We'd love to help!