If you hear the phrase automation software and picture robots tirelessly performing the same task over and over again, then you are mistaken. In today’s business world, marketing automation is, in fact, becoming a part of many businesses’ daily business operation, helping to make them more efficient and less costly too. It’s not a passing trend either with 51% of companies employing marketing automation software, and the number is set to steadily rise. An additional 21% of marketing leaders are projected to take up marketing automation in the next two years so it’s certainly a good time to consider marketing automation software for your business, too.
If you’re not sure if it’s the right step for you then continue reading to find out how marketing automation can help you run your business in a smarter way.
Stay Relevant to Customers
A challenge for any customer-facing business is staying relevant as customer needs change, especially for small businesses since their focus tends to be on acquiring customers rather than investing in long-term relationships. This becomes easier with marketing automation software and the often-inbuilt analytics tools that can easily determine a range on interests and behaviours of existing customers, so communication and products can be tailored accordingly. Additionally, you can simply use automation to stay in touch with customers, demonstrating that they are valued by your business, by sending out infrequent but high-quality personalised communication and the occasional enticing offer you think the customer may be interested in. Remember to centre the customer first; while it would be beneficial for you if every customer shopped every sale and offer you have – this simply won’t happen – so send out communication that is relevant to the customer and avoid spamming.
Track Results
In today’s world data can easily translate into profits but only if its correctly utilised. While many business owners and marketers understand the value of data, there’s still a lot of confusion about what to do with the swathes of data collected. One solution is to have a dedicated data scientist, or a whole team, but this isn’t a business expense that’s available to all and especially small businesses. Marketing automation allows you track campaigns (and so much more!) with easy to understand reports which, in turn, will help your business to see if the overall marketing strategy is effective or needs rethinking. This data can net great results if your business is willing to adapt, change, and improve in accordance with the findings.
Find Your Focus
No aspect of a business should go ignored, but if all your or your staff’s time is being taken up with menial and repetitive tasks, then your business will suffer. The small things are usually what help to bring big ideas to life. However, not having enough time to dedicate to overall and future strategy will eventually become detrimental. Crafting emails, updating social media, data entry – all essential but unarguably tedious and time-consuming tasks. With marketing automation, they all become a breeze and you save on time and cost, too. it’s not quite ‘set it and forget it’ since good marketing content needs to be tailored and updated regularly, but it’s certainly smoother and more efficient than the old approach. This means that you’ll be able to focus on the overall operation of your business with the peace of mind that small tasks are being taken care of.
Marketing automation is not going anywhere and around 40% of businesses that do not currently use it are looking to invest in some version of it in the next 12 months. To gain and keep a competitive edge, businesses must be open to new practices especially when they help to make business operations smarter and more efficient.
