Do I need marketing automation for my business?

If you like the sound of using marketing automation for your business, but really don’t know what it is, then read on! Not all of us can be “early adopters” and know what everything means. We work with a lot of business owners still grappling with the idea of social media, let along marketing automation. It’s a common issue, and not something to feel self conscious about.

With a lot of emerging tools in place, you may be overwhelmed with many options. You ask yourself, which one do you really need? And with new tools come new strategies including marketing automation.

Marketing automation is simply the process of using technology to carry out your marketing campaigns. As the word “automation” implies, it is done automatically, sometimes without human intervention (or very little). Imagine sending marketing messages to many people at once, instead of one at a time, targeted to support their different actions.

Startups and small businesses benefit from marketing automation because it helps them streamline their operations and scale their companies its three primary functions: lead generation, engagement, and closing.

Lead generation can be a time-consuming process for entrepreneurs but with a little help from marketing automation, this can be simple. Before you know it, you have already turned interested leads to customers. Marketing automation also facilitates engagement with your business leads as well as current customers. By nudging them to follow through their most recent purchase, your helping your business retain customers. Lastly, closing deals is the most important function of marketing automation where you have finally earned money after generating and engaging with your leads.

But all these processes can only be possible via different tools – the reason why it is essential to streamline your operations and use automation across all aspects of your business.

KNOW WHEN YOU’RE MOST READY

Now that you have an idea what automation can do for your business, the most important question is when should you start automating? Marketing automation, when used correctly, will help you save so much time and even help your business flourish in terms of sales. The key is to use it with the right message at the right time.

If there are things that you have to do many times, automation can make it easier. It is the same with sending out communications. If it is something that you have to do over and over again, consider automating it.

CONSIDER YOUR MARKETING PLAN AND CUSTOMERS’ JOURNEY

You also have to consider the number of marketing tools you’re using in relation to your marketing plan. If you’re using a lot then start thinking about integrating them to be able to track your customers’ journey more effectively.

More importantly, if your customers’ journey is more complicated and longer, marketing automation can help you simplify that.

Marketing automation may sound complex but once you get the hang of it, it will surely make doing business easier.

We’re experts in marketing automation and Active Campaign consultants. We can help you set up your data,  integrations, automations and help you run effective marketing automation to grow your e commerce store.