13 Ways Marketing Automation Can Transform Your Business

Besides the blank stares I get when asking a group to tell me what marketing automation actually IS, the next black people have is understanding why it can benefit your business.

Nearly every business will find huge benefits in using some form of marketing automation to bring in more targeted leads, keep them engaged, and then keep them close once you’ve signed the deal.

For me, marketing is not just an activity we do with leads and prospects.

Marketing continues long after this, to help us retain and build long term relationships with people who not only pay us for our services or products, but then refer others to us and therefore help us grow our business better.

So with that in mind, what can marketing automation do for YOUR business?

1. It can keep you lean.

If you’ve got a small business, you can keep your team small, as you can automate a lot of the repetitive tasks, cut down admin time in setting meetings, and generally create a more scalable business. As Dale Beaumont says — if you need to do something more than once, build a system for it.

2. You’ll sell more over time with less effort

Key here is that you need to REALLY think about where you’re taking your people. But once you’ve got this sorted, you will be able to upsell and cross-sell with automations, depending on the contact’s activity and interaction with your emails, website and more.

3. You’ll get more done.

With automation helping you with keeping people contacted, giving them the information they need, or setting up your sales calls, you’ll be able to focus more time on strategy — to further help you grow and direct your business

4. You’ll be able to target different personas

Create material, and a corresponding email/ nurture sequence, run it, test it, optimise it and then tweak it to target different personas or markets with minimal effort.

5. You’ll be able to test and optimise your marketing

As you set it up, you’ll be able to make changes on the fly, to better optimise your results or change the direction — and it’s only going to be seen by the people in the automation! It makes your business and marketing very flexible

6. You’ll have better visibility over your results

Set up an automation sequence and watch the actions people take. You can quickly see if it’s working or not. It’s easier to determine your return on investment, and then use this data to repeat similar automations

7. You’ll be able to work ahead

You can set up your marketing well in advance (taking advantage of quieter weeks or months) and then just press go when you’re ready. Or you can set it up, pause it and then press go again at different parts of the year.

8. You’ll be to see who’s almost ready to buy

Trough using lead scoring, website tracking, email tracking and measuring all the other related behaviours, you’ll be able to see who is displaying the strongest buying signals. For those almost there, you can provide some extra support and contact to take them over the line.

9. You’ll keep your contacts up to date.

By either having marketing automation and your CRM in one platform, or two that are connected and communicating together, you’ll have up to date information about your contacts. Including who is currently the most engaged with your messaging. See who is on track to convert or which returning customers are about to take action.

10. You’ll know the right moment to take action

With all of this information available, you’ll be able to make a well-timed call, or send an email just as your contact is ready to make a decision. It helps to remove the guesswork and keeps your salespeople motivated (they’ll be able to focus their time on the more engaged audiences)

11. You’ll be able to follow up leads immediately 

Communicate with a lead or prospect with a personalised email, letting them know you’ll be in touch, and invite them to book a time with you that suits them. Or provide them with added value and information while they wait for you to get in touch. With points of contact contributing to a sale, this allows you to knock down the barriers faster and more effectively.

12. You’ll feel more excited about your marketing

Nothing beats the feeling of seeing a sale close as if by magic! They downloaded something, you kept in contact with a series of emails and then — they’ve bought your product or service.

Developing effective funnels not only helps you feel more excited about your marketing — it really helps you feel more positive about what you do and serving your target market.

There’s nothing like getting your joy through sales.

13. You’ll throw out the idea of cold calling forever. 

Feed a starving crowd who need what you have to offer. You’ll give them your offers, your downloads, your lead generation and then continue to feed them with value, and they’ll become either your customer or your fan (you need both.) You’ll pick out the ones who demonstrate they will buy and nurture them to choose you to buy from. You’ll be so busy with the people who have come to you, that you’ll not need to go out and find more clients.

Rachel Klaver is the owner and founder of Identify and The Marketing Toolbox. She and her team provide strategy and then implement your sales and digital funnels to help you convert more leads to loyal, invested customers.

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