Introduction
There are many operations in a marketing company. And some companies spend hours in doing those tasks manually. These tasks may include send emails/reminders, preparing PPTs/reports, updating data and much more. Although such operations are not difficult to carry out, but can consume time if done repeatedly. That’s when digital marketing automation steps in. Automating the tasks can reduce time consumption and human labour. It uses pre installed data and smart workflows to carry out daily operations. The time spent on doing marketing activities can be utilized by employees in making strategies and improvement plans.
Businesses should choose digital marketing automation tools for automating processes. The business processes, having defined goals related to sales, customer retention, ROI, engagement etc should be automated so that employee can get productive with other operations.
Also, the whole business model does not require automation. There are some areas of business processes that requires. Here’s a list of 7 business processes that require automation.
7 Processes Businesses Should Automate
Lead Hunt
Imagine a prospect gets in touch with company by filling out contact form, downloading newsletters, requesting quotes, etc. The information fetched by the lead should not be copied in the CRM manually. Instead, automating the process will keep the records safe and error-free. Automation can records the source and contact details of the lead and send the data to desired employee.
This is one of the most commonly automated business process of the recent times.
Lead Scoring
In lead generation, not all leads are qualified to take up services. Digital marketing automation tools can record the scores of each lead whenever it visits a webpage.
There are some factors that affects the scoring of the leads.
- Website product downloads
- Forms submission
- Page visits
- Email replies
- Product interest
If a potential lead has acquired a definite score, the team is automatically notified via automation. And not only this, but also such leads can be sent to new workflows for further analysis.
Emails
In marketing companies, emails are exchanged at almost every occasions. Sending the emails to a group of people manually can take up hours, that too if it is required to be done on daily basis. Automated emails can help reach the right people in no time. Most businesses generate welcome emails and automates it. Automation does not only sends one email but can also send a sequence of multiple welcome emails. It can be sent when someone subscribe to the service or newsletter of the company.
A sequence of welcome email can include:
- Email 1- Welcome email
- Email 2- Introduction and informative content
- Email 3- About the service/product
- Email 4- Encourage the next step
Automating emails will help cut off the inconvenience and time gap between multiple emails.
Nurture Leads
Some leads are hard to convince. Not every prospect say yes to your service and product immediately. Some require time to conduct market research and make buying decisions.
Automation has the ability to detect where does the prospect stand in the buying journey. For instance, if someone has subscribe to your beginner guide, marketing automation will automatically send them case studies and product demo as next step. It makes the nurturing process so easy in comparison to hustle of doing manual work.
Customer Classification
Customer classification is one of the commonly automated marketing processes. Instead of dividing your customers into different groups manually, automation create defined segment and send messages accordingly.
Usually customers have different segmentation. Marketing automation can pitch the leads based on following segments:
- Locality
- Interests
- Search history
- Buying habits
- Order history
- Industry preference
- Engagement levels
- Browser activity
- Website visits
Automation can even update the segments whenever there are changes in customer behaviour. It makes the customisation easier on a larger levels.
Abondoned Cart
In online businesses, abandoned carts are considered as losses. It means something is preventing the customers from buying from a particular online business. It may be your competitors, product prices or product quality. To ensure they come back to the carts, marketing automation can work wonders.
Automation will remind the customers of their abandoned carts, show discounted price, and additional information about the product that may encourage them to buy it.
Reaching out to each abandoned cart manually is not possible, a smooth automated systems can help.
Posting On Social Media
Brands are required to post consistently on social media platforms to maintain the presence and engagement. One can incorporate marketing workflow automation tools to schedule the post, plan calendars in advance. It help in maintaining consistency which may lack in manual operation. Although automation has some limitations, it cannot operate engagement activities that requires human interaction like comment, likes, shares, etc.
Digital marketing automation tools
There is a long list of digital marketing automation tools available on the internet. The correct choice of tools entirely depends on your business model.
There are tools available for the all marketing operations but it is important to consider the following before finalizing tools-
- Value for money
- Ease of use
- Comprehensive performance under one roof
- Non complicated features
- Scalability
- Great deliverables
- Latest AI integration
One should never automate tasks on the basis of availability of tools. It is important to consider the return on investment and profitability that can be obtained from tools. The combination of well-planned workflow and good tools makes a good brand.
Conclusion
Businesses should choose digital marketing automation for automating processes. The business processes, having defined goals related to sales, customer retention, ROI, engagement etc should be automated so that employee can get productive with other operations & build strategies.
