Almost every business is trying to increase revenue, drive customer growth, and sell more products or services. One thing many businesses are missing, though, is daily automation. In marketing there are so many tasks to perform on a daily basis that it can feel overwhelming. But, with marketing automation, all of it can be done by just pressing a button.
Salesforce.com defines Marketing Automation as “technology that manages marketing processes and multifunctional campaigns, across multiple channels automatically.” By now, many people have most likely implemented marketing automation in some capacity within their business. Whether it’s using a social media scheduling tool or setting up workflows in Hubspot, a business has a plethora of opportunities to streamline their business and marketing efforts.
Marketing has drastically changed over the past decade and businesses are poised to take advantage of the numerous services that offer marketing automation for a decent price point. According to Adobe, there are 4 key reasons that marketing automation can help you find success.
4 Reasons Why Marketing Automation Helps Your Small Business
- Even if your customer is not ready to purchase your product or service, automation allows you to nurture those relationships and keep them engaged in your marketing pipeline.
- Automation allows you to maintain customer relationships longer and have them be more engaging.
- It provides the data and analytics to track your marketing directly to leads and sales you have acquired.
- Because you have a set process and procedure, along with a great set of data, you are able to focus on and improve your marketing efforts.
A quote by Author Jon Miller perfectly describes the importance of marketing automation—“Marketing automation is the technology that propels your business into a new era of relationship based marketing with quantifiable results. When powerful technology meets effective implementation and internal process management, your company will soon find itself on a journey that leads to new heights of business success.”
As all businesses know, implementing a new tool or process can be hard on a business. So let’s discuss where you should start with automation. Below is a step-by-step process for easily implementing automation in your business.
How to Implement Marketing Automation for Small Businesses
Determine the goal of automation and what requirements your automation tool must have.
Research and choose the right automation tool or software.
Create a roadmap to set up and learn your new automation tool.
Map out a process and procedure for the automation to help train new employees and to guide future automation.
Begin building your automation and test every step of the way.
If needed, hire an agency who can help you set up, manage, and track your automation.
Now that you know what automation is, you understand the importance, and you have steps to set it up, the final piece is selecting software. Here at Jennasis, we know that each business is unique and requires different tools and software along the automation journey. Below is a list of a few tools we love to use with our clients.
Best Marketing Automation Tools of 2021
- Active Campaign: If you need a great email service, opt-in forms, follow up sequences, and customer journeys, Active Campaign is an excellent choice. It is cost effective and user friendly for small businesses.
- AgileCRM: Agile CRM has built-in tools that allow you to create custom tags with lead scoring to make sure each lead you capture is benefiting your business.
- Constant Contact: If you are looking for something budget and beginner friendly, Constant Contact is a great tool. From a single welcome email to an automated email series, it’s great for businesses just dipping their feet into automation.
- Hootsuite: Specific to social media, Hootsuite is a great tool that allows you to schedule out social media posts on any platform weeks in advance!
- Hubspot: If you are looking to scale and have a medium-sized business, Hubspot is a great tool to uplevel your automation. From creating custom workflows to nurturing each customer, Hubspot is a more advanced tool that can bring big ROI.
- Zapier: Have a lot of tools, but don’t know how to connect them? Zapier is an affordable and easy-to-use tool that allows you to flow data from any tool seamlessly.
While marketing automation may seem technically advanced, there are plenty of tools and resources available to help you create your first automation and give you more time to pour into other areas of your business. If you’re ready to create your first automation, or need help building onto your existing system, contact our automation team at Jennasis and Associates to see how we can help you scale your business and move on to bigger and better things!
