Nature and Nurture: Grow Your Business through Marketing Automation

Marketing automation is a key differentiator between successful and struggling businesses. Let’s talk about how you can use today’s cutting-edge technology to nurture new leads and grow your business.

What is marketing automation?

As a business person, you already know the importance of marketing to build and maintain your client base. Marketing automation (MA) is the strategic integration of software and services. It saves you time, helps you develop prospects, and enables you to maintain the one-to-one customer contact so essential to satisfying clients and increasing your revenue.

MA is an essential aspect of customer relationship management (CRM) and offers some vital benefits:

• Time management: Whether you own or manage a small business or large enterprise, you can benefit from the time and production efficiencies provided by automation tools that help you manage social media, leads, referrals, and much more.
• Staffing: The time savings offered by software tools enables you to reduce staff and more productively utilize employees. By using software to handle labor-intensive tasks, you can strategically refine your human resource planning and marketing spend.
• Be effective: Marketing automation makes it possible for you to do more with fewer resources. For example, triggered email can save a sale, thank a customer, or remind a former client of the important services you offer. Triggered transactional emails contribute to conversions and help you partner with your clients rather than just push a sale.
• Build your brand: Use less effort to increase your profile. Automated tools can monitor your brand online or create multi-channel marketing campaigns. Consistent visibility keeps your brand fresh and improves inbound marketing opportunities.
• Analytics: You can gain value and conversions as you create and maintain client touch-points throughout the sales cycle using MA. At the same time, you can collect intelligence to refine and redeliver your message or a sales incentive.

Automation is only half of it

According to a study by the Lenskold Group, companies that use integrated marketing automation are more likely to report successful sales efforts. These companies also have a greater expectation of growth than companies who do not integrate MA with their CRM system. But is “set it and forget it” all there is to marketing automation?

The answer is no. While marketing automation helps you gauge and deliver the right message at the right time to make a sale, or sustain a relationship, it is only part of the picture. Although wrapped in leading-edge technology, sound marketing principles remain. Successful marketing still means:

Offer a product that is affordable and desirable to your target market

• Sell through the channels most likely to succeed
• Create a clear offer and well-tuned message
• Treat customer feedback like gold

At Marketing Automation Group (MAG), we couple MA strategies with strong support and training to help business owners expand their profit potential. Professional success grows from nurturing your knowledge of people and businesses. Whether you are a B2B or B2C enterprise, the personal side of marketing was never more important—or more accessible—than through the use of MA.

Why are nurture campaigns important?

Personal touch is at the heart of marketing automation. Processes like lead scoring and customer segmentation contribute to your ability to see what your customers like. Effective feedback surveys let you know what your client does not like.

On a personal level, MA lets you reach out and touch clients in ways that offer value and ongoing relationships. Consider these techniques:

A follow-up email offers a thank you for a purchase

• A card or small gift sends birthday greetings
• An email or discount incentive enlivens a business relationship gone stale

MA requires a focused message and skillful use of technology to save time and help you cultivate good business—and human—relationships.

Achieving Success

How can you achieve success through MA? According to Gleanster, a few challenges to overcome include:

Marketing automation loses luster when it is not used correctly or integrated in a bigger strategic picture. Companies using MA fall short of expectations when employees or management lack training or support to achieve their desired results.

• Reliance on old methodologies or marketing attitudes reduces the benefits of MA technology. Use of large market email lists, rather than refined subsets, defeats the delivery of the right message to the right consumer.
• Metrics are important for benchmarking success—or the need for a different strategy—but may not be developed prior to deployment by overwhelmed staff or business owners.

Marketing automation is not magic. It involves leveraging tools, strategic thinking, and the right message-to-market match. Do not struggle when you can succeed. If you are a business owner ready to gain the skills and support to reach for your dreams—talk to me today.