There is a lot to gain from digital marketing. Combined with automation, the scope becomes multi-fold. You can experience growth in all aspects of the sales process starting from leads conversions to repeated customers. Marketing processes benefit from automation in terms of better customer experience, efficiency and cost reduction.
Automation may seem a bit daunting, but with the right guidance, the journey can have a smooth beginning and continue to remain so. If your digital marketing services provider has experience in automation of the processes, your company is in good hands. But you too should know the details of your marketing plans.
Why Adopt Automation?
- Free up Resources for Better Planning
With certain processes that do not require much human involvement, your time and human resources are free to focus on strategizing and providing better client service. This results in better productivity and efficiency.
- Save Money
With greater efficiency in place, an increase in productivity can be achieved, thus reducing the need for extra resources, resulting in spare financial resources ready for allocation for other activities or back into the marketing plan.
- Better Customer Interactions
Automated but personalised interactions with consumers can be made possible through automation. For instance, e-mailers can be sent to customers to keep them informed of their recent orders or any new offers and activities to nurture the relationship. This ensures a timely response from your side without any additional effort.
- Enable Detailed Analytics
Any data related to customer activity can be collected and analysed to give real-time information about the effectiveness of the campaign allowing you to make timely modifications. It is also effective in helping PPC services in managing their inputs.
How to Automate Your Systems?
Moving into an environment with automation process in place requires some preparation. The crew must get accustomed to the idea of the changes. You will also need to establish the changes in the current work modules. The following steps should be taken into account for the same:
- What Should be Automated?
Identify the tasks that are done repeatedly by your teammates. Administrative and time-consuming tasks like sending e-mails and responding to standard queries are some of the tasks that can be automated to reduce the burden on the team.
- Choose the Best Suited Software
There is a wide variety available in the market. Depending on your industry, you can choose one that is custom-designed for your needs. You can opt for a free trial before committing.
- Training Module
Once the software has been selected, the team will need to be trained to use the processes effectively. Each member will need to know his role in the effective functioning of the system. A trial run involving all the team members should be undertaken to ensure complete understanding and address any concerns and queries.
- Effectiveness Appraisal
With the installation and training, the system is ready for action. Periodically, it will need to go through an assessment to understand if all is going well. The effect of automation on the KPIs of the marketing activity also needs to be monitored to see if any changes are required. Any such changes can then be made well in time with regular monitoring.
Strategy in Automation
The system can take care of sending out the content to the consumers, but your marketing team will still need to take care of the creative part, i.e. the planning and the content creation. You need to work out when, how and what is sent to your consumers. The ‘What’ is the most critical here and you must keep the following in mind when creating the content in the form of newsletters, advertorials, remarketing e-mails etc.
- Audience Charting
Who is your audience? What is their demographic profile? What is their psychographic profile? What are their pain points? Knowing the answers to these questions will help you create material that will talk to them at a personal level and keep them engaged.
- Tonality of Communication
This must be appropriate and in line with what you expect from your relationship with the consumer. You could choose to be formal, friendly, warm, conversational. Whatever you choose, do not suddenly change the tone; it is the tone of your brand.
- The Human Touch
The automation system should only be used to send out the content. The feel of the message must remain human. Personalise it to make the customer feel special.
- Variety
Repetition is boring. Keep surprising your consumers with a variety in the content you send them. This will help them engage more with you.
- Steer Clear of Irrelevance
The content that you send out should not automatically make its way to junk mail. This can be avoided if it is relevant and useful.
Before you make any big change in your business plans, you must be clear about the objective of the move. Before you are completely involved in it, get your team involved and make sure to test it thoroughly.
