Small businesses today have lots of things on their plate, especially when it comes to marketing. Many SMB marketers feel like they are always chasing down an out-of-control to-do list that just grows larger each day.
Marketing automation can aid in getting your to-do list under control. Automation for marketing is a critical component of helping small business marketers attain the level of success that they need for a few important reasons.
Why You Need Marketing Automation
Marketing automation should play a significant role in any SMB marketing campaign, primarily because it allows marketers to get more return from less manual effort. Marketers investing in automation can reach out to prospects, respond to requests, and disseminate information to lead lists, all without having to handle all of these tasks manually.
On a higher level, automation is also important because it gives marketers the ability to take a step back and analyze how successful their marketing tactics are. Automation tools can be used to collect and sort important data relating to marketing that needs understanding in order for marketers to successfully alter their strategy. You can use automation to get insights about many different areas of your marketing plan, from social media traffic to website views. Based on this information, it is much easier for small businesses to prove that their inbound efforts are bringing in a sufficient ROI.
How to Approach Marketing Automation Effectively
The first thing, you should do when looking into automation, is understand the various tools that your particular marketing platform offers. Whether you are using Sharp Spring, HubSpot, Pardot or any other type of platform, you must understand exactly how their automation tools work. Do your research and get well-acquainted with what they offer when it comes to things like email correspondence, lead scoring and customer relationship management.
Another of the most important ideas to keep in mind for marketing automation is making sure that you segment your prospect list the right way. When it comes to marketing collateral like landing pages, email newsletters, and blog posts, your automation processes need to be segmented. That way you can connect the right people with the right dimension of your marketing efforts.
Finally, you need to be constantly reviewing the data you receive from your automation efforts. Things like email opens, page visits, and conversion rate are all important bits of data that will help you see what does and does not work when it comes to automation. This is also one of the key reasons that automation is necessary for your content plan.
How Can Marketing Automation Impact Content Plans
For swamped SMB marketers, one of the best things about automation is that it lightens the load when it comes to content marketing. From automatically distributing content to choosing which prospects are best suited for which types of content, automation is integral to getting the most out of your investment of time and money into both content and inbound marketing.
Inbound marketing is an excellent tactic for small businesses, as long as they go about it properly. Not only will marketing automation help marketers do more in less time, it will also provide more insight into how successful their efforts are and which areas of their campaign they need to make a change in.
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