Let's be honest — every business wants to have a good relationship with customers to strengthen partnership and sales. But building these relationships can take forever if you stick with the usual marketing strategy.
Marketing automation is one way to make things easier and faster. Marketing automation entails using software to simplify your work.
Many digital marketers have repetitive jobs that require effort and time. Common tasks include sending emails, posting to social platforms and even building campaign advertisements. Most of them say they do it to have a personal encounter with their customers, but that doesn't mean it can't be made more efficient and accessible.
Why Do Marketers Prefer Automation?
Marketers use automation for various reasons:
• It can reduce labor: One of the common reasons marketers choose automation is to do less work overall. Why go for manual labor when automation is convenient and involves less hassle? You can contact your clients with just a click. You can advertise a business, set up an automated welcome note or respond whenever and wherever you are.
• It helps avoid human error: Mistakes are inevitable, but computers can help. Learning marketing automation might not sound very easy, but once you're up to speed, it can help to uncomplicate your life.
• Customer satisfaction: Often, customers don't want to purchase products that are hard to find, have complicated features or are not customer-friendly. Automation allows them to buy with just a click on their mobile device. From there, you can easily check in on them and monitor their consumption of your products and services.
Marketing Automation Use Cases
• Lead scoring: With market automation, you can easily determine who your target clients are — those that are most worth your time and attention. Lead scoring helps you determine those clients' wants and needs. It then gives you an idea of what needs to improve as you develop your brand.
• Email and text messaging: Most people take their mobile phones with them everywhere, so it's in your best interest to take advantage of that. With digital marketing, you can reach them regardless of where they are in the world. You can also send them invite codes, promos and vouchers.
• Social media strategy: With so many collective hours spent on social media, there are few better ways to advertise a business. You can easily attract target clients and invite them to purchase your product or service. You can also take advantage of automated posting. Just schedule your caption, graphic design, links, message and hashtag. That way, your message will go live even if you don't happen to be online or have an internet connection. This helps ensure your posts are consistent and your clients are in the loop.
• Automated chats: You can send an automated response to a potential client who is interested in your product. You can integrate this chat feature into your website and even have it target people who are visiting the site for the first time.
Cons of Marketing Automation
• It can be costly: Automation starts with technology. Because of this, small business owners tend to opt for manual work instead of paying the upfront costs associated with automation.
• It's often complex for beginners: Getting started can be a challenge, especially if you're unfamiliar with how digital automation works. So before diving in, do your research.
The Bottom Line
Whether you choose marketing automation or not, you need to remember that working hands-on with your business should be your number one priority. Use of marketing automation without proper knowledge can have a direct impact on your business and your clients. But once you've done your research, you can combine technology and hard work to be successful.
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
