Marketing automation tools for your business

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02/04/2018

More and more businesses are using content marketing to attract potential customers. A piece of research or a whitepaper on industry insights is available to be downloaded from your website, if the person gives you their contact details. Their ‘payment’ for the information is permission for you to follow up and try and convert them to a customer. By accessing the right automation tools for your business, you’ll be able to spread your small business content across multiple platforms, without spending hours and hours.

With an effective marketing automation package, you can:

• Respond to queries and encourage registrations 24/7.
• Motivate customers to look further into what you’re selling, and how it can benefit them without needing to talk to them.
• Nurture leads by sending people on-going automated information and content based on their needs, that they self-profile.
• Capture sales by feeding all contacts and qualified leads into your sales funnel.

You can set up a schedule of when and where certain content will be posted to your website, blog, social media platforms, and potential customers’ email accounts.

Automate your business content

Automation involves being able to program your marketing strategies using powerful mobile apps and web services, or by employing the services of an inbound marketing software platform like Hubspot which ranks leads in order of most likely to buy.

Regardless of the kind of business you have, you’re competing for every lead with large companies and small enterprises within your niche. You’ll have to nurture each lead along your sales funnel. As your lead numbers increase, manual lead tracking will become more difficult – automation helps you keep up.

Search for ‘inbound marketing software’ and evaluate which suits your business best, and ask other small business owners what apps they use and why.

Email marketing triggers

As a small business owner, email marketing is one of your most effective tactics to improve performance at every stage of your marketing efforts.

A useful email marketing automation tool lets you set up trigger-based workflows so you can leverage opportunities to nurture your leads. For example, some triggers include:

• Welcome emails – thank any new subscribers to your blog or e-newsletter and give them a preview of the kind of content they’ll get.
• Lead nurturing – if a potential customer has downloaded your e-book or white paper, have an automated email sent to their inbox suggesting what they do next (perhaps downloading a paid-for piece of content).
• Sales representative notifications – for example, if a ‘lead’ goes through a few steps and views your pricing page, automatically advise your sales team so they can follow up.
• Abandoned shopping carts – some businesses will automatically send emails when a customer has abandoned their shopping cart. This needs to be done delicately to avoid a hard-sell approach, but with the aim of encouraging customers to go through with their purchases.
• Calls to action (CTA’s) – encourage your potential customers to take the next step on the journey towards a purchase. For example, they might read some of the content on your landing page and fill out your sign-up box to receive your e-newsletter.

Start using lead magnets

A lot of marketing automation uses ‘lead magnets’ to gain contacts. Some types of lead magnets you might consider using are:

• Guides or ‘white paper’ reports that cover industry insights that a customer wants to know.
• Video training. You could use video to demonstrate a new product or service.
• Free trial. A common lead magnet for businesses offering subscription services, such as a free 30-day trial.
• Discounts or free shipping. If you sell physical goods, discounts or free shipping can be effective types of lead magnets.
• Invites to events, webinars, special discount or early bird bookings. Anything that encourages a possible customer to give you their contact details to follow up.

You can also automate the advertising space on your site with ad services like Google AdSense.

Improve your customer reach

Being able to automate the release of related content can increase your customer reach on a certain topic, product or service – and encourage action from your customer base.

You could automate content through an online forum, as an e-newsletter, and on your website at set times to maximize the impact your content marketing will have.

Summary

Generating leads through content marketing and events is an effective tactic to increase your customer vase. By deciding to automate your small business content, you’ll enjoy a number of benefits that include:

• More timely and relevant communication, by aiming to get the right messages and purchase triggers to your potential customers at the right times.
• Increased customer engagement and revenue. Engaging with your potential customers is the right road to gaining revenue.
• Saved time. With your content systems automated you’ll have more time for other important tasks within your business.
• Opportunities to up and cross-sell. There’ll be numerous opportunities to tempt your customers with additional purchases if you get your automated content set up well.