Guest post by Kimberly Maceda.
Automation is the future of marketing. The market is still in its growth phase, and highly fragmented among more than 200 software providers.
With its high potential and the impressive results it can deliver, it’s no surprise that more businesses are implementing these platforms to beef up their performance. For now, a study revealed that 49% of companies are currently using marketing automation tools, with 55% of B2B companies adopting this technology.
To make the most of marketing automation, here are the fundamental strategies that guarantee faster and higher ROI at a lower cost.
Set Up a Drip Campaign
Not all leads convert during their first touch on your site. That’s why it is important to stay in touch with them through a well-developed drip campaign.
The best thing about drip campaign is that it is about your customers and not about what you want. It lets you send emails based on the actions of your leads or even changes in their online behavior.
For instance, you can send a welcome email right after they subscribe to your e-newsletter, and then make sure they receive regular emails with new content regularly. Setting up triggers in your marketing automation software also helps in cases where leads change their online behavior or perform a certain action.
A well-thought-out drip campaign can generate up to three times click-through rate and 80% more sales at 33% lower costs. However, it is important to remember that the effectiveness of your drop campaign lies in the quality of your email targeting. Therefore, a smooth workflow and a vast number of pre-written emails are necessary.
Nurture Your Leads
A study showed that 50% of leads are qualified but not yet ready to buy. So, prepare them with a lead nurturing campaign to turn marketing qualified leads into sales qualified leads at which they are on the verge of converting.
It is essential to understand the sales funnel for an effective lead nurturing strategy. Knowing whether your lead is at awareness, consideration, or decision stage can help you determine which type of email is best to send them. This is where having a pool of dynamic email content becomes more important. Your email content must be rich enough in number and diversity to let you target different segments.
If you can nail lead nurturing, you can generate up to 50% more sales ready leads at 33% lower cost. Remember, the secret is right timing and right email content for the right recipient.
Create Dynamic Email Content
Don’t put your vast amount of customer information into waste. Use this to deliver differentiated content based on the recent behavior and interests of your leads. Here, recipients will feel find value in your email as it tailored for them.
For instance, you can create and send different calls-to-action to leads from a banking industry and leads from a marketing industry. Your options are limitless if you are disciplined in collecting customer information. It is also important to note that proper customer segmentation is necessary for developing your email content.
Bottom Line
Marketing trends have shifted. Your leads and customers should now be at the center when you develop your strategies. Fortunately, email automation offers an innovative way to address this business need.
If you are serious about beefing up your email automation campaign, the strategies mentioned above are the first thing that you need to master. It shouldn’t be hard to nail these if you carefully plan your campaigns and use advanced marketing automation software.
About the author: Kimberly Maceda is a Content Writer for ActiveTrail. She comes up with brilliant content about email marketing and automations to keep customers updated with the trends. For Kimmy, it’s Bring Your Dog to Work Day almost every day.
All says
Nice. Many tools for customer segmentation these days. From what i understand, Activetrail focus on email segmentation
Tom Pick says
Thanks! Glad the post was helpful. And I believe you are correct.
Jamie says
Thanks! I’ll have to try those in GetResponse. I guess that marketing automation is not that bad at all.
Tom Pick says
Marketing automation is just a tool. It can used to spam, or it can be used wisely and well.