Small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) today are embracing automation to streamline their processes. Marketing, in particular, involves many processes that are perfect candidates for automation. Here are five compelling reasons why SMBs should consider marketing automation solutions.
1. Automatic follow-ups
Keeping in touch over the phone can be tough if both parties are always busy, which is why email is often the medium of choice for marketing campaigns. With an automated system, your company can log the time and date of contact with leads, and set follow-up reminders for you and your team. You can even automate follow-up emails with prospects. This way, no potential customer will ever slip through the cracks.
2. Comprehensive contact histories
With each call and email you make and networking event you attend, you may obtain new contacts and leads. In the past, keeping track of these leads meant manually storing thick stacks of business cards and notes in your Rolodex. But today, cutting-edge marketing tools have made it possible to automatically capture contact information from any correspondence and record it directly onto customer relationship management databases.
Previous calls, scanned business cards, and received emails all get organized into a single database without a single minute wasted on tedious data entry. Automated systems can also track specific information on new leads, such as product preferences, contact times, and demographic information. All this information can then be used to create more personalized sales pitches that increase the likelihood of conversion.
3. Instant responses to email requests
Whenever prospective customers contact you via an email or web form, they usually expect an immediate response. Take too long to respond, and these customers can quickly lose interest in your company, ultimately costing you potential business. But if you have a marketing automation solution, you can customize automated emails to respond to these leads as soon as an email is received. These emails may include answers to frequently asked questions about your services or a simple acknowledgment that you will get back to them with an answer shortly.
4. Inbound lead assignment
Keeping track of which customer service representatives (CSRs) are handling which clients can be tricky, especially as you acquire more leads. Marketing automation software fixes this issue by automatically assigning inbound leads to the most appropriate CSRs. It could assign clients to representatives based on availability, prior experience, and specialties. This way, you can improve customer experiences by having the right people talk to the right clients.
5. Streamlined content distribution
Getting someone’s contact information is key to acquiring more leads and building relationships. The best way to achieve this is to offer relevant and valuable content that prospects actually want. For instance, you can offer webinars, how-to tutorials from your niche, or special product promotions in exchange for filling out a simple web form. When clients submit the web form with their contact information, you can then use marketing automation to deliver the content directly to their inbox.
Not only does this save you time from having to manually send out each piece of content, but it also allows you to track which pieces of content are most popular and generate the most leads. This can inform future marketing campaigns and help you focus on what’s most important to your target audience.
Wise business owners know that marketing automation is the key to saving time and unlocking their company’s competitive edge, helping them easily acquire and convert more leads. Contact us now if you want to elevate your marketing with cutting-edge automation tools.