There’s no shame in not fully understanding what marketing automation is. But there is shame in never finding out. If there’s one thing you can’t afford to blag, it’s automation. Why? It’ll save you time, boost your campaign performance and nurture your leads. Think of marketing automation as your silent assistant.
What is marketing automation?
Marketing automation is a tool that enables you to set up and continuously run a series of campaigns that are programmed to take your contact down different journeys, based on logic you have written.
In layman’s terms, it’s what you could already be doing with your campaigns but scheduled ahead of time. That includes the intelligent data segmentations, such as sending different campaigns to contact who have clicked on specific links, making it ideal for lead generation.
How can it save you time?
Sure, you need to dedicate a little time to get everything set up, but once you’ve done that, you shouldn’t need to do much with it again. You’ll need to add more content from time to time or update campaigns here or there, but for the most part, your job is done!
Consider your regular campaigns that contain similar content. Set up a batch of these ahead of scheduled send, and that’s what we’re talking about.
Where to begin?
It’s all in the planning, consider the following:
- What do you want to achieve?
- Who are you targeting?
- How will a contact enter the workflow?
- How will your contacts exit the workflow?
Once you’ve answered those questions, it’s time to consider your logic. Have a think about what journey you want to take your customers or leads on. Will it be a linear campaign or will you divert them down different routes based on how they engage?
What’s next?
It’s time to get the ball rolling. If you’re scratching your head stuck for ideas, have a look at our 5 Marketing Automation Workflows to Start Using. This whitepaper shows you tried and tested successful workflows that are sure to benefit your marketing efforts.