Is Marketing Automation Right for Your Business? [#mapodcast]

About this podcast series

The Marketing Automation 101 Podcast from THE SEEN discusses about the inside out of marketing automation, visual communications and how they can help small to medium businesses succeed through proven methods, best practices and expert advice.

You can subscribe to this podcast series via iTunes, RSS, SoundCloud and Stitcher.

Here are the main ideas:

Marketing automation can do many things for your business. It can be a faster, more effective strategy for generating online sales leads.

Automation can send targeted traffic to your website and convert visitors into leads and customers. Because you can streamline inbound marketing, it leaves more time to focus on client relations. It is custom to your business needs, it is affordable and inexpensive.

Tracking client movement is can become easier and you can have the ability of converting visitors into clients.

Custom building can help with analyze and fine-tuning processes with conversation rate optimizations.

You will have the ability to publish regular streams with high-quality original content. Automation is helpful when you have a large amount of leads to sort through.

You will be able to monitor them throughout a longer sales funnel and manage coordinated efforts of CRM, email and campaign planning.

Some factors to consider when choosing your marketing automation tools are:

Assess your business' marketing department. Be tech savvy and comfortable with new software.
Know your marketing needs. Decide if you will be using and needing lead management and lead acquisitions.
Know your software requirements. Depending on what software you currently use, you will be able to determine if you can have a landing page management, if you have the ability to have email distributions, track website activity, survey tools and use real-time notifications.
Know your budget. How much is your marketing department allowed to spend? Is this yearly? What is in your marketing budget and is there a chance these other costs can be eliminated and combined?

Now that you know what to consider when choosing your marketing automation tools, you should also know what they can't do for you.

Make sure that the price is clear on their website. Some companies initially leave off the price because everything is sold separately. Do they offer what would be considered a bundle package?
Do they offer trials or demos? Are they offered for a short period of time for the customer or client to try?
Does their website include blogs, white papers, marketing tips or free user-education resources?
Many will claim to be business friendly but they actually focus primarily on larger companies. Make sure that they have the ability to work with all business sizes.
If your business is struggling to keep up with your business marketing needs then it may not be for you.
Remember that marketing automation will not replace all of what the agency does instantly. It takes time and you have to be able to give it just that.
If your product is expensive or requires a large investment time, the sales process will take longer.
Automation only works if you have the information to give to your customers. This is not something that will do all of the work for you. You know your company better than anyone and it's your initial information that is used.

No one knows what will work best for someone else. You have to be willing to put in the time while setting up your business for marketing automation. Because the systems are formed to your needs and what will work best for your company, there are many different ways to set up your automation.

Some tips for successful marketing automation implementation are:

Offer free e-books and company blogs. Customers like feeling as if they are getting something or nothing. The buy-one-get-one offers are appealing.
Use fresh content. Don't do what everyone else is doing. Don't be afraid to try something new.
Be creative. Put your own unique spin on topics. Maybe create a new company mascot or symbol to represent your business.
Put content on your website to explain your product, answer questions and inform users. The more information you can provide your customers with, the better.
Know your companies vision, goals, content, and flowcharts to use automation to its full potential. There are many things you can do with your business information and marketing automation, use it to its fullest.
Know your OpenRate, CTR (click-through rate) and status of each opportunity in your sales funnel to optimize your program.
Know your audience. What are they looking for? What is the best way for you to provide them with that service?
Pay attention to data in your systems. Some of your best resources are already available to you.
Have valuable content. Provide the information that is important to them.
Monitor your results in real time. You don't want to provide information and stats that are not current.
Know your platform. Track how a potential customer interacts with your brand. These digital clues will help you know what the customers’ decision-making process is.

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Team Visual Contenting

Every brand has its own story that is waiting to be told. Storytelling technique combined with creative design is what you need to effectively tell this story.

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