There are two things startups can never have enough of, it’s time and budget.
When you invest in marketing automation, you get to free up time because the software takes care of some of the more trying marketing tasks.
In the long-run, you also get to save money, thanks to the fact that you can reduce labor power.
Marketing automation also helps you generate leads, it gives you deeper insights into who your audience is and essentially helps you grow your business.
In this article, we’ll be taking a look at what marketing automation is exactly, and how startups can use it.
What Is Marketing Automation?
Automation is everywhere in 2022. Businesses are automating their future recruiting needs via better workforce planning, and identifying skills and capabilities of the future. They’re automating their schedule, their to-do list and their marketing.
Marketing automation is when you assign rigorous, time-consuming but meaningful marketing tasks to a piece of marketing automation software.
For example, scheduling and posting content to your social media channels? That can be automated. So can email marketing and even lead generation.
In essence, marketing automation streamlines your workflows and uses artificial intelligence to put data to better use. This results in campaigns that are:
- More efficient
- More on-point
- More successful
Let’s break things down a little…
Personalizing Your Workflows
Whenever your prospects take action of some kind, you gain another data point. Each data point is useful because it tells you a little bit more about your customers and what they want.
The issue is that tracking each of these data points manually is incredibly time-consuming and probably just not worth it.
This is where marketing automation comes in. With the right software, you can create more efficient, AI-driven workflows that:
- Understand your customers better
- Deliver engaging content on the right channels at the right time
The idea is that your workflows are more personalized and therefore attract qualified leads that you can later nurture into long-term customers.
Automating Your Data Insights
AI is a powerful tool when it comes to data insights. This is especially the case for startups who, despite some fair startup loan options, might not have the budget to work with data engineers.
AI is able to:
- Spot patterns and trends in your customer data
- Segment customers autonomously based on said trends and patterns
Not just this, but AI is also able to assist by supporting result analysis. It shows how impactful your marketing campaigns have been on your KPIs.
Automating Your Email Campaigns
Perhaps the most popular use of marketing automation for startups is email automation.
How come?
Email marketing continues to be one of the best ways to reach your customers and nurture long-term relationships. Statistics have shown that 4 out of 5 digital marketers still prefer email over social media marketing in 2022.
However, email marketing is time-consuming and since it relies so much on data analytics-kinda hard to get right.
Email automation tools help you:
- Segment your email list
- Personalize your emails
- Schedule your emails
- Test what works and what doesn’t, like subject lines
Email automation can do more, too. For example, you can use software to schedule emails based on triggers you’ve already defined, such as when a customer clicks a link or makes a purchase.
Automate Your Content Marketing
Another highly common area of marketing automation is content marketing.
In 2022, content largely remains king but only if you display relevant content to your customers.
This goes for ads, such as PPC campaigns and social media ads, to email, to landing pages.
Use behavioral targeting in conjunction with your buyer personas to send tailored content to each individual customer that addresses their specific needs. Remember, your customers are in a hurry and marketing automation uses data you’ve already got to target the right customers with the right content.
Using Marketing Automation Correctly
Earlier, we mentioned how you can use marketing automation software to create efficient workflows that understand your customers and deliver engaging content.
However, marketing automation is only partly software. It still requires you to put in place a working strategy so that you’re able to generate leads, warm them up, and turn them into customers.
Essentially, you need to add the human touch to your automation processes.
For instance, take a look at your customer journey and pick out touch points that you have a hunch will improve with marketing automation. Then, build processes that hopefully nudge your customer from touchpoint A to touchpoint B.
You can integrate a CRM with your automation software, which will allow you to track each customer action as a data point.
The data points should then connect each customer to the next part of their journey. This might be a piece of content that educates them about your brand or product, or it might even be a salesperson who chats to them 1:1. Marketing automation is extremely useful here because you don’t have to work on each customer manually. The software largely does it for you.
Of course, working with the best marketing tools is super helpful because it’s impossible to automate your marketing campaigns without them. Just make sure to look for tools that address your needs, and which suit your budget.
Final Thoughts
All in all, the perfect marketing automation strategy for startups should see you prioritize the right tasks and take a more hands-off approach so that your marketing strategy works for you.
It should also involve Artificial Intelligence that’s able to mine your analytics, uncover insights and help you create smarter marketing campaigns that target the right audiences with the right content – at the right time.
Ready to make a start? Don’t delay. The ideal time to start automating your startups marketing campaigns is now.
