So what is marketing automation? Put simply, it’s taking the manual process/es you already have in place and using software to automate these steps for you.

Once you’ve mapped out your marketing process, curated the various emails, texts, and other interactions with your standard lead, you’re ready to stitch this together using software like Hubspot and save yourself truckloads of time.

While looking at your existing process, you will also likely find ways of improving it. Sure, follow-up emails are easy to automate, but what about including other forms of interaction? 

• You can automate SMS messages to be sent to follow up on quotes.
• Schedule social media posts months in advance (set and forget)
• Setup an automated chat/interaction via Facebook Messenger
• Nurture your leads through the customer qualification phase without ever having to get involved
• Automatically segregate your contact lists to make your next mail out easier
• Send timely, personalised emails that address client interests

These are just a few of the many ways that you can automate your marketing process. Let’s dive into an imaginary workflow so you can see how this may work for your business. A person sees your ad on Facebook and clicks the learn more button.

This takes the person through to your landing page relating to the product or service ad that brought them there. Your copy is compelling and they fill out the contact form on the page to find out more while leaving some information that helps you qualify them for a specific product or service that you offer.

Your marketing automation software (we’ll use Hubspot in this example), grabs the lead information and starts the predefined workflow. This workflow determines that the lead needs to be sent an email that is specific to the product, and it shoots that out straight away with the person’s first name included in the welcome part of the email. Let’s imagine that the email provides the lead with the information they were looking for, but also gives them an option to buy now/engage now. 

The workflow may then sit and spin for 24 hours, waiting to see if the lead clicks on your call to action. If the link hasn’t been clicked, the workflow will then spit out an SMS with the same link, and may make reference to the fact that your client may not have had a chance to see the email. You can see where we’re going with this… Depending on how your lead interacts with your marketing, you are able to automate various actions and take the hassle out of following up on every potential lead personally.

Automation doesn’t just have to be a funnel, once a lead becomes a customer you can use your automation to continually engage, inform, and wow them. Who knows, you may have more to offer the customer than you thought. The best outcome is they become an advocate for your business that may bear fruit for years to come.

This is really only the tip of the iceberg, there are so many other things that can be automated and we’d love to show you how you can leverage software like Hubspot to convert more leads and give you more time to focus on other areas of your business. If this sounds like something you want in your business, fill out the form so we can help you on your automation journey.