Manual intervention not only increases the risks of errors but also gets hectic and inefficient at a point in time. That’s why most marketers and sales teams are always on the lookout for techniques and tools that automate their work and increase end to end productivity and efficiency. Starting from inviting and welcoming new subscribers to calling them onboard to re-engage with lost clients, the techniques of automation are highly discussed.

Here, we shall walk you through top marketing automation best practices that can help marketers optimize their marketing campaigns. Let’s dive in, pronto!

Read More: SalesTechStar Interview with Caroline Santander, Senior Vice President of Global Professional Services & Enablement at Rootstock Software

Marketing / Sales Automation: Best practices for better campaigns

Marketing and sales automation enables digital teams to gain more with less effort. But, what’s the technique to make the most of the automation attempts? Here are the best practices that help provide a framework to rely on while planning the campaigns to make sure the automation is used to its effect and properly.

1. For enhanced user retention, hyper-personalize the campaigns

The first step here would be focusing on the subscription form and gathering data on diverse communication touchpoints. Know whether the channels collect basic demographic details. Can these forms be used as a good data point to generate hyper-personalized campaigns and enhance user experience and engagement?

2. Discover the right frequency & warm-up leads gradually

Avoid relying on guesswork to transmit promotional messages; instead, measure how your customers are responding to the whole communication. Study their responses and chart out a preferable timeline, then send the messages according to that to enjoy higher chances of deal closure.

3. Classify the lead types for targeted messaging

By making categories, you can roll out targeted messaging, which promises a boost in overall user experience and results in a positive impact. To classify the leads on the basis of different stages, you can consider the following segments:

1. Known: Anyone who has self-identified
2. Anonymous: Someone who’s still browsing the site but hasn’t provided the personal info yet.
3. Engaged: The one who interacted by downloading content, clicking an email, etc., with your brand but hasn’t purchased anything.
4. Won: The one who converts from a lead to a customer.
5. Lost: Someone who doesn’t convert into a customer.
6. Marketing Qualified Lead: The one who has been approved by the lead scoring procedure and is being studied by the sales team.
7. Sales Qualified Lead: The one who’s interested in the brand, as found out in the review performed by the sales team.
8. Disqualified: The one who will never possibly make a purchase from you.

4. Keep the contact database organized to approach the right leads

It is recommended to revisit the contact database often and to make sure there are no duplicate or dummy accounts. To keep your database organized and clean:

1. Merge duplicates regularly.
2. Use verification measures to identify fake phone numbers and emails, so the user is not enabled to turn in the form unless they key in a proper email address.

5. To identify brand advocates, engage in social listening

There are various marketing and sales automation tools available out there that provide social listening and monitoring features to re-engage with customers once they mention the brand name on social media. This would save you from letting customer issues/ complaints or any potential lead completely fail. Social listening helps one engage in damage control and rectify it instantly.

6. Inform & engage users with Email Newsletters

When it comes to marketing techniques, email newsletters are always preferred and effective. To automate the newsletters easily, you can follow the steps given below:

1. Go for a marketing automation solution that offers clean and cool email templates along with an intuitive drag-&-drop email builder.
2. Curate the emails with the right imagery and content. Personalize and make it unique to every user.
3. Automate the newsletter distribution and let your marketing mill do the work!

7. Email drip campaigns to satisfy the needs of current customers & nurture leads

Email drip campaigns basically refer to a series of emails that are already drafted, which are sent at a specific time, on the basis of action taken by the lead. Automation of the entire sequence saves time, effort, and energy for marketers while making the campaigns more effective.

8. For better connection with the customer base, create engaging content

Consider the following when creating engaging content:

1. Know your persona
2. Stage in which the buyer has reached
3. Problem/ challenge you can help solve for them

Leveraging data touchpoints like surveys, case studies, data sheets, etc., can help you create powerful content. You can consider creating content in different formats such as blogs, polls, social media posts, surveys, interactive videos, quizzes, etc.

There you go! With these marketing automation best practices, you can plan out a compelling campaign that saves money as well as time for a company and also boosts user experience and happiness in each phase of the buyer’s journey. So, there’s a win-win for everyone here.  

Read More: Three Ways Technology Is Helping Retailers Weather Rough Economic Waters