In the present day, entrepreneurs have the world at their fingertips in the case of automation.
We will design complicated electronic mail sequences to exit on repeat, automate social media and show advertisements primarily based on buyer preferences, and ship deserted cart restoration emails with out lifting a finger.
However, this ease of use presents an issue:
Many entrepreneurs don’t have a ton of technique behind their actions. They get straight into the tactical element earlier than pondering by means of the strategic parts.
On this article, we’re going to give attention to the latter.
You’ll uncover the 6 essential steps in designing a advertising automation technique and find out how that technique ought to inform automation techniques and actions.
Desk of Contents
What’s a advertising automation technique?
A advertising automation technique is an overarching plan behind the advertising actions you resolve to automate and people you resolve not to automate.
So, let’s get 1 factor clear.
Advertising automation methods and advertising automation techniques should not the identical factor.
Somewhat, your advertising automation technique informs the automation techniques you select.
The technique is the high-level strategy, encompassing buyer analysis, market evaluation, competitor comparisons, and goal-setting.
From right here, you possibly can select the advertising efforts that swimsuit you.
A few examples of selling automation techniques embrace electronic mail nurture sequences and remarketing advert campaigns on social media.
Beginning with technique is essential to figuring out which techniques will convert. When you discover by means of your analysis that clients in your sector not often buy from focused social media advertisements, for example, then automating this course of could also be unsuitable.
With this in thoughts, we’re first going to take a look at learn how to construct a advertising automation technique earlier than diving into the particular techniques you would possibly use to achieve your viewers and convert gross sales.
Tips on how to construct a strong advertising automation technique in 6 steps
Able to design a advertising automation technique to save lots of time and pace up workflows? Simply comply with these 6 steps.
1. Collect your mission-critical intel
Step one is to tug collectively all the information you’ve in your viewers, your rivals, and your market.
This consists of paperwork like:
- Whole addressable market evaluation
- Competitor evaluation
- SWOT evaluation
- Excellent firm profile (ICP)
- Buyer personas
To be clear, creating these paperwork will not be a part of the advertising automation technique design course of.
Automation technique is just one a part of your wider advertising technique. As such, these duties ought to already be accomplished; that is merely a observe of collating the required info to tell automation choices.
2. Audit your current advertising actions
Check out the advertising actions you’re working proper now, and ask 2 questions:
- Which of those actions will be automated?
- Which actions can be higher off not automated?
Say, for instance, that you simply’re presently working a collection of lead nurture campaigns for leads that aren’t fairly but sales-qualified. Based mostly on their interplay with sure emails, you reroute them (presently manually) to completely different sequences.
You’ll be able to automate this with the fitting electronic mail advertising software.
You would possibly resolve, nonetheless, that it’s important for an account-based advertising rep to be concerned in writing that first electronic mail, because it must be extremely focused to the particular buyer’s curiosity. You would possibly select not to automate on this occasion, then.
3. Perceive how automation impacts the client journey
The buyer journey is a mannequin entrepreneurs use to map out the varied steps the everyday patrons undergo to buy.
It begins on the attain and interact stage (the place you goal your messaging to the discover prospects) and strikes proper by means of the convert and shut levels.
It’s best to have already got the client journey mapped out by now; your job right here is to know how automation would possibly impression that journey.
Take, for instance, the nurture and educate section.
You would possibly establish that your potential patrons spend a whole lot of time taking a look at comparability posts between you and your rivals.
You can arrange an electronic mail automation sequence to ship in-depth comparability posts proper to them, saving them time and guaranteeing you’re positioning your self as the best choice for a given want (i.e., reiterating your worth propositions).
4. Establish automation set off factors
Upon getting a good suggestion of the automation recipes you’d prefer to create, you’ll have to be clear on what triggers that recipe.
In some instances, it could be guide, corresponding to a social media advertising supervisor initiating a brand new automated advert sequence.
In others, automation runs will be triggered routinely—for example, if a buyer downloads your e-book and is routinely entered into an electronic mail nurture sequence.
5. Discover the restrictions of your advertising automation platform
Advertising automation software program is your lifesaver right here, enabling all of these complicated automation concepts you’ve dreamed up.
However not all automation platforms provide the identical options (although there may be vital overlap).
Take the instance we checked out in step 2, the place you’d prefer to automate dynamic electronic mail sequences primarily based on consumer interplay.
Quite a lot of automation platforms don’t have this capacity. (ActiveCampaign does, by the way in which).
You’ll want to verify your required automation recipes fall throughout the confines of your software’s capabilities or take into account switching platforms.
6. Design a plan for reporting and evaluation
The final element of designing a advertising automation technique is figuring out the way you’ll measure the success of your automation technique and techniques.
This comes down to picking particular metrics to measure efficacy and ROI and scheduling an everyday time to evaluation your advertising automation technique and modify as applicable.
Each 6 to 12 months is probably going applicable for many companies, although startups and quickly rising and altering corporations would possibly prefer to step as much as a quarterly evaluation cadence.
Use your advertising automation technique to drive these 7 techniques
Now that you’ve your technique sorted, it’s time to resolve which advertising techniques will work greatest for attracting your viewers.
Let’s discover 7 examples as an instance how this entire factor works.
1. Lead nurture electronic mail sequence
The lead nurture electronic mail sequence is the quintessential instance of selling automation in motion.
This automation sequence begins when your buyer takes a particular motion. That is likely to be downloading your e-book, signing up for an electronic mail course, or making their first buy.
Let’s say it’s the latter.
That buyer is then put right into a lead nurture sequence and receives a collection of emails in sequential order. Say, for instance, they obtain 1 per week for 7 weeks.
Every lead nurture electronic mail sequence has a particular conversion aim in thoughts. On this occasion, it could be to transform that individual to a repeat buyer by encouraging a second buy. The ultimate electronic mail within the sequence would possibly embrace a low cost code as an extra motivator.
An efficient electronic mail sequence helps you flip extra subscribers into clients.
2. Remarketing advertisements
Remarketing (often known as retargeting) advertisements are a advertising automation tactic triggered when a possible buyer browses a product in your web site however doesn’t undergo with the acquisition.
Your web site pixel captures their information and hyperlinks together with your advertising automation platform to set off automated advertisements for that precise product.
These advertisements are mostly displayed on social media platforms like Fb and Instagram however can be efficient as digital banner advertisements.
3. Social media promoting
Social media promoting is a well-liked advertising technique typically, however it’s even higher when automated.
For instance, let’s say you’ve a sequence of content material you’d like potential clients to see. One advert isn’t ample.
In your advertising automation platform, you would possibly arrange a collection of three advertisements, every with completely different inventive and duplicate, and automate their show on platforms like Fb and LinkedIn in sequence.
4. Segmented electronic mail advertising
Probably the most highly effective electronic mail advertising automation sequences are segmented by key viewers attributes. This ensures that you simply solely ship highly-relevant content material to every viewers section, thereby enhancing engagement and conversion charges.
Say, for instance, that you simply’re a gross sales CRM with various completely different consumer profiles. A lot of your customers are actual property brokers and insurance coverage corporations.
Whereas some electronic mail content material could also be related to each, not the entire content material you produce for actual property corporations will probably be tremendous related for insurance coverage brokers and vice versa. Segmented electronic mail advertising lets you ship the fitting stuff to the fitting folks.
Dynamic electronic mail content material will help you’re taking issues a step additional.
Take this electronic mail from Northern Path, for example, which makes use of dynamic electronic mail to tailor content material primarily based on recipient gender.
With dynamic content material, for example, you possibly can ship a single electronic mail to your whole viewers however automate a sure element to alter primarily based on consumer information.
5. Deserted cart emails
Deserted carts are the bane of the ecommerce world. Consumers add your merchandise to their cart (or bag, or field, or no matter you’re calling it) however don’t undergo with the acquisition.
Automated deserted cart emails are a strong approach to regain a few of this misplaced income potential with no need to contain a advertising individual each time.
Couple your cart abandonment emails with retargeting advertisements for a 2-pronged strategy to cart restoration.
6. Transactional SMS messages
Transactional emails (like delivery and gross sales notifications) are an effective way to maintain clients up to date, however they usually get misplaced within the a whole bunch of notifications your electronic mail subscribers obtain every month.
SMS advertising generally is a highly effective approach to lower by means of. You’re sending the messages on to a buyer’s cell, stopping you from getting misplaced of their electronic mail inbox.
Homesick makes use of transactional SMS to tell clients about ongoing gross sales, for instance.
7. Welcome electronic mail collection
Welcome electronic mail collection are an ideal goal for an automation sequence.
This is likely to be triggered when somebody indicators up to your electronic mail publication or rewards program after studying 1 of your weblog posts that speaks to a standard business problem.
For SaaS corporations, welcome electronic mail campaigns usually start when a brand new buyer indicators up to your product.
This electronic mail from Spotify is a good instance of an preliminary automated welcome electronic mail.
In any case, the thought of a welcome electronic mail sequence is to coach the client and get them to interact together with your product.
For instance, you would possibly schedule a collection of emails that give customers walk-throughs on particular product options with the aim of accelerating characteristic adoption.
Continuously requested questions
What’s an instance of selling automation?
One of the frequent examples of selling automation is the e-mail lead nurture sequence.
Right here, you prewrite a collection of emails. When somebody downloads an e-book of yours, your automation is triggered, and the prospect routinely receives that collection of emails (usually 1 per week).
How efficient is advertising automation?
Advertising automation will be severely efficient, however it all will depend on how you utilize it!
Swim College, for instance, grew its income by 66% utilizing advertising automation like scheduled electronic mail campaigns.
Why do you want advertising automation?
You want advertising automation as a result of it’s the one approach to run scalable advertising campaigns with out investing (learn: losing) a whole bunch of hours on actions that would in any other case be performed by a advertising automation software.
Conclusion
By automating repetitive duties, your advertising staff can ship personalised content material to your present clients, entice potential B2B patrons, and supply a greater buyer expertise that improves buyer retention and satisfaction.
And so they can do all of it with no need to raise a finger (besides once they arrange their advertising automation workflows).
Nevertheless, none of that is attainable and not using a sturdy advertising automation answer. Take a look at ActiveCampaign’s deep suite of selling automation options, or dive proper in and expertise the magic for your self with a 14-day free trial.
