By Sameer Kazi, President of marketing and sales automation company, ActiveCampaign.
Running a successful business is no easy feat, and for small-business owners, startup founders or rapidly growing teams, the challenges can be especially daunting. Changing priorities, customer demands and macroeconomic changes all contribute to the difficulty of scaling and achieving success. This begs the question: How can business operators drive performance, ensure competitiveness and show up as a major market player? One answer can be marketing and sales automation.
Understanding Marketing and Sales Automation
Marketing automation allows businesses to communicate with prospects who have shown intent, with intent. To go deeper, marketing automation helps businesses manage 1:1 communications with opted-in parties based on their behavior and preferences. It nurtures them through the funnel with educational and relevant content and, ultimately, a conversion call to action. When used correctly, marketing automation allows brands to engage with prospects in a value exchange, earning the right to market to them because the content they are getting is as unique as it is valuable. And ultimately, this process sets those prospects up for conversion.
This brings us to the next half of this successful business equation: sales automation. Sales automation refers to the use of technology and software to automate tasks related to the sales process, from lead generation to managing sales stages, all the way through to driving to a closed won celebration. By automating complex and repetitive tasks and streamlining workflows, sales teams can move faster, save valuable time and focus on high-value tasks such as building relationships with customers.
Businesses of all sizes can benefit from sales automation, from solopreneurs to mid-market companies to enterprises. Small-business owners, in particular, can leverage sales automation to make the most of a lean team. Mid-market companies can use sales automation to scale that team to achieve higher revenue goals, while enterprises can use sales automation to give every single prospect and customer the same amount of attention as when they were that small business.
Use automation to sell for you.
Believe it or not, many businesses, both large and small, are consistently growing each month solely because of how they are using marketing and sales automation.
Businesses can build personalized journeys for any customer or prospect that comes into their orbit. Consider offering a free trial or some other freebie that initially entices your prospects, then build your next automations in a way that builds further connection and continues to offer them something of value at every touchpoint.
You can also personalize communications to go far deeper than “person opts in, person is sent promotional email, person signs up, the end.” To see success, build your marketing and sales automation in a way that gets better and better with the amount of data it’s being fed. A good customer experience should be like those coin pushers you used to play at the arcade when you were a kid. However, in this case, data on preferences and behaviors are the coins in the machine. And instead of a pile of cash that never seems to dispense no matter how many coins you insert, your customers get an experience that’s as unique as they are.
Businesses can achieve this by analyzing prospects and customer behavior, such as when they are opening their emails, the content they are most engaging with and transaction-related details about their account.
Through all of these touchpoints, each contact’s profile is getting rich with data (or coins if your mind is still on the aforementioned game), allowing the experience to evolve in a tailored way for each specific person. This not only drives them to convert initially but sets your business up for successful upselling when you employ sales automation, enhancing the lifetime value of the customer through repetition.
This may seem complex, but it’s not with marketing and sales automation. Once set up, this technology does everything mentioned above so you can spend that time talking to customers and enjoy actually running your business.
Consistency and relevancy are key.
By automating marketing and sales processes, businesses can ensure that each customer receives a consistent experience, regardless of the channel they interact with. Consistency is critical in building trust and credibility with prospects and customers, and automation makes it easy to achieve.
Consistency in building trust and credibility is important for leaders aiming to establish strong and enduring relationships with both prospects and customers. To achieve this, leaders must align their words, actions and values across all interactions. Regular communication and transparent information sharing foster an environment of openness where customers and prospects feel informed and valued.
Consistency also extends to the quality of products or services provided, ensuring that expectations are consistently met or exceeded. Additionally, leaders can exhibit consistency by actively seeking feedback and addressing concerns promptly, displaying a genuine commitment to improvement. Over time, this unwavering dedication to building trust and credibility solidifies a positive reputation, fostering long-term loyalty and support.
Automation also allows businesses to stay consistent and relevant when it comes to technology and innovation. Marketing and sales automation platforms are constantly evolving and improving, with new features and capabilities being added regularly. By adopting these technologies early on, businesses can stay at the forefront of the latest trends and innovations, giving them a competitive advantage in the market.
Perhaps most importantly, marketing and sales automation allow businesses to focus on what they do best: providing exceptional products and services. By automating complex yet repetitive processes, businesses can free up their time and resources to focus on what matters most: delivering value to their customers.
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