In response to the growing interest in marketing automation, our Customer Success Manager, Delphine Seurot, decided to give you all the keys you need to get your project off to a good start during an exceptional webinar. Recap!
Indeed, 80% of marketing automation users have seen their number of leads increase and 77% have seen the number of conversions increase. This statistic from Venture Beat shared at the beginning of this event shows the importance of marketing automation for a lead generation and conversion strategy.
Marketing automation connects marketing and sales to achieve the same goal, thereby increasing return on investment. Want to get started with marketing automation? During this webinar, Delphine Seurot shared her 5 expert tips for a successful investment. Let’s go.
Overview of marketing automation
A quick reminder: marketing automation consists of using technological tools to automate and personalize interactions with prospects and customers throughout the buying journey. It saves time, improves efficiency, and optimizes results.
5 expert tips for a successful project:
Define your strategy
Delphine’s tip
Indeed, there are three questions to ask yourself to define your strategy:
Why choose Marketing Automation? What are my objectives? Which scenarios should I implement?
Before you begin, clearly identify the goals you want to achieve through marketing automation. Do you want to generate more leads, improve conversion, retain existing customers, or something else? Clear objectives will help guide your efforts and implement your first marketing automation scenarios.
Segment your database
Delphine’s tip
Marketing automation allows you to segment your audience based on criteria such as online behavior, preferences, and demographic data. You can then send targeted and personalized messages to each segment. Invest time in segmenting your audience to better understand the needs and preferences of each segment. This will allow you to create more relevant campaigns and achieve better results. Where should you start?
- Sort your contacts based on specific criteria: declarative and behavioral
- Stay aligned with your objectives to better meet the needs of your contacts
- Personalize the messages to send
Create content
Delphine’s tip
With marketing automation, you can nurture relationships with your leads by sending them relevant and personalized content at every stage of the buying journey. This increases the chances of converting them into customers. How? Use the data you have collected to personalize your messages and provide a unique customer experience. You will then be able to address your prospects and customers in a personalized way, using their name, offering them deals tailored to their needs, etc.
Depending on where your contacts are in the sales cycle, it is up to you to know which elements to create to reach them at the right time and in a relevant way without over-soliciting them.
A few examples of content to create with your marketing automation software to drive them toward conversion:
- Collect data using a form
- Encourage action with a landing page
- Set up pop-ins
- Send emails and SMS messages
- Communicate with internal notifications
Set up automated campaigns
Delphine’s tip
Now that your objectives are clearly defined and your content has been created, it is time to take action. Design effective campaigns using automated workflows, personalized emails, and nurturing scenarios.
In your marketing automation software, identify the marketing tasks that can be automated. Generally, this includes sending welcome emails, segmenting leads, or tracking campaigns. Automating these tasks will save you time and improve your overall productivity. Remember, automating your campaigns means:
- Sharing your messages with your contacts automatically
- One prospect = one targeted message at each stage of their journey through to conversion
- Increasing your conversions and generating additional sales
- Saving time for your team
Analyze your data
Delphine’s tip
This is the key to identifying the usefulness of your marketing automation software. There are three reasons for this:
- Check whether your objectives have been achieved
- Adjust your campaigns
- Improve your performance
Marketing automation tools offer advanced tracking and measurement features. This allows you to evaluate the effectiveness of your campaigns, measure return on investment (ROI), and adjust your strategies accordingly.
Continuous analysis helps optimize your actions. Monitor the performance of your campaigns, analyze the results, and adjust your strategies accordingly. Marketing automation gives you valuable data to make informed decisions and continuously improve your campaigns.
The three essential steps to get started
During this webinar, our Customer Success Manager addressed participants who do not yet have marketing automation software or who are dissatisfied with the one they are currently using. A look back at the 3 essential steps to know before choosing your software:
- Determine the features you need. First, list all the features you are going to need, those that are essential to the success of your project. It is important to take the time to do this and discuss it with the various departments that will be involved: sales, marketing, CRM/data management, and customer service.
- Compare vendors. Most vendors have the same major features, but some will have slightly different minor features. So if there is a feature that is essential to you, make sure the software does indeed have it. The price, meanwhile, will vary quite significantly from one vendor to another, so do your research carefully and think long term! Sometimes prices are low in the first year and then increase afterward. It is also very important to consider the support offered because remember, a marketing automation project can be complex to set up at the start. Check that you will have contacts to support you.
- Put your action plan in place. Get organized; it can take time between the moment you start your research and the launch of your project: taking into account research time, sales discussions with the vendor, any technical discussions, and training your teams are all important elements before embarking on a marketing automation project.
To go further, download our resource here: an insightful guide to getting started with marketing automation step by step!
