Success with inbound marketing is putting marketing automation tools in the spotlight. Of all the actions that the tools can complete, lead nurturing remains at the top of the list when it comes to what business owners expect from marketing automation tools. Lead nurturing considers the fact that it generally takes several efforts before potential customers purchase a company’s products or services. Between an initial introduction and actual purchase date, business leaders and members of their sales teams have to maintain regular communications with prospects.
Marketing automation tools saving business sales
If they don’t, they could not only lose a single sale; they could lose a customer forever. Because one prospect generally knows 10 or more people, the loss could prove costly, especially if prospects tell their contacts (think social media) about a negative experience they had with the company. Marketing automation tools are eliminating the need for sales teams to pick up the telephone and call prospects several times a month, giving sales teams the chance to diversify how they maintain communications with prospects. Yet, lead nurturing isn’t the only reason businesses are using marketing automation tools.
As 2014 continues to unfold, it’s becoming clear that business owners are looking to achieve other results with the software. Reporting and analytics and lead scoring are other features that businesses are gaining from marketing automation tools. Some businesses are using single platform software tools like social media publishing software, while other businesses are tracking demographics of people who visit their websites, specific requests made by attendees who register for their upcoming events and the percentages of people who take advantage of digital coupons they send out.
Social media marketing tools that are placed on business websites, blogs and video platforms are also being used. Examples of these marketing automation tools include social media buttons and rolling posts of the latest social media messages businesses receive. To keep the marketing automation tools they use transparent, business leaders can open RSS feed windows and respond to posts their prospects make directly. This single step removes the “tech” feel from the messages, allowing business leaders to personalize posts.
Automated social media posts
Before using news feed windows, business leaders would do well to review how certain “types” of social media posts perform. For example, they might learn that posts that ask engaging questions generate more feedback than traditional business news headlines. That or business leaders might find that posts that are accompanied by humorous videos garner more social sharing.
With segmentation and drip marketing, business leaders can target certain groups of people to push unique messages out to. They can also space out when they want different types of messages to go out to these prospects. As a final note, and as tempting as it seems, business leaders should steer clear of using marketing automation tools to spam prospects. B2B Marketing points out that staying away from spamming is important whether businesses communicate with prospects via social media platforms or email.
Some marketing firms even build walls inside their tools that prevent their customers from sending the same message twice within a certain number of hours or days. In addition, Salesfusion’s marketing automation tools track and record when and to which platforms messages are sent to. By avoiding banging prospects over the head with the same messages, smart business leaders can successfully use marketing tools to appeal to prospects’ different senses by sending a mix of videos, emails, social media posts, images, quotes and informational statistics.
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