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Incorporating automation technologies into digital marketing efforts is the holy grail for many brands. Companies that do it successfully can lower costs, reach a wider audience and get more done.
Numerous marketing automations already exist. Many are off-the-shelf, done-for-you services businesses simply plug into their workflows.
This post discusses existing digital marketing automation technologies and how brands can implement them in their organisations to maximum effect.
Digital Marketing Automation Tools
There are already numerous digital marketing automation tools on the market, all of which do something slightly different. As such, some brands must be selective, only choosing the products likely to benefit them.
Examples of digital marketing automation tools include:
- Email marketing automation – tools enabling firms to send mass emails to subscribers to promote products and nurture leads
- Marketing attribution tools – software that lets brands track the sources of their leads and conversions (essential for determining return on investment (ROI) across marketing channels)
- Content marketing – tools that speed up the content creation and distribution process, such as AI tools that write blog post introductions or systems that distribute content to publishers and content management systems (CMSs)
- Market analytics – tools that help firms track campaign performance over time
- Customer relationship management (CRM) – tools holding customer information and updating it when they move through the sales funnel toward conversion
- Social media automation – tools that post content and track social media engagement
The scope of today’s digital marketing automation services is tremendous with new tools arriving every month. However, most require a subscription fee, so brands must be careful only to choose those offering robust financial returns.
How Brands Can Automate Digital Marketing
The following is a detailed exploration of the steps brands must take to automate their digital marketing efforts:
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Look for solutions
Firms must first evaluate their current marketing activities and seek opportunities where software solutions could help. To do this, leaders must assess their workflows and seek opportunities to deploy technology.
Ideally, firms should seek to replace rule-based, repetitive tasks with minimal value-added with automated processes. Such activities could include:
- Sending welcome messages to new email subscribers
- Generating reports on various marketing-related metrics
- Answering FAQs using chatbots
- Scheduling times for social media posts
The good news is that the technological solutions for these examples are already mature technologies. For example, Hootsuite began enabling brands to schedule social media posts over ten years ago.
2. Start using marketing automation tools
The next step is to start using the marketing automation tools. Most of this work is concerned with ensuring the software’s features meet the brand’s needs.
The list of marketing automation tools is extensive. For example, many brands use Salesforce or HubSpot to automate lead scoring and customer follow-ups. Other tools, like Buffer and Sprout Social help with post scheduling and responding to comments across social media platforms, while Drip and Constant Contact improve email automation, allowing firms to personalise the content users receive based on their profiles.
3. Create the underlying content
Once brands have the proper tools, the next step is to create the underlying content. Some firms do this by hand while others use AI solutions. (Currently, human-written work is more creative and appealing, but that might change as artificial intelligence improves).
Creating this basic corpus gives companies more material to feed into their automation systems. For example, generating a new sign-up email series allows brands to automate conversations with subscribers without managing them by hand.
Other examples include:
- Welcome messages for customers who buy a product or enter into a trial period
- Evergreen social media posts rotated throughout the year
- Eye-catching visuals to include in email marketing, social media posts, and videos
- Short video segments to embed in emails, social media sites, or ads
- Content with personalised fields, allowing firms to tailor messages to specific customers
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4. Build workflows
With the tools and content in place, building workflows is the final step. UK brands can do this alone or use a digital marketing agency in London with more experience.
The workflows brands build and automate depend on their services, sales funnels, and goals. Ideas include:
- Constructing an email series to onboard new clients or encourage them to sign up for premium services
- Building an abandoned cart recovery process for eCommerce stores to remind customers they still have items waiting to check out
- Re-engagement campaigns targeting previous customers who haven’t made purchases for a long time
- Exclusive offers, discounts, and VIP promotions for customers who buy in bulk or subscribe consistently to services
By following these steps, brands can automate more of their processes. Benefits include more efficient operations, fewer administrative headaches, and more time for marketing professionals to focus on creative pursuits.
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