Does ‘Marketing Automation’ word makes you apprehensive as if you can feel the invasion of robots just like in the movies? As useful as it sounds, Marketing Automation can seem cold and robotic if not harnessed properly. Just like how, despite all the avant-garde cooking utensils and technologies, it’s ‘your cooking’ that makes a difference, Marketing automation is about making your job easier, not actually replacing it. As much it implies, Marketing Automation is not about automating the whole ‘marketing’ process and is not a “set-it-and-forget-it” solution. In fact, marketing automation is as good as your marketing strategy and works only as good as your marketing strategies. It should be used as a supplement to your marketing strategy and not as a stand-alone solution. Don’t let your marketing become robotic and keep the personal touch alive with these tips:
Build your list instead of sourcing it
Paid lists are often not worth it. Plain and simple. You may get pigeonholed as spammer and may end up annoying a lot of potential customers. Building your own email list may be agonizingly slow but in the end, it would be worth it. Some ways to build your own lead generation lists are getting smart lead capturing tools, offering incentives, writing excellent content, hosting webinars, having more engagement on your social media sites, networking in person, giveaways, offers and sales, AdWords, etc. Having your own list gives you a set of advantages that helps you keep your communication relevant and personal.
Go for Progressive Profiling
Progressive profiling is a marketing technique to gather the customer’s data over a period of time instead of making them fill a large forms. Progressive profiling doesn’t overwhelm the customer and allows you to offer them more personalized experience.
Keep it Simple, Silly
More often than not, businesses who invest in marketing automation go overboard and start on complicated or multiple campaigns which can make you lose the personal touch. Granted that marketing automation consists of moving pieces from forms, content, lead scoring, etc. but it doesn’t have to be complicated. Instead of starting off with multiple campaigns, start slow by identifying the most important stages of sales funnel and then creating campaigns around them. Your goal should be to have quality communication with your prospects and to keep them engaged and entertained instead of stalking them.
Give people the info they are looking for
Being proactive goes a long way to offer personalized value to your customers. Based on the kind of content they like to receive, you can offer ebooks, white-papers and other relevant content or provide the link of the pages they are most likely to visit. Going the extra mile and anticipating what your customers might need may help you earn brownie points with your customers.
Always Follow Up
Sending mass mails and expecting your customers to get back in touch with you won’t cut in this day and age of marketing world. You need to follow up with either phone calls or emails to assist your prospects in their decision making process. But following up is more art than science as you don’t want to seem like a stalker.
Remember personalization is no longer optional if you want to have a long-term relationship with your customers. Following these tips will help you make your marketing automation more personal. With rich expertise in all facets of Marketing Automation, we at Carmatec, offer you a wide range of services to help you implement a comprehensive personalized strategy to communicate with your prospects and your customers at the right time, through right channels.
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