Perhaps you’ve already heard about Marketing Automation or you have a rough idea about it. If not, it’s OK!

With this article, we want to show you how to create a marketing automation strategy for your email marketing. You’ll be ready to launch your first own automation with the simple but efficient Automation PRO tool.

What is Marketing Automation?

“Marketing Automation is the design, management and execution of sales and marketing strategies through a software that automates the tasks and processes of scheduling, sending and tracking marketing campaigns according to the actions that the subscribers take on the campaigns and on the website. “

Is it the same as doing Email Marketing?

Email marketing isn’t quite the same. Generally, basic email marketing strategy involves sending unique one off campaigns to a database, with the aim of informing, selling or promoting certain products or services.

Marketing Automation includes email marketing as part of its elements, but both are some key differences.

What are the benefits of Marketing Automation?

• Send relevant information to clients and leads, based on the pages they visit on your website.
• Automatically segment clients and leads based on their behavior, interests, page visits, purchases and more
• Develop marketing and sales journeys aimed at improving conversion funnels

How many impacts should a lead receive to become a client?

According to Nimble, between five and seven impacts are necessary for a lead, from the moment they get to knows us until they becomes a paying client.

What is an ‘impact?’

An impact, or touchpoint, is each moment when there is interaction between the brand and the lead, either through the website, an email, social media, a call, an ad on Facebook or Google Ads, a meeting or a demo.

The goal of Marketing Automation is to organize all these touchpoints in order to create funnels or conversion paths that automatically turn a lead into a client, without having to have large teams behind each impact. Or even better yet, without having to be aware of the current point the lead runs through in order to create a new touch point.

Show empathy with the client

Marketing Automation means contacting the ideal customer within the sales funnels, using the right message at the right time.

Getting this right is not easy because in business we tend to think more about us, our goals and the messages we want to share, than what the customer really needs at every moment. To empathize with the lead and client means to put ourselves in their place, and to think as if we were them. Therefore it is necessary to ask a series of questions before starting to create any automation:

• When the client visits the website for the first time, will they need any further information or will he find all he needs to know?
• Am I providing all the client needs to know in my welcome campaign, or am I rather trying to sell myself?
• Are the subscribers interacting with the campaigns I am sending them?

Worry about your subscribers! Send them messages that are genuinely useful and make them feel that you are communicating with them personally. To do this, always try to be very aware of the open rates, clicks, the unsubscribes (and their reasons), and always perform AB tests. In marketing it is very difficult to get the best results at the first try, everything is based on experience.

PARTS OF A SALES FUNNEL

Considerations before creating an automation or sales / marketing funnel

1. Draw it:

Don’t try to translate the visualization you see in your mind directly into the software. Take your time to draw it on a piece of paper. This will help to find weak points and improve it even before you start setting it up.

2. Keep it simple:

Creating a marketing or sales funnel does not mean sending dozens of email campaigns triggered by dozens of conditions. It’s all about inspiring subscribers, by sending the right content at the time they need it. We rather recommend designing several simple automations focused on each moment of the customer experience, than having a big and complicated funnel, which will be very complicated to manage and might lead to hidden mistakes.

3. Go step by step:

Always keep in mind what the leads might expect from you at each point and what they will be grateful and happy to receive. Right after signing up is not the best moment to push them to buy but rather to share some surprising information and content they will enjoy.

4. Start with a test:

There is no “perfect” automation, we are sorry. It is important to draw, think and prepare your automation but only practical reality can show you if you were right or not. Depending on the kind of automation it is recommendable to set up a test automation first and see how a sample reacts.

5. Measure, learn and improve:

The first automations should serve you to find out if the experience you want to offer the clients works or not. Analyze the most important metrics like visits, openings, clicks and purchases and decide if you have to adapt the journey.

Find these 4 templates for your automated sales funnel

TEMPLATE 1: NEED/NECESSITY

The lead has just registered. They might have done it because you promised a download, discount code or similar. So this first automation would be the welcome automation, ideal to provide the most important information about your product, and send the promised welcome gift. The lead will be saved into a different list for further steps.

TEMPLATE 2: ENGAGEMENT

At this time the subscribers are comparing our product or service with other competitors. What information will they need to finally buy from us?

With this automation we must solve the initial doubts that the client has about our product or service. We also have the chance to make clear what differentiates us from the competitors and provide testimonies of happy and satisfied customers.

TEMPLATE 3: CONSIDERATION

With this template, we should be able to close a demo or a call with the subscribers or make them sign up for a free trial. They are showing interest in us. This is an excellent moment to give a better idea about, how our product or service works.

TEMPLATE 4: ABANDONED CART

It is quite normal that subscribers do not finish the process of purchasing, but it would definitely not be normal, not to remind them and offer the necessary assistance and support to solve possible problems or doubts that might have prevented them from buying.

These are some of the templates based on the funnel we had a look at the beginning. You will be able to fully customize and adapt them to the needs of your business and create easily your first Marketing Automation.

Watch our webinar about how to create an automated sales funnel like this:

https://bmesrv.wistia.com/medias/lzdjj7pfd6?embedType=iframe&videoWidth=640

Actually, the most difficult thing about Marketing Automation is to start. If you are managing a small company and you have never done it before, marketing, automation may look a bit scary at the beginning. But all you have to do is to follow these steps above and start learning from the results.

Keep in mind that automation is the most efficient and time saving way to provide each client with the information and input they might need at any time!