The goal of any type of automation is to increase throughput and efficiency in high volume processes. So, for instance, an automated manufacturing production line would improve the number of units produced per person-hour worked by automating manual processes that previously involved human input. This saves time and money, and boosts productivity, increasing a business’s profitability. The same is true for marketing automation. A marketing automation software system automates a lot of the processes involved with marketing, such as responding to sales enquiries, sending marketing emails, and data entry to the CRM.
Marketing automation strategies are now widely used by high-volume large companies with in-house marketing teams, and by specialist marketing agencies, but they can also be used just as effectively by smaller businesses. In this article we introduce the main benefits of marketing automation for SMEs.
1) Improved workflow efficiency
However modest your sales goals and the size of your prospect database, a marketing automation platform can improve workflow efficiency to help you get better results, in shorter time. This consideration is even more important for small businesses than it is for their larger competitors, because there are fewer staff and smaller budgets available. Marketing automation helps each of your employees maximise the value of their time by freeing them to focus on the most value-driven tasks, and also optimises your marketing budget for the best possible return on investment from each activity.
2) Greater personalisation
One of the traditional strengths of small businesses is their supposed ability to offer a more personalised service than larger, more ‘faceless’ companies. Unfortunately, this isn’t always the case, as overstretched SME sales and marketing staff simply don’t always have the time to personalise their customer journey to the extent necessary to maximise sales conversions. A marketing automation platform enables you to build personalisation into every aspect of your sales and marketing content, personalising the email content, social media, and blog content that your prospects see to match their interests and behaviour.
And how do you know what these are? Through data analytics. A marketing automation platform will record when a prospect visits a webpage linked through a marketing email, and how many times he or she does so. It will track if they have liked or shared a blog article on social media, or have downloaded a particular guide from a landing page promoted on Google Ads. These insights let you set up personalised content streams for each scenario, ‘drip feeding’ the prospect the appropriate content for each stage of their buyer journey, and encouraging a fast-paced dialogue between you and your customers that is difficult for small businesses without automation.
3) Smart sales and marketing integration
One of the greatest barriers to increased revenues in small businesses is a disconnect between sales and marketing staff. Sales and marketing teams may use different software, work in different offices, spend the day doing different things, and move in different circles. A marketing automation platform helps bridge the gap between sales and marketing by integrating the functions of both teams into a unified process – enabling swifter collaboration in qualifying and following up targeted leads. At the same time, marketing automation recognises the specific functions of sales and marketing employees and facilitates custom workflows to help each class of employee organise their role for better efficiency, improved communication with their colleagues, and ultimately, increased results.
Find out more
Our team of marketing specialists at JDR can help you unlock the value of marketing automation for your business, saving you time on manual tasks and also improving the efficiency of many of your marketing processes, including email marketing, Google Ads, and content marketing. To discuss your requirements and find out how you can start selling better and faster online, please call 01332 343281 today.
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