5 Marketing Automation Hacks You Should Be Using Right Now

It sounds so easy…

You know marketing automation can help you scale your local business. You know you should invest in smarter tools to ensure your prospects receive the right message at the right time. So you start implementing a solution that you think can meet your online marketing needs best.

Two weeks later, you’re still fiddling with automation rules and workflows.

Marketing automation can be complex. But it shouldn’t be that way. By understanding the ins and outs of your automation software, you can become more strategic and increase your ROI.

So, here are five marketing automation hacks all businesses should start using.

1. Build a User-Generated Content System

Creating quality content is the backbone of any successful digital marketing strategy. But, it can be a hefty investment for local business owners. So, why not give your customers a voice and involve them in the content creation process?

Here’s an example: in 2014, Starbucks launched the “White Cup Contest,” asking customers to draw the white coffee cup. The grand prize was a $300 Starbucks gift card and 25 coffee cups with the winning design printed on it. Totally not worth it, right? Well, Starbucks received more the 4,000 entries in just a couple of weeks plus thousands of brand mentions on social media. That’s how powerful and automated user-generated content system can be.

2. Automate Sequences of Targeted Content

Imagine this: each day you wake up, write an email, press send and watch the money pour in. Could it get better than this? Actually, it can. It’s much more effective (and satisfying) to set up a series of targeted emails once and watch cash pour in every day on autopilot.

By creating sequences of targeted content, you can use the information you gather about your leads to tailor your offer to their unique needs and pain points.

3. Increase Brand Visibility with Customer Incentive

The only way to grow your small business is to boost its visibility. But, how can you stand out when, on an average, consumers are bombarded with messages from 20,000 brands? Well, there is a way. You can use automated incentives to force your customer to take an action. It sounds awful, but, in reality, it isn’t that bad.

Here’s an example, when you run out of storage space on Dropbox you have two options: pay for more storage or invite your friends to join Dropbox. You receive 500MB of free storage space for every friend you invite. What does this accomplish? Well, you get more free storage space, and Dropbox gets to increase their sign ups.

4. Get Valuable Insights with Alerts

So, you got a new lead. Congratulations! Now comes the hard part: nurturing it. It can be difficult to figure out how to work with new leads. That’s why savvy small business owners use “Alerts”, a marketing automation software feature that provides valuable behavior insight. You can set it up to receive:

• Alerts about the lead’s activity on your site;
• Alerts when a lead watches a video or requests a demo;
• Alerts when new leads attend webinars;

5. Segment Your Promotions

“Alerts” can help you learn more about your leads. But, to convert leads into customers, you need to put the acquired information to good use. By using segmented data for your promotions, you can ensure that each campaign is targeted toward prospects that are truly interested in your offer.

At the end of the day, marketing automation should be about growth. After all, why else would a small business spend hundreds of dollars on software each month?