5 Scary Marketing Automation Techniques that Are Worth the Risk

Do you know what the biggest killer of productivity is?

No, it’s not procrastination.

It’s fear.

Case and point: marketing automation.

Automation has the power to boost the value and impact of your marketing efforts, capture leads, improve lead-to-sale conversion rates, generate repeat sales, and improve the overall customer experience.

But, in spite all the benefits, only 10% of businesses are currently using marketing automation.

It’s OK to be scared. However, if you really want to grow your small business, you need to get over your fears.

1. Web Forms

Nobody argues the fact the online users don’t want to be bothered when they scroll through a website or read an article. But, here’s the truth: web forms are a great way to collect data about your prospects so that you can deliver targeted marketing messages.

So, how do you collect data without scaring off your leads?

It’s easy: rather than having contact forms with 20 fields, stick to no more than 2-3 questions. Usually, their names and email addresses are more than enough. To allure them to give you this information, offer something in return, like a free resource or a discount.

2. Video Marketing Automation

Video can offer you valuable insights about your prospects, which is why you should integrate it with your marketing automation. You see, when a user downloads an eBook or a white paper, you can’t tell if they’ve read it from beginning to end or just skimmed through it. But with video, you know exactly what they’ve viewed and for how long.

By integrating video with your marketing automation tools, you can automatically send video engagement data into individual contact records. That way you will know which leads are watching which piece of video content and for how long. With this information at your hand, you can create better video content and fuel more sales.

3. Match Your Content to Different Stages of the Buying Cycle

Different customers have different needs, depending on what stage of the buying cycle they are at. Automation can streamline the buying cycle, making sure that your content fits the stage your prospects are at.

Here’s an example: a new lead downloads your catalogue for 2016 shoes spring collection. You can use the data the lead entered upon downloading the document to trigger an automated email campaign that offers them a brochure on how to match shoes with different outfits. These types of actions can eventually move them from one stage to another and improve your sales.

4. Send Event Reminders

You probably don’t want to nag your prospects. But, automated event reminders are a great way to get more people interested in your event.

Let’s say you have a big promotion or an important event coming up. You can use automation to trigger a series of emails that reminds your prospects about it. The first email should describe the event in full; the second should be a reminder to sign up to get a specific discount while the third should be sent before the event to encourage people to take advantage of the openings left.

5. Automate Your Social Media Posts

If your small business uses more than one social site, streamlining the social media process is the smartest thing you can do. There are numerous management tools, like Buffer or Hootsuite that let you schedule posts ahead of time and save you tons of time.

As you can see, there is simply no reason you should spend precious time doing repetitive tasks when you could automate your marketing and focus on growing your small business.