Recipe for Failure: 7 Marketing Automation Mistakes that Will Cripple Your Business

You may not realize this, but people fully automate most aspects of their lives. Take your wardrobe as an example. You probably have a system put in place that shaves a few extra minutes off your mornings. Automation is a great way to scratch an itch.

The same holds true for automating a small business marketing. If used correctly, automation can help you optimize your marketing programs, adding value to your customers’ life and boosting your business. A recent study showed that 63% of companies that surpass their competitors use marketing automation. More than that, businesses that use automation get up to 53% more conversion rates.

It’s easy to see that automation can help your small business grow. But, despite the positive results, it can also end in disaster. If you are not careful, you can make mistakes that will hurt your business rather than help it. Even a small mistake can cost your company’s reputation.

If you want to avoid a doomsday scenario, stay away from these seven marketing automation mistakes.

1. You Don’t Have Clear Objectives

The first thing you need to ask yourself is: what do you want to achieve with marketing automation. There are many automation softwares out there, designed to streamline a large array of business processes. Without a clear strategy, you won’t be able to optimize your marketing processes, and you will end up delivering little to no value to your customers.

Look closely at your company’s needs and ask yourself how marketing automation can help you fulfill some of them. Write down what kind of results you are expecting to see.

For example: “Increase inbound leads by 20% in one month” or “Increase conversion rate by 65% in three months.”

Setting clear goals from the beginning can help you monitor your automated processes and keep track of them.

2. Automating Worthless Processes

It may seem like a no-brainer, but a lot of business owners make this mistake. Here’s the deal: you get out of automation what you put into it. If you automate unnecessary processes, you won’t see too much change. In fact, you are probably just investing time and effort in a more effective way to annoy your prospects.

If you want to avoid automating useless processes, create a chart with the different stages of the sales process. Find out how your prospects know about your company, what type of information are they interested in, and how long does it take for a prospect to turn into a lead?

Once you have this information, you can start automating every step of the sales funnel.

3. Using Automation As a Glorified Email Marketing Tool

Marketing automation was created to help entrepreneurs manage email marketing. Even today that function remains its primary uses. However, that doesn’t mean that automation works only for email.

For instance, marketing automation is a great tool that can help you automate your social media strategy. There are various tools you can use to schedule posts weeks in advance or to trigger responses to certain actions. You can use automation to send a welcome message every time you get a new Twitter follower or to streamline content curation.

That’s just one example of how useful and versatile automation can be. If you are only using it for email, you are limiting its potential.

4. You Ignore Sales

Despite the fact that many reports have shown that sales increase by 20% when companies coordinate their marketing and sales teams, most companies keep these departments separated. By ignoring sales, not only that you are crippling your small business, but you are also missing on a huge opportunity to turn prospects into leads quicker. If your sales team has access to information on your leads, they will know at what stage of the sales funnel they are and what the best way to approach them is.

5. You Treat Leads As If They Exist in Isolation

Marketing automation doesn’t magically turn leads into customers. While it’s a great way to ease their way through the sales funnel, the reality is that most leads don’t move smoothly from one stage to another.

Most business owners ignore the fact that their leads don’t exist in a vacuum. As ideal as it may sound, leads don’t just sit around waiting for you to interact with them. They are looking you up on Google, they are engaging with you on social media, and they are analyzing your offer.

If you treat your prospects as if they exist in isolation, you are missing on important opportunities to connect with them where they actually want.

6. You Don’t Monitor the Automation Process

Simply implementing marketing automation and forgetting about it is not the way to go. If you want to make strategic improvements to your marketing efforts, you need to have a clear understanding of every process. That means monitoring each aspect carefully – from attention to conversion and retention.

7. Use the Wrong Marketing Automation Tools

There are numerous marketing automation tools that can help you streamline different business processes. Choosing the right one can make it easier for you to meet your objectives.

When evaluating software options, ask yourself how will the program integrate with other software you already have or plan to implement? Will it be compatible with your existing system? Can it help you meet your objectives? Do I have enough resources? Is my staff ready for automation? Based on the answers to these questions, create a short list of your top three choices.

There are many things to consider when purchasing a marketing automation tool. However, if you do your research, set specific goals, and have a team that understands automation’s potential, you will be able to select the tool that fits your business best.

Marketing automation is a powerful tool that can boost engagement, increase lead generation, and nurture leads, among other benefits. But, it’s important to know its weak points and to address them before you implement it.