As mentioned in a previous post, marketing automation has reached more than 50% usage in some industries, and we expect it to grow in 2015. If you are considering automating your marketing or want to improve the performance of your current process, now is the perfect time to create your automation strategy for the New Year. The following best practices are based on what is working well in the market. If you find them helpful, feel free to share with your friends.

  1. Make Smart Choices– Knowledge and information are the key to staying ahead. Whether you’re choosing a vendor, running a retargeting campaign, launching a digital ad, or starting a new drip campaign, gather as much information as you can about your actions and then proceed wisely. Craft the right message and deliver it at the right time.
  2. Sync Your Data– We use multiple systems, devices, and platforms resulting in scattered pieces of information. If the data is synchronized at one place, it not only saves time but also helps in specifying and targeting the right set of audience. You’ve social media friends, LinkedIn connection, email contacts, subscribers’ list, CRM data, and all of them matter in targeting. When we launched Makesbridge cloud feature for data synchronization, it went very popular. The reason was simple: people get all of their contacts and data at one place. Be it Salesforce, LinkedIn, Facebook or Gmail; get everything onboard at one place and start your drips.
  3. Use Intelligence & Create Personas– Recently, LinkedIn published a list of hottest skills in 2014, where data analysis topped the ranking while business intelligence was on number 6. None of the marketing campaigns went successful without intelligence, user personas, and prospect tracking. Without market research, studies, surveys, and real-time prospect tracking, it is virtually impossible to run any successful campaign.
  4. Understand the Hyper-Personalization Trend- The best way to market in 2015 would be focusing on the hyper-personalization trend. Feed people what they are looking for and avoid spamming. Knowing about the people who took interest in your offers, who clicked on your links, who responded positively, and who bounced helps in personalization of the message and offers. Personalization goes deeper into every aspect of marketing like; your message, content, offer, templates, timings, and mode of the communication.
  5. Build Separate Content Strategy for Emails- If you ask me the single most important of all the best practices for email marketing, it would be content strategy. Yes, you need to design a dedicated content strategy for emails, newsletters and other direct communications with clients. Content strategy should address What, Why, Where, How, How much, How Often, and Whom. In addition, keep “mobile factor” in mind. Your landing pages design, content, and other elements should be mobile friendly.
  6. Comprehend Changing Buyer Behavior– Modern-day buyers are self-educationist who use blogs, social portals, forums, and vendors’ websites to understand and compare the option. Before your sales rep reaches a prospect, he already has a decent comparison at his desktop. You can use the lead scoring feature to scale your prospects in the funnel and then try reaching them with a customized message. Don’t feed everyone the same food; instead, look into their stage (in buying cycle) and drip the particular message.
  7. Integrate Sales & Marketing– This might sound traditional, but it has a lot to do with modern day marketing campaigns. There are platforms who offer sales and email marketing campaigns but when it comes to integration, they fail. Around 40% of sales manager complain this ‘inability to integrate’ as a key hindrance in the achievement of sales and revenue goals. A platform featuring sales automation, marketing, email, analytics, and CRM integration can be the best solution. At Makesbridge, we are delightful to offer everything in one place, helping marketers integrate their campaigns with the selling process.
  8. Keep Communication Alive– I chose this instead of ‘retargeting’ or some famous buzzword to make it simple. Though it is self-explanatory yet a couple of notes on this. I do not encourage spamming or mass messaging; instead, advise you to use nurture tracks feature. It allows creation of additional touch points and keeps communication alive.
  9. Build Partnership to Increase Digital Engagement- We are the shoulders of each other, making us dependable on certain actions of others. Social media, blogs, and third party websites can be a decent source of traffic, referral, and engagement for your content. Use paid adverts to reach out to people and get them to land on your desired page. Here again, there is no differentiation between email, SEO, SMM, SEM, or PPC; instead, a combination of all.
  10. Always Use A Multi-Tasking Platform- There are many types of marketing automation platforms; some offer pure sales or email marketing while others are restricted to just marketing intelligence. Conversely, multi-tasking platforms help you manage your emails, sales, and digital marketing campaigns simultaneously from a single dashboard. So you do not need to have a separate marketing intelligence, or email marketing platform to sign up for. It saves time, improves efficiency, and increases ROI.

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