Marketing automation can help you improve your performance while reducing the amount of time and effort required to achieve results. However, many companies have invested in marketing automation tools only to discover that this cutting-edge software has done nothing to improve their sales.
Instant gains in the number of leads or total sales processed rarely occur. You need time to understand how marketing automation can improve your business and how to choose software that best fits your business model. You also need to give your team time to learn how to use automation to boost their efficiency. Learn how to get the most out of your marketing automation effort by avoiding these five common mistakes that have made other companies fail.
1. Not Having a Marketing Strategy
Using marketing automation doesn’t guarantee you success if you don’t have a comprehensive marketing strategy. Some companies make the mistake of moving forward with marketing automation without having any idea of what they hope to accomplish. You can hardly expect anything other than failure in such conditions.
Don’t make the mistake of implementing campaigns without any concrete expectations. Your company needs to have measurable objectives in place before organising any marketing automation effort. You will increase your chance of success when you implement marketing automation with your desired result in mind.
2. Choosing the Wrong Software
Marketing automation tools differ in size and scope as well as price, so don’t make the mistake of thinking that every solution will work equally well for your business. Choosing the wrong tools can result in wasted time and money on products that do nothing to help your business.
Document and plan your marketing processes before you look for automation tools. Having a clear understanding of your marketing strategy and establishing goals will help you choose the products that will contribute to your mission. Consider only those solutions that include all the features and capabilities that you will need in order to reach your marketing goals.
3. Sending Automated Emails to the Wrong Audience
Companies often send the same email message to their entire contact list to speed the execution of their marketing campaigns. However, even though adopting such an approach saves time, it ultimately leads to failure. Generic emails that lack personalisation or relevance to your audience will hurt your email marketing campaign.
To get an idea of what kind of content will resonate best with your audience, you should take the time to conduct market research and figure out what your customers’ desires and needs are. Failing to define and understand your audience is one of the biggest marketing mistakes you can make.
Once you know who your audience is and what they want, you can provide them with the content they will find useful. After conducting market research use those automation tools that give you the ability to segment your market and send different messages to your various groups of contacts. You made a substantial investment in the right tools, so don’t make the mistake of leaving such capabilities untapped.
4. Sharing the Wrong Content
Don’t make the mistake of getting involved with topics and issues that have no direct relevance to your company’s mission. A careless approach to the automated distribution of content can produce ineffective or embarrassing results. Make sure that all the content you share has relevance to your business and market.
Automating your RSS feeds, for example, can become disastrous unless you properly curate your content and invoke an effective list of keywords to include and exclude. Without vigilance, your automated marketing effort will distribute inappropriate or offensive content. The same thing can happen with any automated sharing, including material on Facebook and Twitter.
5. Not Testing and Optimising
Marketing takes a lot of time and effort, even with automated tools in place. The pressures of business, however, will tempt you to launch automated campaigns without properly testing and optimising them. Don’t make such a mistake.
Sending email messages and publishing content that isn’t tested and optimised won’t deliver the results you are hoping for. Don’t blame poor performance on your marketing automation tools. Instead, ask yourself whether you are approaching marketing carelessly.
Find out what topics and formats cause your audience to respond and focus on the tactics that work. Make sure you A/B test your email marketing campaigns before automating them. Use the knowledge you gain to continually tweak and optimise your content and distribution methods.
Final Word
Marketing automation can help you reach more people with precisely targeted messages. After defining your strategy and documenting the processes, you can choose software that fits your company and supports your mission. Avoid making the mistake of assuming that the acquisition of software alone will improve your business. Common mistakes such as failing to segment your audience or sending irrelevant content can keep you from realising the benefits of marketing automation.
Carefully plan your marketing campaigns and create relevant content for every part of your audience. Take the time to test and optimise your tactics and avoid sharing inappropriate material. Properly implement marketing automation in your business and you will recognise its benefits and reap its rewards.
