There comes a point in every company’s journey where growth is not sustainable if marketing efforts are done manually. Is your business at this point? If you’ve been wondering whether or not it’s time to consider marketing automation for your B2B company, chances are, the answer is probably yes. Below are four scenarios that hint that it’s time to consider implementing a marketing automation solution.
1. Your Leads are Not Converting
Following up with each lead can be cumbersome and requires a lot of effort if done manually. When done manually, your team may end up taking too long to reach out and the lead may become uninterested or see your company as unreliable. Missing out on valuable and potential leads negatively impacts your conversion rate. By implementing marketing automation, you can ensure follow-up emails through a pre-set workflow. Here’s how it works:
- Once a lead responds to a call-to-action, they will receive an automated ‘thank you’ follow-up email along with content that is relevant to the landing page they were visiting.
- Send follow-up email messages that are carefully-drafted according to what is relevant to the receiver. Each email will contain information related to the page the lead visited.
- After the follow-up emails with more information, the lead will receive an email with another call-to-action. It can be a free event, a demo or a consultation with a professional.
- Through this workflow, you would know where the lead stands. By the end of it, the lead would either be qualified or unqualified, and you can proceed accordingly.
Automating this workflow would save precious time and effort while increasing efficiency. The result? An increase in lead conversion.
2. You are Not Sure About the Content on Your Website
In order to attract potential leads, you must ensure your content is interesting and relevant to them and there is an adequate search volume for the topic. Coming up with these topics for blog content can be a difficult task that requires a lot of research.
By using marketing automation solutions such as keyword tools and competitor report generators, you can make the process simpler. You can easily access relevant keywords that receive high search volumes and also find out what your competitors are doing with their blogs.
3. You are Concentrating Most of Your Efforts on Acquiring New Customers
Another very important part of marketing that is often neglected is customer retention. Businesses often get so tied up with new customer acquisition that they don’t pay enough attention to nurturing existing customers. However, the equation for growth for any company is:
Retention + Acquisition = Growth
So, you cannot really grow by just attending to one part of this equation. According to a study, even a 5% increase in customer retention can lead to an increase in profit by 25-95%.
Having said that, it is indeed difficult to give equal attention to acquiring as well as retaining customers. It would require strenuous efforts on the part of your marketing team if done manually. However, by automating your marketing efforts, you can set workflows for both new and existing customers, nurturing both effectively.
4. You Cannot Keep Track of ROI on Your Marketing Efforts
Businesses today need to invest in marketing on different channels such as various social media platforms, email, website, PPC, and so many more. How do you keep track of your ROI for your marketing efforts on each channel?
It can also get overwhelming, trying to drive and manage marketing campaigns on different channels and platforms. By utilizing marketing automation, you can streamline all your marketing efforts across various platforms and channels, saving you time as well as money.
You would also be able to keep track of ROI and analytics, which channels are driving the most traffic as well as quality leads, and your most successful marketing campaigns. With this information, you can better your marketing efforts and also design more targeted marketing campaigns. You can also budget your investments better, thus increasing the ROI of your business.
5. Your Marketing Applications and Tools are Scattered
Do you have a tool for analytics, a platform for generating emails, software for generating leads, and a solution for data reporting? Well, you are not the only one managing your marketing efforts this way. It certainly saves you money, especially if the tools and platforms are free, but at what cost?
- Your employees need to learn to use a lot of different tools and platforms.
- You are jeopardizing your data by sharing it on multiple systems.
- The costs mount as your business grows.
- Overlap of the functionality of different tools, so the possibility of data duplication as well.
Instead of using different tools, platforms, and software for your different marketing needs, automation consolidates your efforts, resulting in increased efficiency. A proper marketing automation software would combine all that you need to run successful marketing campaigns. By centralizing the marketing efforts, you can also get a clearer picture of what is working and what you should eliminate.
Marketing Automation is a One-Stop Solution
You want to see higher ROI, better-targeted marketing campaigns, satisfied customers and happy employees? Marketing automation is the key to all these locks, and more. To learn more about if it’s time to implement marketing automation tools, contact our experts at OneIMS today.
