In today’s world, one of the most important tools a marketer needs to help save time and maximize growth is marketing automation.
New here? No Problem. What is Marketing Automation?
If you’re new to this industry jargon, don’t let the marketing lingo intimidate you. Marketing automation is really just a fancy way of saying automatically do something when something happens.
Marketing automation came about primarily to automate super repetitive tasks that prevented business owners from working on their business. I’m sure you can probably think of a few things that you do everyday that you wish could be automated.
Below are some examples of exactly how you can use marketing automation in your everyday work.
Scenario 1: Requesting a Quote!
Let’s say your business requires someone request a quote from you.
A visitor lands on your website (presumably through referral, google ads or via organic search).
Let’s presume you have really good CALL TO ACTIONS on your site.
The Call to Action on your site is to fill out a form such as “Get a Quote Now”
Your new visitor fills out your Get A Quote Now form and officially become a prospect.
Now, this is where the automation kicks in. There will be two automated actions that will now take place.
First, Your new prospect gets an instant reply by email or text (you choose), that says
We wish to confirm that we have received your request for a quote. We are now working on it. Please expect a call from us in 1-2 hours. If you need to talk to us right away, please contact our Customer Delight Line at XXX-XXX-XXXX.
Next, you automatically get this person’s data sent to your inbox or your phone by text.
John Doe just requested a quote! You have 2 hours to get back to them. Remember, the faster you do, your closing ratio goes up. Acknowledge you Got this by clicking “Got It!” or click “Send to Rep 2”.
What happens if I click Got it?
“Got It” is a trigger that stops the automation because we know you’ll be following up with that prospect. However, if you are busy and unable to follow up, you now have the power to re-route the lead to Rep 2, so you can have peace of mind that business is being taken care of.
Scenario 2: Selling products on your site!
Let’s say you have an Ecommerce store and sell products on your site and a potential lead is now online on your store. They hit the buy now button. They put your widget in their basket. The proceed to check out.
They fill out their name, email and are about to fill out their credit card number and check-out when something ends up pulling them away from their computer.
Right before they can complete their purchase they get pulled away from their computer and never finish checking out.
This is where automation kicks in. The system recognized the visitor abandoned their cart and didn’t complete the purchase.
We can launch something called an Abandon Cart Sequence to pull them back to the cart.
The lead gets an email sent to them saying something like…
Hi Joe,
You have one more step to complete. Please go here (links back to his cart) and complete your purchase. If you are unsatisfied with your purchase you can get a full refund within 30 days of your purchase.
Your cart is waiting for you. Finish checkout >> [link to cart]
To learn more about our Return Policy learn more here => [link to return policy]
You can send as many abandoned cart emails as you want till someone makes a purchase!
Ecommerce businesses that implement abandon cart campaigns report a reduction of abandoned carts by 10% or more.
Scenario 3: Booking Consultations.
If you’re a consultant you probably spend a lot of time going back and forth with clients about the best time to have meetings. This can be a huge annoyance and time waster.
Fortunately, marketing automation can work here too and save a ton of time.
Let’s say the call to action on your site is, “Book your consultation.”
The visitor can be bought to a booking calendar which is synced with your Google calendar where you keep your appointments.
They can see when you are available, and book a time that works for them without needing to communicate with you first.
Collect their name and email and then reminders for the appointment will go out to both you and them and all you need to do is show up to the meeting!
Do I really need to automate all this stuff?
You don’t need to, but it will help you grow.
Because marketing automation allows you to be the first to respond.
Why is that important? Well here are some quick stats.
- 19% of buyers want to connect very quickly with a salesperson during the awareness stage of their buying process when they’re first learning about the product.
- 60% want to connect (now) with sales during the consideration stage after they’ve researched the options and come up with a shortlist.
- 20% want to talk to someone during the decision stage, once they decide which product to buy.
- Did you know that 41.2% of salespeople (business owners) say their phone is the most effective sales tool at their disposal?
Marketing automation allows you to be at the forefront of a prospective customers mind at any stage of their purchasing journey. Allowing you to get and close more leads with less menial labor.
Sounds great, where do I start?
Traditionally, you’d have to sign up for a pricey marketing automation tool which might cost you updates of $99/month.
But fortunately for you, we exist! Groundhogg will allow you to get started implementing some automation into your business for free.
It is possible to implement all of the strategies we talked about in this article with Groundhogg.
If you’re not familiar with us, Groundhogg is a WordPress plugin for businesses that need CRM and marketing automation capabilities right within their WordPress website.
And the best part, Groundhogg is 100% FREE. Download now!
You also have the option to buy the All-Access Pass for All Extensions and Premium Support for under $25/month which is an annual investment of $299/year.
If you want marketing automation, but you prefer a marketing expert to help you, you can find a Groundhogg Certified Partner near you.
