Everyone knows that a lot of work in marketing is repetitive, but these time-consuming tasks are indispensable, whether we like it or not. The good news is that marketing automation comes to free people from tedious tasks and focus on what really matters: strategy and creativity.
That’s amazing, isn’t it? Even so, before you can start using an automation platform, you must know the market is packed with options, and you will only get good results with the right one for your needs. No miraculous promises, but a real fit.
And that’s why we are here bringing you this content, where you find out the way to pick a good tool not just for today’s necessities, but for the road ahead your business will follow. Ready?
Understanding the foundations of marketing automation
The idea of jumping straight into comparing features between platforms is tempting, but there’s work to do before coming to this stage. After all, a tool is only as good as the strategy behind it. And how will someone know their strategy without the knowledge of their own marketing needs?
To do so, it’s important to take a good look at goals, internal processes, and, of course, customers. You must understand all this in order to make the right choice for a marketing automation platform.
Defining your business goals and needs
Continuing the analysis we mentioned right above, let’s talk about business goals and needs. It all starts with a simple question: what are you trying to achieve? There’s lots of different responses possible, such as more qualified leads, warm up existing contacts or even boost customer loyalty.
The fact is each of these objectives will point you toward different features and, consequently, tools. And that’s the reason why you can’t, for any reason, skip this moment of reflection. Yes, it takes time. Yes, it can be tiring. But it can also save you from wasting money and time with a platform that won’t do any good to your marketing.
Mapping your customer journey
Once your needs and goals are defined, you have a clear destination. Yet, an unknown destination. So, the next step is to get a map, and that map is precisely what the customer journey is.
But maybe this map still needs some information, and that’s why mapping your customer journey is so important. It’s all about visualizing every single interaction someone has with your business, from the first contact to final purchase.
Believe us: having your customer journey mapped is a prerequisite for a good automation platform, both to choose the right one and for it to work well.
The best way to do this is by following new leads from the beginning, no matter where they comes from, such as a blog post, emails or a landing page in your website. For many businesses, a great first step is handling new messages better, and using a WhatsApp chatbot can be a method to answer questions instantly and track the whole journey.
But what about social media? This is the place where many things happen in marketing matters. No problems at all. If your brand gets a lot of DMs, learning how to effectively manage the flow with Instagram DM automation can help you ensure every lead keeps on track to a proper customer journey mapping.
Key features to evaluate in a platform
Okay, we’ve reached the moment to look at the tech. Your strategy is defined; you know your business needs and goals from the ground up, and you’ve mapped the customer journey. Now it’s time to really look at marketing automation platforms, and you must remember one thing: you don’t need a platform that does a million things. You need one that’s great at the things you truly need.
Keep this in mind and be methodical.
Core functionalities: email, CRM, and workflows
Most marketing automation tools are built on three pillars: email marketing, a customer relationship management (CRM) system, and a workflow builder.
For the email marketing tool, you must ask if it’s more than just a way to send mass messages. It also needs to be efficient in segmentation, so you can talk to people based on what they do and who they are.
The CRM is the central hub, a place to gather, keep, and nurture all your customer information. Make sure you’re choosing a system that allows you to hold every interaction and piece of data in one spot, so your marketing, sales, and service teams can always count on a source of truth to optimize their activities.
The workflow builder is where the magic happens. This is where you design your automated sequences. A good one is visual, letting you drag and drop triggers, actions, and delays to build out a customer path. The easier it is to use, the more creative you can get with your automation.
Integrations and scalability
There’s no point in having good tools if they don’t communicate with each other, right? Knowing that, you have to look beyond functionalities. Your automation platform must have good features, but it needs to connect properly with your website, store, social media, and any other software your business relies on. So, the tip is to double-check that it integrates well.
And last but not least, you can’t forget to think about the long term. The platform you pick today should be able to be useful to your business as it grows. What’s the point of picking a tool that won’t be helpful in a few years, maybe months? Save yourself from the headache of switching systems by choosing one that can scale with you.
Your blueprint for a smarter marketing future
If you are choosing a marketing automation platform to optimize your process, you’re doing the right thing to keep things on track. When modernity knocks at your business’s door, the only option is to open. And now you know how to better embrace automation. We are sure that you will make a good choice and discover what automation can really do for you.
