Many organisations simply don’t have the time or the manpower to engage as consistently and as fully as they would like with inbound marketing tools such as email, social media and website features. Without these essential elements, an overall marketing strategy can falter, and some will find that using marketing automation software at times can support their annual marketing plan.

In theory, marketing automation can help you to drive traffic to your website and convert new leads. In practice however, many marketing automation tools are often mismanaged, and can result in ending up as more unwanted spam in a potential customer’s unopened mail.

While we would always recommend that our clients create their own content and drive their own inbound marketing campaigns, we understand that at times this is simply unfeasible and automated software is necessary.

With this in mind, we’ve created a brief guide to using automated marketing tools.

Have clear goals

Do not embark on using marketing automation tools without analysing and vocalising your goals and expected outcomes. Without clear goals, your actions won’t make sense for your customers. Ensure that at the end of the campaign, you will be in a position to evaluate its success and measure what was achieved.

Clearly define your target segments

Break down your audience into target groups. This can help you to define how you want to speak to these groups, for example, you may want to attract more of one particular audience to your website to increase leads, while at the same time you may want to provide more valuable content for another audience to increase sales. Segmenting will help you to define your subsequent actions.

Where to use marketing automation software

Marketing automation is not just for email, although this is one of most often used examples by marketing automation software companies. It can also be used for social media, landing pages, and more. Marketing automation can help you to nurture leads from a variety of sources; so ensure you understand the full capabilities of your software, that you are using it for its maximum potential, that you are increasing your efficiency and that it is helping you to plan and coordinate across all platforms.

To find out more on how to develop your inbound marketing strategy, click HERE.

Post by Susie Horgan

Susie founded Springboard in 2011, and has developed the business into a leading, director-led communications agency. She has worked for over 20 years in senior marketing and public relations roles.