Knowing When to Automate Your Marketing Efforts

For busy businesses, marketing automation is comparable to the difference between a state-of-the-art washer and an old-fashioned washboard. It gets everything done quicker, cleaner and with less effort. What's not to love? But take note not to automate the life out of your campaign. A good automated campaign needs to strike a balance between knowing when to automate—and when not to.

Automate Repetitive Tasks

To make the most of marketing automation, use it to automate those repetitive tasks that tie up your time:

• Tracking leads and prospects
• Follow up emails after a purchase or subscription
• Reminder messages if a warranty or subscription is due
• Scheduling social media or blog posts
• Sending triggered messages, such as after a download or information request
• Collating information based on website activity or information forms

By automating these tasks, you're building up a more personal experience for the customer. Sound backwards? Think about it—once you've freed up all those repetitive tasks, you have time free to focus on the bits that marketing automation can't reach.

But Don’t Automate Everything

Knowing what to automate is half of a great automated marketing campaign—knowing when not to is the other half. There are some tasks that shouldn't be automated:

• Content—whether it's a tweet or a blog post, never automate your content. Create each piece carefully, give it some pizzazz, then let your automated system send it at the right time.
• Scheduling—when it comes to that right time, you have to give your system that input. Plan out your campaign carefully and decide on your timings first, then let your automation software know when to send.
• Responding to feedback—if a customer takes the time to give you feedback, good or bad, take time to reply.
• Customer service—if you want to keep your customers, keep them feeling valued. Never fob them off with automated replies.

Marketing automation offers you a solution that can track your leads, keep all the data you need about your customers' relationships with you and take care of time-consuming tasks. Use the time you saved to focus on your product and your customers—your business will thank you.