5 Secrets to Successful Marketing Automation

The more your business can nurture leads and build long-term relationships before prospects are ready to buy your product, the more likely you are to win their approval and increase your conversion rate.

To help nurture leads through the marketing funnel is marketing automation software. It takes the tedious work out of connecting with leads as they go on the customer journey. However, marketing automation should not be taken with a “set it and forget it” mindset. It requires proper setup and maintenance to achieve specific goals and objectives.

Let’s take a look at five secrets to successful marketing automation.

1. Prepare Your CRM

Your CRM (customer relationship management) database will sync with your automation software, so it’s important to make sure that it’s cleaned up. If you have a lot of duplicates or outdated information, for instance, you’re going to end up with a headache on your hands. As you go through your CRM database, delete duplicates records, clean up the names of your contacts and associate contacts with the right accounts.

2. Validate Email Addresses

Another important step in making marketing automation work for you is to verify all email addresses. Run all of your contacts’ email addresses through an email verification service and fix the ones that aren’t approved. You may find that there are small errors that can be fixed (i.e., gmil to gmail). Other emails may no longer be active, and you can delete them before importing them.

3. Get Everyone on Board

Address how the marketing automation software will affect the sales process. Will it change the way leads are assigned? Will it take the place of sales outreach? Don’t wait to address questions from your sales team. Answer questions early on, and if you’re not sure of the answer, talk to your automation provider.

You will also need to get your other resources in check, including your webmaster, IT department, marketing and creative teams and CRM administrators. To make marketing automation software most efficient, you will need these teams to help with tasks such as email authentication, tracking codes, creating content and integrating the software with your CRM database.

4. Test, Analyze and Update

When your system is up and running, it’s crucial that you continue to test and analyze. Everything from your lead nurturing campaigns to your lead scoring can be improved when you know what results you are seeing. By testing and analyzing these results, you can make the necessary updates and create better strategies.

5. Continue Education

You won’t learn everything there is to know about marketing automation in your first few months. In order to continue getting the most from the marketing automation experience, you must commit to educating yourself and your staff on the best practices, latest updates and more.

There are many places where you can obtain this information, including webinars, forums and user groups. There is also no substitute for good old fashioned hands-on learning, so practice using the templates and settings that your software contains.

Marketing automation is a wonderful tool that can bring much success to your business. By following the tips above, you will be well on your way to a successful marketing automation experience!