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Marketing
Automation

“Not implementing a Marketing Automation solution may be the ultimate career limiting move for today's marketers. If you haven't gotten started, you're already behind the 8-ball.”

IDC Group

November 2011

Gone are the days when marketing...

involved blasting your message out to the broadest possible audience in the hope that some of them—typically a tiny subset of them—would have an interest in your product or service.

Thankfully that mindset has been replaced by smarter marketing that seeks to zero in on what smaller groups of people want or need and then educate them on how your offering satisfies their wants or meets their needs.

Marketing Automation software...

enables this enlightened approach. These systems help companies engage with potential customers in a way that establishes them as a trusted resource and a thought leader in their field.

Products like HubSpot do this by using real-time marketing data to automatically craft a series of interactions that is:

  • Unique to each individual
  • Timely
  • Highly relevant
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Marketing Automation Involves...

Emails
Targeted Emails that Collect Metrics & Trigger Actions Based on Activity
SEO
SEO Tools that Aid in Optimized Content Creation
Social-Media
Social Media Management & Measurement Features
Landing-Page
Landing Page Creation & Testing
Analytics
Comprehensive Reporting & Analytics
Landing-Page
Microsite Development

 

 

In short, Marketing Automation...

can produce the kind of results you might see if you added five people to your sales and marketing team—five really smart people who are at their desks 24x7.

But understand, marketing automation software isn’t meant to replace your staff. Instead it gives them the tools they need to help your business thrive.

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How a Tool Like HubSpot Helps You Maintain Strong Relationships

Let Us Show You How

Number_1
Helps you find the right customers
One of the keys to retaining customers is ensuring that you have the right ones to begin with. With your marketing automation system powering your content marketing program, prospects get the materials they need to make a well-informed decision about becoming a customer, which helps prevent “buyer’s remorse.”
Number_2
Creates a warm welcome
Workflows you develop can send new customers a welcome email, information on how to connect with your technical support or customer service team, etc. This makes them feel like “part of the family” and less inclined to leave and break those bonds.
Number_3
Increases adoption
From reminders about the benefits of your products to suggestions on helpful ways to use them, ongoing interaction with a customer, facilitated by your automation system, helps them see the value of their purchase.
Number_4
Enables personalization
It may seem like there’s little difference between sending communications that start with “Dear Customer” versus “Dear Sara,” but personalization can make people feel like you know and appreciate them. And the greeting is just scratching the surface of how implementing marketing automation can help you customize your interactions.
Number_5
Helps you communicate important information
Nobody likes being left in the dark about scheduled system outages, new product features, policy changes, or other topics that affect them as a customer. A marketing automation system enables you to share this information quickly and efficiently.
Number_6
Makes it easy to offer incentives
For most people, all it takes is the occasional insider “perk” to keep them loyal. You can use a marketing automation tool to drive a program in which you offer incentives at key points in a person’s evolution as a customer, keeping them interested and engaged.

Let Us Show You How

Getting Started with Marketing Automation

The good news is that there are lots of options these days. But that's the bad news too!

We have been extremely impressed with Hubspot...

a leading marketing automation provider. Consequently, we have implemented HubSpot ourselves and for many of our clients.

But regardless of what marketing automation solution options you’re considering,
we can help you select the system that best meets your needs, work with you to bring it online, and help you use it to its fullest capacity. We offer the following services:

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Needs Assessment
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Vendor Review & Selection
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Feature/Pricing Negotiation
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Implementation
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Ongoing Campaign

Oh, The Advantages!

So what benefits can you expect from your new marketing automation software?

First and foremost, for many marketing departments that are time- and resource-strapped, marketing automation provides simplification and a structure. Having all the tools you need integrated into one product eliminates the need for the multiple systems/accounts/passwords you are likely using now to execute your strategy. And that integration means those tools share data seamlessly.

It's Important to Note:

Like virtually all forms of automation, marketing automation does nothing on its own.

It is only with a commitment to getting the most out of it—through the rigorous production of quality content, the thoughtful development of targeted marketing campaigns, and the diligent discipline of learning from and responding to the resulting data—that you will realize the full benefits of marketing automation.

Here You Grow

Marketing automation software provides tremendous power, flexibility and efficiency in helping companies connect with their audience and grow their business.

If you count those among your goals but are not yet using a system, we can help you make a smooth transition to the next level of marketing success. 

And... a modest increase in customer retention delivers major revenue benefits.

Here’s another stat. Experts say that something as achievable as a five percent increase in customer retention can drive an increase in profits of 25 percent or more! So, to summarize:

  • It costs much less to retain customers than to find new ones.
  • By retaining them, you increase profits.
  • A marketing automation system like HubSpot makes it easier to improve your customer retention rate.

In other words, if you are not taking steps to retain more customers, you should be!

Preparing to Bring a Marketing Automation System Online

We’ve been working with HubSpot for many years now. And on our path from curious evaluators to vocal advocates, we’ve learned a great deal about how companies should undertake an implementation to maximize the impact of the system. Here are what we have found to be the key considerations for bringing a marketing automation system online:

  • Align your marketing automation system with your business strategy. As powerful as HubSpot is, it should not drive your strategy. Rather it should support and enrich it. Be sure you and your team fully understand your business objectives before you dive into an implementation.

  • Assess the total cost of ownership (and operation) of a marketing automation system. The ROI from the effective use of HubSpot or other marketing automation tools is truly remarkable. That said, the “I” in ROI does stand for investment, and that means both capital and time. While “automation” is in the name, marketing automation tools do require input from the humans that use them.

  • Define your success metrics. One of the beauties of implementing marketing automation is that if you know what kind of results you are after, you can easily fine-tune both short-term campaigns and long-term strategies to achieve your goals. But you have to start with well-defined objectives.

  • Have a content development plan. Marketing automation makes it easy to publish and promote the compelling content that is the heart and soul of your content marketing program. That is, if you have compelling content. Before you implement your system, you should have a solid content creation strategy and the resources to back it up.

  • Establish naming and organizational guidelines. Marketing automation tools like HubSpot can help bring order to your digital marketing efforts. But without careful planning and preparation, and an ongoing commitment to policing the system, it can be a nightmare of unbelievable proportion.

  • Educate your organization. Too often, companies focus exclusively on training their marketing automation system users and ignore the rest of the company. While you want your marketing team to know the system inside and out so they can fully leverage its capabilities, they aren’t the only ones who need to understand what it does. From the subject matter experts who will help produce the content that “feeds” your system to the executive team whose approval of the investment and ongoing support is critical, everyone in your organization should be onboard.

 

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