We recently saw a report that business owners have over 200 options for marketing automation technology—with over 60 of those being added this year alone. You certainly don’t need that much marketing automation technology— but how do you decide which software you do need? Choosing the right automation platform for your business depends on a few factors:
Choosing the right automation platform for your business depends on a few factors:
- The size of your business (and your audience): This determines how sophisticated the automation needs to be, and how broad its scope should be.
- Your specific marketing strategy: Different tools focus on automating different functions. Some are more important to successfully implementing your marketing strategy.
- Future goals: How much do you expect your business to grow in the next few years? Is your automation software too small to support your business for more than a few months? Or perhaps you have the opposite problem and are spending thousands and thousands of dollars on a high-tech automation system that you don’t even need (much less know how to use).
- Your budget: There are plenty of options for every budget, so don’t go broke buying a system just because it’s a big name, if a different one can do it just as well for half the price.
Streamline with Marketing Automation
As you can see, there’s got to be a middle ground. One of the key steps to deciding how in-depth to go with your automation software is determining what you most need to automate to streamline your sales and marketing operations. Here are some of the most common reasons businesses utilize automation (according to recent data):
- Increasing brand awareness
- Letting customers or prospects know about products or promotions
- Educating your list about your company, or topics relevant to your business/field/industry
- Onboarding new consumers
- Value-added content
- Consumer-specific (targeted/segmented) content
- Email marketing
- Lead scoring
- Personalized content
- Other value-added content
Marketing Automation tools are flexible
The cool thing about having so many options when it comes to automation is you don’t have to use the same system forever. You can decide what you need (and, of course, what your audience needs) for now, and find a platform that meets those needs. You can always transition over time to a new system when your needs change.
Find a niche
It’s good to find a niche. In other words, think about how you want your business to stand out. Are you a hat company that wants to be known for how quickly your customers can get a custom-made hat? Perhaps you want a system that can help you with lead scoring and fast onboarding. But if you’re a life coach who relies on customer relationships that you nurture over time, you may want to focus on a system that can create and deliver content-rich emails and highly personalized communications.
Choose the Marketing Automation that’s right for you
Before you choose a marketing automation software, think to yourself: what do I need to do well right now to get customers—and which system delivers that faster and easier? Once you decide what type of features you need, you can compare systems in your price range. Of course, working with your marketing team is a great way to cut out the guesswork of choosing an automation system, and getting to work faster on putting it to use. Whether you’re a large corporation or a neighborhood business, we don’t believe you should miss a connection with a single lead. When it comes to automation, there’s something for everyone. Let’s schedule a free call to see which marketing automation system might be best for you.
