With so many innovative ideas and visionary people entering the market, the entire startup landscape has witnessed massive growth over the last decade. And automation is something that is embraced by many industries such as FinTech, wherein they automate their accounting processes via software and pre-defined accounting templates.
Startups and small businesses can also implement automation into their marketing processes to scale up.
According to a recent study, 67% of marketing leaders are already utilizing automation tools for their marketing efforts.
In today’s competitive market, leveraging automation tools (like HubSpot Marketing) can help you gain an edge over your competitors. So, if you want to carve a place for your brand, then you need to get started with automation for your business!
Reasons for Startups to Implement Automation
The main goal of every startup is to scale up, and automation can help you reach that goal! With automation, startups can easily and effectively manage a large number of tasks simultaneously.
In addition, automation helps startups to be agile and responsive to changes in the market.
Lastly, it allows startups to collect data and analyze it to improve their marketing strategies.
Here are the main reasons why startups need to start automating their marketing efforts:
- With automation, you can connect with a larger audience.
- Improve team efficiency by automating manual tasks.
- Automate email marketing processes and outreach to save time and resources.
- Improve your engagement by using automation to stay in constant touch with your prospects.
- Use actionable insights to optimize your marketing plan.
Moreover, the benefits of automation doesn’t just stop at marketing or sales. You can take this auto-pilot system to the next level by implementing automated employee onboarding and development for your team. Hence, automation can help startups grow their entire business process.
11 Ways Startups Can Leverage Automation for Their Marketing Efforts
Once you decide on implementing automation into your marketing process, you will need to follow a certain framework for seamless execution. Here are eleven ways to leverage automation for your marketing efforts.
Automate Your Email Marketing Process
Automation can help you send targeted and more relevant emails to your customers. This will increase your open rates and click-through rates, resulting in more sales.
You can set up the sequence for sending emails based on the sending frequency, the list you want to target, and at what time it needs to be sent. This entire process not only helps in speeding up the email marketing process but also provides insights into your email marketing campaign.
Boost Engagement on Your Social Media Channels
When it comes to improving brand awareness, social media plays a vital role. You can utilize different social media channels to connect and engage with your target audience.
By implementing automation, you can publish content at the right times, engage with followers, and track results. This will help you improve your social media strategy and get better results.
Personalize Email Content
Automation can help you create personalized content for your campaigns. This will help you connect with your audience on a deeper level and increase your conversion rates.
You can use automation to execute different marketing strategies based on customer data. You can also use it to customize the content according to the channel you’re using. Automation makes it easy to target each customer with relevant and personalized content.
A/B Test Your Campaigns
Automation can help you A/B test your campaigns to determine their effectiveness. This will help you improve your campaigns and increase your conversion rates.
You can use automation to test different versions of a campaign, different content, and different channels.
If you want to measure the performance of your email subject line, you can create two variations of the subject line for the same campaign. For example:
Subject line 1: Hurry up! Last chance to grab 30% discount!
Subject line 2: Time is running out! Get up to 30% discount on your orders.
This practice will help you find what works best for your business and improve your marketing results.
Execute Targeted Marketing Campaigns
With automation, you can execute targeted marketing campaigns for your customers.
You can send tailored messages based on users’ actions and behavior. You can also use automation to segment your audience and target them with relevant content. Automation makes it easy to customize content according to the channel you’re using.
The above example shows how personalized campaigns are executed based on the amount a customer spends on the website.
Moreover, you can send emails that address the reader directly. So, instead of just writing “Hello there!” you can start your email with, “Hi Adam!”. Paying attention to such small details will help you build trust and credibility.
Automate Your Marketing Outreach
Automation can help you send more relevant and targeted content to your potential customers. This will help you increase your chances of converting them into paying customers.
You can use automation to find and target potential customers, follow up with them, and track their engagement. Automation makes it easy to keep track of all your marketing outreach activities and measure their results.
Automation can help you improve your marketing efficiency and effectiveness. It can help you save time and money while also increasing your reach and engagement.
In fact, one study shows that74% of the surveyed marketers agreed that the primary reason why businesses use automation software is to save time.
Easily Manage Your Workflow
By automating your marketing tasks, you can easily manage your workflow. This will help you streamline your marketing process and improve your productivity.
You can use automation to create task lists, assign tasks to employees, set deadlines, and track the progress of each task. Automation makes it easy to keep track of all the tasks and employees involved in your marketing process.
Automate Multiple Marketing Processes
Startups can automate their marketing efforts by using software that helps with tasks such as email marketing, social media campaigns, and lead management.
Marketing automation allows you to complete these tasks more quickly and efficiently, freeing up time for other activities. Additionally, automated marketing processes often result in better performance compared to manually executed campaigns.
Run Re-engagement Campaigns
Automation can help you execute a re-engagement campaign to reconnect with your lost customers. This will help you increase your sales and revenue.
You can use automation to identify inactive customers, send them targeted content, and track their engagement.
Automation makes it easy to keep track of all your re-engagement activities and measure their results.
Automate Lead Capturing
Automation can help you capture leads more efficiently. This will help you increase your conversion rates and get more customers.
Web forms: This is one of the most effective ways to capture leads. You can use automation to automatically fill in the web form fields with customer data. This will make it easier and faster for you to capture leads.
Gated content: When you’re producing engaging content on your website, gated content can prove useful in capturing leads. You can use automation to gate your content and require customers to provide their contact information before accessing it. This will help you collect more leads.
Chat journeys (chatbot): Many people now prefer to communicate with businesses through chat. You can use automation to create chatbot conversations that help you capture leads.
Automation makes it easy to keep track of all the leads you’ve captured and their progress. By leveraging the above mentioned features, you can easily capture leads with little effort.
Track Your Results
With automation, you can track your marketing strategies and measure your results. This will help you determine what’s working and what’s not and make necessary changes.
You can use automation to track website visits, leads generated, social media followers, email open rates, and click-through rates. This information will help you improve your marketing strategies and get better results.
Conclusion
Startups need to be on top of their marketing game if they want to succeed. And while manual labor has its place in marketing, automation can take your efforts to the next level.
So, if you’ve been on the fence about automation, hopefully, this article will help you make an informed decision!
Author Bio:
Hinal Tanna is a SEO strategist and content marketer, currently working with the marketing team of Salesmate. She has a knack for curating content that follows the SEO practices and helps businesses create an impactful brand presence. When she’s not working, Hinal likes to spend her time exploring new places.