Feel like you are only using 5% of your marketing automation tools?
If so, we are not surprised. What typically happens is you invest in a tool and want to get it up and running as quickly as possible so that you can show results. The fastest path to running a campaign is uploading a list, setting up a simple nurturing flow, and then hitting send. It makes you feel good, like eating a cookie for that 2pm pick-me-up.
What typically happen is that you build a little more complicated flow and then are scrambling to find the content that you need to run the next campaign. Some of the following questions begin to run through your head:
- Who is going to write the whitepaper I need?
- Do I have the right offer?
- My email list of prospects is getting a little stale; will they still open?
- Is the sales team going to respond when someone clicks?
Getting caught in this cycle is one of the primary reasons companies end up using the capabilities of a marketing automation tool just for email send. This task can be daunting in itself without considering how to track and coordinate all of the other activities you are doing and getting that data into one tool.
3 Marketing Automation Tools Tips To Use Now
Our practical advice is take things one step at a time and don’t let yourself get pulled into the black hole. As you are probably seeing in your data, another email, although it may fix a short term need or even drive a little extra traffic, is not going to help in the long run. Here are a few items to start with and you can even do one every other week.
- Make sure all of your social communities are connected with the tool; this will provide you with more information and help you better time your communications with prospects.
- Make sure your marketing campaigns have a corresponding campaign in SFDC or your sales CRM. If not, there is no way you will be able to tell if the marketing campaigns generated any revenue.
- Make sure your offline activities are tracked in your marketing automation tool, including lists from trade shows as well as those pre and post campaigns.
These items will help you get a good head start. Over the coming weeks and months we will continue to share valuable insights into how to get the best out of your tool.
Got more questions about your marketing automation software? Contact us today to see how we can help you get more mileage and use out of SFDC and other marketing automation tools you have.
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Tags: marketing automation toolsCategory