Top 10 Marketing Automation Projects to Grow Your Business
and Wow Your Customers
When you hear the word ‘automation’, what do you think?
… Arnold Schwarzenegger transporting back in time from a cyborg-infested post-apocalyptic future, his sights set on wiping Linda Hamilton from the face of the earth?
Or do you think about the myriad automation tools businesses around the world utilise to optimise their business growth and ‘wow’ their customers?
(We hope it’s the latter, although Terminator is still a pretty decent film.)
Automation is one of the most crucial strategies you can implement, to improve your lead capture performance, your volume of sales and quality of customer satisfaction. And it’s only through high customer satisfaction… wowing your clients… that will ensure your business truly thrives.
Indeed, a key step to wowing your potential and existing customers involves delivering above and beyond their expectations. And although this may seem obvious, in the hustle of daily work – keeping your business ticking along – this can often get overlooked, which will ultimately limit your potential business growth.
For example, think about the last time you were really impressed by a company… You probably returned to do business with them more than once, and maybe even told a few of your friends about your experience, spreading the word so they could have an equally positive interaction with this business.
Now, consider how you could be that impressive business. How could you go about creating this impression?
Here’s a clue…
Wowing your customers involves going the extra mile to create a memorable and delightful experience, as this will be what converts them into loyal, engaged customers for life – real community members. As opposed to customers who simply engage in a single transactional interaction and then disappear, never to be seen or heard from again.
The best news is that you can achieve this ‘wow’ factor quite easily…
Through hiring cyborg-Arnold Schwarzenegger – sorry, nope. Scratch that.
Through utilising automation tools and structures that will make your systems and relationship with your customers seamless, effective and amazingly-efficient.
So let’s take a look at the top 10 Marketing Automation projects you could be working on right now, to ensure you impress your customers from the get-go:
1. Re-Engage An Existing List
If you have an established list of customers and leads but they’ve been sitting dormant for months or even years, not receiving regular informative and interesting emails from you, chances are they’ve forgotten you even exist. Not much of a wow-factor there, right?
Moreover, simply sending out one email won’t be enough to re-engage and enliven your list. They may not see or open your email, or have time to read it, wasting your efforts. Rather, you should establish a well thought out re-engagement campaign to invigorate a business.
This campaign should range between 3 and 10 emails long, depending on the audience and how long it has been since you last connected with them. Emails scheduled approximately one week apart with high-value content perform best, and in the first re-engagement email, it is beneficial to address why it’s been so long since you’ve been in touch. If they no longer wish to receive content from you, you can additionally use this as an opportunity to direct them to the unsubscribe link at the bottom of your email, helping you to further refine your mailing list to only include genuinely interested, interactive readers. Remember, it’s quality not quantity you’re aiming for.
This marketing automation campaign is the quickest path to greater cash flow in your business.
2. Capture Leads From Existing Traffic
It’s likely that your Facebook newsfeed is full of lead magnets from free workbooks to webinars, checklists to quizzes, lists of top tips and much more. These free online tools and packaged content are still a great way for prospective clients to find you and try before they buy. It now takes much longer for a new lead to know, like and trust you before they will be ready to buy, so developing a number of valuable online assets allows the prospect to build a relationship with you before committing their time or money.
The great thing about this step is that you can automate the full journey, converting leads to paying customers without you even having to be present. It can all be running in the background as you continue the day-to-day operations of your business.
Yet, please note that providing a lead magnet is not enough. The person will need to be nurtured along a journey with content-rich emails or video and the time this journey will take is different for every service and industry.
3. Systematise Your Sales Conversion
Building a list is just the first step when growing your business. Many forget to put the same time and energy into ensuring that they convert that list into clients who offer repeat custom, rather than one-off purchases.
Your CRM can be used to create a Sales Pipeline process that allows you to track those who are opening your emails regularly. This will then enable you to take additional actions, such as following up with a phone call or abandoned cart emails, where you can query whether these clients are ready to take the next step. It also means you can set reminders and create follow-up tasks with those who haven’t responded to your quotes for your services. Ultimately, this will ensure no one falls between the cracks.
Even developing an email nurture sequence to send to those you’ve had an initial chat with can be beneficial. You can ensure your emails continue to deliver high-quality content, subtly closing out any objections your leads might have and reaffirming how you will work together and clarify exactly what next steps you’ll take when they do sign on the dotted line. This means you stay at the forefront of their mind and don’t drop off their radar after your initial chat.
4. Deliver A Stellar Customer Experience
Many business owners and entrepreneurs focus so intensely on attracting and selling that they often forget to WOW their customers once they’ve become a part of their community. What are you doing to automate a process to make your customers feel amazing?
For example, through a CRM system, you could easily send your customers unexpected bonuses or reach out with offers and further assistance which delivers way over and above what they expect to get. It also has the added bonus of keeping these customers engaged with your business. Even if it’s through a weekly or monthly email which provides additional value and more generally checks-in with your customers, letting them know what is going on in your world, consistent quality communication will massively benefit your business in building an inclusive and caring community around your brand.
5. Generate New Traffic
Introduce your business to new people through advertising, events, or networking. Offering to speak at events or industry trade shows in your sector is also a great way to build your list with new traffic.
Likewise, advertising campaigns run across social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and Google can all generate a great return on investment (ROI) and ensure a steady stream of new leads coming through to your business. Think of it like a tap you can turn on and off when you need to increase cash flow to your business.
For example, through a CRM system, you could easily send your customers unexpected bonuses or reach out with offers and further assistance which delivers way over and above what they expect to get. It also has the added bonus of keeping these customers engaged with your business. Even if it’s through a weekly or monthly email which provides additional value and more generally checks-in with your customers, letting them know what is going on in your world, consistent quality communication will massively benefit your business in building an inclusive and caring community around your brand.
6. Ask Happy Customers For Referrals
Identify the customers happiest or most impressed with your service and ask them to refer their friends and colleagues. Referrals are 10x better than cold leads, as these referred customers already know, like and trust you through your association with the person who referred them. Taking the time to develop a robust system and process in your business around referrals and asking your clients for feedback is a foolproof strategy to have in place.
Creating partnerships with businesses that support or service your niche industry, but are – most importantly – not in direct competition with you, is another highly beneficial marketing strategy. Many CRMs now include ‘Referral Partner Program’ tools or plug-ins, which you can implement to track leads coming through to your website from your partners. Having visibility of how effective your partners are, in sending more custom your way, means you are subsequently better equipped to provide other forms of incentive or financial reward dependent on their performance.
7. Upsell To Existing Customers
What else can you offer that will help your customers? Sit down and make a list of everything that your ideal customer requires, outside of the immediate products or services that you provide on your website. This can be a great way to identify other packages or solutions to extend to your list, either through partnerships with other businesses, or through diversifying your own offerings.
For instance, imagine you’re selling a bicycle to a customer. That cyclist will need a helmet, a floor pump, a u-lock, a front light, a reflective jacket, a bell… you get the picture. You can ‘upsell’ these additional elements to that customer, addressing their adjacent needs of safety, security and comfort as they cycle.
8. Make It Easier To Purchase
One easy way to avoid losing customers is to remove any barriers and streamline your sales process. Ask yourself: Are you unwittingly making it difficult for customers to purchase your products and services? Do you have a system set up to allow purchases to be processed 24/7, without requiring a phone call?
With a robust CRM you can establish multiple payment gateway options, offering the choice to make a payment with a debit or credit card, through PayPal and Stripe. This enables the customer to choose the best method of payment for their situation. It should be set up to automatically issue an invoice or receipt so that all records are catered for, without any manual intervention by yourself or your team required.
9. Nurture Your Prospects And Customers
Now that you’ve attracted an audience to your list, it’s important to schedule regular communications to keep your list up to date on what is new and exciting. Don’t purely focus all your attention and energy on capturing and converting leads; focus should also be directed towards keeping regular communication up with your existing clients, sending them informative, educational or enlightening resources and content, in addition to announcing any new opportunities to work with you or other businesses that you’re partnering with.
Remember: communication with your existing clients should always offer some form of value. If, for example, you routinely send promotional emails geared only towards furthering your sales, your list may become fatigued and quickly disengage with your business. Whereas, if what you’re communicating is genuinely intriguing or relevant to their interests, this will further reinforce you as A) an expert in your field and B) a business which legitimately cares about supporting its community members.
10. Deliver The Right Content To The Right Audience
It’s crucial for all businesses to master the system of segmenting an audience, as this ensures you have the right message going to the right people. Nothing will annoy a reader more than receiving content meant for leads when they are already an active client of yours, or an invitation to purchase a product that is not relevant to their needs.
Create a good segmenting and tagging structure that reflects not only your business model, but also the vision for your business growth. This will ensure it is quick and easy to adjust email communication and announcements to reflect the right audience.
So there you have it, our top 10 Marketing Automation Projects to help support the growth of your business and implement the strategies to ‘wow’ your new and existing customers.
One of the best things about automation is the fact that it’s well… automated. Meaning that for the majority you won’t even have to be actively involved in the set-up and execution of these strategies, freeing up your hours to spend on developing other elements of your business, or spending quality time with your family, or simply kicking back and relaxing.
(Or, alternatively, you can use the time to dive into a Terminator movie marathon…)
A robust and streamlined CRM system is a must-have for all business owners, whether you’re in eCommerce, B2B or B2C. So if you don’t already have one in place, or are looking for straightforward but oh-so effective ways to improve your performance, then why not get cracking with these projects today?
After all…
The future has not been written. There is no fate but what we make for ourselves.