The answer is yes, and this Blog will show how it can be used in your business with the tools currently available.

For a brand new, and hence cold prospect to become a customer, they will need to travel through several nurturing stages of your online funnel where you show them how you can solve their problems and have them come to the point where they buy your product or service.

Smart digital marketers anticipate the next logical step and remove as many distractions or barriers as possible to create a clear path to a point of conversion.

If you are not using marketing automation in your business, then there’s no better time to start than now. And why is that? The smart idea is this – offload some of your most time-consuming tasks so you can focus on other more important tasks.

Things that are repetitive like follow up emails, recurring billing, nurturing leads, notifying your sales team when there’s a prospect that’s ready to buy, responding to enquiries… the capabilities of marketing automations are far and wide.

Think of it this way, it means increased sales productivity, reduced overheads, and the ability to scale your business with fewer resources.

Is it possible you might ask?

Don’t take my word for it. The data speaks for itself…so let me rattle off some statistics.

Did you know that 80% of new leads never translate into sales and companies that excel at lead nurturing generate 50% more sales ready leads at a 33% lower cost?

Nurtured leads make 47% larger purchases than non-nurtured leads.

A 2019 survey by social media Today found that 75% of the businesses surveyed had systems in place and use some type of marketing automation.

Another way to read this as: you might be falling behind your competitors if you’re not taking advantage of the resources available. Put simply, you can either adapt and stay ahead of the curve (which we’re pretty good at helping you in) or give excuses because your customers are “traditional”. I can tell you now the successful companies use systems, procedures, and automation.

Setup an appointment booking platform online like Calendly.

Install Facebook Pixel and Google Analytics on your website to track your visitors.

A recent Invesp business survey found 80% of marketing automation users saw an increase in the number of leads, and 77% had an increase in conversions. They also found the top 3 content types for lead nurturing to be White Papers at 83%, E-Books at 71% and On Demand Webinars at 63%.

Marketing automation allows companies to nurture prospects and give them a better brand experience. These smart businesses consistently see a significant increase in qualified leads and let’s face it, we’re all tired of the “I’ll get back to you” people.

A staggering 91% of marketing automation users agree it is “very important” to the overall success of their online marketing activities, and 74% of respondents said the technologies’ ability to save them time was its largest benefit.

On Google and social media retarget your leads as prospects as they need to be warmed up to your products or services before they buy from you.

People searching online are looking for information so be timely and personalised and a messenger chatbot can do this 24x7.

Also read as: You need to personalise your interactions with your customers.

This sure goes beyond the “Hey, first name” when you start emails. Personalising includes the type of content you’re sending them (top of funnel, middle of funnel or bottom of funnel), the channel you communicate (email, messenger platform, social media platform), the call-to-action (CTA) you send etc.

Push them through Quiz Funnels (try Bucket.io or a quiz based chatbot built in Messenger)

Tag them based on website behaviour (try Hotjar)

Track with Lead Scoring on content (try Active Campaign or again a chatbot built in Messenger)

How Does Marketing Automation Work?

- You run a Facebook ad targeting your cold prospects based on the targeted audience.

- Someone is interested and clicks on your ad based on your compelling offer.

- They get sent over to your landing page where you have an explainer video.

- They click the link for more information and come into your chatbot flow where you confirm their name, email address, contact details and save this information automatically to an excel file.

- The prospect gets to accept your offer and you get an email confirmation.

By clicking on your ad, you are collecting custom data in your business manager account that can help optimise your reach to them and you can target lookalike audiences (others who are like them).

You collect their contact details so you can nurture them with other relevant offers in the future according to their preference (based on what they bought from you)

You save your team time answering calls or emails as your bot can tag all answers and deliver a summary for each prospect or customer.

All this data is tracked in your CRM system so you can predict how much sales you’re getting, where your customers are coming from (which offer is working), and how much the average customer’s value (ACV) is so you can forecast revenue and you don’t overspend on ads.

Your autoresponder also tracks their activity with you when syncing with your e-commerce shop. So, your autoresponder sends re-engagement messages to customers who haven’t been to your shop for a long time.

Throughout this whole process, not once were you needed. The automations handled everything for you.

Otherwise, it would have taken a toll on your service team, having to run around picking up numerous calls every day while attending to your existing customers.

It sounds pretty smart, doesn’t it?

Now how about we go to a more complex B2B marketing scenario…

- You have a Google ad that goes out targeting cold prospects with the ultimate objective being to hire your services.

- Someone is interested and clicks on your ad and becomes a prospect.

- They go over to your landing page where you give them more information about how you can solve their problem, and here they book a free online consultation with you.

- Then they click the link or scan a QR code that automatically fills in their contact details and they seamlessly select a time slot according to your availability.

- They then receive an email confirmation of their appointment.

- Leading up to the meeting, they receive valuable content from you via email to prepare themselves. They also receive a brief introduction of who you are.

- A few days before the meeting, they get a reminder.

- You two meet and talk online based on an auto-generated link, however the contact doesn’t take up your offer.

- After the meeting, there’s an immediate thank you email sent to the prospect.

- Even though they don’t take your offer, you have an email or messenger sequence that goes out delivering more valuable content including client testimonials.

- Contact continues seeing your offers and content online in ads. They finally decide to take your offer.

- You prepare a proposal, and their names are automatically populated throughout the proposal.

- A few days later, they still haven’t replied. There’s a follow-up email that’s sent to them.

- Contact signs and immediately, you receive a notification. You’ve won the deal.

Person types a search query that matches the keyword you’ve optimised for beforehand during your market research, where you can track what people are searching for in the search engines.

By prospects clicking on your ad, you are collecting custom data in your business manager account that can help optimise your reach to them and you can again target another lookalike audience.

Your Free online meeting is an extra step that serves as a pre-qualification process to ensure your leads are serious before you go out to meet them.

You collect their contact details so you can nurture them in the future with other relevant offers according to their preference (again based on the information they consumed from you).

They book a date and time with you without you having to check your calendar or go up and down finding a common slot.

The contact can get to know you through personal email introductions without you having to rewrite them. They also get relevant content that answers a lot of the typical questions nurturing them further ahead of your meeting.

Now imagine this, you don’t have to be so desperate for the sale upfront. Even if they don’t take up your offer right away, you know they’ll continue to be nurtured slowly in the weeks, months or possibly years ahead.

You continue about your day right after the meeting. Your organized and efficient email autoresponder will thank them for you.

As they continue to interact with your content and offers, they are scored based on what type of actions they take and they receive information they want, how they want it.

They enter a series of nurture and upsell campaigns over a period until they decide they are ready to buy.

Your CRM captured all their information before, so you don’t have to do much work with your proposal. It helps you populate everything. You just need to alter the scope of work.

They are reminded about your proposal after a few days of inactivity. Again, you can focus on doing work that truly adds value to your business and your other clients. Maybe the heat mapping tool on your website shows many of your prospects spend a lot of time looking at the pricing table.

Armed with this insight you can optimise and simplify your proposals so it’s less confusing, making it an easier decision for them to work with you.

Throughout this whole process, you were only needed at two points: During the online call and to prepare the proposal.

So, do you agree, this process would be a nightmare if you had to remember to do all these things manually every day, for dozens of prospects and potential clients?

With a lot of options at our fingertips’ marketing automation isn’t limited to companies with huge budgets or a seemingly never-ending list of customers. It can make a powerful impact on companies of all sizes right from the day dot.

Based around, the Know-Like-Trust concept that we talk about a lot?

Builds relationships: new customers rarely purchase from businesses the first time they learn about it. Which is why marketing automation, like personalised content is important. You want to build and foster the relationship. By helping your audience learn more about your products and you as a brand, you can prove your credibility as a thought leader and a worthy guide to help them achieve their goals.

Helps you follow up: There are times when people will browse your website, abandon their cart, or write a customer service query. Follow up messages (whether by messenger chatbot or email) can help them complete their transaction or at least qualify your leads in a more predictable fashion.

Tracks the customer journey: The more you know about your ideal customer, the better. That’s why you must continue to collect more data based on their interactions. You can split test, see how long it takes to make a transaction, what information they need and what assets, lead to the highest conversions. Armed with this information you then focus your efforts there.

You need to create the best user experience for your potential customers. Best of all, it needs to be a continuous process of improvement and importantly, be aligned with all your marketing efforts.

By integrating your social media strategy, all your online content, your email marketing, around your funnel, and importantly not forgetting search engine optimisation, I guarantee, you’ll clearly see the benefits hitting your bottom line.

When done the right way, you’ll be seeing your conversions surge (and they will stay there) by targeting the RIGHT customers in the RIGHT way with the RIGHT message at the RIGHT time.