The previous blog post covering automated marketing barely skimmed the service about the features and benefits of marketing automation for small business. I’m continuing here to be sure that  I communicate clearly that there is a lot of leg work that has to happen for automated marketing to get rolling.

Automated Marketing Services Upfront Planning:

• create targeted landing pages (for each product or service)
• develop detailed customer profiles
• identify marketing automation database segmentation
• determine what events / actions to track
• create tracking methods to identify who participated in a campaign  (attended a webinar, opened an email, responded to social media post, or clicked on a Google ad)
• view reports, determine common visitor traits or failed closings
• design messages that are graphically appealing
• write compelling copy
• tailor drip email campaigns to generate attention
• and more…

Create more leads and close more sales.

Because we are a design and marketing firm we have received sales calls from automated marketing services firms for years. We’ve tried out demos, reviewed benefits and features and inquired on pricing for each automated marketing company. Some companies were incredibly expensive and truly were designed for large corporations like GM who receive tens of thousands of hits per day. The ROI just wasn’t there for most small businesses.

Can automated marketing benefit small businesses?

The challenge we found with all of the marketing automation companies is that they all claimed marketing automation was easy. The only way marketing automation is easy is if you are a marketing firm who is already using digital marketing services like email, CRMs, visitor tracking, analytics, etc. and attempting to build comprehensive results from the different platforms. It’s a lot of work! Converting to marketing automation services is like a ride in the park after juggling all of those pieces and trying to make sense of them.  Realistically though most small business are not doing many of those pieces on their own, so jumping into an automated marketing solution is a huge undertaking.

If you are a small manufacturing firm in mid-Michigan, a craft brewery in Lansing or a commercial builder in Grand Ledge, Michigan you’re too busy running your business to be working on all of the pieces needed to create successful automated marketing campaigns. You either need a full time website designer and marketing communication manager in-house or you need to outsource it to a marketing company like ours. We have found that the small businesses, associations, and community organizations in Grand Rapids and Lansing who we have met with who attempt automated marketing on their own seldom implement it to it’s fullest potential. There are far too many steps required to get it up and running.

• customer persones
• segmentation identified
• campaigns are built
• website enhanced for automation
• communication and call to action copy developed
• graphic design elements created
• review of reports
• sales department actions

Once all of the above are complete, you can monitor campaigns, traffic, and reports and your website marketing will truly be automated and leads will be forwarded to your sales team.

Do you think your company is ready for marketing automation services? Give us a call, we can talk about your goals and whether marketing automation is a good fit for you at this stage in your business. Connection Group can provide assistance setting up your automated marketing campaigns and turn it over to you or we can set it up, manage and provide input on the data and reports. We can help you rest easy and keep your business on track.