How to get started with Marketing Automation – step by step guide
Taking the first steps in anything new is hard… A new language, a new instrument, a new hobby or even new software.
The mere fact that it’s new makes it scary and often too big a hurdle to overcome. You will probably tell yourself, I haven’t got time now, I will do it tomorrow, but we all know that it will keep being put off. Read on to find out why new software, such as automation, should be embraced head on and not put on the ‘later’ pile.Automation is one of those things that many Marketers struggle to invest the time in initially but this really shouldn’t be the case. With almost half of businesses adopting marketing automation, plenty have taken that first step and are now reaping the rewards of better customer interactions, higher sales and a reduction in the time invested in tasks which are now handled by automation.
So lets help you to take your first steps in marketing automation…
First things first you need a reliable platform to use. Then you can see for yourself just how easy it is to build your first workflow.
Now you have a system set up and running, what should you do? Let’s start with the first journey your customers take, a welcome programme.
Personally, I find it beneficial to create the whole workflow/journey before I worry about the content as this can be decided at a later date depending on the direction subscribers go down.
This stage provides a good opportunity to look at the data you collect. Ask yourself what information do you have available at the first sign up? The minimum you should be collecting is an email address and a first/last name. At a later date you can add in a section to your workflow requesting more information and details.
This programme is going to treat everyone who has signed up identically, as effectively they have all just completed the same task and we only know their email and name. You should send a welcome email thanking them for signing up and give them an insight into what they can expect to receive by being a subscriber.
After this email, you can set a delay of 1 day before the next stage of the workflow can start. This will give your subscribers a chance to look at their welcome email. The first decision will then be based on if email 1 – the welcome email, was opened. If so, then they can move on to the second email which could be in relation to the benefits of your business. If not, you could send them a different welcome email. If they do not open either of the 2 welcome emails after a week they can be removed from the programme by sending them to an end button.
After the second email it’s time to ask for more details, use email 3 with a link to a preference centre to request more information regarding their interests. This data will help you with future programmes and your bulk messages.
If the subscriber has completed the preference centre you can then send them to the end of the programme, if not a reminder in a few days time will jog their memory.
Wow, so there you go, the first step to marketing automation, completed in a few minutes. Once you have added content and connected an event to trigger the workflow, you can sit back and follow your subscribers journey!