You’ve probably read that you should be leveraging marketing automation in your business.
Well, in this post I’m going to share three campaigns you can be using to jumpstart your marketing automation.
First, I want to clear something up.
For many business owners the term “marketing automation” can be pretty scary.
In fact, when we work with small business owners to help them set up their sales funnels and automation, they come into the conversation with a bit of uncertainty and misunderstanding of what “marketing automation really means”.
Let’s face it. The word “automation” sounds cold and robotic doesn’t it? It seems like it’s a “set it and forget it” sort of thing.
While marketing automation can save you a lot of time and even drive sales in your business there are two things I want you to understand:
- It’s time to use marketing automation when you find yourself doing certain tasks or answering certain questions over and over. I tell my team and clients that if we have to do something three times, it’s time to automate it. I mention this because I see many businesses trying to dive into automation, creating campaigns for things that they’ve never even had done yet in their business because the thought of automating things is one of those shiny objects. That is by far the worst place to start.
- Start by asking yourself what tasks or communications do I repeatedly do? That’s your start point. Your new automation efforts are not “set if and forget it”…at least not forever. I recommend that you revisit your campaigns on a monthly basis to see how they are performing. Are leads dropping off? Are your open rates going down? By checking in your campaigns on a monthly your basis, you’ll be able to spot where you may be missing opportunities. At the very least, look to optimize your campaigns on a quarterly basis.
Okay, now that we have the foundations set, let’s remove the overwhelming complexity of “marketing automation” for your business.
Here are three ways your business should be using marketing automation:
1. “The Get To Know Me” Campaign
This is a campaign that you should put all new leads through.
Anytime someone opt-ins on your website, they should begin your “Get To Know Me” Campaign. The folks over at Digital Marketer call this “Introduction”.
The purpose of this campaign is to bring new leads up to speed on who you are and set the tone for the relationship. Your campaign can be 3 emails or 8. It’s up to you. I think between 3-5 is the sweet spot. Here is what your “Get To Know Me” Campaign should do a few things:
- Get your leads to whitelist your email. This will help make sure your emails get through to your new subscribers. If you can get them to click or reply that will be a “win” in the deliverability column as you’re identifying these people as engaged.
- Set their expectations. They are going to be receiving emails from you (hopefully) over the course of the next few days and weeks. Let them know what they can expect from you.
- Let them know what you stand for and stand against. While you’re trying to build your list, you also want to weed out the poor quality leads. Let these new leads who your content is for and who it’s not for.
- Give them your best stuff. This is your chance to share some of your top content. Deliver the goods! Our client, John Lee Dumas over at Entrepreneur On Fire does this extremely well by offering various free courses on podcasting.
- Lastly, let them know how you can help. Do you have products or services that can help this new lead? After you’ve delivered value and set the tone for the relationship let these new leads know how they can get more through buying your products and services.
2. “The Engagement” Campaign
The purpose of the “Engagement” campaign is to get people to buy from you. You may not be able to do this right away so you deliver content that is relevant to why they gave you their email address in the first place. This campaign should:
- Deliver the content they requested. They most likely opted in to get a free guide or some sort of lead magnet. Make sure you deliver on that.
- Educate. This is your chance to deliver content and nurture your new prospect. This can be over the course of 3 days to 14 days. It’s up to you and also what you sell.
- Get them to buy. Ultimately, as you engage these new prospects, you’re trying to make them warm enough to give you money. Make sure you go for the sale.
3. “The On-boarding” Campaign
This is actually one of the most important campaigns, yet I see so few businesses do it. What happens when someone buys from you?
You worked so hard to get these prospects to buy through your “Get to know me” campaign and your “engagement” campaign.
Now, the relationship is actually starting. Your on-boarding campaign should do the following:
- Deliver your product/service. Give the customer what they just bought.
- Make sure they know what to do next. Whether it’s a service or product, make sure you point out how your new customer can get more value of what they bought from you. Maybe it’s pointing out specific features or making sure they schedule their next consultation. Make sure they are using what they just bought.
- Ask for the referral. The best time to get a customer to give you a referral is right after they buy. There is no moment greater because that’s when they are most excited. In our business, this has been super critical for us to get in front of other similar prospects. When your customers refer you, it makes it a whole lot easier to close.
That’s It. Use These Three Campaigns To Jumpstart Your Marketing Automation
While there are plenty of other ways you can use marketing automation in your business, these are three essential campaigns that can help you leap into marketing automation.
Start with these and worry about everything else later. The most important part is that you start.
Not sure where to start? Leave a comment and I’ll help point you in the right direction. You can also schedule a free consultation here.
