Top tips to increase your business efficiency through automation

From email marketing and social media to ad campaigns and push notifications, automation is being used to streamline day-to-day marketing activities. It can also be used to track and analyze customers’ online behavior and buying patterns. Brands can then use this data to segment target audiences and deliver personalized messaging to improve customer experience (CX) in the longer term. As marketers no longer need to focus on mundane tasks, teams can direct their time and resources to other creative marketing campaigns, which in turn boosts efficiency and productivity, delivering better outputs.

Getting buy-in from the team

For many marketing or sales teams who have limited experience in automation, the process can be very daunting, with 60% of employees expressing a profound fear over the prospect of automation. For them, automation is assumed to take a chunk of their responsibility and leave it up to algorithms and software to drive results, in addition to fears that the platforms are difficult to implement. Keeping this in mind, businesses can demystify these issues in order to get the team engaged, invested and benefitting from marketing automation tools.

The best way to do this is by marketers firstly showing the team that they understand their doubts and fears, before addressing them. There’s extensive evidence that automation makes marketing more efficient and will essentially pay for itself in the long term. It’s all about communicating the benefits that automation will bring, and eliminating the fear of it replacing humans in their jobs. While it will bring a different set of tools to the business, it will ultimately help streamline administrative processes, improve performance, track engagement and target audiences using customer analytics.

Taking advantage of available tools

In simple terms, marketing automation is the act of using technology to create and implement applications to automate repetitive tasks – ultimately saving brands time and money, and improving marketing efficiency. There are a number of tools available to businesses that will help them to capture new customers and analyze lead generation. A number of brands have relied on chatbots in the past to reach out and fulfil their customers’ needs and expectations. This tool offers a better user experience (UX) for 34% of customers, who have come to expect immediate answers to their questions about a product or service.

Taking this one step further, brands need to begin leveraging conversational marketing to engage with website visitors and convert leads via dialogue-driven activities. This puts a significant focus on interactions with the consumer, encouraging a two-way conversation that creates relationships and trust with customers. It also takes UX to the next level, as conversational marketing ensures the buying process is as smooth and easy as possible. This systematic approach is achieved by using tools that understand and communicate with customers at the right time and in the right format.

Balancing digital and human interactions

For brands to stay competitive and elevate CX, it is vital for them to strike the right balance between digital and human interactions. With 80% of customers stating the experience a company provides is as important as its products and services, it is now critical for marketers to make sure that consumers feel heard, understood and valued in the long term. While automation fuels efficiency in an organization’s CX, they need to remember that it should support and enhance human-to-human interactions.

Understanding how and when to use both automation and human interactions is vital in line with customers’ evolving needs and expectations. Throughout the experience communication is key, so utilizing tools that help establish connections will ensure the service is delivered efficiently, transparently and consistently. Just as automation should not replace human interactions, companies need to create a tailored approach that takes advantage of both automation and the human touch to boost their bottom line.

Personalization in marketing automation

To summarize, automation – when combined with human interactions – will enable businesses to embrace personalization as the best way to connect with customers across all touchpoints in the purchase journey. As 36% of customers now expect more personalized marketing communications, it’s clear that brands need to convey messages that speak directly to them and deliver custom products or services that are targeted to their specific needs. Automation helps enhance customer segmentation and creates valuable leads, in addition to building loyalty with potential customers by providing a personalized offering. Companies that understand the synergy between personalization and automation are able to go the extra mile in providing support and genuine value to their customers, priming them for future success.