Marketing is one of the most repetitive and time-consuming parts of running a business, but this has changed thanks to automation. With limited team members, resources, and time, automating repetitive marketing tasks and processes helps small businesses to do more with less.

Contrary to popular belief, small businesses have plenty to gain from this practice. Utilizing marketing automation platforms can help to grow your business more than ever before. Here are tips for incorporating and getting the most out of marketing automation:

Define your automation needs

The market is brimming with marketing automation tools, each targeting a specific set of users. Before deciding on a tool, ensure your needs are defined and understood. This way, you will increase your chance of investing in software that fully covers your needs and offers maximum return on investment. If you have expansion plans in mind, consider a scalable CRM tool like HubSpot that you won’t need to change or supplement as your business scales.

Set up a lead scoring plan

Lead scoring is the process of giving leads scores or ratings depending on their likelihood to convert. It can be an intricate and time-consuming task, especially if you have a small marketing team. However, by automating this crucial process, you can free up your team for tasks that machines can’t handle, such as contacting promising leads.

Consider email marketing automation

Email marketing is one of the oldest and most effective forms of digital marketing. Automated email marketing involves creating emails that are sent to prospects that meet a certain set of requirements. It saves you the headache of manually creating a new email each time you have a new prospect coming down your marketing funnel. With automated email marketing, you’re able to get more personal with your customers, facilitate email segmentation, and boost revenues without employing much human effort.

Create an automated social media marketing plan

Social media marketing automation enables you to share posts on your timelines even when you are not active on the platforms. Depending on the tool you are using, it can also help you share your posts across multiple social networking sites. Most tools with social media marketing automation capabilities support the use of chatbots and instant responders, which keep your customers and prospects engaged until there is an available agent to carry on with the chat.

Act on your automation data

Lastly, you need to monitor and analyze your automation results. Data monitoring helps you separate what’s working from what’s not, so you know where you need to pump more resources. Get your team to swiftly implement changes where they are needed and scrap automation where it’s not working. Most automation tools will come with built-in data reporting and analytics features, but you can still use dedicated software such as Google Analytics or Site Kit.

Endnote

Automation is the future of marketing. Adopting it early gives your small business the chance to test the waters and determine where the process can be implemented and where human effort is needed. Over time, you will achieve a more efficient human-machine combination, cut back on your marketing expenses, and generate more leads for your business.