Automation Tools in Marketing: Why They’re So Helpful
Automation tools are a huge part of a marketer's day-to-day activities. The automation tools are used to make processes simpler and smoother for the whole team. They also make work more efficient and foster growth for both the employees and the company. Many facets of marketing can be automated. These include email marketing, social posts, data collection, and more. The team at Lyv Marketing is here to help you ensure that all of your processes are working as quickly and effectively as they can. A large percentage of marketers today. We use many automation tools to keep our operation running every day. In this week’s blog, we are going to jump into what these are and how they can be useful to you.
What Are the Benefits of These Tools?
In recent years, it has been found that marketing automation tools make business 20% more productive. Besides the obvious pros like timesaving, these tools can help largely with targeting and segmentation. While not as obvious, these practices are just as important for a marketer’s success. These tools are also very beneficial for workflow purposes and sticking to a routine both with content and with weekly tasks. Below we are going to list the most common ways that automation tools are used in marketing practices:
Email marketing: Outreach opportunities and promotional content
Social Media: These tools make sure you are posting at the best times and that your content will go out when you want it to
Segmentation: Help you figure out which channels work best for different audiences and help to attract new leads
PIs: Collects data and keeps track of the performance and success of your marketing efforts
Decreases Costs
With all of the weekly tasks a digital marketer must complete, there is not much time for growth or learning. Automation tools can help to carve out more time for marketers to try new things and experiment with their strategy. A lot of marketers, along with a social post scheduler, have a CRM (customer relationship management) platform. A lot of times all of these things can be rolled up into one platform, which saves you costs at the end of the day. They can usually also track your spending, allowing you to cut costs where you see necessary.
Audience Management & Consistent Branding
When you use automation tools and CRMs, especially ones you have a recurring subscription for, you can get a lot more knowledge from them than you can from free tools that collect analytics for you. These tools show you more of your KPIs and which marketing campaigns they were/are a part of. They are stored together for all of your campaigns and all of your accounts (if you’re digital marketers like us). Then from there, you can maintain your brand image through these KPIs and statistics. With consistency comes recognizability, which is what you need to maintain your brand and bring new leads to your business. This will help people to remain aware of you and maybe double take when they scroll by your accounts on socials or see your emails in their inbox.
Different Tools to Choose From
There are many different versions of these tools to pick from when deciding you want to automate some of your systems. Depending on your scale and your needs, there are different levels of tools to choose from. Some of the most popular tools are listed below.
HubSpot: Rated for its user-friendly nature and the many options the tool comes with. There is a free version that offers a lot of features for those who aren’t ready to invest in a CRM. However, there are also paid versions that range from $50-$2,000+.
Mailchimp: One of the most affordable options for business and marketing agencies. It is great for emails, which is its biggest selling point.
Salesforce: Best for its workflow and revenue building, sales force focuses a lot of its efforts on what's in the title, sales.
Takeaway: Automation Tools Help You Be a Better Marketer
Automation tools can help take your attention off of the daily, more mundane tasks, while you can focus your efforts and learning and trying new things. This opens up time in your schedule and also helps you to make sure that everything is getting done. We use these tools at Lyv Marketing for ourselves and our clients and we encourage others to look into them as well. If you’re looking for an agency to represent you or your business, check out our website today at www.lyvmarketing.com and fill out our contact form.