Automating Marketing Activities . . . Where to Start!

At TopLine Results we have helped many businesses automate sales follow-ups, lead nurture programs, and customer satisfaction surveys. Making something “simple” usually takes several steps, reviews, and tests. Below are four specific questions you should ask and define before considering automating a process.

1. Do you have quality data?

Duplicates, bad email addresses, and missing email addresses make for dirty data. You first need to ensure you have quality contact information for who you would like to potentially include in a marketing automation. We recommend pulling a list view of your target leads and/or contacts and running their emails through an email validation tool first. From there, clean up any duplicate records or missing email addresses.

2. How is someone added to the marketing automation?

To automate marketing activities there must be an apparent reason someone would be included in the automation. You need to get specific for each automation you create. In the example of a customer satisfaction survey, the trigger to be added to the automation could be they purchased your product three months ago, so they should receive a survey on their experience to date. An automatic survey can then be sent to your contacts who meet those criteria.

3. Why would someone get removed from a marketing automation?

Knowing who should not be receiving an automated message or marketing activity can also be very important to determine. In some cases, sales would like to opt-out active contacts, so they are not bombarded with communications. Striking the right balance between appropriate levels of communications vs. over-communicating can be daunting. Clearly defined suppression lists will need to be agreed and set up.

4. Who do we notify internally? When do we notify them?

If someone takes action on your marketing automation (clicks, opens, downloads, etc.) you will need to decide who to notify internally and when. This team should be part of the marketing automation setup process, so they understand who is emailed what, when, and about whom. This will establish clear expectations upfront and will allow for a cleaner follow-up process.

To make something “simple”, it first must be reviewed at many levels to ensure the automated process makes sense for the business and the end-user experience. If you are starting your marketing and communications automation journey, contact us at toplineresults.com or call 800-880-1960 to discuss how you can get started.