Humans: we’re nothing if not a competitive bunch. We live for the contest, for the chance to get one over each other. In business, this urge is no different. Every company is after ways to reach farther and strike deeper than the competition.
Automation is one such way. For your sales and marketing teams, especially. But what is sales and marketing automation, how does it work, and how can it benefit your business? Let’s start with the basics.
Automation is when we use technology to perform specific, routine tasks with minimal human input. The goal of automation is always to make a process more efficient. In the 1950s, the automotive industry introduced machine automation to their production lines. The goal: produce more cars in less time. Automation for your sales and marketing teams is no different. It means using software for tasks your team would otherwise handle.
Sales and marketing teams each have distinct methods of automation:
Though these methods are distinct, their benefits are far-reaching. Efficient sales and marketing teams always share a symbiotic relationship. Linking sales and marketing software together allows for more fluid communication and collaboration between teams. That way, if one team enjoys success, the other will enjoy success too. And vice versa.
Now let’s look at how sales and marketing automation work.
Sales and marketing automation takes the customer data you collect—emails, app usage, website visits—and uses it to create a better customer experience. It streamlines many of the processes you need to achieve this. The result: a better-performing business.
But automation is no magic pill. It will only help your business perform better if you’re prepared for it. Without a solid strategy and a firm grasp on the tasks automation will replace, your performance won’t improve.
This is where a digital marketing agency can help. A good agency will help align your sales and marketing strategies with your core business objectives. That way, when you use automation, it’ll be more efficient. And you’ll be more effective.
When you use automation well, you’ll enjoy many benefits. Here are five of the best.
It’s simple: efficiency is the most significant benefit your business will enjoy from using sales and marketing automation. Automating dry, repetitive tasks like daily social media posts frees your team to focus their time and energy on more creative and strategic tasks.
Efficiency is also a simple measure of how well your business uses automation. For this reason, regular reviews of your automation processes are vital.
Let’s face it: conversion is king. No matter what your business does, the more conversions, the better.
This benefit is an excellent example of marketing automation and sales automation working together. Marketing automation software lets your marketing team convert and manage leads better. They can then pass on qualified leads to your sales team.
Sales automation software lets your sales team track their interactions with these leads. They can then share these insights with the marketing team to inform future marketing campaigns.
Not only that, you’ll produce them in a fraction of the time. Using automation software to create quick, accurate analytics reports lets your team gain sharper insights into customer behaviour. How do your customers respond to lead nurturing? What are their pain points? An accurate report will answer these questions. Use automation, and you’ll have those answers sooner.
This benefit builds on the last benefit. Every customer likes to feel your efforts are for them alone. Because automation gives you sharper insights into your customers, you have a better chance of making them feel this way.
From creating content that resonates to engaging on the right social media platforms, automation helps you can make the customer experience better. Because who doesn’t like to feel special?
Your business is only healthy on the outside if it’s healthy on the inside. And this benefit is one to help the inside. As your business grows, adjusting your methods to scale is essential. Holding onto slow, manual processes allergic to scaling will only anchor you in the past.
Sales and marketing automation helps you scale by removing outdated processes and simplifying your workflow. Which, in the long run, will let your business grow as it ought to.
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Sales and marketing automation is about improving your business. Simple as that. How it improves your business will depend on your business type and how you use automation. There’s no single, magical approach. That said, there’s a certain magic when you use automation well.
Magic worth pursuing.
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