Whether you are still considering an investment in marketing automation or you’re just getting started, it is easy to become overwhelmed by all the possibilities, capabilities, and opportunities marketing automation offers. So, it is common for new users to ask, “Where should I begin?”

While each business will answer that question according to its own particular needs and circumstances, here are 12 simple, practical uses for marketing automation that you can start implementing right away:

1. New Customer Welcome – automatically send thank you/welcome emails when customers purchase. If you are a service business, you can create a series of timely communications that confirm the appointment, let the customer know what to expect, and provide follow-up instructions after the service.
2. Up Sell/Cross Sell – never again miss the opportunity to make value-add offers to current customers that incent them to purchase additional and/or enhanced products or services. Create triggers based on elapsed time or customer behavior.
3. Satisfaction Survey – gain insight into your customers’ satisfaction and respond appropriately with an automated process that gathers information through a survey form that triggers internal notifications and custom customer emails. (Don’t forget to ask for online reviews from happy customers.)
4. Appointment/Purchase Reminder – set triggers based on time of year or time since last purchase to automatically send emails to ongoing customers.
5. Re-engage Inactive Customers – Customers who have not purchased or who have not otherwise been engaged can be automatically contacted with special offers and personalized communications.
6. Lost customers – program emails to be sent to lost customers at specific time such as prior to contract renewal; or after a set period of time.
7. Nurturing Campaign – use marketing automation to manage your drip nurturing campaigns. Communications can be personalized based on individual, personas, and behavior.
8. Lead Identification – Create gated content on your website to capture lead information.
9. Lead Nurturing/Return to Sale Funnel – Use marketing automation to move prospects through your sale funnel by delivering tailored communication based on their behavior. Inactive leads can be automatically sent emails after set periods of time to re-engage them in the sales process.
10. Sales Readiness Notification – create lead score thresholds to trigger internal notification to an assigned sales rep when a lead demonstrates sufficient sales qualification.
11. Abandoned Shopping Cart – re-engage customers who abandon their shopping carts before purchase with automatic reminders and incentives.
12. Employee Recruiting – develop a process for employee recruitment that gathers data, qualifies prospects, and moves qualified prospects through your hiring funnel.

 

Let me know if you have additional ideas for practical marketing automation processes for new users and I’ll share them here.

Learn more about marketing automation and schedule a no-obligation demonstration.