How Automating Marketing Impacts the Bottom Line

Eighty-seven percent of shoppers begin their product searches on digital channels. As a result, digital marketing, especially social media outreach, is no longer a “nice to have” or optional marketing strategy. If you’re not online, you don’t exist to many consumers.

However, capturing those customers can be difficult, especially for small businesses. You may not feel that you have the resources or time to properly manage a full social media marketing strategy. 

The good news is that you can automate many of your marketing efforts. By using the right tools, you can offer personalized marketing and immediate response to queries without hiring a full-time social media specialist.

Here’s what you need to know about using automation to your advantage.

The Benefits of Automation

Why should you invest in marketing automation tools? The answer is simple: this investment allows you to do more with fewer resources.

For instance, social media marketing is an essential part of succeeding in business. A consistent, high-quality social media presence has a variety of benefits. You can keep up on industry trends in real-time, provide efficient customer service, and offer relevant content to customers.

However, you also need to be available to customers 24/7, which physically isn’t always possible. That’s where tools like chatbots and automatic responses come in. These allow customers to interact with you no matter the day or time. 

Don’t assume automation means the customer experience is lower, though. Automation can help you improve service while saving both time and money. Chatbots and other automated assistance provide speed and availability that you can’t offer any other way. You can also use chatbots to handle simple queries so your customer service team can handle more complex issues.

Conversational marketing can help you connect with visitors to your website as well. With automated dialog, you can answer questions from prospects and deliver targeted messages that help drive conversions. Helping a user move through the sales funnel independently improves your bottom line without demanding additional resources.

Artificial intelligence (AI), one of the most innovative business technologies available, allows you to reduce the amount of time you spend on mundane tasks and lower your overall costs. You can also improve your flexibility and responsiveness to customer engagement.

How to Automate Your Marketing

How can you take advantage of the benefits of automation? There are a variety of ways.

First, think about your current social media presence. More than half the people on the planet now use social media, so your ideal customers are likely to be there. What can you do to make your content more engaging? How can you automate at least some of your posting schedule and response to direct messages?

Next, consider your website itself. People come to your site to discover more about your products and services. These visitors have pain points and are looking to have those needs met. How can you use a chat service to greet them and offer immediate answers to their questions? 

Finally, consider your lead nurturing process. A lot of the people who discover your brand won’t be ready to purchase right away. They’ll need to learn more about your products and services and discover why you’re the best option. Email marketing is a great way to accomplish this. You can use automation to deliver information and exclusive deals regularly through email.

Automation Improves Profitability and Customer Experience

Being able to do more with less is a crucial factor in business success. Automation, in all of its forms, gives you that ability. You can meet customers where they are 24/7 and offer the answers they’re looking for. 

AI also allows you to personalize your responses and have dialog-based interaction that moves beyond generic content. Finally, the right tools will enable you to nurture your leads so that they warm up to buying from you, which dramatically increases your conversion rates. 

If you’re not already using automation in your business, there’s no reason to wait any longer. Customers expect high-quality, personalized interaction online. Deliver it using automation today!