Some psychologists say it takes only about 21 days of concerted effort to make a habit of new and better behavior. That’s good news on a personal level if you’re trying to eat better or get to the gym more regularly, but what does it mean for marketers who want to instill better habits in their team? It’s tougher to get everyone on the same page and practicing those better habits without an organizing influence. Marketing automation keeps you and your team working toward that goal, building in better habits that will pay off now and well into the future.
Keep It Clean
Database marketing only works when the data you’re using is clean. Create the rules your marketing automation system should use to categorize, store, and retrieve data as you collect it, and your software will simplify your data hygiene process immensely. Data governance is the key to your marketing automation platform’s transition from installation to full implementation, so work with your marketing automation service provider to set you up for success.
Simplify Data Input
Many of the errors introduced into your database get there through overly complicated form design. Leads who enter their information into your forms are only human; they occasionally drop a letter or transpose numbers. Make their lives simpler by designing forms and sign-up sheets that eliminate room for error. The country has a fixed number of states, but if you leave the line for state data blank in your forms, you will invariably get more than 50 responses. What’s more, the longer your form is in use, the more errors find their way into your system. Get rid of them by replacing a self-entry form with a drop-down menu for this data. That’s just one example of how your marketing automation platform can streamline data collection.
Personalize and Customize
Marketing automation systems excel at letting you carry on individual conversations with multiple leads at once. While you’re giving new leads coming into the top of your sales funnel general overviews and start-up tips, you’re also able to talk to more seasoned prospects about specifics and show them how-tos. People expect to wrap their digital experiences around them, shaping them to meet their needs and assure their comfort; if you aren’t customizing your user experience, you’re not meeting their demands, which means you risk their finding a competitor who will.
Learn from A/B Split Testing
It’s not enough to perform A/B split tests. You need to be ready to act quickly on the results you discover. With a system that takes days or even weeks to return meaningful results across multiple channels, you’re essentially trying to steer a luxury yacht with a pair of oars. Marketing automation gives you the high-powered engine you need to move through your testing process with lightning speed, getting accurate results on digital media within a couple of hours. Once you have results in hand, your marketing automation software’s able to mobilize a launch of the winning version quickly. If subsequent tests show a shift in effectiveness, it can change course as needed.
Prioritize Relevance
You could make the best offer imaginable to your email recipients, but if they aren’t in the market for what you’re prepared to give them, you won’t convert. Relevance is critical to effective marketing, and automation technology helps you understand what’s relevant to your audience. Once you get in the habit of market segmentation and in-depth customization, you’re becoming more relevant to your prospects, leading directly to higher conversion rates and more sales.
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