2marketingAs in any other department, time, budget and resources are limited in marketing and that is the main reason why a marketing automation system is convenient and comes into play.

But there are, of course, some points to consider here as well, as marketing automation isn’t automatically synonymous with more success. However, if you take the following tips to heart, your activities will for sure be more effective.

1. Deal with your system and find out how it works

Only if you know the capabilities of your marketing automation system and know how to handle it, your activities can be truly effective. Ask yourself, for instance, if you can filter by different sizes according to personas or campaigns. Besides that, visualize what you want to find out and where your marketing measures are most successful. Do you know right away how to obtain such a report from the system? Optionally, get help from experts that are familiar with the features of your marketing automation solution and can help with words and deeds, because only if you know all the functions and procedures of your system, your can do a proper job.

2. Templates make your life easier

You can save a lot of time, effort and money, if you set templates that can be used again and again for various marketing measures. It is simply convenient, if you know step by step what’s needed in which form in a specific situation (e.g. an invitation or thank-you email, or a landing page for the registration). In addition, it is generally useful to determine who is responsible for which task, so that everyone automatically knows when he has to do what. When different types of content are created, it would be appropriate to put them in templates as well; as it not only creates uniformity, but also saves you the effort of writing each email or landing page again completely from scratch.

3. Measure all activities in the lead life cycle

Define the various stages in the purchase decision process. When is a lead on a specific level and what conditions must be met before it goes to the next level. You should even deal with the definition of personas to run your communications purposefully and to focus on particular areas and target groups. Then you can find out how many leads are achieved on the respective stages in the buying process, how many leads are 100% applicable to your ideal customer profile, and how successful your respective marketing activities are.

4. Implement a lead scoring model to measure your activities

Lead scoring should be an important part of your lead management strategy. The evaluation of explicit and implicit criteria allows you to determine at what stage in the buying decision process the lead is and when a person is ready for a sale. Depending on his activity and interests, you can then send tailored content. That way you can gradually develop potential customers in the sales funnel. It is worth to focus on lead nurturing and it is important that your scoring is always up to date and tailored according to the company's internal requirements and criteria.

5. Marketing and sales must cooperate and work together

Only when marketing and sales are working harmoniously together your measures can be truly effective. Both teams need to interact and communicate regularly, as mutual feedback is crucial to be pulling into one direction together in order to achieve lead qualification and generation. Therefore, the most important information about a lead needs to be clear in your marketing automation system, so that everyone immediately knows how to handle this potential customer. It has to be obvious, for instance, if he makes it into a new nurturing program due to his scoring values; if he has any interest in the offering of your company in the first place; or rather is already prepared for a sale now and just has to be contacted by the sales department.

6. A good and clean database determines the success of your activities

Define the criteria of an ideal lead in a joint meeting with marketing and sales: What information is needed, what is your ideal persona, etc.? Then you can gradually query the required data during your nurturing measures and complement the profile of your potential customers that way. Besides that, always avoid duplicates and pay attention to a uniform syntax.

By Daniela La Marca