Author: yarra

Marketing automation tools are a break offered to us by clever IT people who have obviously sat down with a fair number of marketing experts in order to find out what it is that they need done and which of the tasks and results the human brain finds the hardest to deliver. Here is a list of the basic tools which only scratches the surface.

Statsbot

Just as the name suggests, Statsbot is there to analyse data from various platforms and continuously keep an eye on your metrics.  It is there to warn you and provide reports on your demand. Statsbot can also be used as a tool of communication within a company or between partners as it can help you share the stats generated. Using Stasbot will save you a lot of money as you will no longer need to hire someone to do this type of work for you and there will be no risk of human error. Also, keeping you updated will enable you to act quickly and prevent or resolve any issues.

Jumplead

This is a great tool to keep your website worth the money invested. Jumplead will help your conversion rate by not allowing you to lose any leads. It will keep track of the traffic on your website and try to build relationships with your website visitors. Jumplead offers assistance to your potential clients by enabling live chat. It will profile the gathered leads and divide them into categories depending on how active they are. The tool is also able to assist you with email marketing by personalizing your interaction.

Hubspot

This is another very popular tool. According to the makers of Hubspot, it is incredibly easy to use and is well organized. Hubspot is another go-to product for inbound marketers. It will help you form your offer based on your buyers’ requirements. They offer assistance with attracting customers by providing engaging personalized content, landing pages, CTAs, and websites. Once that is done and you have the hold on your customers it will help you maintain good rapport.

Marketo

This is a classic tool. It offers a variety of marketing automation services and according to busy people at GWM and other satisfied users. Marketo is more than you would expect from this type of tool. It is moderately priced yet it helps you manage your leads through personalized emails and chats. Each time you have an upcoming campaign it can create an optimized landing page. Marketo can also take credit for the monitoring part as it will organize your leads, do your website’s metrics, provide a report on it and update your CRM accordingly. Marketo is a valuable helping hand as it is not only more reliable than an average worker, but it will cost you much less than employing one.

Renderforest

Unlike any of the above-mentioned tools, Renderforest specializes in a very tight field of marketing. It will not manage your leads or attract the sales directly but it will help you create content that will. Renderforest is a free animation tool and you can use it in your marketing campaigns to create videos, slideshows, infographics, and presentations. It is a great time and money saver as it will have a ready product in a matter of minutes. Without Renderforest you would probably have to hire someone to make a promotional video for you, but with it, you no longer have to.

There is a growing number of marketing automation tools available. I find that these can pretty much cover your company’s marketing activities. Digital Marketing experts from Technical Minds Web generally suggest using the trial period to assess the selected few tools after you narrow down your choice. That way you will see which one suits you and your business’s needs the most.

About the Author:

David Koller is a passionate blogger and copywriter for Media Gurus, mainly interested in SEO and Digital Marketing.

This month we were lucky enough to publish a guest blog post on Marketing.com.au,  a business news and technology site. Our article explained what “Tweetchats” are and how they can be used for business. Check out the full article here.

This month we were lucky enough to publish a guest blog post on Kreative Webworks, an inbound marketing agency site. Our article focused on why lead magnets play a crucial role in a digital strategy. Check out the full article here.

The Power and Patience of Lead Nurturing

Did you know that most marketing leads never turn into sales? Did you know that most marriage proposals are rejected on the first date? Perhaps we should have gotten to know each other just a little bit better first.

Although we mostly develop marketing strategies for schools, we’ve worked with many other industries over the years. I can tell you with a high degree of confidence, that the more important the decision is, the less likely a consumer will make a decision during the first few touches.They need some love, they need some “nurturing”.

• On average, 50% of the leads in any system are not yet ready to buy (Marketo).
• Almost 80% of new leads never become sales (MarketingSherpa).
• Companies that excel at lead nurturing generate 50% more sales ready leads at a 33% lower cost (Marketo).
• Businesses that use marketing automation to nurture prospects experience a 451% increase in qualified leads (The Annuitas Group).
• Lack of lead nurturing is the common cause of this poor performance. (Source: MarketingSherpa)

Your marketing might be perfectly targeted, but what YOU might call a “Lead”, might just be the first step in THEIR buyers journey.

Risk avoidance is human nature, and not taking action is often our default reaction. Reassuring the consumer over time in an informative, non-salesy way can fill your pipeline with legitimate prospects who ultimately make the decision to commit to you.

Scaling with Marketing Automation

The process of systematizing and automatically sending the right email message, to the right person, at the right time, goes by different names; Inbound Marketing, Lead Nurturing, Marketing Automation and a few others. It’s best used for what we would call a “Considered Purchase”, something that your customer has to really think about before committing.

My go-to example is education.Choosing a school for a child is a life altering decision, one that parents don’t take lightly. They often don’t make decisions of this magnitude spontaneously, and require encouragement over time.

The strategy is to focus on communication with parents by providing valuable information to build confidence and rapport with the school. Here’s an example of a typical strategy that we use with the schools that we provide marketing services for:

• Target parents of school aged children (various strategies)
• Offer something of legitimate value (not salesy). For example, a downloadable eBook such as “A Parent’s Guide to School Bullying” or “10 Things You Need to Know about Your Gifted Child”.
• The guide or eBook should be free, but they will need to give you their contact informationfor you to send it to them.
• Once they submit the form, they are simultaneously sent a link to download your guide.
• At the same instant, their contact information is added to your database, and the lead nurturing process begins.
• At pre-determined intervals (every week for example), the parent will automatically receive a series of pre-strategized emails. These emails are informative (not salesy). Their first name will automatically be inserted into the email to keep it personal.
• After several helpful emails, you’ve “earned” the right to escalate your message to a “Call-to-Action” such as inviting them to an Open House (or even a “Virtual” open house for Cyber Schools).
• This entire sequence of events is automated, so you need only do it once (if you do it right)

Sound simple? Well, conceptually it is. Pulling all the pieces together takes a high degree of planning, and some technical know-how. Here are some of the raw elements that go into a strategy like this:

Marketing Automation Platform: Drip, Hubspot, Marketo or SharpSpring. There are many others at different price points and levels of complexity. We use HubSpot and SharpSpring.

Strategy: I’m afraid you’ll actually have to think this part through from beginning to end. From the initial “offer” (the piece of premium content that is irresistible to your target audience), to how you can get in front of your target audience, to the “theme” and progression of the email sequence, to the ultimate goal, or Call-to-Action. Warning, this requires a lot of thinking and may cause brain damage.

Creativity: There are a lot of things to consider here; the visual appeal of the offer, the writing of the emails, and particularly, the overall strategy.

Technical Aptitude: The marketing automation platforms simplify the process, but they aren’t simple to master. However, they are learnable, and most of the top platforms have some great tutorials.

When all is said and done, you need to treat each lead as your next customer…because that’s exactly who they are.

About the Author:

Chuck Bankoff is the Director of Web Services, and Senior Digital Strategist for Kreative Webworks, a full-service Digital Agency, specializing in Education Marketing.