Of the tactics that small business owners and nonprofits can utilize to promote their products and services, email marketing can be one of the most impactful—both in converting new customers and bringing back lapsed and lost ones. As effective as it is, many small businesses just aren’t incorporating it into their marketing mix, and two of the biggest reasons for that are typically cost and time (CRMs are expensive, and email marketing takes a time commitment to set up and manage). Fortunately, there are solutions that can overcome both objections, and implementing marketing automation is a great first step.

Getting started is often the hardest part, so let’s talk marketing automation, what it is, and how you can incorporate this tactic into your marketing mix without breaking the bank.

Marketing Automation 101

Automation in marketing typically involves using technology execute and manage repetitive tasks & workflows. For smaller teams, automation can elevate your marketing strategy across various customer touchpoints, including email, social, and SMS; it allows for more to be done with less. Trigger or drip-based workflows are at the core of this discipline, allowing for maximization of messaging with minimal effort. Marketing automation can help to better track ROI throughout the customer journey, enabling cost effective performance cross-channel.

A CRM (customer relationship management) platform such as Brevo or HubSpot sits at the center of automation, allowing marketers to send emails, text messages, and even respond to DMs on social media. Marketing strategists then create workflows within the CRM: these flows tell the platform to send a message when certain events take place, such as adding products to a shopping cart without completing a purchase. Events can also be time-based, i.e., sending an email to a customer that hasn’t made a purchase from your business in a defined amount of time.

Sample Automation Workflows

Marketing automation will often contain workflows for several different goals: re-engagement with lapsed customers, a second-chance to convert a cart abandoner, or to thank longtime customers for their support. Often, we define these workflows with our clients ahead of developing them in the CRM, utilizing a flow chart to define paths, triggers, and touchpoints.

We often will employ some of the following workflows into our clients’ marketing automation strategies:

• Cart Abandonment
• Post-Purchase Thank Yous/Request for Reviews
• Birthday/Anniversary Messages
• Monthly Newsletters/Event Announcements

A sample of the flow chart we use to define marketing automation paths can be found here.

What to Expect

Automation in marketing may take some work to set up—but the return can be significant. Small businesses and nonprofits utilizing automation can potentially see the following impact on ROI:

• Companies using marketing automation see an average 14.5% increase in sales productivity and a 12.2% reduction in marketing overhead costs.
• Research cited by marketing automation providers shows that every $1 invested in marketing automation returns approximately $5.44 over three years.
• Organizations using marketing automation report average revenue increases of 34% through improved conversion rates, retention, and customer lifetime value.
• Nearly 44% of businesses see a return on their automation investment within six months.

As good as these results are, marketing automation can be even more effective in nurturing leads. Businesses that use marketing automation to nurture leads experience a 451% increase in qualified leads.

How to Get Started

The first step in getting automated marketing incorporated into your mix is selecting a CRM that provides such functionality, if you aren’t using one already. Screechy Cat Media is a Brevo agency partner, and as such, we recommend their all-in-one CRM and marketing automation platform. MailChimp and HubSpot offer similar technology, though pricing on those platforms can exceed several hundred dollars per month.

If you are looking for guidance on including automation in your digital marketing mix, contact us today and we’ll help you get started!