Lots of businesses want marketing automation, in order to simplify their daily tasks and provide more targeted messages for their customers. Including marketing automation in your marketing strategy can open up new avenues, help you increase your revenue and reduce customer churn. But many, especially SMBs and nonprofits, believe that they cannot afford marketing automation. Other businesses simply feel that it is a waste of money and do not want to include marketing automation in their budget.
So what do you need to know when choosing whether or not to invest in marketing automation? If you are interested, you are entering a huge and growing industry. Doing your research about different marketing automation solutions will help you decide if your business should invest in such a solution. Have you considered the following points?
Marketing Automation, When Used Properly, Reduces Cost
When you pay for a marketing automation solution, you are actually paying for a reduction in the hours your staff has to spend communicating manually while increasing the amount of customers you can personally reach out to. Using marketing automation, you can reach thousands of customers in minutes with messages that are individually relevant to them. How long would that take doing it manually? You can create messages in advance and schedule them to send out at specific times (or based on triggers, such as a customer making a purchase).
Most Marketing Automation Solutions Provide a Free Trial
If you are still not sure how marketing automation could work for you, sign up for a free trial of the marketing automation software (or sign up for several different free trials!). Most solutions offer a trial, so you can play around with the software and see how your customers respond to the automated targeted messages.
Special Pricing is Available for Nonprofits
As most nonprofits are working with limited budgets and staff resources, marketing automation can be the ideal solution to save time and money and reach out to supporters. Most marketing automation solutions have flexible pricing plans, as all businesses have unique requirements. Most solutions also offer nonprofit pricing which is significantly less expensive than other pricing. Contact the company's customer care team to discuss your pricing options. You will often discover that marketing automation is much more affordable than you may have expected.
Simplify Marketing Campaigns for Staff
Marketing automation is simple, and anyone can create automated campaigns. One staff member can run a whole campaign through email, social media, text messaging or any combination of communication methods. This efficiency allows you to make the most of your staff's time.
Marketing Automation can Bring in Additional Business
In time, marketing automation truly pays for itself. Targeted messages have been proven to be more effective at drawing in business and converting customers than mass messages. Marketing automation makes this type of personal targeting possible for even small businesses by allowing you to automatically segment your customers based on their needs, preferences and history. It also shortens the sales cycle and makes it easier to nurture leads. By creating campaigns that will run throughout the year, you can stay in touch with your customers and build loyalty. Personalized promotions appeal to each customer's individual needs so they are more likely to make a purchase.
So, Can You Afford Marketing Automation?
Still not sure? Do your own research, and see how other businesses in your industry are using marketing automation. You can outpace your competitors if you use marketing automation to its full potential. And that, in itself, may be worth the investment.
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