Spring is here and it's time to do some spring cleaning!
When it comes to marketing, it's just as important to tidy it up regularly, just as you would your home. So, as spring arrives, use this opportunity to spring clean your marketing.
The first thing you need to do is write out exactly what marketing campaigns you are using. Make sure you can answer these questions for each campaign you are currently running or want to run:
- What is the goal of the campaign?
- What are the steps?
- Where are the touchpoints?
- Who is responsible for each step and touchpoint?
- What sales stage is each campaign associated with?
- Who is the target audience?
- Can you eliminate anything?
- Is there an easier way to do anything?
- Are any campaigns redundant?
The more streamlined your campaigns are, the easier they will be to take care of and maintain.
Once you have a good idea of the campaigns you are running or want to run, grab some paper. The best way to see how a campaign works is to map in out by hand. This gives you a visual idea of how it will perform and identify any potential issues. Using a color-coded system would be the easiest way to keep your maps simple and organized. Include these things in your maps:
- Where the campaign starts
- All the communication touchpoints (signup forms, emails, SMS messages, etc.)
- What each message says (overview)
- The person associated with each message
- The list, pipeline, or sales stage each campaign is aimed at
- Where the campaign ends or if it joins a new campaign
It's important to keep these maps for future reference so you can always recall what, at it's simplest, each campaign is supposed to look like. You could scan this pieces of paper and add them to a specific folder or simply take a photo. Once you've mapped out your campaigns, you need to analyze the steps.
The next thing you need to do after you've mapped out your campaigns is to analyze the steps of each.
- How hard are these tasks to do manually?
- How much time do you spend executing each campaign?
- Is there an easier way to accomplish the goal of the campaign?
- Would it be better to automate your processes?
It is very likely that the campaigns you've mapped out on paper could easily be translating into an automated campaign through the use of a marketing automation platform. With a multi-channel platform, you'd be able to continue to use all the same channels you are currently using to reach your clients without having to put in the work to reach them.
By spring cleaning your marketing and viewing your campaigns from a simplified view, you can assess which aspects of your marketing can be automation, thus freeing up some of your time to focus more on your one-on-one interactions.
If you'd like to try out this process and test some of your marketing campaigns in a marketing automation platform, sign up for a free trial.
