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What is an Automation Platform?

As the name suggests, automation platforms allow businesses to automate existing work processes.

These platforms are becoming more common day-by-day, as more and more workplaces become digital. To transform into digital work environments, businesses must adopt a new mindset and a new set of digitally-driven workflows.

Automation platforms help companies do just that — they reduce waste, improve productivity, and increase efficiency.

These platforms automate a variety of business processes, such as:

Repetitive tasks and administrative functions

Content management

Data analysis

Software training

Platforms can focus on any number of departments, including marketing, accounting, software training, and more.

Clearly, automation platforms can vary greatly in their focus and capabilities. This is to be expected — computational power impacts every area of business, so it is only reasonable that automation would also impact every area of business.

Augmenting human labor with digital labor offers a number of benefits. Some of the most prominent are:

Cost savings

Increased efficiency

Streamlined processes

Boosted productivity

Advanced platforms usually apply AI and machine learning, which provide even more enhanced benefits. Such applications give a significant competitive advantage to modern-day enterprise customers.

Regardless of the purpose of a given platform, they are fast becoming a critical tool for any business that wishes to keep pace with today’s evolving digital world.

Credits: Walk Me Date: 2022 Source: https://www.walkme.com/glossary/automation-platform/

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Picking a CRM for your Start-Up Business

Engineers, managers, and astute, burning-eyed entrepreneurs commonly found young firms. It is crucial to go through the entire company life cycle whenever a group of people start a business from scratch. This indicates that the business must boost its revenue growth.

In the corporate sector, increasing the number of customers and sales can speed up revenue growth. This is consistently recognized as the most crucial and challenging task that each startup must perform. The selection of a suitable CRM system is essential for managing the clients and sales of a new business.

However, new entrepreneurs can quickly realize that this task is more difficult than simply choosing the right software when faced with the necessity to install a CRM for startup that would fully cover the firm’s demands and would correspond with its goals and type of company. We will assess the requirements of startups and how they interact with the well-liked CRM features below.

What to consider when choosing a CRM for your Start-Up The business owner may only decide in favor of a CRM system by considering the crucial elements of the starting business.

Budget: startups must be financially viable, hence the desired CRM system must be able to improve the economy for the fledgling project;

Simplicity: Startups cannot afford to spend a lot of time on training. The process of staff training must be simple, convenient, and quick;

Analytics: Businesses should expand quickly while keeping and studying their customers in order to improve the services and goods they offer;

Stability: A CRM system needs to be the dependable, firm solution that guarantees stability amid business expansion and personnel reduction.

How To Get an Automation Software For Your Business

Marketing automation is here to stay for many firms and has proven to be a wise decision in the past. Regardless of the size of your business or the industry you are in, including marketing automation into your marketing plan will undoubtedly be beneficial for your organization.

Arete Automation is offering a 14-day trial period with no obligations, no contracts, and is cancellable at any time. Join thousands of other business owners to see how Arete Automation is helping them develop their companies and how you can do the same. With this software, you can incorporate various digital marketing tools, synch your team calendar, create landing pages for your website and many other features that will contribute to your business’ efficiency.

Here at Arete Automation we provide around-the-clock support and customized support to deliver the best customer experience. Our highly experienced Support Engineers deliver proactive, real-time professional services 24/7 to increase your stability, efficiency, and effectiveness. If you have a question, we have an answer.

You may visit us at www.areteautomation.com

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How SEO Marketing Works

You’ll come across a wide range of organic business growth techniques as you establish your online presence, including search engine optimization (SEO) marketing. An effective method for collecting leads, making sales, and more is SEO marketing. Enter your URL here to get immediate customized recommendations if you want to increase traffic from this method.

What is SEO Marketing? The goal of SEO marketing is to raise your website’s placement in Google, Bing, and other search engine results. Increasing your website’s organic ranking aids in bringing in worthwhile organic visitors.

Why does SEO marketing matter? Search engines strive to give users the finest results. That entails providing the user with relevant, high-quality listings.

The pages of your website can appear in pertinent and worthwhile search results by utilizing SEO marketing. For instance, Google returns the most pertinent pages when I search for “best burgers in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.” A top-notch SEO effort is essential if you want to claim one of these top places. Additionally, SEO enables you to generate high-quality visitors. You want visitors to your website to be people who are interested in your goods or services. You may use SEO to make your website more visible to users who are looking for businesses like yours.

Driving traffic to your website is useless if it isn’t high-quality traffic. You wouldn’t send relevant visitors to your website if, for example, you showed up in searches for Apple items when you sell fresh apples. The correct traffic will be directed to your website by investing in SEO marketing.

You can increase the volume of your traffic with SEO marketing. Google will receive a favorable signal that your website is relevant to search results connected to various pages on your site if more people are visiting it and learning about your company. Your website will rank higher as a result, increasing the number of individuals who can locate and visit your page.

3 parts of SEO marketing that influence your rankings

On Page SEO — Any website optimizations are considered part of on-page SEO. Strategies for optimizing certain web pages on your website are included in this area of SEO. To improve a page’s position in search results, you make changes to it.

Technical SEO — The backend of your website needs to be optimized as part of technical SEO in order to raise the ranking of your website.

Off Site SEO — Any off-page SEO tactics used outside of your company’s direct management are considered off-site SEO. By engaging in this technique, you can improve your connections with other websites and enhance your industry-specific internet reputation. Backlinks are the most often used off-site SEO technique. Backlinks are links from other websites to your website. These backlinks can enhance how search engines view your website, particularly if they come from well-known, high-authority domains. By producing top-notch content, you can get other websites to link to your website.

How To Get an Automation Software For Your Business

Marketing automation is here to stay for many firms and has proven to be a wise decision in the past. Regardless of the size of your business or the industry you are in, including marketing automation into your marketing plan will undoubtedly be beneficial for your organization.

Arete Automation is offering a 14-day trial period with no obligations, no contracts, and is cancellable any time. Join thousands of other business owners to see how Arete Automation is helping them develop their companies and how you can do the same.

Here at Arete Automation we provide around-the-clock support and customized support to deliver the best customer experience. Our highly experienced Support Engineers deliver proactive, real-time professional services 24/7 to increase your stability, efficiency, and effectiveness. If you have a question, we have an answer.

You may visit us at www.areteautomation.com

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A Simple Guide to Marketing Automation

A Simple Guide to Marketing Automation. How simple can it be? Well, let us take a look.

Have you ever received an email? Have you ever clicked on a link in an email? Or, have you googled for content and then found ads popping up on the web or in your social media feeds?

Well, if you are reading this, then I am 100% certain that the answer to all these questions is yes!

But do not be alarmed, nobody is spying on you. Unless you are being spammed and your device has a virus, in which case it is a different matter altogether.

In retrospect though, you are being followed. Followed by businesses who are trying to raise their brand awareness. And also trying to promote their goods and/or services.

Whether you are an aspiring marketer or new to marketing automation, then this simple guide to marketing automation is for you. I will take you through the basics in layman’s terms. And once we have finished you will have a better understanding of what marketing automation is and how it works.

Furthermore, you will see why marketing automation is beneficial for all marketers. And an integral part for businesses to survive in the digital world.

The Meaning of Marketing Automation

I did say layman’s terms. So here goes. Marketing automation is like having one on one conversations with several people, simultaneously, while being in completely different places. Those places could be with family or friends sipping on coffee or enjoying dinner at your favorite eatery.

Or, you could be working away on other tasks, as your boss would most likely want you to be. But do not forget the coffee break.

You could also compare it to Weird Science, the 1985 classic movie. In this movie, a computer program is used to create the perfect woman to benefit two teenage high school nerds. And their sole purpose was to gain popularity.

So, marketing automation is the ability to create duplicates of yourself or your employees. This way more work can be done, and several manual and repetitive tasks can be automated. Thus, reducing overheads and increasing productivity. Overall, raising brand awareness and increasing sales.

Guide to Marketing Automation Basic Features

The most common basic feature of marketing automation is simply the automating of tasks. Businesses strive to make every dollar they spend count. And they want each dollar to be worth more than it is. This is known as a return on investment (ROI). If there is no return on investment, there is no business and with that, there are no jobs.

Other basic features include:

The ability to measure performance: Gathering this information will enable you to determine whether the automation is yielding the results you desire. And the ability to review and change should the results not be in your favor. Ultimately, providing invaluable insight and data.

Personalization: Creating campaigns tailored to everyone has never been so easy. Imagine inviting many people to your store opening. It would be difficult to be able to communicate with every one of them on a personal level. From understanding who they are, to where they come from and what their interests are. But with marketing automation this is possible.

Raising brand awareness: An uncomplicated way to get the public to know you exist. As your brand awareness grows, so will your web traffic. And with more web traffic comes more leads. Therefore, heading towards the end goal, more business.

Guide to Marketing Automation Advanced Features

Marketing automation also offers many advanced features. The most common one is with email marketing campaigns. This is where automation goes into overdrive and virtually run-on autopilot. With the assistance of segmentation, flows can be created so email responses and actions are sent based on the users’ behavioral patterns.

Think of it like a Yes and No option. This points A for the user. Then, if the user says Yes, they are taken to point B. But if the user says No, they are taken to point C. And so forth. It is a never-ending maze that will always lead to another point, another action.

Other advanced features include:

Broadcasting on social media: You have the ability to send the same message from one location to all other social media platforms. So instead of logging into each application separately, and reposting the same content, you complete the task in one hit. Therefore, saving you time. Furthermore, posts for different platforms can be scheduled for various times, dependent on peak periods and the target audience.

Retargeting: With the assistance of Google, LinkedIn, and Facebook retargeting ads etc. you can quietly place ads that pop up and remind users about your brand. When a user sees the ad, their brain automatically registers with the familiarity of your brand. This can steer them into revisiting your website. Whereby making a purchase.

Push notifications: A fantastic way to keep customers engaged or assist in reengaging with them if they have been inactive. Push notifications are mostly sent to a user’s mobile device via an application. Although they can be sent through a web browser too. This is a simple means of communication.

Examples of Marketing Automation

With the use of segmentations, a clear path of actions can be created so the automation responds on your behalf. Here, you can also set as many actions as you see necessary. By outlining the customer journey, you have theatrically mapped out the required actions.

Some examples are:

Birthday offer: Hey (insert customer’s name) it is your birthday. We notice you have not visited our store in recent times. We have really missed you. As a special birthday treat, we would like to offer you a 20% discount on your next purchase.

Booking confirmation: Hey (insert customer’s name) it has been a year since you purchased your new vehicle. Your first service is due soon. Please contact us to make a booking. Or alternatively, click here (on a link) to confirm a booking time that suits you and receive a free complimentary car wash on the day.

Segment Email: Hey (insert customer’s name) Like what you saw? Take another look. Your items are selling fast.

New customer: Someone signs up for your newsletter. From here you can drip-feed them with information about products and/or services. Educating them along the way and working them towards making a purchase from you in the future. For example: Did you know X product is environmentally friendly? Have you heard about the new and improved X product? Would you not like to try X product for free? Etc.

When users act on these examples, they will increase your open rates and drive more web traffic.

The Marketer with Many Hats

Just like the aviation industry, planes are controlled and operated by automation. However, these automatons can be overridden and in an unlikely event would still require human control. So, “humans have to be resilient and adaptable when dealing with automation.”

Marketing automation is no different. Understanding the customer and their needs will allow you to make the right decisions at the right time. Thus, ensuring you are providing them with the service they seek. A customer is not easy to come by. But a customer for life is a mission worth banking on.

Hopefully, this simple guide to marketing automation has created a clearer picture of what marketing automation is and how it works. For a more in-depth detailed look into marketing automation, please read our Definitive Guide to Marketing Automation.

Credits to: Alex Trajcevski Date Posted: Copyright 2011–2021 Source:https://marketingplatform.com/resources/simple-guide-to-marketing-automation/

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Why CRM is Important for Digital Marketing in 2022

Successful digital marketing campaigns require strong customer relationship management (CRM) strategies. Any product or idea can be promoted and sold with a solid foundation created through CRM.

CRM, or customer relationship management, basically refers to a collection of software tools you’ll employ to manage your customer relationships, interactions, databases, and other related tasks. You must strengthen your interactions with customers if you want to increase sales. If you want to maintain consumers’ satisfaction, your customer service must be flawless. The only way to expand your business is to keep your consumers pleased.

What is CRM?

Companies can use customer relationship management software to:

Keep track of consumer information for future use

Keep track of sales data and identify the most effective promotions.

Keep all members of a sales team informed about customers, prospective clients, and the details they need to clinch deals.

Enhance your follow-ups to get customer acceptance.

Utilize GPS technology to connect members of your sales staff with the clients.

Allow file and information sharing across sales team members so that another team member can step in and satisfy the customer if one team member is unable to follow up with a client or fulfill a promise they made to them.

Why is CRM important in Digital Marketing?

Every business owner is aware that satisfied customers are likely to make repeat purchases. A satisfied client is likely to recommend your company to three or more of their acquaintances.

An unsatisfied client is likely to spread the word about your company to six or more individuals. Therefore, keeping the consumer satisfied is the key to success in every industry.

1. CRM-connected digital marketing strategies.

The collection of basic consumer information when clients are browsing the internet and looking for specific products is one of the most important digital marketing methods.

Following that, sales adverts for the person’s desired item could appear when they were on Facebook or Twitter utilizing the person’s information about them. The sales advertisement would bring buyers back to the websites where the item was for sale by reminding them of the thing they had been considering.

2. Through CRM, the digital marketing campaign is personalized.

You can target particular consumers with products that they are likely to be interested in by using CRM to collect information about their likes and dislikes. CRM gives you statistical information on past purchases made by customers, online searches they make, and other details like their age ranges, gender, and geographic regions where they reside.

Your digital marketing can make advantage of all of this personal information. You may make sure that the individuals who will be interested in anything are the ones who see that specific item rather than conducting just one broad-based campaign and hoping that the people who will be interested in the advertising will see it.

3. Growth in Digital Connections

You can engage those customers in a digital one-to-one campaign after using CRM tactics to produce data sheets about your current customers and leads you have on potential new customers. You can get in touch with them by making suggestions on their social networking sites based on their interests so that when they see the ads, they are reminded of the things they like or want.

Based on a customer’s prior purchase, you can personally recommend specific goods and services in emails. You know how when you watch Netflix, you see the words “because you loved this program” and links that will take you to an other, related program? With an email campaign, you can accomplish that. By examining the data to confirm your clients’ preferences, you may write blogs and articles that address the topics they might be interested in. Your customer or potential customer will visit you if your page has pertinent information that they find intriguing.

How To Get an Automation Software For Your Business

Marketing automation is here to stay for many firms and has proven to be a wise decision in the past. Regardless of the size of your business or the industry you are in, including marketing automation into your marketing plan will undoubtedly be beneficial for your organization.

Arete Automation is offering a 14-day trial period with no obligations, no contracts, and is cancellable any time. Join thousands of other business owners to see how Arete Automation is helping them develop their companies and how you can do the same.

Here at Arete Automation we provide around-the-clock support and customized support to deliver the best customer experience. Our highly experienced Support Engineers deliver proactive, real-time professional services 24/7 to increase your stability, efficiency, and effectiveness. If you have a question, we have an answer.

You may visit us at www.areteautomation.com

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Why Marketing Automation Is Important For Clients

What is Marketing Automation?

The principles or logic that allow marketing software to replace consumer interactions or non-public commercial operations that would typically be handled by people. Small business marketers can use automation to execute their strategy without diverting their time and resources. This technology is useful for acquiring new clients and generating leads, but it performs best when you already have an established audience and a nurturing strategy in place.

Here’s just one example of what marketing automation software can achieve for your company: identify the components of an advertising campaign that are most effective and adjust your marketing efforts accordingly. As a result, you may choose the strategy that a marketing automation platform should implement in advance rather than having to zig every time a consumer zags.

To help automate your marketing and make sure you’re communicating with clients at every stage of their relationship with your business, your plan can also involve retargeting advertisements, postcards, a/b testing, and other tools in addition to automated emails.

How Marketing Automation Boost Client Rate

Every client is important. However, if you own a business, you might not have the time to plan a special outreach effort each time you need to contact a customer. You may maintain the dialogue with your customers and expand both your customer relationships and your company with the aid of marketing automation.

When you employ marketing automation technology, you may stop manually tagging clients who exhibit interest in a product in your store or sending one-off emails to contacts whenever you wish to communicate with them. In essence, you can create an automation that will run in the background of your organization and carry out your strategy exactly as you intend. Even when you’re away on vacation or taking care of yourself in another way, it gives you a means to be there for your clients.

Based on their behaviors, preferences, purchase history, and other factors, you can use automation technologies to personalize an experience for customers. Your clients’ trust in your brand will increase since they’ll believe that every marketing message has been specifically written for them. Additionally, you’ll develop a devoted customer base of clients that adore (and recommend) your company.

With workflow automation, marketing automation may save you time, increase engagement, optimize your marketing, and assist your business’s bottom line. No matter how many followers you have — a hundred or millions — it delivers your customers individualized attention with meaningful, sincere messages that come across like letters to friends. You can reach out to people on significant days like birthdays or utilize merge tags in an email to have it start with the customer’s name.

How To Get Automation Software For Your Business

Marketing automation is here to stay for many firms and has proven to be a wise decision in the past. Regardless of the size of your business or the industry you are in, including marketing automation into your marketing plan will undoubtedly be beneficial for your organization.

Arete Automation is offering a 14-day trial period with no obligations, no contracts, and is cancellable any time. Join thousands of other business owners to see how Arete Automation is helping them develop their companies and how you can do the same.

Here at Arete Automation we provide around-the-clock support and customized support to deliver the best customer experience. Our highly experienced Support Engineers deliver proactive, real-time professional services 24/7 to increase your stability, efficiency, and effectiveness. If you have a question, we have an answer.

You may visit us at www.areteautomation.com

#areteautomation #marketingautomation #technology #businesstips #startup

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Why businesses need Marketing Automation

Due to the global digital revolution taking place, one of the most discussed subjects in marketing is marketing automation. To qualify, convert, and close more leads, major businesses now need automated systems. Small firms might benefit from automated tools as well.

Marketing Automation in a Nutshell

Utilizing software and web-based services to automate, streamline, and carry out marketing operations is known as marketing automation. You may easily set up a procedure to carry out your marketing strategy the way you want with the aid of automation. Depending on the online habits and purchase actions of specific audiences, automation solutions can be utilized to adapt their experiences. With the use of highly personalized content, it is a terrific approach that enables marketers to qualify and nurture their prospects in order to turn them into leads.

The Importance of Marketing Automation

Marketing automation enables large-scale businesses to meet the demands of their sizable consumer base while also assisting small businesses in remaining competitive in the market. To increase efficiency and improve the consumer experience, thousands of marketers rely on automation.

Here are the things that Marketing Automation can contribute for your business:

Time Efficiency: Businesses are increasingly relying on automation systems to free up time by minimizing the amount of repetitive tasks that marketing teams must complete. By organizing their social media postings and online marketing, businesses can save more than five hours every week. You have the option to plan several posts for various audiences thanks to automation systems.

Customize Responses: You must not only supply the appropriate content, but also the appropriate manner and timing in order to have a longer-lasting impact. With marketing automation, you have the ability to customize your marketing message and design a distinctive consumer experience. Depending on where each prospect is in the lead cycle, you may use automation tools to send them customised and targeted messaging.

Increase in leads conversion rate: Marketing professionals who are proficient with automation solutions have claimed faster conversion times and more income. The buyer’s journey can be sped up and the time it takes to turn a prospect into a client can be cut short with the use of automation solutions.

Reasons to use Marketing Automation

In today’s digital environment, marketing automation is essential to a company’s success. By raising sales productivity by more than 14%, marketing automation has proven successful for some firms. According to Annuitas Group, businesses that use marketing automation to nurture leads have witnessed a 451% increase in qualified leads.

In order to improve marketing ROI and overall growth, marketing automation is essential. There has been a significant increase in the number of businesses automating their marketing, and this trend is only anticipated to continue. Your firm will expand more quickly if you automate your marketing effort.

1. Capture, Nurture, Close Leads:

One of the final stages taken by the marketing departments of every company is to generate leads. By automating marketing activities, marketing teams have more time to concentrate on strategy and contact more prospective clients. You may provide a more accurate and thorough picture of your potential customers’ behavior with the use of automation.

Although closing the business is crucial, nurturing leads can be one of the most difficult and time-consuming tasks. Since most eligible leads are not yet prepared to make a purchase, nurturing the lead throughout the whole buyer’s journey is crucial to helping it reach a successful conclusion. Marketing automation can identify the leads that are most likely to result in a sale and the ones that will bring in the most money. This aids companies in boosting conversion rates and successfully closing deals.

2. Customized Content:

The key to nurturing leads has been personalizing material to reach customers. Unique and customized content always piques the interest of consumers. Nearly 75% of US customers desire a tailored content experience, according to some of the most recent research findings. Reaching the customer with the appropriate content at the appropriate moment has become crucial. Excellent marketing tools make it simple to customize content according to your consumer personas. Through numerous digital platforms, marketing automation offers a tremendous deal of potential to connect with clients in a tailored way. Personalization boosts the overall buyer journey in addition to the experience.

To get your visitor to think about your product or service and go down the sales funnel, it is crucial to communicate with them in a language they can comprehend. Personalization makes it simple to target the best leads in lead generation campaigns. With personalisation, you may use every digital channel where your visitors are present to approach them with the content they are interested in. Personalization helps you connect with your audience and learn more about them in addition to enhancing your business ROIs. In a world that is changing quickly, it is essential to comprehend how your customers behave if you want to gradually improve your business methods.

3. Utilize Social Media Marketing to boost presence and results

Utilizing the most recent developments in social media marketing will help businesses build solid ties with their potential customers. You can manage all of your social media accounts and automate all of your social media efforts from a single dashboard thanks to automation technologies. You can plan out all of your campaigns using automation technologies. Based on your CRM data, you can quickly schedule various posts for various audiences on a single dashboard. Your design team will save time with a drag and drop interface, and your marketing teams may construct social media campaigns without any prior technological knowledge. Automation solutions are a wonderful way to measure social media efforts and increase lead generation because they offer a single dashboard and marketing data.

4. Improved Collaboration among the teams:

Your marketing and sales teams will be able to collaborate more successfully with the correct marketing automation solutions. The consumer buying cycle is changing as a result of new technologies, making it more crucial than ever for marketing and sales teams to work well together. The sales funnel is streamlined by marketing automation, which makes it simpler for the marketing and sales teams to create leads and turn them into paying clients. With marketing automation in place, marketing teams can concentrate on connecting with potential prospects and certifying those as leads so that the sales team can send those leads together with the necessary customer data to close deals more quickly. Automation facilitates the timely delivery of the appropriate information to the appropriate sales people.

How To Get Automation Software For Your Business

Marketing automation is here to stay for many firms and has proven to be a wise decision in the past. Regardless of the size of your business or the industry you are in, including marketing automation into your marketing plan will undoubtedly be beneficial for your organization.

Arete Automation is offering a 14-day trial period with no obligations, no contracts, and is cancellable any time. Join thousands of other business owners to see how Arete Automation is helping them develop their companies and how you can do the same.

Here at Arete Automation we provide around-the-clock support and customized support to deliver the best customer experience. Our highly experienced Support Engineers deliver proactive, real-time professional services 24/7 to increase your stability, efficiency, and effectiveness. If you have a question, we have an answer.

You may visit us at www.areteautomation.com

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Automation in SEO: The Perfect Addition to Your Digital Marketing Strategy

Just over the past few years, automation in SEO has become extremely popular. It allows you to track data, gain insight on conversions, manage your business listings, and post on social media. Here is a look at the benefits of automation in SEO, as well as a rundown of where a digital marketing firm comes into the picture.

Benefits of Automation in SEO

By automating some parts of your SEO campaign, you can free up time to work on the aspects of digital marketing that have to be completed manually. Some of the things you can employ automation to handle are:

Making sure business listings are all up to date

Publishing pre-scheduled social media posts

Compiling information from various sources, such as any online reviews about your brand

Humans Are Still Very Relevant

The truth is that most aspects of SEO simply cannot be automated. The process is too complex with too many variables that come into play. Some of the tasks that will probably always have to be completed by a human brain include:

Analyze current rankings and see which keywords and phrases are performing the best

Perform keyword research to find target terms with low competition and high relevancy

Optimize all content on your webpage to ensure a positive user experience while also helping your SEO efforts

Study conversions and see which marketing channel is having the most success

Humans and Automation: Better Together

While technology is certainly improving, and automation in SEO does take care of the more mundane tasks, Digital Marketing is better when automation is partnered with marketing experts. The in-depth analysis that is required for an effective SEO strategy cannot be completed by a machine. It takes extensive knowledge and experience to be able to look at the data and make smart marketing decisions — and if you skip this step, you will likely be wasting your marketing budget on channels that aren’t providing a strong ROI.

The best method is to use the automation in SEO to gather the data, but then have a specialist analyze it.

Credits: Zero Gravity Marketing Date: July 25, 2017 Source: https://zerogravitymarketing.com/automation-in-seo/

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10 MARKETING AUTOMATION BENEFITS EVERY BUSINESS OWNER SHOULD KNOW ABOUT

Studies show that 53% of B2B marketers have marketing automation as part of their current strategy. An additional 37% of businesses plan to make it a part of their marketing strategy.

Marketing automation provides many benefits for business owners and customers alike. If you own a company, becoming familiar with marketing automation can help you find a strategy that works for your business.

Do you want to learn more about the benefits of marketing automation? Keep reading this article for the top 10 reasons your business should use automated services for marketing.

1. Find Better Leads

The biggest benefit of marketing automation is that it helps businesses find better leads. While lead generation is important for any business, you need to make sure the leads fit the needs of your company.

Marketing automation provides more information about your potential customers, which makes it easier to find leads that are actually interested in your products or services.

2. Improved Customer Experience

Marketing automation also helps you improve your customer’s experience and journey, which will make them more likely to trust your business and utilize your products or services.

This is because you can customize the process for each customer!

This way, you can automatically nurture leads in every stage. These personalized messages will help you engage with your leads and move them along the sales funnel.

3. More Efficient

Another benefit of marketing automation is that it increases efficiency for your marketing department. When you have a marketing strategy that relies on manual inputs, it takes much more time, staff, and other resources.

Marketing automation can assist with many tasks, like posting on social media, which will leave your in-house team to do more important work.

4. Increased Conversion

Not only will automating your business marketing increase the leads you get, but it will also increase the conversion rate and manage your leads more effectively. This is because you are able to find prospects that are a better fit for your company and that are already interested in your products or services.

It allows you to analyze and adjust your marketing strategy to find ways to get your website visitors to convert.

5. Improved Data Management

When you automate your marketing services, it will also improve your data management. It provides a better way to track your leads, how they engage with your site, and more.

This way, you will never have to manually update your reports. Marketing automation will keep your customer data up-to-date automatically and will make it easier to find information about your prospects.

6. Personalized Marketing

Marketing automation also provides personalized marketing, which is necessary to nurture your leads.

Many buyers would prefer to support businesses that provide unique and targeted content. Using automation tools allows businesses to do this by finding the right buyers and getting them the right content.

For example, these tools can track what emails and posts your customers interact with most. This can help you create the best content for your customers in the future.

7. Sales and Marketing Collaboration

Next, marketing automation allows you to get your sales and marketing teams on the same page. This type of collaboration is often difficult for companies, especially as sales and marketing trends shift.

If your sales team and marketing team don’t align on their goals, it can be difficult for your company to succeed. Using marketing automation helps improve lead quality which makes it easier for sales teams to convert these leads into customers.

8. Conserve Company Resources

Because marketing automation helps you increase the efficiency of your marketing strategy, it also allows you to save money and conserve other company resources. In fact, many businesses find that they are able to reduce staffing costs when they implement business automation.

This also allows business owners to maximize their marketing spending. You will get more results and a better return on your investment when you implement automated services for your business.

Similarly, marketing automation will help you understand the performance of your marketing efforts and can help you choose the best strategies to invest in.

9. Data-Backed Decisions

Automating marketing for businesses also makes it easier to make data-backed decisions for your business. It can be difficult for companies to collect and utilize data about their customers, which in turn makes it difficult to make informed business decisions.

Marketing automation collects, stores, and reports data to help you predict consumer behavior and measure the success of your campaigns.

With this data, you can make a more detailed profile of your potential customers to understand what works best for them.

10. Scalable Strategy

Automated services for marketing also benefit businesses because they are scalable. As your business grows and changes, your marketing needs will also change.

Marketing automation is able to grow with your company as your team grows. If your business is growing, automation makes it easier to contact multiple people at once.

If you want a marketing service that grows with your company, you should invest in a marketing automation solution.

Credits: Reputation Mart Date: June 24, 2022 Source: https://www.reputationmart.com/blog/10-marketing-automation-benefits-every-business-owner-should-know-about

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Where SEO Fits in Your Marketing Automation Strategy

A company’s digital marketing strategy contains many different tactics that require attention. Two of those tactics are marketing automation and SEO. How they work together is vital to getting your content in front of the proper audience and increasing the leads you gain from the campaigns. In today’s blog, we’ll be giving you insight into where SEO fits in your overall marketing automation strategy.

SEO Strategy

SEO has been a part of digital marketing since the inception of search engines. Being able to be present in search results by targeting certain keywords and placing them in your content as much as possible was a ranking factor. Using just keywords to rank isn’t possible any more with Google’s constant upgrades. Because of these upgrades, every searcher has their own search results based on location and previous activity. Basically, you have a very small chance to rank for something as easily as you use to.

SEO today is an everyday requirement for digital marketing but in truth it has taken a back seat to many other tactics within the marketing strategy. There are still basic SEO procedures that are required to give you the best shot at ranking on the first page for searches being performed by your potential customers. Those procedures include:

Meta-tags: When creating content for the web, it’s important your meta-data is present to help Google index, understand your content and presenting it properly.

Semantic Keyword Research: Understanding what your primary keywords are and your secondary keywords are will help create your content.

User Experience: Writing for the reader and not Google’s search bot is a main ranking factor based on the user experience you’re giving your visitor.

Creating a Hub-Strategy: This strategy takes your primary keyword content and connects other secondary keyword content to give visitors and bots a path to follow when learning about you and your company’s services.

SEO Tools

Unfortunately, setting up your content properly doesn’t guarantee a top ranking. The best practices mentioned by anyone for SEO are tailored for the company that they work for. That’s why it’s important you find what works for you. What works for your company may be completely different from another company or a competitor.

SEO today is an everyday requirement for digital marketing.

There are some great tools to help you find your groove and we want to introduce you to some of them. RavenTools is a great tool to use when trying to find issues with your site and monitor the changes that you’ve done. BuzzSumo is a content development tool that helps you find what’s trending all based on keyword search done in the software. Google Search Console is a required tool to use because it’s Google. If issues on your website exist, this tool will tell you. It is also where you’ll find, at least what is left of it, keyword analysis for your site. Then of course there is Google Analytics. Using GA to monitor the health of your site is a great way to understand what works and what doesn’t.

SEO for your Marketing Automation Strategy

So, to the issue at hand. How does this all tie into your marketing automation strategy? If you’ve read through the top portion of this post you’ll understand how it kind of does already. The two main inroads to marketing automation for SEO is research and user experience. Creating content that drives leads to raise their hands starts with SEO research and ends with creating a good user experience for those visitors with the content.

Research starts with finding trending topics and keywords that Google associates to your website. Whether it is a blog or a new webpage, before creation you need to understand the ultimate goal of the page, how a visitor will find the page, what they will learn, and then what the next step is for them. That next step is either going to be converting into a lead or providing an opportunity to dig deeper. This is why making sure the content provides the visitor exactly what they’re looking for has become more important than keyword density.

Data Collection

SEO work doesn’t stop on the front end of content creation. The data that the content piece is collecting is important for understanding its value and making decisions on future content creation. The most important data points can be found within Google Analytics. Having data to report will help you make the decisions and that’s why it’s important to get as much traffic to the content as possible. A good rule of thumb is buy traffic in the short term, grow organic in the long term. When digging into the date there are a few data points that you should be looking at to make better decisions.

A good rule of thumb is buy traffic in the short term, grow organic in the long term.

The first is organic ranking. You can find this ranking within Google Search Console. The average position your content is showing up in helps you track the progress it’s making in Google’s eyes. Those “eyes” are looking at the data within Google Analytics. The data points you should look at are your content’s bounce rates, time on page, behavior flow, and conversions from the page. Analyzing this information will help you understand how to best fix the content that doesn’t work or copy the success of the content that does. Doing this will help your content move up rankings and earn even more qualified traffic from search.

SEO is a vital piece to any marketing strategy, including the marketing automation strategy. The SEO process has changed over time but making sure the piece of content can be found properly and help visitors answer their questions will help gain more organic traffic and to better more qualified leads. And, that’s why SEO and marketing automation work so well together.

Credits: Joe D365 Date: August 18, 2016 Source: https://microsoft-business-applications.hcltech.com/dynamics-365-for-marketing/where-seo-fits-in-your-marketing-automation-strategy/

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What is the Role of SEO in Digital Marketing?

SEO is short for search engine optimization. In the world of digital marketing, this marketing strategy plays an important role in helping you increase your reach to potential customers.

While, Google doesn’t share its overall search volume, it’s safe to say it’s a lot. Some a have estimated it at 3.5 billion searches per day and the volume of searches grows by 10% every year. We’re also aware that Google has the largest market share at 92%, compared to Bing or Yahoo! Knowing all this, it’s clear that SEO is a no-brainer to meet your customers where they’re searching and spending time.

So, what does this mean for your business? It means search engines are a prime place to advertise your businesses products or services. Having SEO as a key part of your digital marketing arsenal is crucial to help search engines find, crawl and index your website into their catalogue.

What is the role of SEO in a company? The role of SEO to increase exposure of your company to potential customers on search engines. A person who is responsible for your company’s SEO efforts will analyze and implement different website strategies in order to improve your ranking for certain topics or keywords.

When customers are searching for specific services online through Google or other search engines, you want to ensure that your company is listed in the search engine results pages (SERPs), so that they can find you.

If you’re on page 70 of the SERPs, then a potential customer likely won’t be able to find your company and click through to your website.

For example, Kara wants to find a car insurance quote, so she types this into Google. If your insurance company is not on the first or second page of SERPs then she won’t find you. She will likely click on one of the top-ranking companies, browse their options and purchase an insurance policy from them.

That’s why it’s important for your company to invest in SEO, so that more customers can find you and get in touch. This will help to increase sales for your business, because if they can’t find you, they can’t purchase from you.

What are the benefits of SEO? The benefits of SEO are plentiful. Since Google ranks sites that provide the best content to users, a lot of tactics and strategies that improve SEO, also makes your website a more effective place for users.

Establish brand awareness When you focus on SEO efforts, you get more visitor traffic to your website. This increases your brand awareness, to encourage more people to purchase your products/services.

Improves website user experience Google has announced that the user experience of your website, will help you rank higher by search engines. They want their users to discover high-quality content, so they give priority to sites that create content and web pages with this goal in mind.

Increase sales through inbound leads People are already searching for that product/service on search engines when they find you. They are the ones who discover you which means you have less work to do to close the sale. Unlike outbound sales, which requires calling, emailing, etc.

Makes your website mobile-friendly Google shared that you should focus on the user experience of those that visit your website through their mobile device. If the experience on a mobile device is poor for visitors, they will be less likely to stay on your website to explore more content.

Increases website speed time The page load speed of your website helps users see your content faster. If the page loads slowly then a user is more likely to bounce from that page without seeing the content. SEO makes you prioritize page load speed, to ensure it’s faster.

How many types of SEO are there? There are three types of SEO that you should implement in order to give your website the best chance of improving its position on the SERPs. These types include:

On-page SEO- This involves keyword research and using keywords in high-quality content on different webpages on your site.

Off-page SEO- Helps to strengthen the relationship your website has with other websites. This particularly focuses on building backlinks, which are getting a large number of websites to link back to your website.

Technical SEO- This involves things like site speed, indexing, crawlability, mobile friendliness, site architecture, structured data, security.

What are SEO tools? There are plenty of paid tools that you can use to do SEO analysis and inform your strategy implementation such as Moz, SEMrush, Ahrefs and more. However, there are also some free tools that you can use to aid your SEO strategy as well:

Google Search Console — a suite of tools to monitor number of indexed pages, security issues, and more to help you rank your pages better. Google Keyword Planner — to find keywords to target in your website content and rank for the keyword topics, use this tool. If you work with SEP, then you’ll be able to take advantage of the proprietary software that our company created to help you rank better on all of the search engines.

There’s no denying, how important SEO is in your digital marketing strategy. Helping your potential customers to discover your product/services will increase sales and profits. Your business cannot afford to not be online and can benefit immensely from a solid SEO plan.

Credits: Amanda Desouza Date: April 6, 2020 Source: https://www.searchenginepeople.com/blog/what-is-the-role-of-seo-in-digital-marketing.html

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10 Key Benefits Of SEO For Your Business

If you’re looking to create long-term brand awareness, expand your target audiences and earn more revenue, then search engine optimization is crucial. Let’s look at 10 significant benefits of SEO for your business, and how you can realize them.

1. It Boosts Your Credibility

A site that ranks high on search engine results pages is typically considered high-quality and trustworthy by search engines, and this, in turn, boosts the credibility of your business. Spend time improving and adding content to your site, increasing your site speed and researching keywords to help your site rank even higher.

2. It Doesn’t Have To Cost You Anything

Apart from time if you handle it yourself, SEO does not cost anything like other marketing strategies such as pay-per-click. Search engines crawl your site 24/7, promoting useful content and helping you find new customers organically. To make the most of your SEO efforts, allocate some of your time to reviewing the content on higher ranking sites within your niche, and aim to write content that’s better than theirs. Then, share your content on your social platforms.

3. It Supports Content Marketing

Original content and SEO work hand in hand; by creating helpful content for visitors, including text, images and videos, your site will rank better in search results. But SEO can support your content marketing efforts too. Make sure that your content is high quality and optimized for keywords you want to rank for, and since search engines like freshness, update your content regularly.

4. It Maximizes PPC Campaigns

Unpaid (SEO) and paid marketing strategies (PPC) work fantastically well together. PPC helps your site appear at the top of paid search results, while SEO does the same thing organically. Having both results appear at the top of the search engine results page boosts your brand’s credibility and shows that you are not merely throwing money at advertising to be on top. You can use SEO to maximize your PPC campaigns — for example, a high-ranking page may do even better if you use it as part of PPC advertising, especially if the keyword has a low cost-per-click.

5. It Gives You A Competitive Advantage

Your competitors will likely be investing in SEO, which means you should too. Those who invest heavily in SEO often outrank the competition in search engine results and gain market share. If you consider that results on the first page of a Google search get over 90% of traffic, you cannot afford not to be there, especially if your competitors are. Start by identifying your competitors, analyzing their strengths and weaknesses, and creating and managing your online reputation. Then, ensure that your site loads fast and is mobile-friendly, make the best content possible, and focus on providing the best user experience.

6. It Can Help You Reach More People

While many marketing campaigns tend to focus on a defined target audience, SEO can help you attract anyone with intent at a given point in time, no matter what stage of the buying funnel they are in. If you target keywords rather than demographics as you might with PPC or social advertising, you can attract more prospects who may be interested in doing business with you.

Create a list of keywords you would like to rank for. Then, use keyword research tools to expand it. Finally, use competitive research to refine your list by identifying who your competitors are, what keywords they are ranking for and where they have backlinks, and use this information to create a better SEO strategy.

7. It Helps You Rank Better In Local Searches

Local searches such as “plumbers near me” are becoming more common. And nearly 80% of local searches on mobile lead to conversions. Local SEO strategies can help you attract these searchers who are often ready to buy. The first step to getting started with local SEO strategies is creating a Google My Business account. Then, start requesting reviews from your clients. Optimize your listings by ensuring that you have the correct name, address and phone number. Also be sure to optimize your listing for voice search, which means writing rich, compelling content in a conversational tone that answers most common queries and provides solutions to searchers’ problems. Some other steps include carefully considering your local keywords and creating listings in local business directories.

8. It Improves Website Usability

SEO is about making your site search engine-friendly, but it also can improve the experience a customer has when visiting your website. If you put the work in to generate useful and high-quality content, make your site faster and more responsive, add backlinks and enhance every page, you typically get an excellent website in addition to one that’s optimized for search engines. Factors that improve usability include a robust site structure and navigation, both of which are factors in how search engines rank a site.

9. You Get Quantifiable Results

With SEO, you can track changes in rankings, conversions and website traffic. Platforms like Google Analytics provide a comprehensive suite of information, allowing you to drill down to an incredibly granular level. For example, you can see every website user’s buying journey — including the pages they engaged with, the keywords they used to search and whether they completed specific actions. You can use these insights to adjust and improve your SEO strategy.

10. It Improves User Engagement Rates

An optimized site brings in quality traffic. If you have a site with useful content that matches the searcher’s intent, they will likely spend more time browsing, which ultimately can lead to more conversions and increased ROI. Customers who engage longer with a website tend to connect to the brand more — this can lead to customer advocacy and long-term revenue. To improve your user engagement rate, use one of the many online tools to audit your site, and then optimize things like your title and meta tags. Also, ensure that you’re providing a safe and mobile-friendly website.

Final Thoughts

SEO has major benefits for websites and can lead to long-term exponential growth. Brands that invest in SEO can build credibility and trust with audiences, making it a pivotal part of a digital marketing strategy.

Credits: Jonas Muthoni Date: June 14, 2021 Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2021/06/14/10-key-benefits-of-seo-for-your-business/?sh=7f72b8233fd0

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SEO Content Automation: The Pros and Cons of Automating Your Online Content

Many social media and content marketers use some kind of marketing automation to supplement their content distribution and promotion efforts. Whether totally relying on technology to syndicate and schedule posts or simply using it as a backup plan when taking a day off, there are advantages and disadvantages to the strategy — so make sure you fully understand the effects before jumping in.

There are several content automation platforms available, from mass post uploading and scheduling platforms like SocialOomph to dashboards created to give more insights into the performance of your posts like Sprout Social. For the most part, the primary intention of these platforms is to allow marketers to schedule social media content in advance and monitor the results. They can be great tools, if used properly, but there are some real disadvantages to plotting out your content in advance.

Benefits

Most of the benefits of content automation are practical, saving time and maximizing your efforts. With a handful of clicks, you can theoretically set your social media profiles to run on autopilot for weeks at a time.

Scheduling in Advance

The first and most obvious benefit is being able to plan for the future proactively. Instead of logging into your Twitter account, typing up a message and hitting send each time you want to post something to your followers, you can do a week’s worth of work in the span of a few hours. If you keep a running list of your onsite content, you can upload that list and automatically distribute those posts at regular intervals for any stretch of time. Alternatively, you can type in and schedule posts one by one until you have an even spread across your chosen time period.

This is advantageous because social media demands regular updates, and not everybody has the time or desire to make all those updates manually. It’s a form of protection against taking time off, becoming busy with other tasks, and even forgetting about posting. A regular habit is reduced to a single task, making everybody capable of being a full-time social media manager.

Perfect Timing

This automation also allows you to make posts with perfect timing. Rather than necessitating a login at a specific time to make an appropriate post, you can schedule your posts in advance. It may take some time before you are able to tell which times are the most popular for your brand, but once you do, you’ll be able to take full advantage of it. For example, if you figure out that your posts get more responses at 1:00 pm than any other time, you can schedule your most important posts at 1:00 pm, and never have to worry about logging in at that time.

It’s also a valuable feature for holidays, when it is common practice to make a holiday-themed post, but most full-time employees are enjoying the time off with their family. With content automation, you can avoid the need to log in during holidays but still make posts announcing or celebrating the holiday.

Consistent Insights

Whether you use an analytics-based scheduling platform or not, if you automate the posting of your content, you can measure your performance more consistently. For example, if you post content at random times, sometimes once a day and sometimes ten times a day, you’ll have random data that doesn’t align into any one coherent picture. But if you use automated content to post every hour, on the hour, every day of the week, it will soon be very clear which times and which post types are the most popular. You can then use that information to paint a picture of your “average” follower, and customize your posting strategy to cater to them.

Content automation also gives you a chance to make controlled experiments. For example, you can use one Monday as a “control” measure, scheduling posts as you normally would, and use another Monday as an “experiment” group, making a variation in post type, frequency, or timing to measure which is better at attracting interest.

Risk

There are, however, a few downsides to relying on content automation for the bulk of your social media campaign. Scheduling your posts in advance is a great way to save time and stabilize the consistency of your posts, but it also leaves you vulnerable to a handful of risks.

Predictability

Over time, if you automate your posts enough, they may grow to become predictable. For example, if you post hourly from 9am to 8pm, Monday through Friday, people will grow accustomed to your updates and might tune them out as white noise. A good way to avoid this is to shake up your scheduling by rotating the types of content you post or by alternating your posting schedule every once in a while.

Some forms of predictability can actually be helpful. For instance, if every Monday at 1:00pm, you post a new coupon code that’s only good for a few hours, people will get excited and begin to anticipate that 1:00pm reveal. However, if your content becomes stale and unexciting, you’re going to lose followers. It’s fine to keep automating your posts, but keep things fresh.

Delayed Responses

Automating your content posts also takes you out of the driver’s seat, and leaves you unable to immediately respond to people who are interested in your posts. By letting a machine take care of the posting, you’re taking the “social” factor out of social media. Engaging with your followers regularly and as often as possible is the best way to build an active, involved community, and without that factor, you could risk alienating your followers. The best way to avoid this is to check your profiles regularly for new comments and interactions, in addition to core scheduling.

Automated posts also means you can’t respond to news items as quickly. If you’re trying to build a reputation as a thought leader in the industry, you should be watching industry news channels and jumping at any chance to express your opinions immediately. Automating your posts in advance can rob you of these opportunities.

Spam Backlinks & Automated Link Building

One inherent risk associated with an automated campaign, whether social or otherwise, is the potential for building a large number of backlinks to your website in a way that looks unnatural. While it may not be done purposefully, the search engines may see your efforts as a spammy link building tactic. Automation can also include duplicate content issues for your website. Such issues can also cause a search engine rankings downgrade, which is exactly the opposite of what you ultimately would want for your organic website traffic.

Impersonality

Automated posts can also make you seem impersonal. It’s possible, and certainly ideal, to schedule posts in advance that strongly display your brand’s unique, personal voice, but there’s only so much you can do to make your robotic posts seem human. If readers see a tag such as “This post was scheduled by…” they may immediately distrust the source. Over time, it becomes increasingly easy for users to identify automated posts, and while some users have accepted them as a reality of social media, others will be turned off by the impersonality of the strategy and feel as if they are being advertised to. To remedy this, make sure you vary your strategy often and get involved directly in the community with your individual, personal voice.

For most marketers trying to make an impact in content marketing, automated distribution and scheduling tools are more beneficial than harmful. Be aware of the drawbacks of this strategy, and incorporate regular natural posts to make up for them. Actively monitor your social media activity, including the opinions of your followers, and make adjustments to keep your business presence personal and your community happy.

Credits: Sam Edwards Date: September 21, 2014 Source: https://seo.co/content-automation/

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CRM vs. marketing automation: What’s the difference and which do you need?

Both CRM and marketing automation systems handle leads, contacts and companies, but where does one start and the other stop? Behold this guide for the bewildered.

The footprints of marketing automation and customer relationship management (CRM) systems seem to overlap — systems handle leads, contacts and companies — there’s sufficient vagueness and confusion on these topics (due at least in part to branding antics) to …ahem… cloud the issue.

First, let’s be clear about the distinction between sales and marketing roles: you wouldn’t believe how many companies scramble the definitions. As a card-carrying marketing guy (yes, I made it to Sr. VP at publicly-traded companies), I maintain that the outbound part of marketing (the real users of marketing automation) needs to focus on getting the right message out to the right prospects. People who respond with the right level of interest are handed off to sales for qualification, and people who don’t are kept in the system for cultivation and “re-marketing.” Outbound marketing is also involved in the care and feeding of existing customers, to cultivate loyalty and repeat business.

In most companies, marketing people don’t man the phones, they don’t qualify leads and they don’t really participate in the sales cycle. Consequently, they aren’t measured on revenue the way the sales team is: their metrics are focused on the number and quality of respondents, including the total value of the pipeline (the “open” deals, not the closed ones).

What is marketing automation?

Marketing automation is all about low-cost, effective communication with prospects, which means email and social-media communications. Every marketing automation system starts with basic email blasting and adds tons of features designed to facilitate beautiful, effective mail sequences on an industrial scale. In order to improve email effectiveness, the marketing automation system includes templates for the mails and campaign designers to provide a clear, consistent path for the customer as their level of interest and information evolves. The customer journey from awareness through interest to desire and finally to action is explicitly mapped, with content and calls to action tuned for each branch in that journey.

Marketing automation systems that leverage social media have several features to link Facebook, Twitter and discussion-board interactions with email campaigns and the website. One of the real challenges here is managing the linkage of email addresses with social media accounts.

The effective marketing automation system is actually a content management system in disguise, so it must explicitly manage its content assets through a lifecycle. As those assets are typically stored on the company’s website, the marketing automation system needs to be able to rapidly generate attractive registration and download pages. Since prospects’ behavior can’t be predicted in advance, marketing automation systems need to have workflow management features to facilitate “A/B split testing” that provides data to guide the refinement of web pages and campaign sequences for optimal results.

Marketing automation systems generate huge amounts of not-very-well-structured data and analyze click streams in response to campaigns. In companies with large lead counts, the reporting engines have to handle tens of millions of rows — but the tables are very narrow (typically, less than 10 columns) so report outputs don’t involve a ton of query logic…just a ton of raw data.

Marketing automation systems are typically highly integrated with the company’s website, but it is rare for them to be integrated (or even connected) to more than a couple of other systems (for example, address validation or geolocation engines).

CRM and sales force automation

That doesn’t sound much like a CRM system, does it? If the core of marketing automation is email blasting, the foundation of CRM is sales force automation (SFA). While both systems operate on leads, contacts and companies, they work in very different contexts. The marketing automation user is almost entirely focused on leads. In contrast, the SFA user sees leads as important only in the short term, as the successful sales rep will be working on deals (opportunities) and talking with contacts (leads that have been fully qualified and promoted or converted). The SFA user is a very different animal than the typical marketing person, and too often there is actual animosity between the two teams.

CRM systems must support the following sales business processes:

Lead qualification

Early sales cycle (including demos and call scheduling)

Forecasting and pipeline management

Quote generation and order configuration

Order confirmation and fulfillment

Contract establishment and termination

Ongoing account management

Renewals and repeat orders

Of course, CRM systems such as Salesforce may extend into the arenas of ecommerce, customer service, call centers, and other areas of the customer relationship. In those areas, however, there is very little overlap between CRM and marketing automation features.

Even the simplest CRM system will use a dozen database tables to manage these processes, and some of the tables are quite wide (it’s not at all unusual to have 200 columns for the Account table) and tables may have several children. The tables, however, hold standard data types (almost never a BLOb), and documents that might be attached (pointed to from tables) are static files and not part of a document management system. However, CRM systems typically have several integration points with other parts of the corporate infrastructure (such as contract management, electronic signature, shipping/distribution and accounting systems).

Getting beyond these technical differences is the user: it is rare for sales team members to even have login privileges to the marketing automation system, and it’s even rarer for this to be a best practice. It is also rare for the marketing team to be real users of the CRM system, and they almost never enter data there.

Obviously, the output of the marketing automation system should be an input to the CRM system. But that linkage should be only for those leads that are really ready to be qualified — typically well below 10 percent of the total stored in the marketing automation system. Even the leads that have not survived qualification or have simply lost interest should be hidden from the sales team — they’re just clutter and an unpleasant reminder about someone who wasted their time.

CRM and marketing automation: Better together?

The very name customer relationship management implies that CRM systems should include deep marketing automation functionality.

At small companies, a surprisingly small proportion even have marketing automation. Many rely on mail merges or simple email blasting services coordinated via spreadsheet files, even though they have a CRM system.

The situation at many large companies is much more chaotic. I know of one technology company that had 84 different marketing systems along with dozens of CRM instances. So the idea that CRM is going to take over the territory of marketing automation is a reach for the Fortune 500, particularly those companies that grew through acquisition. For them, the key success factor is integration and database synchronization among their marketing automation and CRM systems. No amount of “best of breed” features will make a difference if their data is an uncoordinated mess.

For true Greenfield installations, however, it is actually best to have the CRM system perform the marketing automation functions. While buying best of breed for each system has advantages, if a feature really is valuable the CRM vendor will eventually implement it. So in the medium to long term, the costs of integration and database synchronization for separate best of breed systems is typically more trouble than it’s worth.

Credits: David Taber Date: December 26, 2017 Source: https://www.cio.com/article/228142/crm-vs-marketing-automation-whats-the-difference-and-which-do-you-need.html

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5 Reasons Why CRM is Essential in your Digital Marketing Strategy

All CRM systems aim to cover all areas of business-to-customer interactions. Simply said, they can assist you in managing your customer data and tailoring marketing efforts. This is a valuable tool because not all leads convert in the same way or interact with a company in the same way. CRM systems collect vast amounts of data, ranging from buyer patterns to demographics, that are important to any marketing team.

#1: Campaigns are more Cost-Effective

The best return on investment is the key goal of any digital marketing effort (ROI). Naturally, a campaign suited to your ideal demographic will be significantly more successful than one that is generic. You may then use CRM to better analyze potential prospects and alter your campaign accordingly.

Furthermore, this method allows you to more effectively customise your advertising. CRM can help you target your ideal leads with content that is more successful for them if you know their demography. A tailored experience can boost brand trust and engagement, which leads to improved lead conversion rates.

#2: Wider Reach and Engagement

In terms of engagement, CRM can be beneficial in this aspect as well. A better understanding of your target demographic will enable you to create more targeted digital marketing initiatives, which will boost engagement. Individualized content that is more relevant to their interests is considerably more engaging for audiences, which can lead to increased sales.

Naturally, CRM may assist in increasing engagement in a variety of ways. Collaborative CRM can expedite customer input while analytical CRM can inform a campaign based on consumer trends. Both are necessary for any digital marketing strategy; tailored content as well as a reliable feedback collection platform are required. CRM may help you achieve both by enhancing brand engagement and raising conversion rates.

#3: High Consistency Rate

Similarly, for any digital marketing effort, internal consistency is critical. Collaborative CRM helps keep your sales teams on track and minimize frequent mistakes caused by a lack of communication.

It’s advisable not to contact a client about the same issue again if they’ve already been contacted about it. Similarly, a buyer who has already expressed interest in your campaign may require less marketing efforts. Operational CRM can use analytics to identify which automated marketing activities should be targeted at specific prospects, whereas collaborative CRM can help your team communicate with clients in a more coordinated manner.

#4: Improved team efficiency through Automation

Automation, a basic feature of operational CRM, can relieve your staff of unnecessary effort. Because digital marketing initiatives involve meticulous planning, creative input, and ongoing monitoring, CRM can help your teams work more efficiently by automating some duties.

Likewise, operational CRM can assist you in avoiding human errors. CRM can automate outgoing emails and assist you manage your messaging, when many input enquiries on the same subject can discourage a lead.

#5: Better customer service

Finally, digitized customer service is a vital component of your digital marketing plan. CRM can assure quick and personalized customer care, and efficient customer service can help you keep existing clients.

CRM stores a variety of information on each consumer, including purchase history, historical information, and general preferences. You can secure a faster resolution of any difficulties if your reps have access to this searchable database. If one person is unable to fix an issue, collaborative CRM can easily alert another to take action.

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The CRM Marketing Automation Combo

In the modern age, most of the organizations have marketing & sales teams that work together, and have goals that are aligned to each other. This is a major step forward in the world of business technology.

Marketing teams might need to generate a certain volume of leads, while sales team needs to work on closing these leads. But, not all these leads may be important, so to have an effective process, certain criteria needs to be defined to identify a “Qualified Lead” & a “Quality lead.”

The overlap

Sales and marketing are evolving together, changing with times, which means that modern CRM should reflect these changes. With combined processes, one can easily accelerate the lead’s lifecycle by integrating customer data with behavior tracking. To elaborate further let us discuss the purpose of marketing and sales.

The purpose of marketing

Marketing primarily focuses on attracting attention and creating interest. Marketing creates a certain brand image. Marketing sources in current world are websites, organic search, referral sites, direct traffic, social media, pay per click ads, advertisements on other sites, and a wide variety of other sources.

The purpose of sales

Sales primarily focuses on converting interest to a deal. Sales will include many activities, like phone calls, emails, text messages, meetings etc. Sales ideally interacts with the customers more directly than marketing.

Smarketing

When the two functions combine, marketing and sales departments work as a single unit. Marketing sells (creating visibility) on a large scale, while sales markets in a one-on-one fashion, using the information-sharing and persuasion tactics. With sales and marketing working so closely, there’s a clear value in getting the two divisions on the same page, and working in even more alignment. For small businesses, that’s particularly important as getting the best out of one single lead is crucial.

Benefits of combining CRM and marketing automation

Sales and marketing teams working as a single unit will have common goals and will work on the same data. Sales will be accountable for ROI of marketing campaigns as well, while marketing will be accountable for sales revenue, in addition to their traditional roles.

Communication to the customer during the marketing sales cycles will be consistent.

More conversions, as automation will aid the sales pitch; sales guys will also know the right time to contact the lead because of web tracking.

Transparency in the process, as both the teams exactly know the criteria for qualified leads.

No need of feedback from sales to marketing as they are a combined unit and the required insights will reflect in the system.

Automated lead scoring based on the leads activities will give the sales team an idea of which leads to chase first.

Consolidation means that you get actionable insights into every aspect of the sales and marketing process, from prospect interaction with your site, emails or app, to telephony and sales pipeline.

Combination of marketing and sales becomes a smart option for businesses looking to get the most out of every penny spent on marketing and sales, and to get maximum value to the customers.

Credits: Rajat Arora Date: March 7, 2022 Source: https://www.leadsquared.com/crm-and-marketing-automation/

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12 Features to Look for in a CRM Solution

If you’re looking for new CRM software or to upgrade your current CRM solution, you should look for these 12 features before you buy.

Customer relationship management (CRM) solutions can do much more than organize contacts and act as a digital rolodex. With the right features, CRM software can also help you boost sales by keeping an eye on customers, from nurturing leads to closing the sale and maintaining customer loyalty. It can also save you tons of time and money through sales force automation.

Here are 12 features to look for in CRM software.

1. Workflow automation

CRM software can make your life easier by automating your workflow. Look for software that lets you set up custom rules and comes with sales force automation to help you and your team be more productive.

By using rules, you can set your CRM software to automatically perform a specific action based on triggers or events, such as these:

When a potential customer fills out a contact form on your website, the CRM software automatically directs the message to the right sales representative or department.

When a sales representative receives a message, the CRM software automatically sends a preset response to acknowledge the message.

If a lead, prospect, or opportunity doesn’t respond to your message or proposal, the CRM software automatically sends a follow-up message after a preset amount of time, such as 48 hours or two business days.

When a sales representative makes calls or sends messages to a contact, the CRM software automatically logs hours and keeps track of all communications.

As sales representatives complete tasks, the CRM software automatically reports them to supervisors and upper management for performance reports.

Workflow automation features can also take the time and legwork out of tedious sales tasks, such as order processing, order tracking and inventory control.

2. Customization

No two businesses are the same, so the best CRM software can cater to your business’s unique needs. Some CRM solutions let you choose which features to include in your package, and some also allow you to customize basic areas, such as with the abilities to add contact fields, choose which data to show on your dashboard and create custom reports. You can also customize with extensions, plugins and other add-ons to expand your software’s capabilities.

If you need even more customization to truly tailor the software to your business, many CRM software providers offer more advanced options using APIs. This gives developers access to all technical specs and coding for full customization of your software. The API also allows you to integrate the software with existing business solutions your company uses to streamline processes.

3. Third-party integration

Connecting your CRM software to other solutions you already use can save you tons of time and money. Most CRM programs offer third-party software integrations; the key is choosing one that’s compatible with the software you use and easy to implement.

Here are a few things you can do with the right third-party integrations to make your life easier:

Run CRM software straight from Outlook, Gmail or other email clients so you don’t have to keep switching between apps.

Automatically sync sales and order information with your POS system and accounting software to eliminate manual data entry.

Automatically build email lists and launch email marketing campaigns from either your email marketing software or CRM software so you don’t have to open both.

Back up and sync data with Dropbox, Box.com and other popular cloud backup storage services.

Depending on your software, some integrations may require IT administration.

4. Customer service

CRM software can help you acquire and retain customers by providing excellent customer service. Look for the following capabilities that will allow your sales reps and customer support team to perform their best:

Gives you a 360-degree comprehensive view of customers that shows everything there is to know about a customer from the first point of contact

Automatically tracks all points of communications, from lead acquisition to closed sales and sales histories

Logs all incidents, website visits, purchase histories, and other activities for future reference and to keep all reps on the same page

Uses customers’ first names to personalize all correspondence

Has unique reference numbers for each account, customer and help issue

Automatically sends customers acknowledgments of their inquiries and messages so they don’t feel ignored

Supports premade email templates and call scripts that answer the most common questions

Some CRM solutions can make this even easier by integrating third-party apps such as the Desk.com support platform, SurveyMonkey feedback forms and the RingCentral business phone system.

5. Employee tracking

CRM software is a great way to track employee activity and performance. Choose software that gives employees their own accounts where they can individually track their hours, tasks, meetings, sales numbers, goals and other items. The software should also give supervisors and upper management access to dashboards that let them view individual employee goals, completed tasks and other metrics of productivity. This can help managers write employee performance reviews, create incentives, reward strong employees, and identify those who are struggling and address areas of improvement.

6. Social media

A CRM with built-in social media monitoring features can save your marketing team time, because they won’t have to switch platforms to perform the essential task of monitoring your company’s social media.

Get in tune with what people are saying about your brand through social listening.

Gain insight into the numbers of social media actions your brand gets, such as comments, shares and mentions.

Check every social media channel (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc.) to customize your social media strategy accordingly.

Get insight into who your customers are.

Identify and leverage your brand.

Manage the day-to-day tasks of posting to your social media accounts.

7. Lead management

A lead management feature will help you to identify your leads and the actions they’ve taken along the sales cycle. Through the lead management process, you’ll be able to score your leads and, if needed, filter them off to a different member of your team to turn select leads into customers.

Sometimes dead leads sit in a CRM for weeks or months. A smart sales manager stays on top of leads and redistributes quiet or seemingly dead leads to different members of their team for reengagement.

8. Real-time data

Starting in 2017, real-time data became the main driver for CRM systems, according to CMSWire. As noted in the article, CRMs can pull real-time data from devices, applications and even appliances.

These are just a few of the benefits of pulling real-time data:

It helps you make better-informed marketing decisions about bidding price and placement of online advertising.

You get an instant snapshot of market demand, so you can update your marketing plan accordingly to yield better results.

You can identify which of your products and services generate the most revenue, and which generate the least and may need a boost in exposure.

9. CRM analytics

CRM analytics, also known as customer analytics, offer insight into customer data. This data is important because it can help you make better decisions about the types of products, services, marketing and overall communications you distribute to your customers.

Look for these specific analytics in a CRM:

Customer segmentation that is simple to read and understand

Clear profit and loss data to help you determine your ROI

Informative web analytics that illustrate customer website use and behaviors

10. Reporting

Reporting is the feature that brings the results of your sales and marketing efforts all together, and it comes standard with all the CRMs we’ve researched. The more of these report types you can access, the better:

The number of leads that come in during a certain amount of time

The number of sales generated during a certain amount of time

Which of your sales agents closed which leads and how many they closed in a certain amount of time

The number of outbound calls being made

The effectiveness of your emails

The stage at which your leads converted, helping you identify opportunities to close leads in a shorter time

11. Sales forecasting

A CRM with this feature predicts your future sales based on data from your current pipeline. You may need to alter your marketing plan based on the sales forecast. For example, if you thought your toy store was going to sell a lot of girls’ dolls during Christmas but learned through sales forecasting that building blocks are more popular, you can cater your campaigns accordingly. Sales forecasting can also anticipate market changes to mitigate your business risks.

12. Email

Tracking emails through a traditional inbox can get overwhelming and confusing. Lifewire noted that, as of 2015, the average office worker received 121 emails. It’s important for every single sales email to be received and addressed in a timely fashion to increase the probability of generating revenue.

An email feature in a CRM helps keep your sales reps organized and productive. They can integrate their calendars to schedule appointments and engage prospects and customers accordingly. Another great email feature is the ability to automatically pull in email templates so reps spend less time crafting email content. You can use this feature to create several email templates, such as these:

Basic information about the company, segmented by industry

Follow-up after a phone call

Follow-up after one email has been sent

Follow-up to a proposal that reps are waiting on customers to return

CRM software can be a useful tool for businesses of all sizes, but it’s important to select a truly effective platform that can scale with your needs. If you look for these 12 features in CRM software before you buy, you can’t go wrong.

Credits: Marisa Sanfilippo Date: Updated on November 17, 2020 Source: https://www.businessnewsdaily.com/10090-crm-software-features.html