The 8-Step Information to Create the Excellent Advertising and marketing Automation Workflow

Ever end up caught within the endless “forms” of promoting processes? Leads slip via the cracks, conversions falter, and also you’re left feeling defeated.

Seize your espresso as a result of we’re about to remodel your advertising and marketing chaos into systemized success with advertising and marketing automation workflows. These instruments save time, enhance effectivity, appeal to extra leads, and drive gross sales — all with out the soul-sucking handbook duties.

However how? Dive into this 8-step advertising and marketing automation workflow information that may lay down the inspiration for achievement, full with 5 workflow examples to get you began.   

 

Are advertising and marketing automation workflows necessary? 

In response to Marketo, 80% of entrepreneurs think about advertising and marketing automation to be the highest contributor to their success. Advertising and marketing automation workflows free you from these tedious, redundant, low-value duties so you possibly can give attention to what really issues for what you are promoting.

Investing in advertising and marketing automation is a great choice for any firm, with many companies seeing a whopping 451% improve in leads after implementation. 

Right here’s why companies ought to use advertising and marketing workflows: 

• Productiveness: Save time and sources by automating repetitive duties.
• Reminders: By no means miss a factor with well timed reminders and notifications.
• Scalability: Handle giant volumes of duties, enterprise processes, leads, and prospects effectively.
• Improved ROI: Get your funding again via larger conversions, lowered gross sales cycles, and improved retention. 
• Alignment: Enhance collaboration, deliver groups collectively, and scale back mismanagement.

Supply: EngageBay

The right way to create a surprising advertising and marketing automation workflow in 8 straightforward steps

This 8-step information will make it easier to via the method of making an efficient and highly effective advertising and marketing automation workflow. You’ll must familiarize your self with triggers, actions, and time controls to assist construct your workflow. 

Triggers are occasions that begin an automation sequence. Consider it because the “beginning pistol” that goes off in the beginning of a race. Web site visits, purchases, interactions, and particular dates and occasions are all examples of triggers.

Actions will be duties that happen on account of a set off. Merely put, it’s what the workflow does when a set off is triggered. Examples of actions embrace assigning duties, updating information, scoring, sending emails, or launching a brand new automation. 

Time controls allow you to management and schedule actions in a workflow, guaranteeing that actions occur on the proper time. Delays, time home windows, frequency, and date-based scheduling are all examples of time controls. 

Let’s illustrate how these elements work with the assistance of a welcome e mail workflow.

• Set off: A consumer indicators up for a e-newsletter. 
• Motion: Ship a welcome e mail instantly.
• Time management: Wait for 2 days.
• Motion: Ship a follow-up e mail with a pretty provide.

1. Outline the top purpose of your advertising and marketing workflow

Defining the top purpose gives readability and focus, offering a transparent path for your entire workflow and serving to you obtain the target effectively. 

Earlier than making a advertising and marketing workflow, you should first perceive the top purpose and scope. Ask your self:

• Why do you want a advertising and marketing workflow? 
• What are you hoping to realize? 
• What key efficiency indicators (KPIs) do it’s good to measure? 
• What’s the finances? 
• Who must collaborate with whom?

For instance, if what you are promoting desires to create a advertising and marketing automation workflow to draw extra paid prospects via downloadable content material, the purpose could possibly be to transform 20% of downloaders into paid prospects via a focused lead-nurturing e mail sequence with customized content material. 

2. Set aims that will help you obtain your purpose

Whereas setting clear aims can deliver readability and focus, how do you outline aims that correctly align together with your objectives?

One of the simplest ways to set clear aims is to determine your audience. That is very true for workflows that contain lead era, buyer acquisition and retention, upselling and cross-selling, and cart abandonment. Perceive your very best buyer profile (ICP), their preferences, and the channels they use to work together together with your model.

Right here’s the way you set aims:

• Outline roles and duties: Ensures everybody is aware of their function, leading to simpler accountability.
• Set milestones: Monitor progress and necessary KPIs, making it simpler to regulate your workflows to realize the top purpose. 
• Present a street map: Aims act as a roadmap, guiding you and the group towards the top purpose with out deviation. 
• Assign duties and deadlines: Outline crystal-clear, particular duties for group members based mostly on necessities and experience. Monitor progress via KPIs. 

3. Establish key buyer touchpoints

Buyer touchpoints are any interactions prospects have together with your model, reminiscent of web sites, ads, emails, blogs, social media, assessment platforms like G2, and extra. 

Map out all key buyer touchpoints and interactions from the notice stage to post-purchase assist. This helps you perceive the general buyer journey and determine key set off factors to your automation workflows, permitting you to have interaction with prospects at varied levels.

4. Sketch the logical move

Earlier than implementing the software program workflow, sketch the primary logical move on paper. This prototype workflow may also help you shortly determine any needed changes.

Steps to sketch the logical move: 

• Establish key levels of your advertising and marketing automation: Define the primary levels of the method, like lead nurturing, conversion, retention, and others. 
• Outline triggers: Establish all the important thing set off occasions and incorporate them in your sketch. 
• Make the most of conditional logic: Apply conditional logic based mostly on eventualities and triggers, and map out the completely different paths your logic might take based mostly on the client journey and triggers. 
• Evaluation, tweak, and assessment once more: As you proceed, assessment the prototype workflow to determine points, gaps, and areas for enchancment. Make changes so your workflow aligns together with your aims. 

5. Use a advertising and marketing automation software program

Advertising and marketing automation software program is the core instrument for constructing workflows. It allows you to seize, nurture, and rating leads, handle contact lists, guarantee constant messaging throughout a number of channels, and, above all, automate crucial advertising and marketing processes. 

With a whole bunch of automation software program for varied industries, budgets, and group necessities, selecting the best one can typically be difficult. 

Right here’s a step-by-step information that will help you choose the appropriate one: 

1. Value: A very powerful and infrequently limiting issue when selecting an acceptable platform is the pricing. Most software program operates on a sliding scale mannequin (pricing based mostly on the variety of contacts) with completely different tiers for various characteristic units.
2. Scalability: As what you are promoting grows, you’ll must handle extra contacts and require extra options. Select software program that may develop with you.
3. Person interface: An awesome consumer interface can diminish productiveness and make it troublesome for you and your group to study the ropes. Go for software program with an intuitive, easy-to-use interface. 
4. Options: Record important options your organization wants earlier than looking for an acceptable platform.
5. Integrations: Can it combine with the present platforms and applied sciences? The software program you select ought to be capable of combine natively together with your present belongings, as this could join and transfer knowledge seamlessly.
6. Buyer assist: To familiarize your self with the platform, you’ll want all the assistance you will get. What varieties of assist does it provide? How fast is the response time? Does it provide onboarding and migration assist? 
7. Person critiques: Find out how others use the software program and the problems they could face. This may give you an inside peek that may’t be discovered by skimming via the official pages. Undergo case research, testimonial movies, and assessment platforms. 

By integrating together with your CRM system, these workflows can present worthwhile insights into buyer interactions and behaviors, enhancing your advertising and marketing methods.

6. Craft compelling content material, visuals, and creatives

As soon as the workflow is ready up, it is time to create the precise belongings. Compelling content material can appeal to your audience, enhance engagement, and result in conversions. 

All the time section your viewers into varied lists based mostly on demographics, conduct patterns, buy historical past, and different components, and rating them. This helps personalize and tailor your content material to particular person preferences. 

Use visuals to boost your narrative and seize consideration shortly. Visuals can embrace photographs, infographics, movies, and GIFs. Extra importantly, guarantee your content material and creatives align together with your model identification. Consistency is vital right here because it engages your viewers, fosters model fairness, and improves conversions. 

For instance, if you’re creating content material for an e mail marketing campaign, do the next:

• Section your viewers
• Write customized and tailor-made content material for every section
• Make use of attention-grabbing visuals
• Embody a call-to-action
• A/B check your emails

7. Measure your success (or failure)

Now that your advertising and marketing automation workflow is stay, it’s necessary to maintain monitor of KPIs and tweak your campaigns to take advantage of out of them. Your advertising and marketing automation software program does the heavy lifting for you by analyzing KPIs. 

Listed below are important KPIs to maintain monitor of: 

• ROI
• Open charges
• Click on-through fee (CTR)
• Inbox hit fee
• Social media engagement
• Bounce fee
• Lead scoring
• Lead conversion fee

Most automation software program gives dashboards and studies with qualitative and quantitative knowledge out of your campaigns. See what’s working and what’s not, and make the mandatory changes. Constantly split-test your workflows and campaigns to realize higher outcomes after every iteration.

8. Evaluation and optimize

That is the final, albeit essential, step to creating the proper workflow. 

After you get all of your metrics, analyze them, assessment, and optimize your workflows – the cycle goes on. That is the place your clearly outlined objectives and aims come into play. After analyzing your metrics, examine them together with your objectives to see should you’ve hit your targets.

If not, optimize, measure, repeat. 

5 easy-to-use advertising and marketing automation workflow examples

Whereas there are automation workflows for nearly each advertising and marketing course of, listed here are 5 of an important and steadily used workflows.

1. Welcome e mail workflow

The welcome e mail workflow accommodates a collection of emails that introduce the brand new consumer to your model. This makes it some of the necessary touchpoints in your entire buyer journey. 

It’s your alternative to say “Hello there” and begin constructing a relationship. Right here’s a pattern welcome e mail automation workflow: 

Supply: EngageBay

That is what a typical welcome e mail workflow appears to be like like: 

• Set off: A brand new consumer indicators up.
• Electronic mail 1: Thank them for signing up.
• Electronic mail 2: Share extra details about the model and embrace testimonials to construct connections and foster loyalty.
• Electronic mail 3: Optionally, ship an e mail to replace consumer preferences.

2. Lead magnet workflow

A lead magnet is a free advertising and marketing asset provided to prospects in alternate for his or her contact data. A lead magnet workflow helps you have interaction with leads and construct belief over time, enhancing conversions.

Here’s a pattern of lead magnet automation workflow: 

Supply: EngageBay

That is what a typical lead magnet workflow appears to be like like: 

• Set off: The consumer fills out a submission type with an e mail to obtain the lead magnet.
• Electronic mail 1: Ship a thank-you e mail expressing gratitude and reinforcing a constructive model picture.

3. Re-engagement workflow

A re-engagement e mail collection goals to resume relationships with prospects who’ve stopped participating together with your model.

As time passes, individuals will inadvertently decelerate engagement and switch into chilly leads. This could negatively have an effect on the sender’s popularity and decrease open charges. This workflow can revitalize your bond with them via a refreshed marketing campaign. 

Right here is an easy re-engagement automation workflow: 

Supply: EngageBay

A typical re-engagement automation workflow goes as follows: 

• Set off: Buyer is inactive/has not engaged for some time.
• Electronic mail 1: Ship a “We miss you” e mail to re-establish contact.
• Electronic mail 2: If there’s no response, ship a collection of fear-of-missing-out (FOMO) emails with rising reductions or unique promotions.
• Electronic mail 3: If there’s nonetheless no response, ship a goodbye e mail and take away the individual from the e-mail record.

 4. Deserted cart workflow

Generally, individuals add objects to their carts however go away with out finishing the acquisition. An deserted buying cart automation sequence can nudge these customers to complete the transaction.

Right here’s a pattern cart abandonment automation workflow: 

Supply: EngageBay

That is how a typical cart abandonment workflow performs out: 

• Set off: Person abandons cart.
• Electronic mail 1: Ship a reminder e mail encouraging the client to finish the acquisition.
• Electronic mail 2: Ship additional incentive emails to steer the client to finish the acquisition.
• Electronic mail 3: If the order stays incomplete, ship a suggestions request e mail to know why the acquisition was not made.
• Electronic mail 4: If the order is accomplished, exit the workflow and transfer to an upsell/cross-sell workflow for extra engagement.

5. Lead scoring workflow

A lead scoring workflow assigns a ‘rating’ to every buyer motion. This workflow qualifies your leads for different campaigns, together with lead nurturing.

Here’s a pattern of a lead scoring workflow: 

Supply: EngageBay

Lead scoring is often completed on this trend: 

• Set off: Person engages in actions.
• Constructive Actions: When a consumer engages in constructive actions (e.g., visits a gross sales web page or opens a welcome e mail), they earn a constructive rating.
• Unfavourable Actions: When a consumer engages in unfavourable actions (e.g., unsubscribes from an e mail or abandons a cart), they earn a unfavourable rating.
• Rating Weight: The load of the rating is determined by the importance of the actions. 

Finest practices to shine your advertising and marketing automation workflows

Advertising and marketing automation workflows are the hidden gems that convert onerous work into good work. Listed below are just a few greatest practices that’ll additional polish your automation workflows:

• Don’t automate blindly; automate duties which might be probably the most time-consuming and labor-inducing. 
• Have in mind the working prices of promoting automation software program. Many software program would possibly provide low base costs however have extra hidden prices. 
• Present correct coaching and assist to your group when introducing new software program.
• Maintain it easy. Advanced automation can get out of hand, particularly when coping with lots of knowledge. 
• Maintain your group members and stakeholders within the loop about workflow modifications.
• Align your advertising and marketing and gross sales groups to enhance communication and lead handoffs.

By thoughtfully embracing and implementing these greatest practices, you possibly can remodel your advertising and marketing workflows into profitable powerhouses. 

Wrapping up

Automating repetitive and mundane advertising and marketing duties can save time, improve productiveness, enhance conversions, and enhance ROI. 

With enhanced knowledge analytics and predictive modeling, advertising and marketing automation workflow can empower entrepreneurs to make extra knowledgeable choices, focusing on the appropriate viewers with the appropriate message on the proper time. The significance of embracing advertising and marketing automation workflows for what you are promoting can’t be understated. 

Remodel your advertising and marketing efforts at present for a extra productive and profitable tomorrow.

Unlock the way forward for advertising and marketing—uncover AI’s function within the largest advertising and marketing automation developments!

Edited by Monishka Agrawal