15 Digital Marketing Automation Best Practices 202416 min read

Marketing automation in one word is the technology we all have been looking for to elevate our business on digital platforms.

This allows businesses to target customers with automated messages across emails, websites, and other social media platforms.

If you are into digital marketing, then you cannot afford to eliminate your business’s marketing automation best practices.

Tactical marketing automation helps businesses grow effectively.

This means gaining more audiences and attracting more customers and potential leads for your business. 

A well-established marketing automation strategy has the potential to generate a higher volume of leads, increase conversion rates, and even boost a higher return on investment (ROI).

Nearly 90% of marketers have included some specific marketing automation tactics in their businesses. 

This proves that you also need to implement the right tools to stay in the competition.

This article will help you understand which marketing automation tactics will be right for your business.

About Automation Software

Marketing automation software helps to engage your leads and provide solutions to customer needs through automated systems.

According to McKinsey & Company,

74% of leaders find that automation has helped their employees save at least 11-30% of the time previously spent on manual processes.

Technically, specific software tools are involved in marketing automation best practices to conduct automated tasks.

These systems are set on automatic mode to save your precious time from doing it manually.

 Marketing automation software advantages—-

• fulfill customer needs
• provide the right information to the customers 
• helps maintain brand loyalty 
• boost conversions

15 Effective Marketing Automation Best Practices to Look For 

If you are still not into marketing automation then you are missing the most crucial point in your marketing plan.

Businesses so far have seen remarkable growth through using automation strategies.

The more you implement such best practices into your business, the better will be your reach.

Here we’ve discussed the 15 most important marketing automation strategies—-

1. Segment Your Target Market

Segmenting your target audience is a very crucial step for ensuring the growth of your business. 

The right marketing automation strategies can help identify qualified leads.

Moreover, choosing appropriate automated marketing software tools will be highly beneficial for your business.

Once you create your audience segments, you can then approach them with your marketing campaigns.

To achieve this, you can collect vital information related to your leads.

Demographic information, geographic information, age, social status, buying behavior, customer journey, etc. details like these can be used to segment your targets.

If you want more accurate segmentation, use marketing automation software with integrated CRM.

In this way, you can effectively market your brand to the right audience and increase your sales productivity. 

2. Setting Lead Stages To Identify Your Potential Leads 

Setting up stages in your marketing automation plan can help generate more leads for your business.

Mapping out the lead stages can also let you identify the prospects, who are more likely to be converted.

It is important to identify your potential targets before you market your brand through automated processes.

Segmenting for identifying targets —

• The anonymous visitors: 

You can identify unknown visitors from your automated system who browse your site but do not provide you with any of their personal details.

• The known visitors:

These are the types you can easily identify as your targets for your marketing campaigns.

• The interactive ones: 

These are the prospects you want to nurture and turn into qualified leads. They are the ones who are most engaged with you—it can be an email subscriber or someone who downloads your content and shows interest in your overall service.

• Marketing Qualified Lead (MQL):

An MQL is qualified for sales outreach.

• Sales Qualified Lead (SQL): 

When a lead is qualified, you can then follow up and involve him in your sales marketing plan.

• The winning customers:

When leads decide to purchase your service then they become your valuable customers.

• Lost prospects:

These are the prospects who do not fulfill the criteria of being a potential customer for your business. You can revisit them later on.

• Disqualified:

These are the people who never show any interest in your service nor do they participate in any marketing activities you provide for them. Thus, they are considered disqualified.

3. Put Automated Chatting Bot on Your Business Sites 

It is important to offer 24/7 support to your customers to keep them engaged with your service.

Adding a chatbot on your business sites can help your customers reach you faster.

Chatbots help connects you with your audience through effective communication.

The engagement rate will increase in this process and your customers will have a better user experience.

Your chatbots will take care of answering all the frequently asked questions and provide users with valuable information.

Moreover, this entire process will help you get more new qualified contacts.

You can even improve your content and services by analyzing the feedback, given by the site visitors through chatbots.

4. An Automated Drip Campaign is an Effective Marketing Tool

A drip campaign is an automated system, where a set of pre-drafted automated emails are loaded beforehand, to be sent to the customers on occasion.

These automated emails are created using the personalized data of the customers, in this case, customer behavior patterns are considered to create such customized emails.

You can use these emails for different purposes for engaging your targets. It can be—

• an email to welcome new customers, 
• an email for campaign promotion or product discount offers,
• a mailing for the new clients’ onboarding,
• or an email about a new product launch.

 The email drip campaigns are usually upgraded according to the preferences of the leads.

So, if a new lead joins as a subscriber, then this system will automatically send him a welcome message. 

Or, if a customer visits a particular product page on your website, then this automated system will quickly send recommendations or new updates for you related to those products. 

Automated messages sent via drip campaigns have 80% higher opening rates when compared to other campaigns.

It significantly helps increase ROI and boosts sales productivity.

You can design your email drip campaigns in a more user-friendly version by using the drag-and-drop campaign builder editing tool.

This tool will allow you to make attractive email templates for boosting audience engagement.  

5. Use Marketing Automation for Lead Nurturing Campaigns

A nurturing campaign is required to turn your potential prospects into target customers.

This transition is not easy, as many visitors are not ready to buy your products right away. 

This kind of campaign helps nurture the leads for a specific time and then gradually influence them to convert. 

You need to identify the right content and the right marketing automation strategies to guide your leads into conversion.

First, you need to create awareness about your services among your prospects.

Let them discover what you sell and how their problems can be solved using your products.

Once the awareness phase is completed, the next is the consideration stage where your targets try to make sense of every content you provide for them.

They will learn more about your products in this process.

Once they are done verifying your offers and services, they will finally decide on conversion. 

So far, marketing automation for lead nurturing has successfully increased qualified leads for many businesses.

6. Use Mailchimp To Grow Your Business 

Mailchimp is quite a popular marketing automation platform that helps grow businesses. 

You can customize your messages or e-mails here by using the pre-set automation with defined triggers.

With the help of Mailchimp, you can set timelines to send automated emails at a specific time to all your contacts.

Mailchimp has several useful features that can be used to build long-term customer relationships. 

Mailchimp has some wonderful features—

• automated personalized emails 
• campaigns for lead generation
• personalized customer engagement
• analytics for tracking visitors
• unique email templates
• creating landing pages 
• you can create targeted ads for your audience 
• it has CRM tools to manage audience data

7. Automated Birthday Emails As a Customer Retention Tactic

Sending automated birthday emails to your customers helps build loyalty and maintain long-term relationships with them. 

This e-commerce marketing automation strategy is the perfect step to delight and retains your customers.

Offer special discounts to your users on the occasion of their birthday.

Make announcements on exciting service offers via personalized birthday emails, for all your users.

This automation strategy is effective in making your customers purchase your service.

According to sources, the conversion rates have significantly increased for many businesses, after using this type of automated email.

It is indeed a great way to make your customers feel special on their birthdays.

Personalized birthday emails work as a wonder in enticing your customers.

Offering discounts and offers as birthday gifts is a way to show customer appreciation.

Showing this kind of sweet gesture helps bring out the best responses from your customers.

Getting personal with your customers does help in building trust around your brand, and as a result, helps retain them.

If you haven’t tried this technique yet, then you definitely must try it, to see some great changes.

8. Lead Magnet Automation

A lead magnet campaign is conducted through a software-automated lead generation system to win more leads.

The entire process is automated with the help of AI tools, where leads are being nurtured for conversion, using lead magnets. 

Lead magnets are used to provide solutions to customers in exchange for their contact information.

Marketers usually make use of lead magnets to leverage sales leads.

Some examples of lead magnets are— 

• Access to free download 
• E-books
• Webinars
• Trial subscriptions
• White papers
• E-newsletters
• Tutorials
• Templates

This kind of automation system is capable of producing better sales outcomes and boosts ROI most effectively. 

9. Asking Customers For Feedback Through Intensive Surveys

It is not possible to personally interact with thousands of customers every day.

Sending them surveys and taking feedback through an automation process helps save your precious time. 

Customer quizzes will help you understand their wants and needs more accurately. 

Every feedback you gain through such an automation process help upgrade your service better. 

Ask them all about the positive and negative experiences they had while using your products.

Take the best suggestions and implement them to improve your service and products.

Surveying your customers is one effective example of marketing automation that you must try.

This helps in boosting the user experience with your brand.

You must do online surveys most often to see how far your marketing skills have improved in shaping your service better. 

Thus, customer feedback plays a significant role in leveraging growth for your business.

10. Keep a Personal And Friendly Tone In Your E-mail Content

Automated personalized messages or e-mails must be written in a way that your customers can relate to your brand the most.

The content you put must have a friendly vibe to increase engagement rates.

A conversational tone must be present in your content to keep your customers engaged right from the beginning.

Remember, you can ensure more opening rates through automated e-mails if it is user-friendly and highly engaging.

To make it personalized, use the recipient’s name before sending out an automated email.

Including a call-to-action (CTA button) at the end of the email will be great for your leads, to make a quick purchasing decision.

It is not surprising to see why these automated marketing software tools are in hype nowadays.

11. Observe and Learn From The Top Performers In Your Industry

Every industry has successful top performers and we all need to learn from their success stories.

They are the ones who have spent so much of their time researching and evaluating strategies that have worked for them.

Learning from others’ experiences gives you the advantage to perform better in any field.

For that, you need to learn from the mistakes of the high performers. 

Analyze things like what marketing automation strategies are they using, or which one helped them generate the most leads.

Or, what automated marketing software they have been using to leverage business growth.

Research and analyze which automated software has been ranked the top position in leveraging business growth.

Implement software based on its performance and how others reviewed them.

When you analyze details like these and implement the best practices, you know you are on the right track.

12. Update Your Service Through Automation Analysis  

From time to time, you need to make sure all your marketing automation tactics are providing positive results.

To achieve that, you need to analyze how each metric is benefitting you in leveraging your business growth.

Analyze thoroughly how each of your marketing automation strategies has been profitable so far. 

This means tracking site visitors, measuring bounce rates, open rates, engagement rates, click-through rates, subscriptions, etc., and others. 

Identify and analyze which technique is working best for you and which one is not up to the mark.

With changing times, everything needs to be updated.

You need to thoroughly do an in-depth analysis of each of the marketing automation metrics.

That way, you can find more clues to improve your business operations.

You must constantly evaluate all your marketing methods oftentimes, and be prepared to make any necessary changes when required.

Constant evaluation will ensure more revenue growth for your business.

13. Use Effective Business Automation Tools 

The right automated marketing software tools are necessary to drive your business operations efficiently.

Marketing automation tools are software programs that automate all the technical processes of your organization.

Why are these tools an important part of marketing automation tactics? 

They have enough power to improve customer service and increase the overall efficiency of your business operations.

Most corporate leaders said that using the right business automation tools has brought them productive results.

These tools let you understand your customers better.

Starting from monitoring and progress tracking features to boosting user experience, these software tools are dynamic enough to sort out the right audiences for your business. 

There is no end to interactions, as we have several social media platforms now to communicate.

With the help of automation software, certain tasks have become easy to process automatically.

Presently, automated marketing software tools are in huge demand. 

These are used to implement some solid marketing automation tactics into practice.

Businesses have now adapted to several marketing automation tactics to conduct smooth business operations.

These systems have so far helped leverage business operations for many marketers. 

Some top business automation software tools you can try —-

• Camunda

• BonitaSoft

• Kissflow

• ProcessMaker

• Appian

• Webcon

• Nintex

• SweetProcess

• Smartsheet

• Laserfiche

• Comindware Tracker

• ConnectWise Manage

• Wrike

• Quixey

• Process Street

14. Precisely Define Your Automated Processes 

If you are planning to utilize digital marketing automation processes to leverage your business then you must do it effectively.

You need to make sure the right marketing automation tactics are being implemented.

It is important to present the message clearly and concisely to boost engagement rates while reducing bounce rates. 

Too many pop-up messages that look confusing can irritate your customers and that may increase bounce rates.

Or, asking too many irrelevant personal questions on sensitive topics can push your leads away.

Thus, it is essential to define your marketing approaches in a user-friendly manner.

For example, keep your survey forms short and avoid asking questions that are too personal or controversial to answer.

Provide well-sorted automated systems to leverage better customer experience. 

Only use call-to-action hyperlinks that are most important and avoid using unnecessary ones. 

It can be about event registration, product list & purchase option, whitepaper download, chatting bot for service-related inquiries, etc.

The messenger automated bots should be prompt to answer all the relevant questions related to your services. 

Hence, you need to be very thoughtful when setting up all your marketing automation tactics.

Make sure, they are properly communicating with your audience.

There should be an engaging factor added to every automated system attached to all your digital channels.

Especially if you are using systems like—— in-app messages, push notifications, SMS, emails, or, IVR (Interactive Voice Response)

Analyze the outcomes of each automated system to see which one is working best for your business.

All in all, you need to make sure all your marketing automation strategies are successfully delivering positive outcomes.

15. Software Automation Tools for Social Media Marketing

Software automation tools alone have generated huge revenues for thousands of organizations through social media marketing. 

So far, these automated marketing software tools have significantly optimized businesses on social media platforms.

Implementing the right marketing automation strategies can boost your online marketing, in no time.

From scheduling Facebook posts, automated videos, and chatbots, to customized e-mails, these automated tools are doing great for leveraging businesses online. 

If you have an e-commerce business site or planning to build one, then think of adding automated tools to run a smooth business operation. 

Marketing automation tactics help a great deal in boosting the significant growth of your business through social media campaigns.

8 best social media management software we have today—– 

1. Sprout Social
2. Hootsuite
3. Zoho
4. MeetEdgar
5. Loomly 
6. Sendible
7. Buffer
8. SocialPilot

Wrapping Up– 15 Digital Marketing Automation Best Practices

From the time these marketing automated tools came into use, no one thought they can bring productive results. 

Today, marketers can’t think of doing their business without the proper implementation of marketing automation best practices. 

Big or small emerging businesses have noticed significant growth after using certain automation strategies. 

It is important to understand which marketing automation strategies are best for your business operations. 

While using automation systems, you need to make sure these tools are generating effective results for your business.

To achieve this, you need to evaluate the outcomes of each metric.

Look for the immediate gaps to improve and then modify your automation strategies accordingly. 

The right marketing automation tactics can help you close more business deals and help boost higher customer satisfaction rates for you. 

Every business should take advantage of such automated marketing software tools to leverage its overall business operations. 

Let these tools be the reason to leverage your business growth and extend your brand’s reach.

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