Imagine you could press a few buttons and have a robot handle 90% of your business's most crucial (but repetitive) tasks. Sounds pretty lovely, doesn't it?
Luckily, you don't have to imagine for much longer. Automation is taking over the industry — and from how it can boost sales productivity by 14.5%, it's not surprising to see why.
Marketing automation workflows are essential to any business looking to boost marketing output. Simply put, you can focus on more complex and strategic initiatives by automating simple marketing tasks.
Want a piece of the pie?
In this blog post, we'll discuss seven marketing automation workflows that you need in your arsenal. These workflows will help you streamline your marketing process and achieve better results — let's go!
Marketing Workflows That Will Elevate Your Business
Gated Content Offerings
For the uninitiated, gated content refers to content behind a paywall or registration to access. Examples include:
- eBooks
- Email courses
- Whitepapers
- Webinars
- Product demos
Top Benefits
- Gated content offerings are an excellent way to generate leads and grow your email list.
- Expert content will develop your reputation as an industry leader.
- By offering valuable content in exchange for contact information, you can capture leads that can be marketed to in the future.
- You can then use this information to segment your leads and personalize your marketing communications.
- Additionally, gated content ensures that only serious prospects are consuming your best content offerings.
How to Structure Your Automation
The marketing automation workflow for gated content offerings is simple: create a landing page with an offer (such as an eBook, white paper, or course), add a form to collect lead information, and set up automated emails to deliver the content and follow-up with the lead.
There are a few different ways you can implement gated content into your marketing process:
- Offer gated content in exchange for an email address: When users submit their email address to access your gated content, they automatically join an email list. From there, you can send them automated marketing emails with additional offers or content.
- Include gated content in a lead nurture campaign: Once a lead has been captured, you can include links to gated content in your automated lead nurture emails. This is a great way to keep your leads engaged and move them further down the marketing funnel.
- Use gated content as a lead magnet: Gated content can be used to attract new leads by offering it as a free download on your website or social media channels. When promoting your offer, include a call-to-action (CTA) that directs users to a landing page where they can enter their contact information to access the content.
Customer Feedback Collection
Customer feedback is critical for any business looking to improve its products or services long-term. Collecting feedback can generate valuable insights into their needs and wants.
Top Benefits
- By understanding what your customers like and don’t like, you can make changes to meet their needs better.
- Customer feedback can also help you identify areas of your business that need improvement.
- If you constantly receive negative feedback about a particular aspect of your business, it may be time to make some changes.
How to Structure Your Automation
There are a few different ways you can collect customer feedback:
- Post-purchase surveys: You can use survey software to create and send out surveys to your customers via a post-purchase email series. Since the purchase experience is still fresh in their minds, you're more likely to get accurate feedback.
- Collect feedback via customer support: Another great way to collect customer feedback is through your customer support team. Whenever a customer contacts support or communicates with a chatbot, ask them for their feedback when the ticket is resolved. You can also include a survey in your automated support emails — this is a great way to collect feedback from customers who may not have contacted you directly.
- Trigger survey emails based on satisfaction score: If you're tracking NPS, satisfaction, or other adjacent metrics, you can collect feedback when these scores exceed or fall below a certain threshold. If you time it right, you can even retain customers about to churn! Unhappy customers can tell you where to improve, while happy ones can tell you where to double down.
Product Review Request
If you've ever purchased an item on Amazon and received a card asking you to leave a review, you've felt the IRL version of this workflow. In a digital economy, ratings and reviews can mean the difference between success and failure — especially if you're on platforms like Google, Amazon, and Yelp.
Top Benefits
- Positive reviews generate social proof for future customers.
- By understanding what customers like and don’t like about your product, you can make changes to address their concerns.
- Customer reviews can also help improve your search engine ranking.
How to Structure Your Automation
There are a few different ways you can structure your product review automation workflow — here are a few things to keep in mind:
- Post-purchase email prompt: Much like collecting customer feedback, the post-purchase window is when the proverbial iron is hot. 80% of reviews come from post-purchase emails! Seize the opportunity to send an email series prompting customers to leave a review. It's beneficial to incentivize them with a discount or similar offer. That way, you get a review, a repeat sale, and the customer saves money — a win-win-win!
- Time your automation carefully: Be mindful of the customer journey and when the review process can occur. Usually, you can prompt your audience almost immediately post-purchase. But if you sell something like mattresses, your customer will need a few days, weeks, or even months to form an opinion fully. You'll want to wait the appropriate amount of time before sending a review email.
Birthday/Anniversary Celebration
Your customers are the lifeblood of your business, so it's vital to show them how much you appreciate their loyalty. What better way to do that than by celebrating their birthday or anniversary?
Top Benefits
- By wishing them a happy birthday or anniversary, you're building goodwill and ensuring they know they're valued.
- This can help turn one-time buyers into lifelong fans.
How to Structure Your Automation
There are a few different ways you can structure this marketing automation workflow — here are a few things to keep in mind:
- Send an email on the customer's special day: This is the most basic version of this marketing automation workflow. On the customer's birthday or anniversary, you simply send them an email wishing them a happy day. You can also include a coupon or discount code to sweeten the deal.
- Create a marketing campaign around the customer's special day: If you want to go above and beyond, you can create a marketing campaign around the customer's special day. This could include everything from sending personalized gifts to giving them early access to new products or sales.
- Make it personal: The best way to ensure your customers feel appreciated is to make this marketing automation workflow as personal as possible. Include parameters in your birthday email so it says "Happy Birthday, {NAME}!" instead of just "Happy Birthday!". This slight difference can go a long way. You can even comment on their purchase history — do they have a favourite item? Do they purchase frequently? All of it is valuable information.
Lead Qualification
Lead scoring/qualification is the process of assigning a numeric score to each lead based on their likelihood of becoming a paying customer. This score is typically based on factors such as:
- Demographic information (location, job title, industry)
- Engagement data (website activity, email clicks)
- Sales data (previous purchases, lifetime value)
Lead scoring is a valuable tool for marketing and sales teams because it helps them prioritize their prospects through the sales funnel. By identifying which leads are most likely to convert, they can focus their efforts on the hottest prospects and close more deals.
Top Benefits
- Get a 360-degree view of prospective customers throughout the research and shopping process (a customer data platform will help you with this).
- Helping marketing and sales teams prioritize their prospects.
- Identifying which leads are most likely to convert.
- Increasing close rates and generating more revenue.
How to Structure Your Automation
The marketing automation workflow for lead scoring is often concurrent with the lead nurturing workflow; you'll want to incorporate scoring and qualification into the whole automation suite. There are a few different ways you can implement lead scoring into your marketing process:
- Include a lead score in your CRM: By adding a lead score field to your CRM, you can track and store each prospect’s score in one place. This makes it easy for sales teams to prioritize their prospects and follow up with the hottest leads.
- Send leads with high scores to sales: Once a lead’s score reaches a certain threshold, you can automatically send them to sales. This ensures that only qualified prospects are being contacted by sales, saving them time and increasing the chances of closing a deal.
- Trigger marketing emails based on score: You can set up your marketing automation software to send marketing emails to leads based on their score. For example, you could send an email with product information to leads with high scores, and a case study to leads with lower scores.
Customer Services Auto-responses
Customer service auto-responses are automated email responses that are sent to customers in response to their inquiries. These responses can be triggered by a customer’s action. Examples include opening an email, clicking on a link, or in response to a specific keyword.
Top Benefits
- Saving time for customer service representatives.
- Reducing the number of support tickets.
- Offering 24/hour support.
- Increasing customer satisfaction.
How to Implement Customer Service Auto-Responses
When implementing customer service auto-responses, there are a few things you’ll want to keep in mind:
- Keep it simple: Customer service auto-responses aim to quickly resolve the customer’s issue. Keep your responses concise and to the point.
- Include a call to action: Every response should include a call to action, such as a link to a knowledge base article or contact information for customer support.
- Personalize where possible: Personalized responses are more likely to be read and acted upon than generic ones. Where possible, include the customer’s name or company in the response.
- Monitor results: Monitor your customer service auto-responses to see what’s working and what needs improvement. Make changes as necessary to improve the efficacy of your responses.
Upselling/Cross-selling
Upselling refers to the practice of convincing prospective customers to purchase a more expensive product or upgrade to a higher-priced service. On the other hand, cross-selling is the practice of selling complementary products to customers.
Top Benefits
- Generating more revenue
- Increasing the average order value
- Building customer loyalty
How to Implement Upselling/Cross-Selling
When implementing upselling and cross-selling into your marketing automation workflows, there are a few things you’ll want to keep in mind:
- Offer products that complement the original purchase: You don’t want to sell a product that the customer doesn’t need or won’t use. You can also base your upsells/cross-sells on your customer's existing purchase history.
- Timing is everything: You know your customer journey best, so keep it in mind as you build this marketing automation workflow. For the most part, you can cross-sell at the point of purchase, and upsell after the customer has had time to engage with your offering already.
- Segment appropriately to economize: Knowing your customer spending habits is crucial, especially if you have limits on how many executions your marketing automation platform allows you. Upselling is best for existing customers with large AOVs while cross-selling is optimal for newer customers.
Event Notification
If your business is hosting an event, whether it’s a webinar, conference, or training session, you’ll want to let your leads know about it. Event notifications are automated emails sent to leads to notify them of an upcoming event.
Top Benefits
- Generating interest and hype in your event.
- Increasing attendance.
- Fostering customer engagement and loyalty.
How to Implement Event Notifications
- Create a sense of urgency: Use language that creates a sense of urgency and encourages the recipient to take action, such as “Register today! Seats are filling up fast.”
- Include all the relevant information: The email should include all the relevant information about the event, such as the date, time, location, and a link to register.
- Use images: Include an image of the event or speaker in the email to pique interest.
- Make it personal: Event notifications are more likely to be read and acted upon if they’re personalized. Include the recipient’s name in the email's subject line and/or body.
- Time it well: Sending an event notification four months in advance is pointless; you'll want to be strategic about when you schedule this automation. If you anticipate people traveling, you may want to extend your timeline. If the event is online, you're better off reminding guests a few days before.
Essential Marketing Automation Tools
You'll notice several automation workflows rely on email to engage with your audience, but you aren't limited to this channel. Marketing automation platforms can span across social media, direct mail, SMS, and beyond. Here are just a few automation tools you can leverage:
Email Marketing Automation Workflows
- Mailchimp. The most comprehensive email marketing tool out there; scheduling, design, and analytics all in one place.
- Constant Contact. One of the most accessible automation tools available; great for small businesses.
- AWeber. A user-friendly automation tool that offers a wide variety of email templates
Social Media Automation Workflows
- Hootsuite. The classic scheduling and analytics tool — you can't go wrong here.
- CoSchedule. An all-in-one marketing tool that helps content marketers plan, publish, optimize, and measure their blog posts and social media updates.
- Buffer. A Hootsuite alternative that that's ideal for smaller businesses.
Lead Nurturing Automation Workflows
- Pardot. A popular sales suite that integrates with marketing software like HubSpot.
- HubSpot Sales CRM. Popular with SMEs for its marketing and sales integrations.
- Keap (formerly Infusionsoft). A strong choice for small businesses, especially those in the e-commerce space.
Content Marketing Automation Workflows
- Kapost. Popular with B2B marketers, this automation tool helps with content creation, curation, and distribution.
- DivvyHQ. This marketing calendar tool helps content marketers plan, create, and publish their content.
- Brand24. A popular tool in the industry for monitoring competitors, trends, and content.
Enterprise-Scale Marketing Automation Workflows
- Salesforce. A popular solution combining CRM, journey mapping, and more.
- Marketo. An automation tool with features like lead management and webinar hosting.
- Oracle Eloqua. An enterprise-grade marketing automation tool with comprehensive features.
While marketing automation can save you time and improve your marketing output, it's not a silver bullet for all your marketing woes. It's important to consider which automation workflows will benefit your business before development.
Automate Your Marketing to Boost Your Bottom Line
Marketing automation can be a game-changer for businesses of all sizes. By automating repetitive and time-consuming marketing tasks, you free up your team to focus on strategies that will have a greater impact on your bottom line.
Not sure where to start? Portage Labs can help. Our team of marketing automation experts can help you orient your martech stack for optimal output — that way, you can focus on what you do best. Get in touch today for a free consultation!
Frequently Asked Questions
What are some examples of how marketing automation works?
To automate a marketing process, you need to build a marketing workflow. This can take many forms on the customer side: receiving a reminder email about an abandoned cart, getting blog post recommendations based on a recent purchase, etc. On the business side, most workflows look the same:
- Trigger — any sort of signal, like a purchase, link click, post engagement, cart abandonment, date and time, etc.
- Response — an automated action that executes after (immediately or with a timed delay), like sending an email or modifying an internal metric.
How do you create an automated workflow?
Users can build an automated workflow themselves on platforms like Zapier, Mailchimp, and beyond. If you'd like to leverage a more robust platform like Eloqua or Marketo, you're better off consulting with a marketing automation expert (like the ones at Portage Labs!).
How do you automate a marketing process?
Automations for these processes are generally called workflows. Marketing automation workflows can be built on dedicated platforms; Eloqua and Marketo are examples of comprehensive suites that let your build workflows for social media, search engines, and beyond. Others, like Buffer or Mailchimp, are more specifically oriented towards social media or email marketing automation workflows.
