EVOLVE Business and Professional Magazine November 2016 | Page 33

Automate Your Marketing

for Greater Success
by Charlie Van Derven

H

ave you ever filled out a form online to get a

Example 1. A customer finds your company’s website

your information, it is likely that you received an

on to “like” your Facebook page. They then return to your

coupon, a recipe, or a guide? When you provided

email shortly thereafter. In its simplest form, this is marketing
automation. The email content was developed ahead of time,

and submitting your information triggered it to be sent to you.

Depending on how you react to that first email, additional points
of automated communication may also be triggered.

The beauty of automated marketing is that your business can

through a general search or a Facebook ad. They may go

website to read blog entries and sign up for your newsletter,
which they receive the next time you get around to putting

a newsletter together. Without marketing automation, their
experience with your brand ends when they leave
your website.

be in many places at once—wherever and whenever consumers

Example 2. To attract new people to your website, you

to your business. With automated marketing technologies,

your expertise and provides value for your target audience.

are online—so you don’t miss an opportunity to attract them
businesses of all sizes can execute a sophisticated marketing
strategy that was once only available to those with large
marketing budgets.

What is Automated Marketing?
Generally, marketing automation means using software and

personalized, useful content to automatically nurture prospect

and client relationships to turn prospects into clients and clients
into delighted customers. Compare the following examples:

place digital ads or create a helpful guide that relates to
Future customers visit your website and provide their

contact information, and your business, using marketing
automation, automatically provides them with ongoing

valuable content via email and social media to nurture the
relationship long term.

With an automated marketing program you can track

each action your prospects take online and ensure that your

business is presenting meaningful and attractive content at every

opportunity. In these examples, automated marketing would help
you lead prospective customers to an appealing and user-friendly
website, a current and active Facebook page, entertaining and

informative blog entries, and a useful newsletter. The more your
prospects interact with your brand, the greater the trust that is
built and the likelier they are to buy from you instead of
your competitors.

NOVEMBER 2016 | 33 |