The social media automation advantage that every marketer needs to know

If you are a business owner or head of a marketing department, then you probably know how typical business days go. One meeting after another – all in order to make sure that the team is on the way to achieving quarterly goals. In addition, you still need to double-check how the campaign runs on social networks and so on and so forth and so on…

It’s hard to find a balance and be sure that your marketing efforts are directed to the right audience at the right time, while delivering the right message. That is why many companies turn to marketing automation.

What is “marketing automation”?

This term refers to software whose purpose is to carry out marketing activities (publishing posts on social media, sending emails, etc.). Manual labor is not required. When used correctly, such software grows potential buyers with the help of personalized content, turning them into loyal customers.

Let’s look at the few explanations of why social marketing automation is important for marketers and business owners.

1. It saves time

Here are some noteworthy facts:

Automation of posts and advertising on social networks saves more than 6 hours a week.

The response rate to letters (Reply Rate) is increased by 250% with the automation of mailings aimed at establishing initial contact and follow-up.

Automated tools save you up to 80% of the time required to schedule appointments with clients.

You no longer need to go into the program every morning and plan your publications on social networks or send emails one at a time. Thanks to automation, you can plan everything in advance and be free for other marketing events.

In addition, integration with various tools avoids jumping from platform to platform – and saves you time.

2. It helps to extract more from the CRM system

First, let us draw your attention to the fact that CRM systems and automation programs are not the same thing.

A customer relationship management system, or CRM (Customer Relationship Management), is more focused on establishing contact and is mainly used by the sales department. Such programs allow you to save contact information (names, addresses, phone numbers, sometimes – features of customer behavior or details of the last conversation).

Software for marketing automation is intended, in fact, for marketing. In addition to saving important contact information, it shows where the users are located in the funnel, what resources they downloaded, which pages they interacted with, and most importantly, they allow you to automatically complete tasks that are set based on these interactions.

Both CRM and automation software are good on their own, but in combination they bring even more fruit. Using an automation tool with an integrated CRM system, you see contacts from sales managers and preferred marketing activities – all in one place. This gives you a much deeper picture of the relationship of an individual consumer with your brand, allowing you to choose the best ways to establish contact.

For example, social marketing automation integrated with CRM can be used to send targeted emails directly to contacts in your system. Without this integration, you would have to manually download all the contacts from the CRM database, wasting time and money and at risk of committing an erroneous user action. So, if someone inaccurately enters an email address, an individual will not receive an email and the sale will not take place.

3. It provides data drawing a “panoramic picture”

You need direct access to critical KPIs. But if you use 2-3 different tools, then you will have to move from one platform to another, and this will complicate and lengthen the process of linking indicators to a marketing campaign.

Using one tool specifically designed to track the impact of marketing efforts on sales, you get enough visibility to be able to dramatically change your strategy. Poor results will not come as a surprise to you.

4. The sequence

Automation tools allow your online audience to get the same, consistent experience, planned on the basis of their actions.

For example, when a user subscribes to your blog, you can set up an algorithm that automatically sends a welcome letter that will offer articles and possibly give a follow-up offer. You can also automatically send articles as they appear to your subscribers.

5. Automation allows you to create personalized content

Personalized content increases the Transaction Rate by 6 times, yet 70% of companies neglect it!

Think about it yourself, what would you like to receive – a newsletter where the message is delivered in common, standard words or a letter, as if specially created for you? Email with your name, which says: “We think you will be interested in X, Y and Z, because you downloaded the offer N1”. Most likely, you will pay attention to the second option.