Seven Steps to Heaven: Marketing Automation with a CRM System [INFOGRAPHIC]

Want an easier working day? Better sharing of information, better customer experience management and fewer manual tasks? Leading marketing and advertising agencies are discovering that marketing automation is giving them the power to outflank their competition.

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Here are the steps you can take to automate your marketing, improving your customer service and your profits in the process:Step 1. Automate (or offload) data cleansing and updating:Step 2. Aggregate all of your customer data into one repository for ease of use and better analytical options:Step 3. Generate a complete picture of every contact for better lead nurturing and targeted customer communications:Step 4. Use analytical tools to automatically segment members based on interests for marketing efforts:Step 5. Move customers through the sales pipeline:Step 6. Automate email and mass mailings to keep existing customers “warm”:Step 7: Heaven To do list

Operations Director at EST Marketing, Michael Starnes, said:

“Workbooks has already helped us improve the way in which we manage our prospects and sales pipeline. We have seen a noticeable difference in our productivity levels and in how we prioritise our days. We are touching clients we might not have touched before; and more importantly, we are touching them at the relevant stage of the sales cycle – with relevant information. This has directly resulted in more work.”

Here are the steps you can take to automate your marketing, improving your customer service and your profits in the process:

Step 1. Automate (or offload) data cleansing and updating:

Use CRM automated de-duplication tools to clean up customer records with minimal fuss
Customers can update their own information via your website, giving them greater control over their preferences

“By 2020, customers will manage 85% of their relationships without talking to a human.”
Gartner Research

Step 2. Aggregate all of your customer data into one repository for ease of use and better analytical options:

Pull together your existing databases, spreadsheets, documents and even your existing marketing automation platform data into a single CRM system
Reduce the time taken to retrieve information and carry out analysis

“With a conflux of databases storing information on a single customer, organizations seeking to provide a universal view of customer information, and therefore a more complete service experience for the end customer, must deploy knowledge-powered central databases that can store and automatically present all important and relevant data for a customer.”
Brian Kelly, destinationcrm.com writer

Step 3. Generate a complete picture of every contact for better lead nurturing and targeted customer communications:

Track previous purchases for every customer
Track customers who have stopped spending money with you
Gain a total overview of client likes and dislikes
Target communications and offers accurately based on these preferences

“Nurtured leads make 47% larger purchases than non-nurtured leads.”
The Annuitas Group

Step 4. Use analytical tools to automatically segment members based on interests for marketing efforts:

Gather clients into target groups based on any metric of your choice; location, purchase history or gender, for instance
Track the effectiveness of each message to see what does and doesn’t work, helping to tune future marketing efforts
Link your existing marketing automation platform, or use the included Workbooks tools according to your own preferences

“Highly relevant email messages can generate nine times improvement in revenue and 32 times more improvement in net profit over non-segmented broadcast campaigns.”
JupiterResearch

Step 5. Move customers through the sales pipeline:

Know exactly where each customer is in the buying cycle at a glance
Find out where the lead came from in the first place
Use that data to provide the right information automatically to move them towards the final sale
Send automated emails triggered by each move along the pipeline to keep the sales process moving

“Event-triggered marketing can potentially save 80% of your direct mail budget.”
Gartner Research

Step 6. Automate email and mass mailings to keep existing customers “warm”:

Automate offers for customers based on their preferences and to keep them engaged
Use analytics like wish lists and abandoned shopping carts to re-engage with customers
Boost loyalty with ongoing, targeted messages sent direct from Workbooks or through a third party system

“A 5% increase in customer loyalty can produce profit increases from 25% to 85%.”
Frederick F Reichheld and W. Earl Sasser – Harvard Business Review