Marketing and sales automation platforms like HubSpot offer a wide range of functionalities for companies that want to optimize their operations. However, it takes some planning (and a little bit of technical know-how) to squeeze the maximum ROI from your CRM system.
Let's talk about 3 aspects of HubSpot marketing automation in particular that you should pay close attention to. If you do, you'll be in a much better position to delight your customers and grow your business.
3 HubSpot Marketing Automation Aspects You Should Know
1. Email Workflows
An automated email sequence is an excellent way to maintain communication with a prospect or customer without overloading your sales reps. However, any email sequence is only as good as the workflow in which it resides. If you inadvertently send an order confirmation email to the wrong person or offer a special discount after the recipient has already purchased the product in question, you risk alienating your customers and losing their repeat business.
With that in mind, what are some ways you can optimize your email workflows? Here are 3 suggestions that can help:
Understand the goal of your email workflow.
What's the ultimate objective of the workflow? In other words, what do you want the recipient to do by the end of the email sequence? Knowing your "destination" will greatly affect how you set up your email workflow. For example, if your goal is to get more traffic to your website, you'll set up your email templates quite differently than if the goal is to purchase a specific product you offer.
Audit your triggers.
It's vital that your preset triggers make sense in the context of what you're trying to accomplish. For instance, sending out a 10% off discount code for a specific item may not be the best idea if the customer just purchased that exact item. So review your triggers, and make sure they're contributing to your goal.
Test, test, test.
Perform some user testing to make sure that your email workflow is doing what it should be doing. You may be surprised how often such testing reveals key gaps in the workflow.
2. Social Media Marketing
Social media remains a vital piece of the marketing puzzle for most business organizations today. When used properly, it's a wonderful channel for communicating with your consumer base in a more casual manner. You can also use it to spread brand awareness across previously untouched demographics. On the other hand, one bad misstep on your social media account can lead to a damaged reputation. This can drive away many potential customers.
The question is: How can you make sure that your social media presence is working in your favor? Here are 2 steps to keep in mind:
Make sure your content calendar is structured but flexible.
It can be a real grind trying to create and upload social media posts on a weekly (or even daily) basis. For that reason, many companies use HubSpot's content management functionalities for their social media marketing. With HubSpot's helpful features, you can map out your social media content for the week, month, or even year. You can then schedule when it will be automatically uploaded to your account(s). At the same time, it's important to keep your content calendar flexible, in case unexpected events come up. This leads to our second point...
Keep your social media posts relevant to current trends and issues.
The COVID-19 pandemic provides a great example of why this is so important. After all, what kind of message would it have sent to your followers if all of your competitors addressed common questions and concerns related to the pandemic in their social media posts, while your company ignored the situation entirely? The point is, at times you'll need to adjust your content calendar so that your social media posts are aligned with what's happening in the world, and what's on the minds of your customers.
3. Chatbot Software
Chatbots are another area of marketing automation that can either provide a great advantage for your company... or make a huge mess. Research indicates that the majority of consumers either approve of or tolerate the idea of interacting with chatbots - provided the chatbot does what it's supposed to do. Chatbots that obstruct customer progress, or reside in the "uncanny valley" (e.g., chatbots that "pose" as human agents), will likely end up hurting your company rather than helping it.
How can you make chatbots work for you, instead of against you? Here are 3 tips that you can implement:
Create a clear strategy for your chatbot implementation.
Here again, it's vital that you understand why you're deploying the chatbot in the first place. Do you want it to answer basic customer questions? Should it qualify leads before handing them off to your sales team? Do you want it to function as an automated agent that's available 24/7? Or do you want it to handle all of these tasks and more? Developing a strategy that's appropriate for your business is the first step towards using a chatbot with success.
Audit your chatbot's workflow(s).
You'll need to ensure that your chatbot is providing accurate answers to basic customer inquiries. (Some chatbots offer multiple-choice options if they don't understand a customer's initial question.) It's also imperative that your chatbot is able to transfer users to the appropriate department that can handle their needs (e.g., sales, customer service, technical support, and so forth).
Test your chatbot's interactions with users.
Make sure your chatbot is "on-brand" in terms of its verbiage, tone, etc. It's usually best to make clear from the outset that your users are interacting with a robot, not an actual human. If there could be any confusion on that count, make the needed adjustments.
In summary, these 3 aspects of HubSpot marketing automation can take your customer relationships to the next level - provided you handle them with care.
Would you like to learn more about how to make email sequences, social media marketing, and chatbot software work for your business? Reach out to our team of friendly digital marketing experts at OverGo Studio today.
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