Marketing automation is a process that delivers the right message to the right audience at the right stage in their buying process. However, without a defined marketing and sales process, marketing automation can end up like trying to get to a destination without a map. Here are 2 questions you can ask to evaluate your marketing automation needs.
Have I Developed Buyer Personas?
A buyer persona is a fictional representation of your ideal buyer. This is important to develop because otherwise, your business has no target to aim for. Before your company can start marketing, it is paramount to figure out who you’re marketing to. Then, figure out how they want to be talked to. This is the process of developing a buyer persona. The strongest buyer personas are based off of market research gathered through surveys or interviews from your company’s clientele. This information can be used to tailor your messages with one voice, or multiple voices, that resonates with people who have already bought from your company, while attracting many new leads just like them.
Here are places to start when developing a buyer persona:
- Buyer Demographic: age, income, marital status, place of residence, etc.
- Customer Satisfaction: another satisfaction rating from people and their experiences
- Things to Improve: this will give your company feedback about what people want
- Preferred Channels for Information: social media, email newsletter, etc.
Are Marketing and Sales Aligned?
In many businesses, the sales and marketing teams do not properly align their promotions. This is because the goals of sales and marketing are not always the same. Sales is oriented towards meeting monthly sales goals, while marketing is more involved in increasing brand recognition and generating qualified leads. For this reason, marketing may pass a lead to sales without a nurturing process, or marketing might nurture a lead that is ready to move forward. Lead scoring, or evaluating sales-readiness, can help businesses define a lead, but again, marketing and sales must have the same idea of what constitutes a “ready-lead” and a “nurture-lead.”
Need help getting started?
Affirma’s Salesforce and Microsoft Dynamics CRM Experts can help! We specialize in integrating marketing automation software with your CRM platform. Feel free to contact one of our CRM experts for a free consultation today!
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