6 reasons to automate your digital marketing strategy

Having a digital marketing strategy is very important. Every business owner has been forced to include technology in their relationship with consumers. Customs have changed, and so have companies.

It is essential to have a strategy to avoid going unnoticed in front of our potential customers. Even to ensure that those who are no longer customers do not forget us.

Marketing experts know that nothing is improvised in this area. Everything has a well-thought-out objective, with data analysis and a proposal that includes various sectors of the company to achieve it. Nowadays, that strategy is not complete if it does not have its digital component.

To help you cater to the new consumer, we will delve into the strengths of a good digital marketing strategy. We will see how to automate it to save time, resources, and of course, gain customers for your business.

What is a digital marketing strategy?

A company requires a digital marketing strategy because acquiring technology does not mean more sales. To do it correctly, we must approach the consumer digitally, get to know them, and offer what they are looking for.

Philip Kotler, the father of marketing of all time, indicates that digital marketing involves “humanizing the product or service.” How? By listening to our consumer through the many digital channels that exist (website, social media, mentions in other digital media, among others).

In this way, companies give their brands those characteristics that the public seeks. It is about getting closer to the consumer, getting to know them, and gaining their trust.

The brand must not lose its personality. On the contrary, what distinguishes it should be highlighted, and it should be enhanced with elements that make the public identify with it. This way, a lasting relationship with that customer can be achieved.

Digital marketing and a lasting relationship with the consumer

Statistics indicate that we spend a large amount of hours online daily, and the number of users has grown to reach 5 billion worldwide. The relationship with brands occurs through the Internet.

Business opportunities multiply there, and it is undeniable that companies must be present with a complete digital marketing strategy. There are some concepts that we must have clear:

Technologies have been among us for a long time

Today's consumer searches on Google, researches, reads reviews, and decides what to do or what to buy. Age does not matter; the user defines where to go, what options are available, and where it is convenient to make the purchase.

Brands must realize that the consumer is the one who “has the power.” A person might be set on our product or service. Suddenly, they come across negative comments about it, and automatically, they will doubt the purchase.

To neutralize such observations, it is important for the company to be attentive to its digital media and have a strategy. It must generate marketing campaigns that encompass both the physical and online business.

The consumer has changed their habits; the company must change the way it reaches them.

Data analysis to better understand our customer

The Internet is a source of interesting data on which we can base our entire strategy. It is possible to measure the customer experience, understand their preferences, and provide true customer service based on the generated data.

Clear objectives and means

Having clear objectives to achieve has always been fundamental in marketing. The same applies to the digital marketing strategy. For this, we must consider the following:

• Determine the target audience.
• Conduct a SWOT analysis of the company (strengths, threats, opportunities, and weaknesses).
• Define the means to be used to achieve the objective (email marketing, website design, social media of all formats, among many other existing means).

At this point, it is important to highlight the importance of defining the means to be used (omnichannelity). Other aspects of the strategy, such as content, frequency of appearances, comment monitoring, among others, depend on it.

Defining the means to be employed and automating their operation is the key to success. Up to this point, we have reviewed the path to follow to shape the digital marketing strategy.

6 reasons to automate your strategy

Having a strategy that encompasses the digital world is not enough. It must be carried out without dying in the attempt. For that, there are resources that will facilitate putting our marketing plan into practice. One of them is automation.

This resource consists of using software, platforms, and other technological tools to automate different stages of the commercial strategy. There are 7 reasons that justify doing this in your company. They are:

1. With the automation of your strategy, you will guide potential customers towards you

This is the primary reason, so you should consider automating part of your strategy. This is because not only will you guide the customer towards you, but they will buy from you, gain their trust, and then talk about your brand. With automation, you can:

• Track your customer's preferences.
• Use automatic response tools for inquiries like chatbots.
• Knowing the preferences of your potential customer, you can prepare email marketing or social media campaigns that respond to them.
• Obtain more information about your customer through forms and monitor their movements within your website.

Remember that the environment in which consumers move today is very dynamic. From the moment they learn about a product, decide on it, ask questions, buy it, and defend it, many things can happen. Automation helps ensure you don’t lose them along the way.

2. Optimization of resources and times for the company

With marketing automation, work times in the company can be optimized. Repetitive tasks can be performed by software or automated through bots.

For a concrete example, some companies have established chatbots that provide responses 24/7 on specific topics like hours or return procedures. In this way, the consumer finds quick answers to minor issues.

This results in a satisfied customer at all times. This will lead them to speak well of our company and customer service.

3. Direct communication with potential customers

A digital marketing strategy has resources that allow us to know exactly the preferences of those interested in our products or services.

By knowing them, we can produce messages tailored to their interests. The recipient will only receive relevant information according to the data obtained about their preferences.

Some of the resources you have when automating your digital marketing strategy to achieve that direct and unique communication are:

• Personalized email marketing campaigns: Until a few years ago, these campaigns were conducted through general mailings without distinction. This resulted in a lot of spam and discomfort on the part of the recipients.

Today, this has changed, and it is possible to send personalized emails with the specific information that we know interests the recipient.

How is this possible? Through the use of artificial intelligence that tracks and captures a person's interests based on their movements on a website or by a “click” in an email.

• Improvement of Inbound marketing: This digital marketing tool allows you to capture customers through messages that contain interesting information for each of them.

You can personalize the content they receive by answering questions that arise along the journey to completing the sale. Customers are no longer bombarded with information they do not want.

On the contrary, they are given what they seek through automated communication. That is to say, interesting content at the right moment.

4. Optimization of the customer and leads database

By automating processes to obtain customer and leads information, the company can optimize its databases in the following ways:

• In each interaction, visitors will leave some information that will help the company target its communications directly to each customer.
• A large amount of analytical data will be obtained, facilitating segmentation.

We will be able to group this information and work according to their preferences, demographic data, or following the variable that serves the company.

This results in improved communications. Automation plays a fundamental role in the digital marketing strategy.

5. Improvement of the customer experience

Having so much information about our customers' preferences gives us a range of opportunities:

• We will be able to design their entire experience with the brand. This means preparing their journey in detail from start to finish. That is to say, from the first interaction to the purchase.
• We will know the customer experience, which is the set of perceptions a person has about the company. Those that occur at the different stages they go through from recognizing a need and everything they evaluate to satisfy it.
• It will allow us to generate valuable content for that consumer who has already chosen us. Time is not wasted making offers for products or services that do not interest them. Everything we offer will relate to what we know about them.

Automation is key in this. It provides us with so much information about customers and potential customers that we can design the journey so that all their perceptions of the company are impeccable.

6. Precise metrics that facilitate decision-making

Given the dynamism of marketing automation, it is possible to get answers quickly and update information continuously. Digital marketing automation allows:

• Setting an objective.
• Planning actions to achieve that objective.
• Quantifying results.
• Measuring any process related to an objective.

Through KPIs (key performance indicators), it is possible to measure results and act accordingly. Any action taken that has an objective can be counted. Decision-making is facilitated and is based on concrete and recent data.

What is the scope of automating the digital marketing strategy?

The scope will depend on our decision to integrate automation into the marketing strategy we are implementing. Some examples will help understand the concept:

Abandoned cart messages

This type of message can be automatically sent via email. The situation is as follows:

• A high percentage of people start placing products in an online store's shopping cart.
• For some reason, they do not complete the purchase. They do not press that button that we highlight so much in the company's website design, indicating that the sale has been made.
• That full cart gives us information about a potential customer: we know what interested them, their tastes, and we can deduce many other data. We need to recover them!

After some time, thanks to marketing automation, an email is sent with a list of the products that were in their cart. If the recipient does not open the email, a new email is sent.

With this type of message, it is possible to recover some of the purchases that did not get completed. The communication is directed and oriented to a particular person containing the information that interests them.

Messages to request a review

Contacting a customer who purchased and asking for a review is another example of marketing automation. Not only are we telling them that their opinion is important to the company, but we are also involving them in it.

The best way to convince potential customers is through a comment from a satisfied customer. To make this resource effective, you must:

• Have an updated database.
• It is also advisable to detect and highlight those customers who can be references for your brand, that is, those who respond and those who do not.

Marketing automation will provide you with the data and analytics necessary to carry out this type of strategy.

Welcome message or invitation to subscribe

Both are strategies that can be easily implemented thanks to the automation of the digital marketing strategy.

• The welcome message is sent to the person who subscribed when visiting a website or online store. It is sent automatically and should not be delayed in reaching the recipient, as it loses its effect.
• The invitation to subscribe is a form that is prepared to appear automatically while browsing a website. This way, we will have the consumer's data for later follow-up.

In both the subscription and the welcome email, something can be offered to the consumer in gratitude for their interest. This “gift” can be extra information, a newsletter to stay updated, special discounts, among others.

Follow-up of potential customers

With the automation of the digital marketing strategy, you can track anyone who has visited your website. Potential customers or leads are of interest to us, and even more so, we want to turn them into customers.

With the tools provided by automation, we will have the possibility to:

• Know the preferences of the potential customer (payment methods, shipping options, among other things).
• Detect their tastes (if they prefer one line of products over another).
• Realize what discourages them (there may be a full shopping cart, but the visitor did not find the payment method they wanted).

What does this mean? It means that we can offer them alternatives they may not have seen on our website. From products, services, or shipping methods so they can reevaluate their decision.

They can be offered discounts on their first purchase or free shipping. The idea is to convert the lead into a customer and not lose them along the way.

Create valuable content necessary for the visitor

Based on all the information we have about the visitor to our website or social media, we can generate interesting content. We are no longer just talking about information about products or services.

Interesting content includes research, news, or updates related to the area of interest of our visitor. Having a section on the website (blog) where they find engaging content will encourage their return.

This extra content can take various forms:

• Informative articles.
• Explanatory infographics.
• Statistical data.
• Emails.
• Newsletters with updated information from the sector.
• E-books.
• Audios.

For example, if a person needs to buy ceramics, they will visit an online store. If they find an article in that virtual store about the best way to lay ceramics and it proves useful, this store will have a point in its favor.

When the information was valuable, the chances of them buying from that online store increase. On the contrary, if the content seems of poor quality, they are likely to leave. It is very important to take care of the content.

To automate or not to automate your digital marketing strategy?

Our recommendation is definitely to automate. There are many resources and possibilities in digital marketing. Some of them are:

• Website.
• Online store.
• Social media of all kinds.
• Email marketing.
• Online advertising.

Each of them contributes to achieving the company's objective. But it is important to remember that they must be related and all pointing in the same direction.

The comprehensive management of these tools should be entrusted to professionals who can link them and make the most of them. This utilization will be even greater with the automation of these techniques.

How to automate my strategy?

At Mintec, we have experts in various areas who can advise you on automating marketing actions:

• Creation of chatbots.
• Instant messages to respond to comments on Facebook.
• Instant communication via Messenger to respond to those who need it.

If you have any of these objectives in mind, you will be able to:

• Generate more sales.
• Provide quick responses to your customers.
• Have a database of satisfied customers for special follow-up.
• Provide permanent attention to those interested in your company every day and all day.

So, automating your digital marketing strategy is the way to go. Don’t hesitate to contact us. At Mintec, we will listen to you and respond to each of your specific needs.

We will offer you a tailored proposal for your business, and you will quickly witness the results that automation can bring. The consumer is changing, and we invite you to be part of that change, not just a spectator.