Even small businesses in the market segment are likely to be in the need of automating some of their repetitive tasks and processes. Marketing is a competitive field, so it is important to consistently deliver quality to all of your clients, regardless of size or complexity. Automation helps make this level of service realistic and scalable.
Once you start to develop a customer base, it is a good idea to look into how to make workflows more efficient. As you have already discovered this article, chances are that you are already at this point and wanting more simplification and organization.
Marketing automation software provides that and more. It is specifically designed to make the lives of marketing professionals easier. With this kind of system in place, productivity and efficiency should also increase, resulting in higher incomes.
What is marketing automation software?
Marketing automation software is designed to bring together the various aspects of marketing into connected and automated processes. It doesn’t do the work for you, instead, it is an adaptable system designed specifically to help marketing professionals in their daily tasks.
It helps to streamline processes and automate repeated activities, such as setting tasks to staff members after actions have been completed.
What is marketing automation primarily used for?
Marketing automation software is primarily to remove the need to perform repetitive tasks and automate marketing workflows and processes. However, good marketing automation systems should also bring teams closer together, by providing an integrated central platform where everything is managed.
Integrating communication and collaboration features means that not only can processes be automated, but all staff can collaborate easily and quickly from within one system.
What is marketing automation integration?
Any effective system for automating marketing processes should bring users full options and control in one place. This means that the system needs to fully integrate with other popular systems, to enable central management of all aspects of a marketing business.
However, they should also have behavior-based workflows, which means that certain actions will trigger new tasks to be created, which in turn create new actions and so on. With this kind of system, marketing follow-ups can be automated, clients can be guided through their part of the process, and staff have tasks automatically set as things progress.
This combined with the integration of popular systems such as cloud storage, email, calendars and more can make the entire process a pleasure to work with. It becomes a seamless flow of client and staff interaction, following the preset workflows, without the need for constant manual email reminders and task setting.
What Size Company Should Consider Marketing Automation Software?
If you have reached the point where you are managing more than one project, chances are that you could benefit from using our marketing automation software.
Our plans adjust with your company, growing as business grows. This means that you can start to automate your business from just $14.99 per month with up to five users, and the system can expand to any number of users or even be set up for custom requirements (enterprise plan).
Top Features of Marketing Automation Software
The features that you use may vary with your role and your business model, however, there is a range of features that are recommended to have for most marketing firms.
Below are our top features of marketing automation software, to make sure you get the benefits you need now and have a system that can cope as you grow.
- Process creation and automation – it seems obvious, but any good software should be able to help automate workflows and task assignments. It isn’t as easy as it seems though, as this requires integration and easy adaptation to work seamlessly and with a multitude of project types.
- Associations – Projects should be able to be linked together, or as parts of a process. This allows large projects to be broken into manageable sized chunks, while still being trackable and clearly linked.
- Connected Tasks and Triggers – Tasks should be linked to a project or part of a project, and as each task is completed, it should generate the next task until the project is finished. These tasks should also have due dates, urgency, and other needed information in order to keep things on schedule.
- Task Dashboard – Each staff member needs a central dashboard where they can see both what needs doing today, and what is coming up. This allows them to plan and work ahead if time allows. Managers and clients also need a central dashboard display of how projects are developing and milestone alerts should signal progression through various processes.
- Schedule Management – Managing staff, meetings, or your own schedule should be a breeze. This is why meeting management and calendar integration should come as standard.
- Client Management – Workflows aren’t just for staff, but can actually help to guide clients through the steps they need to complete. This can be as simple as providing company information, or as complex as required. However, the key should be that the system guide and them and not you or your staff members.
- Easy Collaboration – While automation is important, everyone involved should be able to communicate and collaborate freely to increase efficiency and productivity. File sharing, instant messaging, and email notifications from within the system make it easier to get things done!
- Billing – An efficient billing system is vital. However, it shouldn’t be limited to simply invoicing clients. It should be able to manage various expenditures and allow for freelance employees to invoice directly from within the system. This opens up more opportunities for expansion, as the company can take advantage of having a flexible workforce in addition to full time employees.
Benefits of Using Marketing Automation Software
All of the above features come together to create a smoother process. This means less stress for staff, more efficient work, projects that flow correctly and accountability across the board. The benefits of using marketing automation software normally far outweigh the costs, unless you simply don’t take advantage of what it can do for your business.
What is the Best Marketing Automation Software?
We consider Gyffin as the best marketing automation software because of its ease of use, expandability, and range of options.
It is also a software solution that has been developed to support the needs of an active marketing company. This means that it is not just some programmers idea, but a marketing automation software that has been developed out of necessity and has proven its worth throughout years of real-world use.
What does that mean for you? It means that gryffin marketing automation works, even for larger and more complex projects. It has had thousands of hours of real-world testing, tweaking, and growth. In other words, you get a software platform that works out of the box and was specifically created for marketing companies, designed by a marketing company for their own use. When you develop software for your own business, you always make sure it’s effective.
What are you waiting for? Sign up for a free trial of Gryffin, and discover the magic of marketing automation software!