Marketing automation sets most of your repetitive marketing functions on cruise control. It allows your company to focus on value added tasks and personable service during critical 1:1 touchpoints. Yet, many companies out there are not seeing the convenience and scale they need to make marketing automation work for them, and build an unproductive marketing automation strategy. Like an unfocused driver on the highway, they set their cruise control to the wrong speed or activate it during the wrong situations. This makes them have to constantly intervene rather than sit back to let the system do the work. Worst of all, many companies do not even realize that they are doing this to themselves. While they could be enjoying the benefits of automated lead nurturing, improved lead qualification, and massive outreach at scale, they instead end up having to interrupt the process and hurt the goal progress they could be achieving. How do you know if your company’s marketing automation strategy falls in this group? Here are four warning signs.

You Don’t Have Custom Content for Personas

The true power of marketing automation lies in its ability to automate personalized journeys tailored to each buyer persona. Using generic content across your entire customer base dampens this ability and reduces the possible interest prospects taken in your marketing content.

Ensure that each persona receives separate auto-populated content packages through email newsletters and designed offers that reflect their unique values. You should also introduce variables for each prospect. For instance, someone who shows an interest in a certain content piece can get shown “more like this” over time.

You’re Still Importing Spreadsheets

Marketing automation is supposed to create less work, not more! If you find yourself still having to endure repetitive tasks and clunky workarounds, know that integrating your systems seamlessly is a key step to achieving true efficiency at scale.

Marketing automation should be integrated to not just email but also your CRM, social media platforms and content management system (CMS). Getting integration right can take experience and expertise, but the end results pay for themselves.

You’re Not Crafting Evergreen Campaigns

Special seasonal campaigns and temporary campaign pushes can be made easier through marketing automation, but the systems truly shine when used as an always-on 24/7 lead-nurturing machine.

Guarantee that you have generalized campaigns in place for each persona that can introduce them into your marketing funnel no matter when they click, and run these campaigns concurrently with any existing temporary pushes. If you are worried about oversaturating your leads with content, then set frequency capping parameters, or “if, then…” rules, to assure they do not receive duplicate offers or near-identical content.

Your Scored Leads Aren’t Showing Improved Conversion Rates

Lead scoring and segmentation is an art, and all art must go through revisions to deliver a satisfactory final product. Constantly test your scored leads for accuracy and compare them to your baseline of customer conversions. Periodically re-evaluate your personas, your content and your campaign strategies to ensure that people are getting everything they need to convince them to convert.

Getting Help With Marketing Automation Strategy

If you are still struggling with a clogged sales pipeline or numbers that are less than satisfactory, know that you are not alone. 42% of companies say that they have trouble developing an effective marketing automation strategy, 42% say that system complexity is a challenge and 32% say employees lack the skills needed to extract the most value from their systems.

Receive a comprehensive audit, detailed consulting, training advice and full end-to-end marketing automation support when you reach out to Vonazon for assistance. You can overcome the barriers to success, get more value from your marketing automation investment and achieve better success at scale through our tailored advice and services. Contact us today to get started.