Businesses and their customers want flexibility. They want solutions
designed just for them. That’s where a custom marketing automation
software package can give both the business and their clients just what
they want. For example, financial calculators are easy to find and plug
right into a website. But many of them are confusing, don’t use everyday
language, and drive prospects away. Imagine a financial calculator --
mortgage, loan, investment, savings, etc. -- that uses non-finance
language for your average Joe, one that offers answers and insights in
addition to the calculation. That’s what customers expect today, and
that’s what businesses could be providing.
And that’s a piece of marketing automation. Take an interaction like
that in an online calculator and push it into a completely automated
lead development and marketing system, all designed specifically for
your prospects. Sounds great, right? Yes. So, let’s dig into Marketing
Automation a bit.
What Is Marketing Automation: A Quick Guide
Marketing Automation software helps businesses manage their sales and
marketing funnels by handling many of the routine tasks involved in
marketing, from following up on new leads to contacting existing
customers. The software needs to incorporate the business’ overall
strategies, all while maintaining its marketing “voice.”
Marketing Automation involves the following:
- Timing and Triggers: Think of the tasks involved in
handling a new lead. The prospect gets a quick confirmation email.
Their information is saved into the Customer Relations Management (CRM)
system. A new task is created to follow up with a call or email. That
process is triggered by the new lead contacting the business through a
form, email, chat, etc. What about existing customers? They need to be
contacted periodically with offers, reminders, and specials. That will
be triggered by the time since their last purchase or other events.
- Integration: Like we mentioned above, a prospect
can have their information injected straight into your other systems,
including the CRM, email databases, fulfillment platforms, etc. Each
segment of a business can become an automated piece of the whole process
without any of them becoming a stopgap.
- Intelligence: Using your existing Business Logic
which is likely managed by your team members today, you can automate
the flow of information and work within your business and speed up the
process, creating efficiencies -- and happy customers.
- Internal Communication: Turning a brand new lead
into a raving fan will involve several departments within your company.
Those might include Sales, Marketing, Finance, Engineering, Order
Fulfillment, etc. Automating the flow of information among those
departments and individuals will ensure that a new lead or prospect
doesn’t end up forgotten or discarded or delayed long enough to lose
interest.
- External Notifications: In a world where you can
watch the progress of your pizza getting baked and delivered on an app,
your customers expect to have constant communication with your business.
A custom marketing automation software solution can send text updates,
email clients information, and even provide status within their customer portals.
Why Custom Software?
There are many out-of-the-box solutions out there for Marketing
Automation. So, why go the custom route? Several reasons, including:
- Innovation: Custom software allows you to adapt,
change, and stay current with your market. In the end, that keeps you
ahead of your competition.
- Choice: A custom solution will integration with
your connected apps, from finance to email to CRM and more. This allows
you to work with what you already know, and it makes the whole process
faster and easier for your team.
- Freedom: You won’t be stuck having to work with the
limitations of an off-the-shelf software package. You’ll determine how
your software functions and who has access to it.
- Scalability and Growth: Your own custom software
will grow with you -- it’s designed that way. Pre-packaged solutions may
limit your ability to scale or grow vertically.
- Branding: It will be your brand, everywhere, on forms, reports, customer portals, etc.
How Much Does Custom Marketing Automation Software Cost?
You’ll have to contact us for that one, but know that we’ve worked
with all kinds of businesses, large and small, high-tech and low-tech,
to develop custom software that helps them grow both top and bottom
lines. We’ll get you a quote that’s easy to understand and lays out the
entire project, so that you’ll know what to budget for your custom
software package.
Contact us now to get your quote started.