How to Make a Marketing Automation Strategy

Marketers look a changeless challenge: driving conversions portion keeping each run connected brand, accordant and sharp.

With marketing budgets tightening, there’s besides mounting unit to bash much with less. That often means automating arsenic overmuch of your strategy arsenic possible.

But selling automation introduces a caller acceptable of concerns. Could it interaction the prime of your campaigns? Will it adhd much complications than it solves?

To get adept input connected this topic, we interviewed Rafał Tromczyński, CEO of Digital First AI (and the AI Marketing Strategy App).

What Is Marketing Automation?

Marketing automation is the process of utilizing bundle to streamline tasks your selling squad typically handles. This encompasses a wide scope of tools, some standalone products and all-in-one platforms.

As a speedy example, MailChimp offers email selling automation bundle that allows marketers to physique and automate much personalized email campaigns astatine scale.

Through automation, you tin standard your selling activities without expanding your workload oregon stretching your resources.

Automation helps you enactment successful interaction with customers astatine each measurement of their journey, without having to manually way each interaction. [It] tin show lawsuit behaviors and trigger responses—like follow-up emails, exclusive offers, oregon merchandise recommendations based connected erstwhile purchases.

Rafał Tromczyński, CEO of Digital First AI 

So, however travel only 12% of selling teams accidental they’re afloat automated?

Advances successful selling automation whitethorn connection caller possibilities but they besides make other complexity. Almost half of businesses accidental they’ve struggled to make an wide strategy that uses these tools effectively.

Examples of Marketing Automation

Even though they tin adhd a furniture of complexity, utilizing a marketing automation tool efficaciously volition bring worth to your business. 

For example:

• Automated email marketing: Streamlines the process of sending emails astatine standard by letting you docket messages and usage lawsuit information to implicit fields
• Automated societal media management: Helps negociate aggregate channels, docket posts, and way your engagement
• Automated pb management: Organizes and scores each your prospective customers
• Automated advertisement targeting: Uses algorithms to present your ads to the close audiences connected the close channels
• AI contented creation: Generates substance and visuals based connected a immense database
• Automated analytics and reporting: Collects and visualizes information from each your selling activities

Recent surveys amusement email selling remains the astir fashionable benignant of selling automation. However, societal media absorption and targeted ads aren’t acold behind.

With the caller roar of AI-powered contented generators, it’s ne'er been easier to trial retired automating portion of your selling workflow.

For example, AI Social Content Generator provides templates and generates contented to lucifer your unsocial brand. As you edit the content, it adapts its suggestions successful existent time.

What is simply a Marketing Automation Strategy?

A selling automation strategy is simply a brand’s program for however to usage their automation tools to enactment their goals. It involves reviewing each your automated workflows and however they slot together.

Before creating your strategy, archetypal inquire yourself questions like:

• What is the extremity of automation?
• Which lawsuit touchpoints should we automate?
• Who is the people assemblage for each automation tactic?
• What circumstantial actions tin we automate?
• How tin we measurement success?

By answering these questions, you tin instrumentality a much intentional and structured attack to selling automation. You’re little apt to person gaps successful your workflows oregon miss opportunities to automate actions.

What Are the Benefits of a Marketing Automation Strategy?

A recent study looked astatine however starring brands were achieving selling success. They discovered they had each invested successful AI automation strategy to heighten the lawsuit acquisition and amended their bottommost line.

Other probe backs this up. Another study recovered that companies with a mature selling strategy invested 4 times much successful automation than others. They were besides much apt to person tested, implemented, and scaled the technology.

How does a selling automation strategy springiness them specified a important lead? Here are the main benefits:

• Improved lawsuit experience
• Better segmentation and outreach
• Greater alignment with wide concern goals
• Better assets allocation
• Increased ROI from tech investments
• Enhanced information absorption and analysis
• Consistency crossed selling campaigns
• More scope for caller projects

With the close selling automation strategy, probe suggests you could spot ten times amended wide ROI from your campaigns. 

One reason? With automation done right, it tin pb to much personalized, amended lawsuit relationships.

Automation doesn’t person to consciousness robotic. In fact, it tin assistance you present a much personalized acquisition astatine scale. By utilizing AI-driven insights, we are capable to tailor our messaging and outreach based connected idiosyncratic lawsuit preferences, behaviors, and needs. Whether it’s recommending a merchandise oregon offering a peculiar deal, automation lets america enactment applicable and link with customers successful a mode that inactive feels personal—without each the manual effort.

Rafał Tromczyński, CEO of Digital First AI

How to Develop an Effective Marketing Automation Strategy 

Feeling acceptable to commencement your ain selling automation strategy? 

While you whitethorn request to accommodate specifics to your context, you tin travel the aforesaid wide attack each time.

Step 1. Analyze Your Current Setup

Collect information astir your people audience, concern performance, and existent selling practices. You tin consider:

• Customer behaviour and preferences
• Segmentation
• Campaign ROI
• Content and transmission performance
• Customer beingness worth (LTV)
• Conversion rates
• Resource allocation
• Workflow efficiency

This investigation helps you physique a wide representation of your selling workflow’s existent strengths, weaknesses, and gaps. You tin usage these insights to spot wherever automation could person the biggest impact.

For example, probe whitethorn uncover that your squad often exceeds the fund and clip allocated for blog contented management. Could determination beryllium opportunities to automate scheduling, categorization, oregon reposts here?

Step 2. Define Marketing Goals & Objectives

Establish wide goals that align with the concern opportunities and challenges you identified before. These should beryllium overarching, semipermanent goals like:

• Capturing a circumstantial market
• Increasing your qualified leads by a acceptable amount
• Improving marque awareness

Define astir 3 objectives for each extremity that springiness them much operation and usher your selling automation strategy.

Say you privation to automate a re-engagement campaign. Your objectives mightiness be:

• Identify each your inactive customers
• Segment and analyse the groups
• Send targeted emails to promote action

All your selling activities should subordinate to these goals and their objectives. Use it arsenic an anchor arsenic you physique retired your selling automation strategy.

For example, person you heard that immoderate competitors are adopting a caller selling automation tool? If you can’t spot however it contributes to your goals, see whether it’s genuinely worthy the investment.

Step 3. Choose Automation Benchmarks & Metrics

Decide however champion to measurement the occurrence of your selling automation strategy. You request some benchmarks and metrics. 

Benchmarks springiness you a constituent of examination against manufacture standards oregon humanities performance. They bespeak what occurrence looks like.

Let’s accidental you’re successful the bundle industry. Research shows the mean email unfastened complaint is around 28% globally. You’re looking to purpose higher to outperform your competitors.

Metrics amusement you the result and effectiveness of your selling automation strategy. 

When we asked Tromczyński which metrics to track, helium said it varies based connected your goals. However, based connected his experience, helium recommended looking astatine the pursuing metrics: 

• Time saved connected manual tasks
• The interaction connected conversion rates
• The interaction connected lawsuit engagement rates
• Costs savings connected labour oregon outsourcing
• Overall gross growth

Many selling automation tools see information and analytics to spare you the other work. Just marque definite they’re measuring the close metrics astatine the close frequency. You mightiness way an ongoing selling inaugural erstwhile a period but you’d astir apt request to set that to play for a month-long campaign.

Step 4. Map Out Your Customer Journey with the Funnel

Next, outline the stages of the lawsuit travel from their archetypal interaction with your concern to becoming a marque advocate.

Start by listing each the imaginable touchpoints customers whitethorn person with your business. That mightiness beryllium seeing your merchandise advertised connected Facebook oregon proceeding astir you from a friend.

Categorize these touchpoints according to their signifier successful the selling funnel: awareness, consideration, conversion, and loyalty.

For instance, reposting your customer’s contented would beryllium to ‘loyalty’. They’ve already converted and you privation to physique a consciousness of assemblage with them.

Now inquire yourself which tactics you usage to marque definite those lawsuit touchpoints thrust conversions. Specifically, which automation tools bash you use?

You tin repetition these steps arsenic you motorboat caller campaigns. Consider what stages the lawsuit passes through, however they interact with your brand, and what you tin automate.

Let’s usage the illustration of a unrecorded webinar campaign:

Awareness

You advertise the webinar online and invitation radical from your email list. As the lawsuit approaches, you nonstop reminders to everyone who signed up.

Here, you mightiness see whether you usage AI automation to make the ads oregon reformat them for antithetic channels. You tin usage filters to conception your email database and nonstop them personalized messages astir the webinar.

Consideration

You big the unrecorded webinar wherever you tin presumption your squad arsenic manufacture experts. During the discussion, you weave successful merchandise mentions.

As it’s a unrecorded webinar, you should beryllium wary of overusing automation. You indispensable beryllium spontaneous to reply assemblage questions and support the treatment flowing naturally.

However, it’s imaginable to automatically way assemblage information successful activities similar surveys, polls, and Q&As.

Conversion

As soon arsenic the lawsuit is over, you nonstop a connection thanking everyone for attending. You mightiness see an exclusive connection oregon discount for your products.
 

Most e-commerce platforms fto you make oregon make discount codes. You tin determine the magnitude and the expiration date. If you nexus the codification to your email automation, you tin automatically nonstop these offers to attendees conscionable aft the event.

Loyalty

You sermon what you talked astir successful the webinar connected societal media. In your posts, you outcry retired circumstantial radical for contributing to the discussion.

As webinars tin beryllium an hr long, you mightiness screen a batch of topics. You tin automatically grounds the transcript and inquire AI to condense it for the highlights.

Step 5. Select the Right Marketing Automation Tools

By this stage, you cognize what selling activities you privation to automate and which ones to support manual. Decide whether your existent automation tools are acceptable for the task oregon if you request to update your software.

Here’s what to consider:

• Ease of use: Can your squad easy onboard themselves and commencement utilizing the features? If it’s overly complex, you whitethorn not prevention clip oregon labour costs.
• Affordability: Does it acceptable into your budget? Although outgo isn’t the cardinal consideration, the terms shouldn’t strain your resources. Often, there’s a prime of antithetic tools and plans for businesses of antithetic sizes. 
• Customization: Can you accommodate the features to your processes? Ideally, you should configure each the filters and rules to suit you alternatively than adjusting your workflows to the software.
• Scalability: Will the instrumentality turn with your business? Check whether it tin grip precocious volumes of data, support velocity and performance, and let you to support adding users.
• Integrations: Can you link to each your different software? You request to stock information betwixt the platforms for the automated workflows to beryllium effective.

Step 6. Launch Your Strategy

Now you’re acceptable to commencement implementing your selling automation strategy.

Start by making definite everyone connected your selling squad has entree to your processes. You should store each your tactics, activities, and selling assets successful 1 place. 

Next, bash a trial tally utilizing each the automation tools. Look to spot whether each the triggers and rules enactment and present the expected outcome. You person a accidental to marque immoderate indispensable adjustments earlier you spell live.

When you’re definite the strategy is moving smoothly, you’re acceptable to footwear disconnected your adjacent campaign.

Step 7. Monitor, Review & Refine

A selling automation strategy works champion if you continuously measure and refine your approach. “Automation isn’t a ‘set it and hide it’ solution,” says Tromczyński, “It needs ongoing fine-tuning to support up with changes successful the market, lawsuit preferences, oregon adjacent your ain goals.”

He gives an illustration based connected his ain experience: “Once we had automated messages that didn’t align with caller marketplace trends, which made the connection look irrelevant to customers. We learned it’s important to regularly reappraisal your automation workflows and update them with caller data.”

What Are Some Marketing Automation Best Practices?

The steps supra amusement you however to make an effectual selling automation strategy. Here are immoderate tips for keeping that strategy connected course:

Start Small and Build

Don’t overhaul your full strategy astatine once. Test your strategy with 1 halfway workflow that’s guaranteed to person immediate, measurable results. Welcome emails and abandoned cart reminders are bully options.

After you’ve achieved immoderate results, you tin gradually physique connected your automated workflows. You tin besides spot which caller ones to add.

Prioritize Data

The occurrence of your selling automation strategy hinges connected your data. As Tromczyński says, “If your systems person information silos, outdated information, oregon mediocre integration, the automation mightiness springiness inaccurate results, particularly successful things similar marketplace probe oregon lawsuit targeting.”

The CEO of Digital First AI recovered that regular audits tin flooded the issue. He says, “We recovered that making definite the information feeding into the automation is cleanable and updated is crucial, and it often requires regular monitoring and adjustments.”

Maintain a Human Touch

Automation tools tin conflict with unsocial oregon nuanced situations owed to their constricted contextual understanding.

Often, it’s amended to person squad members grip high-stakes situations similar negotiations oregon superior complaints. Personal attraction indicates you worth the lawsuit and instrumentality the contented seriously.

Tromczyński says helium categorizes activities. “We place the tasks that automation tin grip well—in our case, repetitive actions, information collection, run creation, marketplace research, and competitory analysis—while keeping humans progressive successful much strategic, emotional, oregon analyzable interactions.” 

He adds, “For example, you mightiness automate your marketplace probe and the archetypal stages of a selling strategy but permission last decision-making and originative adjustments to a quality squad member.”

Take Advantage of A/B testing

Sometimes it’s unclear which selling maneuver volition present the champion results. For example, you mightiness not beryllium definite however galore fields to see successful emails oregon erstwhile to docket blog posts.

A/B testing lets you tally 2 variations of the aforesaid maneuver astatine the aforesaid time. You tin way each one’s show and take the 1 that performs best. Depending connected what you’re testing, you mightiness measurement click-through rates oregon conversions.

Alternatively, you tin support A/B investigating to refine your automation strategy. These tests tin support your strategy flexible and adaptable to changing preferences.

How To Use AI Marketing Strategy to Support Your Initiatives

Developing a selling automation strategy demands a batch of resources. Without the close support, you tin walk hours gathering and analyzing information to refine your tactics.

Tools similar AI Marketing Strategy simplify the probe and readying process. They supply a structured model and champion signifier templates for each your selling automation strategies. 

AI Marketing Strategy works by helping you gradually physique a strategy utilizing antithetic components:

• Data Room: A hub for your concern information to powerfulness AI-driven strategies
• Flows: Automated processes that make and execute your strategy
• Funnels: Visualize and negociate your lawsuit travel stages
• Assets: Automate the instauration of selling transcript and visuals

Let’s research however you tin plan, execute, and negociate your strategies with AI Marketing Strategy. 

Step 1. Sign Up For AI Marketing Strategy

Visit the Semrush App Center to motion up for the AI Marketing Strategy tool. 

You tin entree a 7-day escaped proceedings to research each the features. After that clip has passed, the subscription interest is $99 per month.

Step 2. Create a Marketing Funnel

AI Marketing Strategy has a default funnel acceptable and waiting for caller users. Select it by clicking connected the tab successful the left-hand menu.

You tin spot each 4 stages of the selling funnel laid out: awareness, consideration, conversion, and loyalty. 

You tin negociate aggregate funnels. Just click the arrow adjacent to ‘Default funnel’ successful the apical paper barroom and prime ‘Add caller funnel’ from the drop-down menu.

Step 3. Add a Personalized Marketing Strategy Statement

Whenever you make a caller funnel, AI Marketing Strategy prompts you to constitute a personalized statement. This helps the instrumentality stitchery accusation astir your marque and tailor its recommendations.

All you request to bash is prime options from the drop-down paper successful each abstraction oregon benignant successful the required details.

The last leafage has 2 sliding scales. Drag the bluish icon to bespeak your level of selling expertise and however overmuch effort you program to marque comparative to your budget.

Click the bluish ‘Finish’ fastener successful the bottommost close corner. AI Marketing Strategy should statesman processing your information and generating recommendations.

Step 4. Consider Recommended Tactics

Within a fewer seconds, AI Marketing Strategy processes your information and generates recommended tactics.

Browse the recommendations and prime the ones you privation to adhd to your funnel. In this case, we’ve focussed connected tactics related to automating blog content.

When you’re ready, click the ‘Add selected tactics’ fastener toward the apical close corner.

AI Marketing Strategy automatically categorizes each maneuver and adds them to the applicable signifier successful the funnel.

Edit oregon delete tactics by clicking connected the 3 dots successful the apical close corner. You tin prime the enactment you privation from the drop-down paper that appears.

Step 5. Find Tactics For Your Marketing Funnel

Suppose your funnel seems incomplete. It’s casual to hunt for much tactics successful AI Marketing Strategy’s library.

Click connected the ‘Tactics’ tab successful the near paper barroom to unfastened the list.

Type keywords into the hunt barroom and prime categories to filter your research. Alternatively, you tin conscionable browse the options.

Click connected the tactics you’re funny successful to larn much astir them. 

Think an automation maneuver volition bring worth to your strategy? Click connected the bluish ‘Add to funnel’ fastener successful the apical close corner.

Step 6. Create Tactics From Scratch

AI Marketing Strategy is broad but it whitethorn not screen niche tactics oregon specialized approaches from your industry.

For example, a zero discarded store mightiness privation to automate an eco pledge program. Their blog could punctual readers to motion up and docket articles connected however to unrecorded much sustainably.

To make a caller tactic, click connected ‘My Tactics’ successful the near paper barroom and past the ‘+’ icon successful the bottommost close corner.

Complete the fields and prime the options from the drop-down menus to physique a illustration of your selling tactic.

You indispensable supply the pursuing details:

• The people (or what you anticipation to achieve)
• The funnel stage
• How often you tin usage the tactic
• The level of expertise necessary
• Whether it requires a budget
• Details astir the tactic
   

Click connected the ‘Activities’ tab astatine the apical of the container to adhd steps to your tactic. 

Write a statement and prime a class from the dropdown paper nether ‘Activity type’. You person the enactment to adhd details successful the substance container oregon upload templates for the activities.
 

When you’ve added each the stages of the selling tactic, navigate to the ‘Metrics’ tab adjacent to the ‘Activities’ one.

Add the metric you privation to people and however agelong you’d similar to way it for. You tin besides determine whether to measurement each week, 2 weeks, month, oregon quarter.
 

We’ve chosen ‘week’ successful our illustration arsenic the eco-pledge lone lasts a month.

All the tactics you make get stored successful your relationship and unrecorded connected the ‘My tactics’ dashboard. You tin edit oregon delete them whenever you need.

Step 7. Implement Your Automation Tactics

Once you’ve added each the tactics to your funnel, you tin statesman to execute your strategy.

Double-click connected a maneuver to unfastened it successful the dashboard. You’ll spot a database of each the activities progressive successful order.

Click connected an enactment to grow it. Follow the instructions and prime the container connected the acold near broadside erstwhile you’ve finished. This helps you support way of your progress.

There’s nary request to support opening tactics to presumption your progress. AI Marketing Strategy displays however galore tasks you’ve completed connected the dashboard. Just click connected the arrow to grow the activities.
 

Step 8. Assess Your Overall Strategy

Want to spot however your selling automation strategy fits into the large picture? Or get a consciousness of whether it’s driving results?
AI Marketing Strategy has a Canvas diagnostic that uses AI to visualize and analyse your concern structure. You tin usage this to uncover issues with your automation strategy and program your adjacent steps.

Click connected ‘Canvases’ successful the apical paper barroom to unfastened the feature.

Before you commencement strategizing, springiness the app entree to your website, societal media channels, and different selling materials. The AI tin usage this information to tailor insights to your business.

Click connected the achromatic ‘Edit URL’ fastener successful the apical close country to unfastened the profile. 

Select each tab successful the paper to:

• Connect your website
• Describe your concern worth and goals
• Upload integer resources
• Share contented from Dropbox

Once you’ve finished, click connected the achromatic ‘Generate with AI’ astatine the bottommost of the dashboard. AI Marketing Strategy needs a fewer minutes to process each this information.

Navigate backmost to the main Canvases dashboard. You tin spot a database of AI-generated insights astir your marque performance, cardinal messages, and recommended campaigns.

Besides the features mentioned above, AI Marketing Strategy has a contented generator, ChatGPT, and plus library. These let you to make and store resources wrong the platform.

Although these features don’t assistance you make a strategy, they tin assistance you reenforce it. Consolidating each your tools and resources makes it easier for your squad to travel the aforesaid tactics.

Say your concern introduces a newsletter and you privation to recognize however overmuch of the process you tin automate. Looking astatine materials from past campaigns tin assistance you spot what’s possible. It tin assistance you support your newsletter assured successful format, tone, and style.

Normally, you’d person to power betwixt platforms to get the accusation you need. AI Marketing Strategy means you conscionable person to click connected a tab.

Putting Strategy Ahead of Automation

A selling automation strategy is each astir making automation tools enactment for your brand. They should enactment your goals, not signifier them.

By mounting your goals first, you marque definite automation aligns with what you privation to achieve, similar boosting engagement oregon driving much conversions. This way, each enactment supports a wide intent wrong your wide plan.