Marketing automation means you waste less time doing repetitive marketing tasks, whilst doing a better job at converting prospective customers into actual customers. Automation can be applied to emails, social media, and actions on your website, making all of these things work harder and smarter for your business.
Just some of the things you can achieve through marketing automation include:
- Following up quotes
- Sending e-newsletters
- A series of educational emails or DIY tips and tricks
- Automatic responses to requests from your website
- And a whole heap more
HubSpot does a great job at summarizing the benefits of marketing automation.
How do I implement marketing automation into my glazing business?
In this blog post 'Glaziers, what do you do when a customer doesn't reply to your quote?' we talked about the importance of following up with quotes. Automating follow up emails for quotes is a good way to save time while providing great service. Set your follow up email to go out two or three days after the quote and keep your name in the customer's mind.
Another great way to keep in touch with customers is to set up a series of educational emails. If your glazing business offers DIY advice or maintenance tips to your customers, a series of scheduled emails would be a great way of delivering that content right to your customer's inbox. You could set up a date-based automation to remind a customer if previous work you did for them is due for maintenance, or simply send them a happy birthday message. Just set it and forget it!
To get started, you'll need a marketing automation tool: MailChimp is a great place to start — it's easy to use and there's no charge for up to 2000 subscribers.
Not growing your email list? Start now
If you aren't asking for email addresses via your website, you're missing out on a valuable opportunity to connect with new and existing customers. Sending a quarterly update is a great way to keep your business top of mind and isn't a big time commitment. Even if a previous customer doesn't need your services right now, they may know someone who does and you want your business to be the name they remember.
MailChimp started off as a tool for sending email newsletters, but they have recently added some great automation functionality, so it can be your one stop shop for all things email in your glazing business.
Here are some tips and ideas for growing your mailing list.
Go forth and automate
If you're just dipping your toes into the marketing automation pool, MailChimp is a great place to start. If that isn't covering it, you'll want to look at more powerful marketing software such as HubSpot or Marketo. Marketing automation is a great way to save time and stay connected to your customers, and it can be as simple or as complex as your business needs.
Here are a couple of articles you may find useful to get started:
