As a small business owner, one of the biggest challenges you may face is the difficulty of getting your name out there in the market.
If you don’t make the effort to expand your audience and target new segments of the market, increasing revenue and profit sustainably can become a tall ask.
This presents an opportunity—and a risk—for small business owners; do you invest in marketing and risk cash flow issues or prioritise spending on stock and your daily operations and risk becoming a business that operates in obscurity?
What if we told you that you can do both, and have the time and financial resources to expand your business?
Today, there are simpler, more cost-effective strategies like email marketing, social media engagement, text message marketing, and many more that can boost your brand awareness without exhausting your budget.
With advancements in data analytics and software development, you can now automate a considerable degree of these activities using a wide range of marketing automation software—and we’ve covered the importance of automation in our previous posts.
Choosing the right software is key to the effectiveness of your marketing efforts and today, there is a problem of plenty.
In fact, businesses have 7000+ marketing automation solutions with various capabilities to choose from!
In this post, let’s look at a few things you should consider when choosing a marketing automation platform for your business.
Ease of use
First and foremost, regardless of how feature-packed any platform is, if it’s a chore to navigate and complete even the simplest tasks, it’s probably not worth the investment.
Automation, after all, is meant to simplify and streamline your marketing efforts—not make it more complicated.
Before you make an investment, consider the interactiveness and the other user-friendly features of your software.
Most major marketing automation tools provide you with a limited-time free trial to check out their features and get accustomed to how they work. In this process, try and find something that doesn’t require too much of a learning curve.
Available features and native API integration
Like we said earlier: There is an ocean of automation tools available—many of which have basic automation features like email scheduling and social post scheduling.
That said, some of the best automation software tools differentiate themselves from the rest by incorporating really useful features like website tracking or by providing an open API that allows you to integrate them into your existing suite of software tools.
This allows for granular control of your automation process, making it more customised to your needs and operations, and thereby more effective.
If you’re an e-commerce business, for example, you could benefit by having your automation software integrate with your e-commerce platform, helping you implement automated lead nurturing campaigns based on your customers’ website activity.
Setup and onboarding
Finally, you should consider the setup and onboarding process involved with your preferred marketing automation software. Most businesses tend to require some form of assistance with setting up their new systems to optimise task automation.
While certain platforms offer free setup assistance, others charge a fee—potentially running into hundreds or even thousands of dollars—for setup and onboarding.
Depending on your marketing budget, therefore, you will also need to consider the feasibility of spending a high fee for the setup and onboarding process.
Our top picks for marketing automation software
Despite these insights on how to choose the right platform for you, we understand that you may still have questions about what works best.
The good news is that as automation specialists in Australia, we know our way around tools that work exceptionally well for small businesses! Here are some of our favourites.
Get in touch if you’d like to know more about how these platforms can add value to your small business.
Choose the best marketing automation software to enjoy marketing success!
Marketing automation is not just a great way to find more relevant leads or convert them more effectively; it’s also an incredible productivity booster and time saver.
If you’re on the lookout for the right platform for your small business, use this post as a guide to finding marketing automation software that works best for you.
Good luck!