How to Automate Workflows and Win More Customers
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How to Automate Workflows and Win More Customers
As a marketer, time is money. The more time you spend on tedious manual tasks, the more money you're leaving on the table. That's where workflow automation comes in! Research found that lead quantity rises by 80 percent for marketing automation users. Additionally, 63 percent of those implementing marketing automation software expect to see benefits within six months. If your business isn't automating workflows, you're falling behind. Automating workflows can save your teams time and effort, allowing them to focus on other vital efforts. So how do you know which workflows can be automated, and how do you start automating them? This blog is here to help! We'll define what automated workflows are, how to use them in your marketing strategies, and how they play a role in winning more customers. Let's get started!What Are Automated Workflows?
Let's define automated workflows before diving into which efforts your brand can automate.Workflow automation is the process of streamlining and automating a set of repeatable tasks, often through a platform, with the goal that they run themselves with little human intervention.In short, workflow automation allows you to automate previously manual tasks. The workflow component is the repeatable set of steps your team takes to accomplish a process. For instance, if someone orders a specific item, you can set up your workflow to automatically send them a discount code and suggest similar products.To automate workflows, your brand must recognize which marketing tasks can be automated and determine how to best automate them. In 2021, the global workflow automation market size was valued at $16.41 billion. It’s expected to reach $34.4 billion by 2030. As you can see, there's value associated with workflow automation.
Four Ways Your Brand Can Automate Workflows
Now that we've gone over workflow automation and how it works, let's look at the process your brand should follow to leverage it.1. Identify Areas of Opportunity for Automation
As a digital marketer, there may be a few areas where your business is already automating workflows. If that's the case, kudos! If not, it's time to identify areas where marketing automation can occur. To do so, you must develop a list of repetitive tasks your brand's marketing team currently does. Next, it's time to assess which tactics take the most time and whether or not automation is an option. For instance, you may spend a lot of time tailoring social content to each of your business locations. This is often a workflow that can easily be automated. On the other hand, you may realize some tasks you're not yet comfortable with automating. If that's the case, you can hold off on creating automated workflows for these tasks and reevaluate as you get comfortable with automation.2. Find a Solution That Supports Workflow Automation
Before your brand can start executing automated workflows, you must find a solution that allows you to do so.
3. Start Testing Automation
When you've found the right solution, it's time to start automating. Workflow automation can touch any area of your marketing department and your business as a whole. To keep things simple, we'll stick to the marketing arm of your brand. While we've already mentioned selecting which tasks should be automated, let's highlight a few common examples where brands can use automation.
4. Evaluate Your Results and Make Optimizations
As a marketer, data is critical. After implementing automated workflows, it's essential to assess how they work and if you need to make any adjustments. Using local social content as an example, are you receiving more or less engagement than when creating the content manually? If you're implementing retargeting campaigns, how are your results? It's essential to measure success to understand where you're seeing the most success. On the flip side, where are you seeing results that are lower than expected? While you can keep high-performing workflows running as they are, you must optimize those that underperform. Doing so will help ensure your brand gets the most out of its marketing efforts. As a general rule of thumb, you should analyze your marketing efforts' performance regularly. Depending on the complexity of the workflow, you can review the results weekly, monthly, or quarterly.Dominate Your Marketing Efforts With Automated Workflows
Now that you understand how to automate workflows, it's time to begin! As mentioned, several benefits accompany automation. But with 100s or 1,000s of business locations, getting started with automation is often challenging. Finding a solution that supports automation is a must. That's where SOCi comes in. SOCi is the CoMarketing Cloud for multi-location enterprises. Our line of products allows your brand to streamline and automate previously manual tasks at scale. From local social to local listings to online reputation management, local pages, and beyond, SOCi has you covered.
Lastly, we provide automated insights and reporting across all performance metrics, ensuring that your brand can understand how current efforts work and where there's room for improvement.
As you can see, SOCi has everything your brand needs to automate workflows and win new customers. Request a demo today to learn more!
