Automation is fantastic for businesses of all sizes. It means less work that needs people monitoring it, which either frees up existing personnel on more important tasks, or allows companies to run a trim list of employees. Either is fantastic news, making the question a matter of which parts can actually be automated. Here are 7 of them:
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SEO, or Search Engine Optimization
Search engine optimization, despite the many changes enacted by search engines around the world, remains as important as ever. The good news for many companies is that one of the most difficult parts of it – keyword research – can be automated. There are many tools that can help determine how well a campaign’s keywords rank, and can even recommend ways to improve keyword usage as a whole.
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Content Targeting
Just because it has been written doesn’t mean people will read it. Content marketing won’t work if companies can’t find a way to put it in front of their audience. Fortunately, automation is here to make life a lot easier. There are various tools that can make the process of creating targeted ads a lot smoother, giving marketing teams the time to focus entirely on making those advertisements as compelling as possible.
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Analytics
Manually sifting through tons of data is time-consuming, which is a concern as data is critical when crafting marketing campaigns. Fortunately, basically every site recognizes this and most actually provide ways to track important metrics. Google Analytics, for example, allows companies to monitor page views and other information at a glance.
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Managing Leads
Managing the marketing and sales funnel is one of the most important parts of any campaign. Monitoring where the audience leaves and where they consistently convert into sales allows for immense optimization and campaign improvement. Fortunately, there are plenty of lead management platforms that not only help generate leads but also automatically calculate important metrics like ROI, as well as offer marketing calendars.
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Managing Content
Generating content is only one step in a long series of steps toward attracting customers and improving a company’s brand. There’s publishing it, as well as sharing it across platforms, along with scheduling future posts. There are plenty of programs that do that and a lot more, such as Hootsuite.
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Customer Interaction and Service
It doesn’t matter how good a marketing campaign is if the customer service and interaction aspects are weak. Some businesses find this a tremendous issue, as hiring customer service support staff can be a tremendous drain. Fortunately, with a tool like LiveChat, a small team can do a lot, as they can chat with multiple customers at the same time, maximizing their impact. Additionally, chatbots are becoming more sophisticated and convincing and can save a lot of companies money in hiring costs.
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Email Lists
Email lists and marketing remain a critical part of campaigns across many companies up to this day. It’s still one of the most efficient and non-intrusive ways to send customers and potential clients. It’s also generally incredibly profitable, as a single dollar spent on email marketing usually returns around 44 dollars. The amount of automation revolving around email lists and marketing is a testament to its value.
Automation is one of the best things technology has to offer, and its power can be used in marketing. Smart companies will make sure to automate as much as they can to make sure that their campaigns are as efficient as possible in terms of both cost and manpower.
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