Business automation is no longer a far-off to-do on small businesses’ calendars. With a majority of organizations having already embraced technology driven by robotics, machine learning, and self-regulating systems, automation has become a standard business practice. Nearly 60% of companies now automate tasks that were previously completed by employees, and while that number jumps to a whopping 84% among large businesses, automation remains a huge opportunity for small businesses that need to do a lot with a little.
As automation solutions have scaled and the costs have become more accessible for small businesses, an increasing number of SMBs have tapped into automation to support marketing efforts. Critical components of email, social media, and calendar marketing can now be augmented by automation. Sixty-four percent of small businesses use marketing automation to help increase productivity and remain competitive in today’s tough business environment.
Yet automation is no magic bullet for marketers. Although the benefits of automating marketing tasks can have a large positive impact on today’s resource-strapped SMB marketer, several common mistakes can have the opposite impact on business outcomes. It’s imperative for SMBs that depend on automation to spend a little extra time reviewing and editing automated content and design to ensure it aligns with brand guidelines. As automation becomes an increasingly popular tool for small and medium-sized business owners to market and grow their companies, they must remain aware of—and avoid—three common mistakes to realize the benefits of this powerful technology.
Marketing Automation Mistake No. 1: Overcomplicating Automation
Automation is designed to help smaller teams make a big impact on business with less effort and resources, but too often, new technologies can feel overwhelming and lead to a big technological mess. Especially for SMB marketers who may be unfamiliar with automated tools and have limited access to support, there is a risk of overwhelming employees, creating a data mess, or providing a subpar customer experience.
Start small and work your way up to a larger, automated marketing strategy. Identify simple, manageable automations that are most likely to provide instant and significant benefits. Add more automation opportunities and consider your overarching strategy after assessing the performance of your initial efforts and learning more about your automation options.
Especially valuable in the early stages are third-party vendors that can seamlessly integrate their tools into your systems, preserving your brand voice and style while avoiding expensive and time-consuming website redesigns, complex integrations, and campaign strategy overhauls.
It’s important, especially for SMBs—which often get fewer bites at the apple—to avoid well-known automation pitfalls. Mistakes don’t amount to only missed opportunities. Without proper curation, automation can feel stilted, unfamiliar, and impersonal. In the worst cases, it can confuse or turn away your target audience.
Marketing Automation Mistake No. 2: Too Much Automation
Automation is a bit of a misnomer. The more that SMB marketers view automation as an assistant rather than a manager, the better their results are assumed to be. The use of automated tools should be strategic so that current and prospective customers still feel they’re having the most personalized experience, rather than being spammed or spoken to by a bot.
One strategy for determining how much automation may be too much is A/B testing, gauging which steps of the marketing funnel can benefit most from automation (and which to avoid). For appointment-based industries or billing platforms, try setting up automated appointment reminders a few days out from scheduled appointments and track the difference in no-show rates. Find a partner who can add these functional layers to your website and email campaigns in a way that upholds your brand look and feel, bolstering consistency of form in your presentation and trust with your audience.
Marketing Automation Mistake No. 3: Creating a data mess
Automation should eventually make it easier for small business marketers to collect, analyze, and leverage customer data with minimal effort and maximized results. However, many marketers struggle to maintain clean data as it pours in from disparate systems that don’t communicate well with each other. This creates more work on the marketer’s end, manually moving data sets back and forth between various platforms that handle different functions, such as sending emails or scheduling appointments.
To create and maintain a clean data set that optimizes campaign results, SMB marketers should select platforms and tools that can easily write back to their CRM or preferred “source of truth.” The more seamless the communication between marketing systems, the healthier the data that powers automation.
Marketing Automation Mistake No. 4: Compromising Brand Voice and Style
A cohesive brand voice and style are critical for small businesses striving to scale and grow brand awareness. Yet so many small and medium-sized businesses make the same mistake of compromising one, the other, or both by allowing automation to have free rein over a company’s marketing strategy.
A consistent visual and messaging profile should be the goal of every marketer, large or small, in order to promote instant brand recognition, build credibility, and create a seamless experience for a consumer audience. If customers sense consistency and professionalism in presentation, they are more likely to gravitate toward your products and services.
That shouldn’t discourage you from embracing automation, which can be a powerful tool for small and medium-sized business marketers when leveraged consistently and strategically. Just be sure to take extra care, ensuring that any forays into automation maintain your brand voice and style. It takes just a bit of the human touch to align the work of automated tools with your company’s look and messaging, helping to support instant brand recognition and driving home the intended impression with your target audience.
Marissa Stone is the Product Marketing Manager at AddEvent.
Photo courtesy Getty Images for Unsplash+
