When NOT to Use Marketing Automation

Marketing automation is wonderful and can really make a difference for your use of time in building your business. Not everything needs to be drip fed, though. Sometimes it is better to do things yourself or have a virtual assistant do them.

No matter how sophisticated a Word Press plug in, or a piece of software is, it is still basically a computer program. There will be bugs, there will be updates, there will be times when customers want to talk to a human to address their issues.

Have you ever had a problem with a company such as your internet provider or cell phone provider and when you called them, you got an automated customer service system? How frustrated did you get when you were trying to get your question answered, or trying to reach a human because you knew your problem did not fit their four selection choices? Often because they are rather large business with little or no competition in the area, they can do that to their customers. You might not want to do that though because there is probably far more competition for your customers.

So customer service is a major area where you would not want to have a lot of marketing automation. Basic issues can be addressed by tools such as emailing a new password when someone clicks the forgot password button. If a person needs more than can be handled simply, you need to have a way for them to connect with a person. It can be you, or someone you hire to help you, but that person needs to be able to listen to the customer and figure out how to solve the problem, no matter how odd the problem is.

Another area where you will want to have at least some human presence is in your social media. If you just rely on marketing automation to handle your social media, you will short change yourself and your customers. In some cases, you may end up getting banned from groups if you only use drip fed posts. The line between automation and spamming can be quite thin.

An additional area where automation does not work well is in producing content. Once the content is created, you can use the tools to get the content out there, but the actual making of it needs a personal touch. Many people have tried to make software that writes well, and failed at it. Creativity is not hardwired into computers the way it is in human beings. So if you want something written, or a video made, or graphics designed, you need to do it yourself or outsource to a person, not try to use automation tools to create the content.

Marketing automation can really help streamline your business and help you grow. It is important though, that you understand how best to use these tools so you do not make mistakes. Remember that these tools are only there to make things easier for you, not to replace the human touch.

First and foremost, you need to make sure you keep adding fresh content that is specifically geared to your customers. For example, if you are selling to men who love dogs and want to learn how to train them better, you probably would not want content that has to do with how to help women lose weight.

Watch out for more subtle differences as well. You can generalize to some extent, but you do not want your customers to feel like you are just throwing content at them to see what sticks. Make sure your content is not only changing, but relevant to your specific customer base. A lot of times you have more than one group of customers, though, so segmenting your list is crucial to helping you target them better with your automation. You want them to feel like even though it is automated, that you care about them and their interests.

Do not use marketing automation when you should be connecting with your customers manually. For example, many tools work with drip feeding content and posts to various forms of social media. You can use these tools to make sure your social media stays active, by tweeting, sharing, posting, when you are not able to because you are asleep, or working on other projects.

Make sure, though, that you also post manually so people can hear what you have to say. If you are a member of a group on sites like Facebook, use good social manners. A few automated posts now and again that are very relevant to the group may be alright as long as you clear it first, but if you drip feed a lot of posts, many unrelated, the group may ban you.

Set it and forget it can lead you into issues. You do need to monitor your marketing automation and test it and tweak it. Make sure you are offering targeted information that helps your customers as well as sales pitches. Check on things like how much interaction you are getting with social media posts and blog posts. Analyze your stats on emails to make sure you are really maximizing your benefits from using automated tools to grow your business.