As the world around us vaults towards automating almost every aspect of our lives, savvy marketers are already employing a plethora of automation applications in their promotional strategies. In fact, 9 out of 10 marketers use some form of Marketing Automation already.

From email and social media scheduling platforms to ad planning and digital media buying, marketers are increasingly trusting Machine Learning and Algorithms to take that unbiased and objective placement and pricing call for all their marketing initiatives.

Not sure how they could benefit your business? Automation enables you as a marketer to shorten sales cycles, better retain customers, and demonstrate higher ROI. Customer loyalty thus earned translates to repeat purchases, increased buying frequencies, and authentic brand advocates without eating anything extra off your existing budgets.

However, while keeping customers engaged consistently in this manner is pivotal to driving sales and loyalty, all of it demands serious time, effort, and commitment right from concept creation to going live with a marketing campaign.

But rest assured the efforts of driving such superior-level brand loyalty initiatives do pay off. And you don’t need to take our word for it:

• Yotpo recently conducted a survey which revealed that consumers will go the extra mile to support brands they love
• 56% of the respondents said they would be willing to spend more on a brand even if there are cheaper alternatives
• According to Bain and Company, a 5% increase in customer retention can increase a company’s profitability by 75%.

Working to offer excellent customer service is the best way to boost customer retention since it improves customer satisfaction, an invaluable asset to have in today’s fiercely competitive market. Here’s where marketing automation becomes an indispensable enabler in ensuring improved customer service, reduced marketing costs, and higher customer retention rates.

To help you work faster and smarter in this direction, consider these five fundamental ways of employing marketing automation to see measurable results from your sales and marketing efforts:

1. Employ lead-scoring to receive sales-ready leads

You’ve probably heard your sales team complain about not being able to receive qualified leads at some point. It might be difficult to identify when a lead is sales-ready, but with marketing automation tools such friction can be eliminated or at least minimized.

The lead scoring method in such platforms assigns points based on factors such as the actions your leads took when visiting your website. It could be checking whether they downloaded a complimentary collateral or not, or filled out an online form.

Additionally, points may be assigned based on demographic data, thus helping segment leads with traits that match your ideal buyer. This way your sales team will know when to pass sales-ready leads to you based on a certain score you've set. Lead scoring helps sales teams to glean high-quality prospects from the mediocre, and focus their efforts and diligence on them, thus increasing team productivity.

2. Nurture existing leads to inspire repeat sales

With so many customers interacting at different levels with your brand, it can get immensely overwhelming to keep existing leads engaged enough to inspire a repeat sale. And it’s not uncommon to see brands lose on tangible business value in this manner once the initial sale has closed.

However, this can also negatively impact your brand as failing to nurture leads could make your customers feel abandoned, especially if you had some pretty compelling pre-purchase marketing in place but left it to be watered down by not backing it with a follow-up communication.

Here’s where the top brands are leveraging content marketing automation to reach out to existing customers via email, social media, messaging or other communication channels. This is essentially to let customers know that you care, and are cognizant of their needs and preferences past the initial purchase.

All this can ultimately not only earn you recurring purchases but also brand advocacy, social currency and proof in the form of word of mouth, and heighten an overall positive sentiment towards your brand.

3. Personalise your communication

Customers hate to be treated like just another number. Moreover, given how smart, savvy, and “all caught up” they are, it is truly futile to repeat content and marketing tactics to gain their attention. And because landing pages and email content are the most influential in inspiring customer loyalty, it will serve you well to pay close attention to the quality and effectiveness of the content delivered at these touchpoints.

Moreover, as your business grows, you will receive more feedback and concerns from customers. Customers need an immediate response to rest assured their concerns are being taken seriously. But it's impossible to solve the sheer magnitude of customer issues that come in every hour, minute, and second all at once.

Thankfully email marketing automation allows you to not only automate replies but personalise them as well, thus promptly notifying customers that your team is looking into addressing their grievances at the earliest.

Another way you can personalise content based on your customer's needs is by tracking their web behaviour and emails to find out what interests them the most. Marketing automation technologies allow you cull such insights and use them to effectively upsell/cross-sell and make recommendations based on their activities.

4. Solicit customer feedback to improve your customer relationships

Monitoring your customer loyalty is easy and efficient with marketing automation. Consider developing campaigns to nudge your customers to fill you in on how they feel about their current relationship with your brand.

This way you can get a timely heads-up on areas that need improvement and minimize unfavorable experiences. It's important to know what your customers want and what they'd like to change to create positive customer experiences.

5. Identify and build authentic brand advocates

With marketing automation, you can effectively track and reach brand advocates. Once you have identified some of these genuine micro influencers, it’s important to equip them with relevant content and discount codes. This will help amplify your brand resonance as they share with enthusiasm across their social networks.

Not sure who to trust? There are a myriad of marketing automation platforms you can take your pick from to glean those who frequently engage with your content. Consider treating your vocal fans with easy rewards, referrals, and affiliate programs. This way, you will be incentivising sustained loyalty and encouraging repeat purchases by them and their peer networks.

Despite significant competition from other streaming video services, Netflix remains one of the top-performing companies in terms of brand loyalty and customer retention. Building on the foundation of such strong brand advocacy, it has also become a major publisher, with a myriad of its hit TV shows gaining sponsorships. Today, having a legion of devoted brand advocates for support, it’s the world's seventh-largest internet company with revenues of USD 15.8 billion.

6. BONUS TIP: Use Chatbots and AI to drive loyalty through engaged customers

Chatbots are an incredible automation tool. They help marketers by shooting cart abandonment emails, recommending products to customers and so much more. Chatbots make it easier for customers to get aftersales help like quick answers to their product questions or returns queries.

Whether in-store or online, offering a seamless retail experience via Chatbot through marketing automation can help your brand reduce human dependencies, increase team productivity all while ensuring your customers a prompt and gratifying experience - and a compelling reason to pick your brand over your rivals.

Beyond the benefits mentioned above, marketing automation offers a plethora of other advantages. Regardless of the size of the business, marketing automation software can be used to leverage sales and customer retention initiatives. Currently, 49% of companies use marketing automation and more than half of B2B companies (55%) use the technology, making it hard to ignore the potential.

Some of the world’s leading brands have partnered with Urja to scale their marketing automation efforts to witness measurable results. To know how we can help your organisation maximize your marketing potential to ultimately hit home on sustained sales growth, contact us.