Five automation tips to boost your marketing strategy

As a small business owner, finding time for marketing can be challenging. In fact, Constant Contact’s report,  The Current State of SMB Marketing, found that more than half of small businesses worldwide say they have only an hour or less per day to spend on it.

When time is tight, working smarter, not harder, is crucial to achieving the most impact for your business. That’s why many businesses are turning to marketing automation to get the most out of their limited time.

Marketing automation software can help you engage the right audience with the right message at the right time. For example, it can send a welcome email to a new subscriber, abandoned cart messages to prompt a purchase, or a birthday message to a loyal customer or client. By integrating a digital marketing platform like Constant Contact with other business tools like Xero, you can also use real-time data, such as invoice status, purchase items, activity and more, to trigger pre-built automations, making your marketing more targeted, effective, and efficient.

These are the exact benefits that Xero and Constant Contact have partnered up to provide to their small business customers. By connecting Xero and Constant Contact, businesses can automate communications to customers based on invoice status and activity, ensuring targeted, tailored messaging, an enhanced customer experience, and up-to-date return-on-investment (ROI) and attribution reporting so you can track the impact in real money. And because it’s automated, it makes the best use of your limited time, allowing you to focus on what matters: growing your business.

Five marketing automation tips for your small business

Here are five tips to help you get started with marketing automation.

• Define your audience and goals. Before you automate, take the time to understand who your customers are and what you want to achieve. Your goals might include increasing engagement, cross-selling, or growing your customer base. Ensure your goals are SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound).

• Make the most of today’s technology. Use marketing automation software to nurture leads with welcome emails, to promote engagement with personalised messages, and to send payment or purchase confirmations. Utilise AI-powered digital marketing tools to create or refine content, map out campaigns, and build automation paths in seconds.
• Utilise professional templates. Many digital marketing tools provide pre-built email templates to get you started quickly. Look for templates specifically designed to work with your existing business software. For instance, an invoice payment in Xero can automatically trigger a templated ‘thank you’ email from Constant Contact, ensuring timely acknowledgment and a professional customer experience.
• Measure performance. Don’t just set it and forget it. Use the analytics available in your digital marketing platform to monitor your efforts. By tracking delivery and engagement metrics, you can understand how your customers are interacting with your marketing. Use these insights to intelligently test, refine, and improve your campaigns over time.
• Know when to automate, delegate, or collaborate. Automation is a powerful tool, but it’s not a one-size-fits-all solution. Understand which tasks can be automated, which ones require a human touch, and where collaboration is key. This balanced approach will help you maximise the efficiency of your marketing efforts and drive better results.

With the right tools and integrations and a strong marketing automation strategy, you can enhance your marketing, work more efficiently, and drive growth for your business.

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Constant Contact is a powerful marketing automation platform that delivers a simplified marketing experience in less time and with better results. With world-class support and onboarding, backed by expert professional services, it’s easy to get started with marketing automation. 

As a Xero customer, you get a free trial of Constant Contact and 50% off any plan for a limited time. Learn more about this offer and how Constant Contact offers a seamless integration and onboarding experience for Xero customers in the Xero App Store.