Marketing, while it is often a very rewarding and valuable task for a company, can become very stressful very quickly. You may feel stress if you have tight deadlines or too many things to get done in a short time. Many see marketing as a make-or-break part of a company, and we are inclined to agree. But just because marketing can become very stressful does not mean there are not ways to ease that stress.

What is marketing automation?

One of the best ways of easing the stress of marketing and making it a simpler and more efficient process is by utilizing marketing automation software and techniques. If you are not familiar with marketing automation, it is the process of utilizing software to market more effectively on various platforms and automate tasks that are repetitive. Using this kind of software allows you to post on all your different sites from one place, making it very convenient and helpful.

For example, if you are required to post on Facebook four times a week for your company, you can utilize a marketing automation software to do this more efficiently. You can use the software to pre-schedule the posts in a few hours rather than spending many more hours. This has the potential to help your business grow by allowing more time to work on more pressing things.

Why is it important?

Marketing is a process that takes quite a bit of time if you want to get it right. Ineffective marketing campaigns are deployed often, and you don’t want to be the creator of one of them. But to develop an effective, innovative, and unique marketing campaign/plan, you need the time to dedicate to it. That’s where marketing automation comes in. By utilizing marketing automation services, you can automate tedious parts of your marketing plan and free up more time to work on the creative parts of the campaign.

Marketing automation can have a wide effect on your company if done correctly. It can affect things such as productivity, personalization, tone of voice, measuring ROI, and more. This software allows all these things and more to become attainable for your company, but you must decide if the time is right to begin using marketing automation software.  

Do I need marketing automation?

If you are not very familiar with marketing, it may be a bit tough to know when to begin using marketing automation software. According to the experts at SharpSpring, there are a few questions that you can ask yourself when deciding if it is time for marketing automation software:

  • Do I have an inbound marketing strategy set in place?
  • Is my sales team having trouble keeping track of all our leads?
  • Do the marketing and sales teams feel disjointed?
  • Am I using too many marketing apps/software to meet my goals?

These questions will help you decide if it is time for you to go with a marketing automation software. Luckily for you, there are various software companies that have benefits of their own. Some have different features than other, so do your research, and read the following sections for more insight.

Software choices

There are many different marketing automation software companies including Marketo, Hubspot, Pardot, Klaviyo, and SharpSpring. These marketing automation programs have different benefits for different company sizes. It is essential to click the links and read into them more before deciding on one. We’ll be focusing on SharpSpring in this post, as Focused Engagement personally uses their software and heavily recommends them.  

SharpSpring

According to capterra.com, SharpSpring is one of the top marketing automation software companies. The platform offers maximum flexibility, distinct and useful features, user-friendly functionality, and high performance for your needs. Some of SharpSpring’s features include behavior-based email marketing, native or 3rd-party CRM, personalized social media tools, landing page and blog page builders, and integration with hundreds of different apps.

SharpSpring is also known for being much cheaper than the competition while still offering the same features as well as unique ones. They also offer a special partner program to marketing agencies that comes with reduced costs and added benefits. You can learn more about SharpSpring’s features on their website.

Conclusion

Needless to say, marketing automation software is very important and effective for a variety of companies. Whether you are a full-fledged marketing company or simply have a marketing department at a larger company, this software can help you optimize your workflow. It may take a bit of learning to utilize it correctly, but wonderful results will come from it. Focused Engagement recommends SharpSpring and their amazing tools especially if you are a start-up marketing agency. Contact us for advice and more information on marketing automation software and local SEO!