Automate Digital Marketing Like a Pro: The Complete Guide
Do you own a digital marketing agency and want to automate digital marketing? Then you need software that offers a range of marketing automation tools. Automation in digital marketing streamlines manual processes and data-intensive tasks.
If you’re still uncertain about whether you want to go down the automation path, you may want to consider the following facts. According to a recent Statista survey, 60 percent of marketing decision-makers across the globe are planning to invest more money to automate digital marketing.
You don’t want to miss out on these marketing automation trends!
Engage prospects with targeted campaigns that deliver value
What Is Digital Marketing Automation?
Digital marketing automation is an umbrella term that refers to the range of technology that allows for delegating manual and repetitive tasks to computers and Artificial Intelligence (AI). A perfect analogy would be the automation of manual labor with the help of robots, factory conveyor belts, and other non-human equipment.
Marketing automation helps your employees use their time to do more meaningful and strategic job tasks. For example, they can focus on designing an SEO strategy rather than manually scheduling hundreds of marketing emails and social posts by hand. The more satisfied your employees are, the better the customer experience they provide.
Also, AI excels at data analytics. It doesn’t tire of analyzing vast numbers that any human would find mind-numbing. It is also far more efficient at identifying trends in unstructured business data, empowering predictive analytics.
According to Statista, of the marketing decision-makers who adopt automation in digital marketing worldwide, 28 percent have found their strategies very successful, and 69 percent somewhat successful.
Tip: Do you want to join the league of agencies that successfully automate digital marketing and reap the benefits of automation in digital marketing? Vendasta’s marketing automation solutions can help.
What Can Be Automated in Digital Marketing?
Email marketing campaigns, social media posting and monitoring, and ad campaign management are the top three areas where marketing automation is increasing.
Should there be anything else on your digital marketing agency’s bucket list for automation in digital marketing? You can also automate digital marketing processes such as:
- Lead nurturing and scoring
- Ad campaign management
- Website personalization
- Analytics tracking and reporting
The marketing automation benefits include reduced staffing costs and real-time access to marketing data.
Choosing the Right Marketing Automation Platform
As a digital marketing agency owner, you already have a lot on your plate. So, how do you make sure that when you embark on the journey to automate digital marketing, everything goes smoothly?
Here’s a bird's-eye view of marketing automation best practices.
Features and Capabilities
Step 1: Before you get bogged down by hundreds of marketing automation solutions, you should create a list of your priorities.
What areas of your marketing do you want to automate? Make sure that the platform you choose checks all the boxes.
For example, Vendasta’s marketplace software offers automation in digital marketing that covers the following:
- ActiveCampaign makes email marketing a breeze
- Social Media Management will help you take care of your client's social media needs
- Leads nurturing and prioritization for your sales team
- PPC reporting and bidding optimization of digital ad campaigns in advertising
- Website support makes it easy to take care of your clients’ websites
Tip: Never forget to make a social media post go live for your clients. Vendasta’s social media management app lets you schedule posts to go live on the days and times you choose. Better yet, you can even white-label this tool and make it your own. 
Additionally, if you want to make life easier for your sales teams, Yesware, powered by Vendasta, is a tool that helps automate email campaigns.
Step 2: Once you have listed the top features you want to get when you automate digital marketing, you should also consider the platform’s capabilities.
Will the digital marketing automation platform integrate with your existing tools and software? To avoid headaches later on, you may want to consider a platform that leverages an open Application Programming Interface (API).
APIs are mechanisms consisting of a set of definitions and protocols that allow communication between various software components. Vendasta’s APIs are built using REST, which is the most popular API type. If you choose Vendasta’s marketing automation platform and tools, you can rest assured of a smooth deployment.
One of the standout features of Vendasta’s automation in digital marketing solutions is that they are white-labeled. This means that you can brand the automated services you provide to your clients through Vendasta as your own.
Ease of Use and Learning Curve
Adopting any new process, even automation in digital marketing, requires investing time and resources into training your employees and establishing new workflows.
That being said, some processes are easier to implement than others. Marketing automation integration shouldn’t be a headache for your marketing agency.
When you work on your marketing automation strategy, consider the following:
- Availability of training resources
- Quality of customer support
Vendasta has a wealth of resources available to help you get started with the marketing automation platform. You can enroll in Vendasta’s Conquer Local Academy for free to discover online courses that cover topics such as marketing automation trends and marketing automation best practices.
With Vendasta’s weekly releases and updates, you are never left in the dark about leveraging automation in digital marketing to boost your clients’ online presence.
Pricing and Scalability
Marketing automation platforms usually have different subscription tiers, with more advanced tiers offering more features. Make sure to review the features included with each tier and decide whether the pricing matches your budget.
Remember that your digital marketing agency will grow. So, choose a marketing automation platform that can seamlessly cater to your expanding needs.
When you decide to automate digital marketing, conduct thorough research into the range of solutions available on the market. Vendasta has a competitor analysis tool to ease the process for you.
Also, feel free to request demos, as these provide valuable insights into whether the platform is easy to navigate and will boost your efficiency. Avoid solutions that require you to go through hoops to perform simple tasks.
Setting Up Marketing Automation Workflows
As the owner of a digital marketing agency, you’re probably well aware of the customer journey, which is a series of steps a person takes before becoming a client or buyer. Key stages include:
- Awareness
- Findability
- Reputation
- Conversion
- Advocacy
There are sets of marketing techniques that work best to engage individuals during each stage.
For example, the findability stage covers organic search and PPC campaigns. Content marketing, which includes blogs, ebooks, and newsletters, works best during the reputation stage. Omnichannel marketing is an umbrella term for all the marketing techniques across different marketing channels.
Omnichannel marketing automation is the process of setting up marketing automation workflows to ensure clients receive relevant information depending on their stage of the customer journey.
Marketing Automation Examples
Let’s take a look at some marketing automation examples. Email automation is the oldest and most well-known type of marketing automation.
Imagine this scenario: A local business owner looking for a managed IT services provider visits your client’s website. If they sign up for the newsletter, this action could trigger a series of welcome emails that go in-depth about the company’s services.
Another common example is when an abandoned cart triggers a workflow automation. For example, if your client sells various electronics and a visitor to their website adds a laptop to their cart but doesn’t make the payment within three days, an email automation software could trigger sending a reminder email to the lead.
No cart? Not a problem. You can define what an “abandonment event” means. Website visitor tracking lets you set up email sequences that are triggered based on a lead’s engagement with the various pages. For example, if the visitor navigates to the “Contact Us” page but fails to engage, email automation software can send them a series of emails to reignite their interest.
Vendasta leverages the power of Visual Visitor WebID +Personal to enable workflow automation based on website visitor tracking.
Tip: Vendasta’s workflow automations can make your marketing agency’s daily operations a breeze.
Integrating Automation with Your Marketing Strategy
When it comes to automation in digital marketing, you don’t want your approach to be like throwing spaghetti against the wall and seeing what sticks.
Answer the Question ‘Why’
To begin, define the goals that you want to achieve when you automate digital marketing.
For example, do you want your sales team to get more leads to engage with? Do you want to empower your sales reps to nurture leads more effectively? Do you want to provide a better customer experience to the clients?
Start with Automating High Priority Processes
If your sales team doesn’t get many leads, it may be worth taking a look at your marketing metrics to understand what area of your omnichannel marketing strategy could use a bit of TLC.
Here are some suggestions for things you may want to consider.
Run an Automated Digital Ad Campaign
Is there a holiday coming up? Running a promotion in an automated digital ad campaign can boost the number of leads.
Automatically Inform Sales about Hot Leads
Maybe your sales team doesn’t have many leads because there’s poor communication between your sales and marketing departments. Lead automation or project management automation can help in this case. This means that your marketing automation strategy could focus on ensuring that hot leads don’t slip through the cracks.
Perform A/B Tests
A/B testing is another powerful way to boost the number of leads. Testing out different ad formats can help you find the best way to appeal to your target audience.
Tip: Vendasta’s Advertising Intelligence helps you gauge how well your clients’ ads are performing under one roof for easy comparison. 
Keep Your Prospects Engaged
Content automation is a powerful way to help your sales reps nurture leads more effectively.
For example, whenever a website visitor downloads an ebook, email automation software could send them a follow-up email offering more resources on the topic of interest.
Managing and Scaling Marketing Automation
Marketing automation depends on establishing processes and responsibilities for automation management. Define who on your team is responsible for each of these tasks:
- Selecting a marketing automation platform or tools to implement
- Training team members on using automation tools effectively
- Monitoring performance metrics and making data-driven adjustments
If you begin by automating just some marketing processes and decide to scale, CRM marketing automation is your next logical step.
Marketing Automation Success Stories
Let’s take a look at a couple of inspirational marketing automation examples. Vendasta makes marketing automation for small businesses a breeze, so they have quite a few success stories to share. Here are some of their highlights.
In a recent interview, Vendasta gives insights into how marketing automation ROI is worth the efforts for Little Jack Marketing. In part, due to leveraging the power of automated processes such as social media content scheduling and email marketing, Marcel Krawczyk, the founder of the digital marketing agency, has succeeded in making his agency 100% execution free.
Watch the entire interview to find out more!
Another inspirational case study is DragonTech IT Services, which excels in meeting its local clients’ marketing needs with the help of email automation.
The Future of Marketing Automation
Are you pumped up to learn more about marketing automation trends?
According to WebFX, with AI and machine learning advancing at a rapid speed, marketers get increasingly more ways to craft personalized content and customer experiences.
If you are the owner of a digital marketing agency, there’s no time to waste—start to automate digital marketing today!