If your business is not yet on board with online marketing, then you’re falling behind. That should not be considered opinion at this juncture, but fact. Old ways of marketing, such as through magazine ads, TV commercials, and radio spots, may still have their place, but the majority of your marketing must take place online and through social media. These are the ways that you will find and reach the broadest range of people, and because of that, you’re going to need automation tools. Marketing automation tools make your job a lot easier, and they’re more affordable than ever. You can look at Marketo pricing and the cost of similar services, but first, consider these three factors having to do with marketing automation.
Does It Have Useful Analytics Features?
When you are trying to figure out the frequency with which you want to advertise on your social media feeds, you’re going to need to figure out when the highest amount of your followers are around, and when they are active on their phones, computers, and other devices. That means that the marketing automation tool that you choose should have superior analytics that will yield data that you’ll find useful. Some marketing automation services have a few ways of figuring these things out, but they’re not as intuitive as others. You want one that’s easy to use.
Can You Set Up a Schedule Taking Time Zones into Account?
If you have figured out what the best days are for sending out your social media ads, and what times of day make the most sense, you should still try to get yourself a marketing automation platform that takes different time zones into account. Some of the more rudimentary ones don’t allow you to make adjustments based on your various followers living in different time zones in the U.S., or even in other countries. You don’t want to send posts about your products or sales you’re having to your followers in the middle of the night, or else they’ll never see them.
The Price
Let’s face it: you probably don’t have unlimited financial resources for purchasing a marketing automation service. There are stripped down ones that are cheaper, and there are fancier ones that come with all sorts of bells and whistles, but they’re five times as expensive. If you have some flexibility in your budget, then you’ll be able to consider a broader range of options, but most companies are going to need to allocate most of their money to paying blog writers, SEO agencies, social media gurus, etc. You’re going to need a service that is affordable.
Ideally, you should be able to find yourself a tool that has everything that you need at a price that seems reasonable. Many of these services offer trial periods, so you might want to go that route before you commit. You will find that a marketing automation platform is not a luxury, but a necessity. You can use yours to free up time that you can spend doing other things. If you’re a business owner, then time is always at a premium.