We are in the information automation age. Automation is touted for its various benefits. Some include reducing labor and saving time. Computerization helps cut operational costs too. In inbound marketing, automation takes over repetitive tasks and boosts revenue immensely. So, has your business embraced marketing automation?
What is Content Marketing Automation?
Look at the different tasks in your content marketing process. You’ll realize that many of them are repetitive. You do them daily, weekly or even monthly. You probably do such within the same time of the day. And they follow a certain pattern. Marketing automation involves identifying such recurring tasks. Then, you employ technological tools to accomplish them.
Some Content Marketing Tasks you Can Easily Automate
It’s possible to automate tasks in almost every stage of content marketing. What you need is to invest in the right software. Some can even perform multiple automated tasks. See some content marketing tasks you can automate below;
- Planning and strategy – your interest is in gathering Keywords and checking the related content. You also want to study campaigns by your competition. For this, you could use tools like Keyword Planner and Content builder. Set Google alerts to monitor the content being creating for those Keywords.
- Creation – content curation is a cost-friendly way of getting quality content. You can share with your readers on different platforms. A tool like Drum up comes in handy when you want to find hot content in your niche. A content builder is another tool. Use it to put your documents, videos, and images together. Choose an appealing layout for them. Or edit them before distribution.
- Distribution – schedule automatic tweets and other social media posts. Send automatic emails, new blogs, posts, and videos. Proper scheduling ensures that posts are sent when your readers have the highest likelihood to be online. Scheduling tools include Hootsuite and Buffer. Examples of mail automation tools are MailChimp and Aweber.
- Measurement – this is a crucial stage in content marketing. You can hardly tell if you are meeting your goals if there is no means of monitoring. An all-time tool for this purpose is Google analytics. You are wondering what to measure? See some important inbound marketing metrics to measure here.
The list is long. Some businesses have gone to the extent of using bots to write their content. This depends on the type and structure of content, though. Some content might sound off if developed using bots. Bots can lack that free-flowing, engaging and the casual touch associated with writing by humans.
How automation can enhance content marketing
Content marketing is a great sales-driving force. At least, content marketers themselves believe so. This is according to a 2018 B2C content marketing survey by the Content Marketing Institute (CMI). 86% of those interviewed view content marketing as a pivotal business strategy.
But, they have challenges doing content marketing.
Based on CMI’s report, many marketers don’t know how to do content marketing properly. Additionally, those doing it admit to being unhappy with their process. Others don’t use any laid down content strategy. Based on Zazzle media, 60% of marketers struggle to create content consistently. Marketing automation is a sure remedy to all these challenges. Here is how;
- It will cause you to adopt a content inventory system – you can’t pull out marketing automation without a proper look at your content. A content audit enables you to see what you have and don’t. You will also look at the quality and value of the content you have.
- Create editorial calendars – during a content auditing, you discover areas in your buyers’ journey that lack appropriate content. It’ll prompt you to prepare a list of the specific content you are missing. With inbound marketing automated, you say goodbye to random content.
- Enhances lead segmentation and planning the buyers’ journey – automation systems make it easier to classify your audience. The systems monitor visitor’s actions when they land on your page and classify them. This classification helps you to see which stage of the buying journey your visitors are. You will be forced to delve into specifics of the necessary content for each stage of a buyers’ journey.
- Makes marketers more productive – it literally frees them. This extra time can be spent on research. They can spend it trying new ideas. Or measuring and studying reports. Better still, in optimizing their campaigns. Besides, marketing computerization works for your business even when the team is resting.
- Cut cost – this results from the discipline of planning and strategizing. Marketers will realize that less is more. They will achieve better results with less content. This cuts marketing or content production costs. Automation can help make each piece of content more efficient.
- Measure ROI on content marketing – content marketing is expensive. Businesses want to spend on the right aspects. Marketers need to justify their budgets before business leaders can approve. It’s impossible to demonstrate marketing effectiveness without proper measuring tools. Most content automation tools come with inbuilt tracking and reporting tools.
- Enables you to create personalized, relevant content – your audience’s needs are different. Each is at a different stage in the buying journey. They also enjoy content through different channels. Understanding this is key when creating and distributing content. There is a lot of content being developed today. You aren’t the only marketer competing for the viewer’s attention. Only content that rhymes with audience needs stand a better chance.
- Improve customer experience – Automation gives you various insights into customer behavior. You learn what your audience is looking for. You see which channels they spend most of their time on. You can detect the time of day they visit such channels. Use this information to create and feed them with the information they are interested in. You will be guaranteed to boost engagement.
- Drive more qualified leads – this, in turn, improves conversion. Any good automation software comes with inbuilt A/B testing capabilities. Testing enables you to see what marketing campaigns are performing. You monitor where your traffic is coming from. And the kind of traffic your content marketing is attracting. You could evaluate these reports. Then tailor your message to attract the right traffic. People who can become buyers and brand ambassadors.
Conclusion
Great content is a prerequisite of any inbound marketing strategy. Important as well is feeding this content to the right audience. But the timing should be right. These three crucial acts drive engagement. Doing this consistently and measuring results can make you a winner. That’s what marketing automation can do for your business.