Digital assistance: 5 inbound marketing tips for time-starved small businesses

“The typical work-day for the entrepreneur is undefinable — it never ends,” writes Jeff Shavitz in Entrepreneur. “Your brain is always on over-drive. You may not always be in the office but your mind is forever racing with different thoughts covering a myriad of issues: payroll, rent, new office space, customer retention, hiring, firing and so much more.”

Fortunately, today’s automated marketing tools can take much of the heavy lifting off your plate when it comes to your marketing campaigns, allowing you to focus on other elements of your business. In fact, Entrepreneur recently cited stats showing automation has boosted revenues for 78 percent of U.S. marketers, while 75 percent of brands using such automation realize ROI in 12 months or less.

Some of the best campaigns use automation to get your phone number in front of the customers most likely to buy from you, using pre-determined data to determine who those customers are and where, when and how they’re most likely to respond. Consider how the following tips may get you started with such automation.

1. Think long-term. Instead of taking intermittent stabs at marketing, think in terms of ongoing methodology such as call marketing campaigns that work on your behalf to meet specific goals. Done right, such campaigns build on themselves, producing measurable results that allow you to repeat the best strategies for optimal ROI.
2. Optimize social media. Today’s tools can handle much of the associated busywork, including auto publishing, storing and scheduling future posts, curating relevant content from other sources, automatically moving your blogs to your social sites and/or alerting you when your company is mentioned elsewhere on social media.
3. Email your way to success. Many marketers are taking full advantage of tools that automatically log and send targeted emails to targeted customers with minimal required input. With drip campaigns, the tool itself decides which email to send next based on the receiver’s response, or lack thereof.
4. Reduce, reuse, recycle. When you’re taking the time, energy and/or money to produce quality content, don’t hesitate to use it across all possible channels — blogs, e-books, social media, your website, your email campaign, SMS, print collateral, in-person seminars, videos, etc.
5. Personalize everything. As analytics have advanced, consumers increasingly expect marketing content aimed at their specific wants and needs. Use tools that nurture and score leads, segmenting customers and potential customers into meaningful categories, so you can try to appeal to them based on what they’re likely to respond to.

Your small-biz marketing can be made much easier if you choose among the many helpful tools on the market that can work on your behalf. Custom Toll Free can get you started with a clearly defined, user-friendly automated marketing campaign that works to drive your revenues. Learn more by calling 1-855-800-3030.