Marketing automation has gained considerable traction over the last few years and for good reason. It’s a powerful solution to help businesses grow by streamlining, automating and monitoring all marketing efforts. The most important aspect to always remember is a customer-first mindset. Your customer’s needs and wants are the focus point, not what you want them to buy or do.

Who can benefit from marketing automation?

A few years ago only big companies could afford marketing automation as it was too expensive and also required significant staff training. This concept has changed. There is an increasing number of marketing automation platforms on the market which means competition is rife. As a result, it’s now more affordable and the interface is much more user-friendly.

With a little bit of training and some marketing knowledge, almost anyone can use most of the software platforms currently available. Marketing automation works for B2B and B2C clients of all sizes. Many of these include local small businesses such as restaurants, salons, hotels, spas and other businesses that rely heavily on a big database and online reviews. Lead generation and building a strong contact list are two of the most important aspects for these types of businesses. There are a number of ways this can be achieved and social wi-fi marketing and email automation are at the top of the list.

Social wi-fi marketing is actually a really simple but effective lead generating tactic. It can be setup so that your customer must enter their name and email address to log into your wi-fi. From there, you can sit back and see how your contact list will grow before your eyes.

Successful Case Study: Local Restaurant Chain using Marketing Automation

A platform like SharpSpring offers clients marketing automation along with other related services. Lead generation, campaign tracking, landing page and blog builder, automated emails and detailed reports are but a few. Most platforms offer similar features but essentially you need to choose what works best for your business and marketing strategy.

This particular case study refers to a restaurant chain in the Atlanta area. They had a few goals in mind:

  • Grow their contact list
  • Increase reviews
  • Get more business

The Plan

They decided to use a marketing automation platform for email marketing to promote online reviews, increase top-of-funnel awareness, promote special events and offers. There was a small problem though. Their contact list was only 4000 strong so this needed to change first.

Along with the marketing automation platform, they implemented social wi-fi marketing through Zenreach, a reputable social wi-fi marketing start-up. Within a short 2 month period, they managed to grow their list by a further 2499 email addresses.

The Result

From there, everything else fell into place. As the list grew, they initiated an email campaign asking people to write reviews which increased their monthly reviews from 10 to 30. A second email campaign was launched to promote special events and catering services. They also decided to offer people discounts when they write an online review which all helped boost engagement and increased turnover.

Local businesses often seem to work against all odds and can have a particularly tough time remaining competitive. Now that marketing automation is more affordable for almost any size business, things are certainly much easier.

With the help of a few tools, tips and tricks, brick-and-mortar businesses can easily improve their marketing efforts. Everyone can benefit from better lead generation and nurturing, engage more with their customers and generate mountains of positive reviews; all of which contribute to a steadier revenue stream.

Contact us if you have any questions or would like to know more about how we can help with your digital marketing strategy. If you’re new to marketing automation and need more info, I’m sure you’ll find Experience in Automation – 5 Tips for Beginners very interesting.

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