With words like “authenticity” and “human connection” being thrown around in almost every sentence about social media marketing lately, writing off marketing automation as 'old school' feels easy. But on the other hand, as your business’s audience on social continues to grow, giving your followers the quality content they’ve come to expect from you feels tougher and tougher to keep up with.
This is where marketing automation tools could prove valuable for you and your team. But being that making the switch can feel pretty nerve wracking, we figured we’d ask #SMTLive Twitter chat participants for their best advice on the subject. Read on to discover more about making the switch from manual to automatic.
To automate or not to automate?
Q1: Are you currently using any form of marketing automation tools? #SMTLive
— Social Media Today (@socialmedia2day) April 9, 2019
Most of our #SMTLive Twitter chat participants use marketing automation tools already, which is great! But we still have a solid 40% of people who aren’t on the marketing automation train yet, so this conversation was certainly educational.
Our State of Marketing Automation Survey yielded results that were a bit more varied than the ones we got on Twitter for this particular chat. Of the 300 marketers in the survey, about 75% of them currently use automation tools, while the other 25% haven’t jumped on the bandwagon yet.
On choosing your tools
I'm not exactly sure I have found the perfect automation system for me yet...there are pros/cons of each but I still have yet to find one that can do everything I want it to do, and not be a ridiculous amount each month #SMTLive
— Amy Castaneda (@smalltownamy) April 9, 2019
Deciding that automation feels right for you or your business is only half the battle. With so many awesome tools out there to choose from, it’s hard to sort through them all and figure out which one will actually work for you. Here’s how some #SMTLive chatters went about choosing a marketing automation tool themselves.
A3. Start with research. Really dig into the tools you know will be right for your audience, not just what others are using. Second, a free trial always helps to see if it'll be the right fit #SMTLive
— Charu Misra (@charumisra) April 9, 2019
We love a free trial!
It's a trial and error process, you have to understand what your organization's goals are and then research to find what can help you reach them. #SMTLive
— Social Media Dallas (@SM_Dallas) April 9, 2019
Be comfortable with the fact that there’s some trial and error involved with this process. The first tool you work with might not be a perfect fit (and that’s okay!).
A3: We evaluated the amount of time being used without automation versus the time that would be spent with automation to see if the costs were worth it. With the added benefits and the time saved, it was! #SMTLive
— Fresh Creative (@Fresh_Creative) April 9, 2019
Truly inspiring.
To be continued...
Wondering where the rest of this recap is? We’ll be hitting you with the rest of the #SMTLive Twitter chat in another article shortly, specifically to discuss the future of marketing automation.
In the meantime, check out our State of Marketing Automation 2019 Survey Report here.