7 Useful Marketing Automation Tips

This blog was originally published as a guest post on pardot.com and prior to the name change of Pardot to Marketing Cloud Account Engagement.

I’m a huge fan of useful, snappy and actionable content. When it comes to marketing automation, that’s exactly what you need to help you engage your prospects and keep them coming back. But did you know just how much you can do with your marketing automation platform? 

From content creation to organisation, marketing automation is all about streamlining your marketing processes. So whether you’re just starting out or you’re a seasoned pro, here are seven of my favourite marketing automation tips to help you get the best out of your platform.

1. Dynamic content isn’t just for emails, it’s for your website too.

With dynamic content, your website can level up. Instead of having a generic brochure on your homepage, why not have a highly personalised piece of content that changes based on the prospect’s location and industry?

Bonus tip: If you have a piece of information across several pages on your website that you have to change manually every month, make it dynamic. Change it only once a month within Pardot and save yourself some time.

2. Segmentation rules are your best friend

Need to run a quick report on how many customers bought something in the last 28 days? Segmentation rules give you the flexibility and speed you need to quickly get to the heart of your data. Incredibly detailed information is available right at your fingertips, providing you with a current snapshot of prospects within your criteria.

3. Save your files into the right folders

Saving files in the right folder is not only important for your admin, but it’s a fundamental part of Scoring Categories. If you don’t associate your assets to the right folder, you’ll miss out on a tonne of useful insights and it could even interfere with some of your automation rules. Remember to change the folder when you save and make sure everything is at home!

4. Retarget your prospects

A huge benefit of using landing pages created in a marketing automation platform is the ability to include certain logic into your campaigns. Let’s say a prospect views one of your landing pages and doesn’t fill out the form. Why not add some logic into your program so they receive an email a few days later with an exclusive offer? Watch your conversion rates and sales increase with this method of retargeting.

5. Scoring Categories tell a story

A clear strategy for your Scoring Categories can do you the world of good. For a company that sells multiple products or services, categories give a clear indication as to what a prospect is interested in. As an example, imagine a company that offers broadband, mobile contracts and even TV. Let’s say I accumulate a score of 100 looking at pages related to their mobile offerings and only 10 points looking at their broadband pages. No prizes for guessing what I want! Now let’s say you’ve created Scoring Categories for each product. When I reach your designated score, you can send me an offer for a mobile product and know that I’m now a lead that’s ready to be passed to sales.

6. Pay attention to the email client reports

Ever wondered how many people are viewing your beautifully responsive emails on mobile? Wonder no more. Reports within Pardot will give you a breakdown of who is using what device to view your emails. With more and more people using tablets and mobile devices each year, it’s crucial that you take this into consideration. What’s more, if you can see a large chunk of your audience are using mobile, you can start to add some more engaging mobile-specific content into your emails and your website.

7. Are you using dependent fields? (If not, why not?)

Dependent fields make it easier to capture more information from the right people and we already know that users prefer shorter forms. If you’re targeting a really specific group of people then it’s a no-brainer that when they identify themselves on a form, you should be thinking about the next steps. Asking where they heard about you, if they’re interested in receiving your newsletter, or if they’d like to schedule a call are all good ways of using dependent fields.

It’s amazing how much of a difference small tweaks can make to your marketing automation strategy. Get in touch to chat about how to harness these tips for your business specifically.