Setting Up Marketing Automation

Transcription

1 Setting Up Marketing Automation with MailChimp protocol 80, Inc. :: protocol80.com :: +protocol 80 1

2 If You Haven t Heard of Marketing Automation, You Probably Aren t Actively Marketing Your Business. Marketing automation typically consists of software and technologies that allow marketers to automate repetitive tasks through a variety of channels such as social media, websites, and . 2

3 MailChimp! If you are a client of ours you likely use MailChimp for your marketing campaigns. We love the platform. We use it ourselves and enjoy it immensely. The cherry on top is that they have a freemium version which is perfect for many of our new clients as they get started with Inbound Marketing. MailChimp is also very proactive when it comes to improving the services they offer. Recently, they made some enhancements to the automation features they provide, allowing you to do legitimate marketing automation with your customer list. This is a huge advancement which will help many small businesses start automating their marketing without insanely expensive software like HubSpot or Marketo. 3

4 How Marketing Automation with MailChimp Works If you turn your attention to the image on the left, you will no doubt notice the monkey-capped Automation menu. That s where you get started, assuming you have a MailChimp account. If you don t already have an account, get one! If you are a freemium MailChimp user, your automation options will be slightly more limited than those that have paid accounts - but you can still take advantage of the tremendous power of automation. 4

5 {01} Create Automation Workflow Once logged in, click the handy left-nav menu item for Automation. On the automation page, you ll want to click the Create Automation Workflow button in the top-right corner of the page: {02} Select a List to Target Next, we need to select the list with which you want this Automation workflow to be used. 5

6 Choose and Configure Your {03} Workflow Type Once you have selected your list, you will have different options depending on whether you are a paid user or a freemium user. Paid users will have workflow options as shown below on the left, and freemium users will have the options shown below on the right: 6

7 Choose and Configure Your {03} Workflow Type For this example, we ll use the Educate Subscribers option. Go ahead and click the Select button in that box to start creating the Educational Workflow. The next screen will ask for a name and allow you to set some options. For this example, we ll name this Workflow My First Workflow. I d recommend checking the box to have the activity digest sent. It will give you a heads up about how your workflow is performing. Under the tracking options, I d recommend keeping the defaults. If you are using Google Analytics (and you should be ), you can check the box for Google Analytics link tracking. 7

8 Define What Will Trigger This {04} Workflow Click the Next button in the bottom-right of the page to move on to the Triggers that will cause this automated workflow to run. The Configure Trigger screen is where you decide what conditions prompt this workflow to activate. Some of the options include: Anytime someone subscribes to the list you selected. When you import addresses into your list When an opt-in is from a specific segment remember segmentation? When an opt-in matches specific conditions such as: when they opted in their member rating one of their merge fields matches certain criteria etc. 8

9 Define What Will Trigger This {04} Workflow What we re doing on this screen is creating the parameters by which we will qualify subscribers to receive the messages. If your company manufactures several products and someone opts in by downloading a fact sheet about one specific product, they may be added to your list in a certain segment or group. You may want this workflow to contain only new leads in that segment. You may also want to include some other parameters, like when they were added to the list. 9

10 {05} Add s to the Workflow If you recall from step 3 above, we chose an Educational Workflow type. MailChimp recommends setting up at least five s for a workflow of this type. We d recommend having as many as you can, ideally more than five. The key here though is that you need to have that many s set up. Your desired outcome with this workflow might be to stay in front of a new lead. It might be to educate an existing client. It might be to nurture a middle-of-the-funnel Inbound lead. First: Decide Your Frequency If you are sending an educational series as this workflow type implies, you may want to keep the default sending pattern of once a week. If you are nurturing a brand new lead that fits the profile of someone very early on in their buyer s journey, you may want to stay in front of them a little more proactively by setting the delay to 1-2 days. If this workflow is triggered by someone signing up for a free trial, you may want the first follow up to be sent three hours after they sign up. Each situation will be a different. Be sure to think through the process. 10

11 {05} Add s to the Workflow Next: Set Up Your Series of s Again, you really want to have your s written and ready to go before you set up your workflows. This will make the process go much faster. Assuming you are ready to roll, you can click the Design button to the right of each to get it set up and ready to go. 11

12 {06} Confirm and Start Workflow After you ve set up all of your s, you will be taken to a Confirmation page to verify all of your settings one more time. If everything looks good, you can start the workflow! Some members of your list may get the first immediately depending on your trigger criteria and timing settings. {07} Adjust and Extend You can always go back to this workflow and fine tune it if you need to. You can also extend the workflow by adding s after it s first created. We recommend doing this to stay in front of leads. You may also want to trigger a new workflow for these leads. The options are plenty. 12

13 Why Would I Use MailChimp s Automation for Inbound Marketing? If there s one common theme with all of our small business marketing clients, it s that they are strapped for time and attention. Inbound Marketing isn t just about generating leads - a huge component is about nurturing the leads that come in so they are more likely to become customers. Given that most small businesses will fail at this stage due to their already-full plates, MailChimp s automated workflows allow you to do some of the nurturing without being too involved in the process. Once it s set up correctly, you can be sure that you are following up with leads in a professional, automated way. 13

14 Need a hand? We help organizations of all shapes and sizes to craft and execute successful inbound marketing strategies. Marketing Automation With time and experience being the biggest challenges to implementing an effective inbound marketing strategy with marketing automation, it makes a lot of sense to get a company like ours involved to expedite success! with MailChimp Call or Us to get the conversation started: : : info@protocol80.com protocol 80, Inc. :: protocol80.com :: +protocol 80 14