Marketing Automation for Startups

Marketing Automation is a must-have for startups and the optimization of their digital efforts. First we will try to define what are the main characteristics of Marketing Automation and why it is so important for new businesses, better said, startups.

¿what is marketing automation?

It is quite simple and straightforward. It is a platform or set of tools that help organize and automate marketing activities with less effort and sustainable results.

Let's take an example: You are developing a B2B service solution and your resources to hire marketing staff are very limited. But you don't even have enough hours to devote to it.

Your answer probably lies in automation software! Some studies, in fact, claim that in 74% of cases, automated Marketing solves many team tasks saving a lot of time.

the starting point: the main free platform of marketing automation

Are there affordable or free marketing automation tools for startups? The answer is yes. There are many platforms that have a limited free version, as well as open source platforms. The list of free marketing automation platforms includes:

• HubSpot Marketing 
• Mautic 
• OpenEmm 
• Zoho Campaigns 
• MailChimp

y... and many more! But first, let's analyze what you would need for your business and what would work best for you. 

HOW TO CHOOSE YOUR MARKETING AUTOMATION SOFTWARE?

1. MAKE SURE IT IS AFFORDABLE
   
   In case you choose an advanced version over the free one, you have to make sure that you can keep the price for a long time. As with every cash outlay, you need some time to see the results and every investment has to have its benefits and be worth it.
   
   
2. CHOOSE THE PLATFORM THAT BEST SUITS YOUR NEEDS
   
   Review all the inclusions in your automation software investment plan and make sure it meets your needs and what you need for your customers and growth. Some examples of "must-have" essentials:
   
   - Email Marketing Automation
   - Landing page creation
   - Multichannel marketing campaigns
   - Lead generation, nurturing and qualification
   - Campaign measurement and ROI
   
   
3. CHECK THE INTEGRATIONS WITH THE SOFTWARE
   
   Make sure the automation software is capable of integrating with the systems and applications you are using or will be using in your Digital Strategy. Don't just look at the short term scenario, rely on software that offers higher levels of integration both now and in the future.

the essentials of your marketing automation strategy

Once you are clear about what you need and you have already advanced with its implementation and initial setup, it is essential to design with the help of an expert a strategy for your marketing automation and define what are the essentials for your marketing automation. Here are some tips:

1. Review and define your business objectives
2. Segment your target audience
3. Integrate marketing automation with an inbound strategy
4. Personalize communications
5. Nurture your leads with a personalized content marketing strategy

 hubspot CASE 

HubSpot's CRM platform includes all the tools and integrations you need for marketing, sales, content management, service desk and operations. Each product is powerful on its own; in combination, they are unmatched.

It is important to know that the 3 pillars of an Automation strategy with HubSpot are:

1. Contact property: dynamic variables that activate/deactivate automation actions through different workflows.
2. Life cycle: our subscribers have different stages within the communications depending on their interaction with the actions
3. List Membership: as properties vary, contacts enter or leave certain categories, which in this case are identified as "lists". These activate or deactivate a workflow.

What do we mean by workflow? Let's see together how this function can help us on a day-to-day basis in our startup. First, let's define it!

The workflow is a set or series of automated actions that are executed in simple sequences based on initial triggers and predefined rules, based on user behavior and degree of interaction. 

Workflows can be applied in different ways internally or externally, based on the needs of our startup:

1. Generate and qualify our Leads
2. Nurture our Leads
3. Follow up and close sales 

A competitive advantage of this platform is its "User friendly Modality"; that is, you don't need any developer or technician to automate your actions. You can do it all by yourself and... This will save you a lot of costs and time!

If you want to learn more about automation, write to us at hola@hayas.es. We have a recorded webinar where we explain all the steps to find the perfect solution for you. Or, alternatively, request a consultation to learn more about platform setup and which license is best suited to your needs.

We remind you that Hubspot offers a discount of up to 90% for startups during the first year and there are starter plans from 45 euros per month with all Hubs included!