Succeeding in the Age of Digital Marketing

Customers have become more demanding than ever. Not only do they want personalized attention, they expect you to recognize wherever they are in the moment.

To win against the competition, our businesses have to

• deliver marketing across multiple channels and devices,
• interact with our audience on the channel they prefer, then
• track and optimize that journey.

With today’s marketing automation platforms, such as SharpSpring, we can touch our customers and prospects in any channel. But to maintain the relationship, we have to track the contact from social media to our web page, then to an email account, and finally to their phone. (And to track multiple email addresses and phone numbers… a topic for another day!)

It’s the integration challenge, my friend. Your marketing automation platform (say, SharpSpring, but maybe a competitor) will record all the interactions, but how do you make sure all those calls, chats, and social reactions are merging to the right record? How do you figure out which blog post or drip campaign is making the biggest difference?

New contacts become prospects when they share some information that allows you to qualify them as someone that your company can serve better than the competition. Usually (but not always), that moment occurs when they give the right answer on a form on your web site. (If they are over the age of 50, they may have called into your staff and had a conversation. Don’t hold your breath.)

Leveraging a Marketing Automation Platform

If you and your staff have committed to a state-of-the-art marketing automation platform (like SharpSpring, hint, hint), you’ve probably got the data you need to build customer relationships. But once the sales process gets going, you’ll find that holding all the pieces together can be excruciating. It’s holding you back from figuring out which prospects deserve the most investment.

When we look at our computer screen, no matter our job function, we need to see that tools are available to speed our productivity. The more training required, the more the information system will be a drag on performance. You need a system so well-designed, your people look at the screen and get excited about taking the next step. Choosing an advisor who researches your existing processes, and configures the system to make them clear, those are the choices that speed you down the path.

Integrating all the data rolling into your business, and making sure it’s actionable… that’s where it’s more than picking a good advisor. To conquer digital marketing, you need a partner who’s run the traps, a partner who will be there when you have to climb the hurdles. Getting everyone on the same page, not because they are bridling, but because they don’t see the path… that’s the biggest challenge.

At E6 Solutions, we want to help your find the path to a holistic information system that serves you and your customer, bringing all of you together.