Many people use marketing automation and marketing sequence interchangeably without knowing how different they are. While the two can be used in a combination, these terms cannot be used interchangeably. So, to ensure the proper use of both the marketing phenomenon, you need first to understand what they truly mean. Only then will you be able to build a marketing strategy that establishes you as one of the best in your industry.
This post is your guide to everything you need to know about marketing automation and marketing sequence.
What Is a Marketing Sequence?
A marketing sequence is a way of creating an email, social media, and ad campaigns in a logical order. Content that's supplied sequentially is known as a sequence. You can use it to:
- Send out email courses
- Deliver automated drip campaigns
- Promote a conference or a webcast
- Nurture leads
In the marketing sequence, a user is taken on a journey that may include the surfacing of first-party and curated material. The content is provided in a meaningful succession of targeted nodes. The ultimate goal for marketers is usually to sell products and convert leads. However, the primary objective of sequencing is to assist consumers in learning to identify value with our brand.
What Is Marketing Automation?
Marketers may use marketing automation to find new customers and follow up with them to make sure they're ready to buy. With this tool, your sales force may close deals and build long-term relationships with potential customers by automating sales-related tasks. The data it gathers can guide your efforts to create the following types of marketing collateral
- Email Newsletters
- Drip Campaigns
- Smart Personalization in Emails
- Cart Abandonment Emails
- Customized Email Campaigns
- Email Follow-Up
- And more.
When we consider the typical obstacles businesses have to overcome, we know that producing leads and maintaining a high level of customer engagement throughout the customer journey are always at the top. Alongside these objectives, businesses deal with a deluge of collected data, but they are having difficulty putting it to use.
The use of an automated marketing campaign can assist in overcoming these issues by putting data to productive use and optimizing our work processes.
How Is a Marketing Sequence Different From Marketing Automation?
Now that you know the definition of the two, you can tell the difference. Marketing automation is a process that can adapt any marketing strategy planned for a brand's promotion. Marketers can use marketing automation to make implementing a planned strategy easier.
On the other hand, a marketing sequence is a marketing strategy in which the marketers plan a sequence of marketing actions that would help in nurturing a lead.
While these two are two different marketing phenomena, they often intersect to give a better experience to the audience and the marketers.
Automated Marketing Sequence Tools
There are various sequence automation tools taking rounds in the market that marketers use to grow their clients' businesses. These tools offer a combination of marketing sequence and automation. The sequence automation marketing tools help you create sequences of social posts, ads, and emails and automate their delivery over time.
There are several reasons why you should use sequence automation tools in your marketing. Here are a few examples:
- They enable you to automate content delivery, saving you time and allowing you to reach a wider audience with your marketing initiatives
- They enable you to achieve a uniform appearance and feel throughout all of your branding efforts, which can help your company brand stand out
- While time savings are an essential aspect of what a product like Sequences can provide, you should also consider how a tool like Sequences can assist you in increasing your effectiveness
Ways To Implement Automated Marketing Sequences
Here are three strategies to get started with sequence marketing right away:
Increase Website Interaction
You can implement an automated marketing strategy in a 7-day e-course. Consider a website that offers e-courses. Once users click on the link to it from a blog, they will land on a subscription box on your website, suggesting the user join the course.
Once the user becomes a subscriber, the subscription box will be replaced with a box containing seven links, one for each day of the course.
You'd see seven links on the first day, but only the first one would be clickable. The additional links would only become clickable as you progressed through the seven days, day by day.
We could even create it so that the advertisement link has a line through it after a day of training.
Why would this be effective?
For starters, it's user-friendly. They'll be able to discover all of the links without going back and forth between emails. Second, it would increase the course's interactivity.
Third, users would see what was to come, persuading them to act as soon as they received the training. This process will not just persuade someone to sign up but also keep them interested!
Increase Social Media Shares With A Two-Step Box
Most websites feature a large box somewhere that promotes their Facebook page.
Why not replace the Facebook box with a Facebook share box when someone clicks on the 'like' emoticon?
Here's an example:
- Advert 1: Follow us on Facebook for blog updates.
- Advert 2: Thank you for your interest in our page! Why not tell your friends about our most popular post?
They've already clicked like, and they're considerably more inclined to share a post now than at any other time, so why not make it easy?
Provide A Discount To Users
You may show advertisements based on interactions with any page on your website using WhyCompete's sequence marketing tool.
According to Baymard Institute's study, only 48% of people who visit a checkout page abandon their cart due to high extra charges.
Why not offer an advertisement to visitors who view your checkout page but do not purchase, persuading them to return and do so?
Your advertisement could say, "I observed you were interested in buying (product). Here is a $10 discount if you order within the next 24 hours."
Alternatively, you might show your advertisement without mentioning that you know they arrived at your order page and present it in a way that merely seemed to be excellent timing. "Order within the next 24 hours and save $10 on our Traffic Domination course!"
Conclusion
In the early days of the internet, marketing was easy. You had to send out a monthly ezine, make sales offers, and publish any other content that generated buzz, and a specific percentage of people would "convert." However, today it's not quite as simple as it used to be.
It would be best to gauge your customers' attention using marketing techniques like sequencing and automation. These techniques ensure that the customers get the experience they expect and are driven back to you no matter what path they take within less time. So, with sequence automation tools, you can do more with less. Treetop Growth Strategy, the expert HubSpot Agency in Chicago is here to help you in the process.
