In a time when trendy advertising options pop-up daily, it is important to strategize your goals and invest your budget wisely. Marketing automation is your business’ opportunity to build a portfolio of programs that deliver targeted content and nurture quality leads. In the last few years, we have experienced a burst of well-developed platforms geared toward the small- to medium-sized business sector. With several of our clients, we recommend and implement Act-On as the platform of choice. Below you will find several simple “Do’s and Dont’s” to take advantage of this automation software.

Before you sign on the dotted line:
Do build outlines for your programs and prep your content.
Take the time to strategize the flow of your automated programs and take inventory of the content you currently have. We recommend building up an established collection to fill at least 2-3 of your outlined programs. If you identify areas in need of more content development, build up your library first. This will help you avoid spending a monthly fee for a software you are not yet equipped to leverage.

Don’t forget to check the date.
Depending on your sign-on date and billing cycle alignment, Act-On will allow you 3-4 weeks of free experience/training. Sign-up mid-month to take full advantage of the extra weeks for onboarding.

Identify prospects while building your content and programs:
Do set-up the Website Prospector Tool.
Act-On provides a simple snippet of tracking code to add to each page of your website. A daily digest email sent to you by Act-On will tell you which companies are visiting your website.  This email tells you which prospects clicked on a link and which pages were visited on the website.

Don’t get wrapped up in the daily reports.
Depending on your list size and website traffic a lot of users may appear unknown with locations all across the globe. Spend 5 minutes each day to scroll through the daily digest email. Look for visitors with high page volumes and relevant locations to identify possible leads.

A Final Do and Don’t In One:
Do keep a healthy reputation and don’t forget about your list hygiene.
When sending large volumes of emails, it is important to regularly clean your lists. Contacts can become old or invalid. Outdated information may lead to high spam complaints, undeliverable mail (bounces), or unsubscribes. Check-in with your designated Act-On representative about your lists. It’s important to remember the cleaner the list the better your reputation which will ensure your ultimate goals that messages will be delivered and leads will be nurtured.