If You Doubt the Power of Marketing Automation, This Article Will Make You See the Light

Marketing automation. It’s the big thing now.

It so happens that marketing automation has many benefits that align particularly well with the goals of most nonprofits. If your nonprofit isn’t using it, the following examples will make you see the light.

It saves time

Time is money, which is one big way marketing automation can boost your ROI. Marketing automation streamlines your digital marketing strategies, thus making those efforts more efficient. Imagine creating a campaign with timelines and pre-scheduled send dates that gets the right message at the right time to the right person through the right medium.

For example, let’s say you want to send a follow-up email to a donor one week after they’ve donated. Instead of doing this manually, you can set it up beforehand and then forget about it and move on to your next task.

It’s personalized and targeted

It’s a fact that people appreciate when organizations customize messages to fit their interests. Marketing automation allows you to deliver content tailored to the particular interests of people in your email lists. This is important, because people are probably interested in your organization for different reasons.

For example, a person who registers for an event may have different motivations and interests than somebody who signs up to volunteer, or a person who buys a membership. One size does not fit all, and the best way to overcome this is to create marketing campaigns catered to peoples’ different needs and interests.

It drives action

Personalized communications also deepen your organization’s relationship with an individual, which builds trust. That makes them more likely to take a desired action, such as choosing to become a member, a donor, a volunteer, etc.

Choosing a provider

Many organizations contract an outside marketing automation service because implementing the process is complicated and time consuming. However, most of these companies are not specialized in catering to the unique needs of nonprofits. 

What’s more, they may not actually boost your ROI.

That’s because marketing automation companies use their own software to run the automation process. As a result, you end up paying for the operation of your campaign and for the use of their software. This extra cost can cancel out the ROI that automation provides.

Benefits of open-source software

Ally 360 uses open-source software, which in its foundation is free. There are no software-use costs passed on to you.

We also have the capability to send communications to your audience via SMS and desktop notifications. Moreover, we’re experts at pulling important data from our marketing automation system, which can be used to help refine your messaging.

A focus on nonprofits

When considering to work with an outside automation-marketing service provider, keep in mind what their specialty is (if they have one). For example, Ally 360 works only with nonprofits; therefore, we understand their unique needs and know how to cater to them.

Tags: email, marketing automation, ROI