There is a lot that your team does to keep your business growing, but on their full plates of work, there’s likely a lot of busywork keeping them from doing the things they do best. Busywork like data collection, report building, and other administrative tasks can be done by a host of technology platforms designed to lighten the workload of your hard-working teams.
Digital platforms like customer relationship management, partner relationship management, enterprise resource planning, and more can take on the busywork tasks weighing your team down. When utilized to its fullest, digital platforms can even give your team the ability to do more with real-time data and customizable insights.
How? There’s one key to digital platforms that allows them to take on the round-the-clock busy administrative work for your team: automation.
Automation with Digital Platforms
The biggest way technology can help lighten your workload is through automation. The use of workflows can automate everything from sending follow-up emails to creating tasks and reminders. While the initial configuration and set up takes some planning, strategy, and time, the amount of time saved from automating processes like data entry and assigning follow-up tasks will only grow.
In addition to automating these administrative tasks, digital marketing technology can also be configured to automate many other essential functions of a digital marketing strategy and improving efficiency and accuracy in business processes, such as:
- Lead Scoring
- Data Collection & Entry
- Reporting
- Segmentation
Lead Scoring
Lead scoring helps sales and marketing identify what leads are sales ready and which ones need more time. This doesn’t just save your sales team time by focusing on the leads who are ready to buy—it also helps marketing work with leads who are still interested and can turn into opportunities with some additional nurturing.
Lead scoring can happen automatically with a digital platform. Set parameters determined by your sales and marketing teams to score leads based on their activity, then implement a workflow to notify the right people or trigger a nurture campaign when leads are scored. While set-up will take some time, leveraging lead scoring will lead to more conversions and sales in the end.
Data Collection & Entry
Data is necessary to understand your customers and compete in today’s increasingly digital world. But collecting data and entering it into a database is a tedious task that can be prone to human error. Whether its customer data, product and pricing data, or production data, managing data is a constant and precise job perfect for programs.
Digital platforms like CRM, PRM, and ERP have the ability to collect, enter, organize, and update data. In the case of ERP, all the data for your business is managed from one central database that creates information consistency across your company. Centralized and consistent data prevents errors throughout the company and breaks down data silos, improving communication.
Reporting
You can have data, but you have to do something with the data to make a real difference. Reporting is another task that takes a lot of your team’s time, and digital platforms often have customizable dashboards and reporting tools to make reporting automatic and relevant to your business goals.
Accurate, timely reports are critical to making decisions across your business and spotting tension in early stages. Digital business platforms have the ability to create reports with real-time data, meaning you can spot trends and act with more agility.
Segmentation
Not all of your customers are the same, and contact segmentation helps target your conversations with your customers. Segmentation can be by:
- Buyer persona
- Buyers’ journey stage
- Product or subscription type
- Event attendees
When conversations are more personalized to what your contacts are interested in or need at the time, it helps to gain their trust or retain their loyalty. However, having personalized conversations with your customers is difficult—without technology and automation. Leveraging data collected by digital marketing platforms can sort and segment your contacts for you, and automated workflows can trigger personalized communications in a timely manner to engage contacts.
Getting Started with Automation and Digital Platforms
Digital transformation is complicated, which can make more work at first instead of lightening the workload of your team. Configuration of a digital platform and implementation of a strategy to utilize it can be difficult, especially if your team is already overloaded. That’s where a digital agency can come in to make a digital transformation in your company a real, lasting solution that doesn’t just give your team more time—it helps grow your business long-term.
If your company is in need of a digital transformation, it’s tough to know where and how to start. That’s what we’re here for at ManoByte. Our digital transformation experts can help you leverage technology for business agility and efficiency today and into the future. Let’s connect on how your business can grow with a digital transformation.
