Combining Marketing Automation with Outbound Sales

There are many different marketing practices used by multiple different companies every day.

These are to achieve many different objectives. Marketing Automation and Outbound Marketing are two of these practices. Do they work well together? 

If you want to learn more about marketing, read our Inbound Marketing checklist here:

Marketing Automation is the use of a platform through which you can send automated marketing messages to your consumer. You can also track and nurture leads, measure and increase retention and so much more. This software boosts productivity and saves time completing day to day marketing tasks. 

The up-side of Marketing Automation is that, when used properly, it can be an effective resource for increasing revenue. This is due to the many successful leads nurtured through its programmes. The downside is that it usually requires someone highly trained with good understanding of marketing to get it right. Otherwise it becomes a wasted resource.

Outbound Sales focus more on a ‘push’ strategy. Contrary to the ‘pull’ effect you get from Inbound Marketing. It revolves around practices such as cold calls, emails and traditional advertising practices (TV, Radio and Print). This strategy is an old style of marketing in comparison to Inbound. It is still used throughout most organisations – sometimes the old ones are the best! Depending on your objectives…

The pros of using Outbound Sales are the human connection you can provide a prospect with. Being approached by something digital may be potentially untrustworthy. With outbound sales, they are greeted with a friendly voice which carries legitimacy. The cons of this practice are that Outbound Sales rely on budget and repetition. This means that, if unsuccessful, you could have spent an awful lot of money to nag people with no ROI.

So rather than sticking to one or the other, why not use both? Combining these two practices is a recipe for results. The Inbound ‘pull’ of automated marketing messages followed up with a little ‘push’ from Outbound Sales calls. This will give the consumer the feel of being able to trust your company while relating to the targeted, tailored messages you are sending them.

Reaching out to a prospect with an Outbound Sales call to gage their initial interest has the advantage of you being able to qualify them as lead. First you obtain some key details on the phone. These details can get followed up with automated emails and targeted messages on social media. This will nurture them through the sales funnel using Marketing Automation.

As with any marketing practice, it is important to have a plan and lay out a set of objectives that you wish to achieve. All this while targeting your potential leads. Using these objectives and smaller goals you can generate and nurture many leads. Then you can nurture them through the sales funnel resulting in all-important sales!

If you’d like more information about how you can convert and manage leads effectively, click below to check out our latest eBook, designed to help you think about your lead process.