• In today's digitalised and technology-full corporate world, all companies are working towards making their marketing efforts more effective with less hassle.
• This has become possible due to a great phenomenon called marketing automation.
• Marketing automation through software platforms like Infusionsoft can help small businesses tremendously. 

When it comes to developing your business proposition in 2018, it takes more than just hard work and dedication to break the glass ceiling. You’ll need a sound understanding of holistic digital marketing, a willingness to learn new technologies, and a commitment to staying up to date with the latest sales trends.

Savvy entrepreneurs are turning to integrated software that features automation to help facilitate their online goals. One such piece of software that fuses CRM and marketing automation with a commerce system is Infusionsoft.

There are a number of other integrated management tools that can be effectively applied to your business, but this article will focus specifically on Infusionsoft. Why?

Because it represents significant value for those willing to put the time into understanding the potential and nuances of the tool. In this article we’ll walk you through 5 Infusionsoft strategies that utilise automation, nurture leads and can ultimately help your business to achieve better results online.

What Is Infusionsoft, and Why Do I Need It?

Infusionsoft is a popular piece of marketing automation software that helps to facilitate sales and marketing goals without constant user input. It allows you to set and manage complex long-term strategies specifically for users at different points in the sales funnel.

The strength of Infusionsoft lies in clever integration of features. It centralises a number of your marketing endeavours in a way that is easier to manage, and it packs a huge list of added features to support complex strategies. It even includes a range of e-commerce tools to make online storefronts as efficient and user-friendly as possible.

For businesses in the $150,000/p.a bracket, the question remains. Is the outlay worth it? There are cheaper marketing automation tools available, but they don’t boast the potential of Infusionsoft. With Infusionsoft, you get out what you put in - if you’re willing to take the time to really get to the bottom of the software, you can set yourself up at a competitive advantage against other businesses in your industry.

Infusionsoft’s payment structure includes a compulsory one-off fee for user training followed by a monthly outlay. The fee structure might seem steep for some, but the user training will provide you with an excellent base that can be built upon in whatever manner you see fit.

What follows are 5 Infusionsoft strategies that small/medium businesses can use to bolster results throughout the sales cycle.

1. Establish a Line of Communication with New Customers

The first point of online communication between a customer and your business is crucial. Age-old ideals about first impressions are still relevant in the digital world.

Your first communication with your customer base should be informative and carry a friendly tone. You’ll want to set high expectations, sell the benefits of your product or service and let prospective customers know that your correspondence will not end with a simple email. Consider setting a micro-commitment for your customers to follow through on, such as linking them to a relevant piece of content.

Marketing automation software allows users to build relevant welcome campaigns for new subscribers, and Infusionsoft’s New Customer Welcome and Wow Campaign is a great starting point.

The campaign contains three simple emails that can be automated to send at specific times.

• The first email establishes a positive line of communication with new customers,
• while the second encourages users to connect to a relevant social network,
• and the third asks for feedback on the buyer experience.

The New Customer Welcome and Wow Campaign is triggered by any purchase made using an online order form or shopping cart, and can also be manually triggered by Infusionsoft users if an email address has been supplied.

This sequence of three emails is sufficient for establishing a rapport without driving customers away following a flood of correspondence.

2. Formulate Lead Nurturing Campaigns to Drive New Business

Generating leads is the bread and butter of digital marketing, but many marketers don’t put enough effort into customising their lead nurturing campaigns. This is the age of direct targeting and segmentation, so savvy marketers should be nurturing potential customers at all stages of the sales funnel.

It’s worth remembering that a solid percentage of leads in any system are only demonstrating an interest, and aren’t immediately ready to make a purchase. In this buyer-driven marketplace, it’s up to you to nurture their interest and deliver targeted communication that connects with the lead in question.

Infusionsoft utilises automation to make the whole process a lot more effective. The leads that you generate can be sorted according to the interaction methods that the user in question has used. Automatically segmenting leads based on numerous factors and demographics gives Infusionsoft users access to raw data that competitors don’t have. Once you have this information, you can fill in the blanks and deliver content that gives you the best chance at conversion.

3. Set Up Effective and Unobtrusive Drip Campaigns

Drip marketing can be difficult to get right. For those who don’t know, a drip campaign is essentially a series of scheduled emails sent to prospective customers at different points in their sales journey with your enterprise. Successful drip campaigns keep customers informed about your service and add value to their experience, but heavy-handed strategies can drive potential clients away from your business completely.

They’re a great way to touch base and remind prospective customers just how valuable your products and services are to them. You can achieve any number of objectives by way of a drip campaign, such as educating potential customers, re-engaging older leads and promoting special pricing or offers. You can even look to target your competitor’s customers by explaining the benefits of switching, or simply look to keep your leads engaged and fresh by reminding them why they showed an interest to begin with.

Drip campaign strategies are ever-changing, and Infusionsoft is an ideal platform for launching creative drip campaigns. While you need to do a fair bit of work to get the emails ready, the effort is worthwhile knowing you have a platform that can deliver your chosen objective.

Drip campaigns through Infusionsoft can deliver much improved click-through rates and time spent on target sites. You can integrate the platform’s e-commerce and CRM potential to launch campaigns that deliver measurable results.

4. Use Automation for Relevant Upselling Campaigns

When it comes to marketing spend, most businesses have clear allocations and objectives with regard to serving existing customers and generating new ones.

In this age of increased user expectation, you cannot rest on your laurels when trying to keep your long-term customer base satisfied.

Classic sales strategies for upselling are less relevant in the online sphere, but it’s possible to get a little more out of your client base while keeping them satisfied with your service.

Infusionsoft allows businesses to send targeted upselling opportunities to customers after an initial transaction. As an example, a business using Infusionsoft to sell wine could use automation to follow up the purchase of a bottle of merlot. The following day, an email advertising for a higher quality bottle of merlot could be sent, or a discounted upsell to join a dedicated online community with a strong value proposition could be offered. Such campaigns can be automated to be sent out after weeks or months, depending on the path that the user chose to take.

You can measure the success of such upselling strategies and alter the value of deals depending on how many transactions the customer has made with your company. By combining e-commerce tools with automation potential, the Infusionsoft platform allows you to upsell without pressuring users into certain purchases.

5. Drive Positive Discussion with Referral Partner Management

It’s a given that positive word-of-mouth from new and existing customers is integral to business success in 2018, alongside a strong product or service and relevant content marketing.

Referral partner programs are in vogue, and with good reason. There are numerous benefits to offering value propositions to existing customers who refer your business to people they know.

For a start, it is an extremely safe tactic from a financial perspective - you’ll only pay for the initiative (discounts, free services) if the party who refers your business delivers a sale. It’s also a proven method of directly targeting certain groups, as clients will only ever refer your business to people who stand to benefit from your service.

It’s also worth considering the social proof aspect - your existing customers who promote you understand all the advantages of your service, and are willing to guarantee these benefits to others. That kind of positive social influence is exactly what a growing business needs in the digital age - the benefits may be intangible, but modern business success is built upon this projection of positivity.

Infusionsoft can use automation to drive client referrals, but you can also take advantage of the platform’s Referral Partner Management to connect with other businesses. Quality affiliations can enhance the legitimacy and perception of your business in the eyes of customers.

The platform offers a Referral Partner Centre, where affiliates can log in and easily obtain links, banner ads, emails and other collateral for use on their website. Infusionsoft offers effective reporting and tracking tools that will uncover the number of leads that partners generate for your business. From this point, Infusionsoft can automatically calculate commission payouts and compile reports for easy payment through a bookkeeping system.

Fostering positive affiliations is an effective modern marketing tactic, and Infusionsoft’s capacity for automation makes it easier than ever to maintain such agreements.

Is All of This Really Worth the Effort?

In a word, yes. As a tool that effectively integrates CRM, marketing considerations and commerce solutions, Infusionsoft can provide significant value to businesses of over $150,000/p.a. The learning curve can be quite steep, but businesses that truly mine the potential of the tool will see their investment vindicated. Bigger companies should still be looking to employ full marketing and sales teams, but Infusionsoft empowers small business owners with big ideas.

It’s by no means the "be all and end all" for your marketing efforts - Infusionsoft is simply an effective supplement to delivering innovative marketing strategies. In an online sphere that offers a seemingly endless array of digital platforms for marketing, Infusionsoft might just be the most valuable one yet.