What it’s about
Brad Martineau of SixthDivision feels that one of the biggest hurdles entrepreneurs and small business owners face when it comes to marketing automation is that their understanding is inaccurate. “I have two major beefs with the concept of marketing automation,” says Brad. “The first one is with the word ‘marketing’ and the second one is with the word ‘automation’”.
In this interview, Brad talks about how at SixthDivision they want to change the way companies think of marketing automation from just marketing tactics (Facebook ads, auto responders, etc), to instead looking at their business as a whole and from the perspective of the client journey. Brad shares the two important first steps to help entrepreneurs decide which strategy, idea, or software to implement in their client journeys.
Takeaways
1. There’s a difference between automation and systems
Brad explains that the goal is to build a predictable client journey. The way to do that is to look across all phases of the existing journey to identify where you can insert a system that will start monitoring and delivering consistency, and where you can insert automation so you can free up time and improve how you do things.
2. You're likely doing goals wrong
For Brad, the first step is defining your goals. If you do goals right, they act as anchors so you don’t drift. But most people don’t have well-articulated goals, they’re too vague. It's not just, "mu goals is to increase revenue." You need to think, “What are we trying to do in the next 30, 60, 90 days? Which products are we trying to sell to get there? And what’s the number of products we need to sell to get there?”
3. Goals bring clarity to decisions
Once you have a goal, then evaluating the 300+ marketing ideas you picked up at the last conference you went to gets easier - you can likely cut 80% because they don’t have anything to do with your goals. They might still be good ideas but the timing just isn’t right. Eliminate anything that has nothing to do with your goal and then it tends to be obvious where you should start.
