Marketing automation tools can help you connect with more customers. Photography is a skill, and a great photo will sell – it can be used in e-commerce, a blog, to promote a product and more. In this scenario, effective marketing is extremely important, and marketing automation is a strategy that can win followers.
So what is marketing automation? Marketing automation refers to the software that can be used to automate marketing actions. Many marketing departments or marketing managers have to repeatedly process such actions – on social media, emails and their other marketing tools. In Asia, the use of such tools is popular. But it does not have to be such a tedious task, because there is technology available that makes marketing automation easier.
Let’s say you are a photographer, and you like taking photographs of beautiful landscapes, and you want people and business owners to know what you sell. You could begin with email marketing, and sending out emails to people who might buy your photos, but surely there is quicker, easier way to achieve the same results? If an email message was more personalized, there is a higher chance that a customer would be attracted, and technology can help you achieve this.
So after you have got your collection of breathtaking photos, here is what an automated email campaign would look like:
- You send an email to your list of contacts, which can include professionals, business owners, or the target market you want. Perhaps provide any case studies of people who have successfully used your photos, and provide an offer: if 5 photographs are bought, 1 photo, or the 6th photo, is free;
- Then you send a thank you email to all the people who took your offer;
- About 3 to 4 days later, you send an email to your list of contacts, providing ways your photographs can be used effectively in campaigns.
The above method is more personalised than simply just sending a lot of sales emails. The customer may be more likely to buy your photos because now he or she realised how these photos could help promote a product, make a blog eye-catching and therefore get more subscribers, or can help a marketing campaign.
Do not just send general messages to your contact list that may get deleted. Imagine a customer getting emails that had relevant content they love. Then suddenly, the next email is about a completely different topic! The customer’s attention to your product could waver, so it is important that you consistently send relevant messages to your customers about the photos or product you are selling, to attract interest – which could result in increased sales for you, which could also mean even more sales in the future.
Once you have got a very good relationship with your customers, do not forget about them. They are the ones who are likely to buy again, and if you send them content they are likely to be interested in, then they will not forget you either. For example, a customer who bought your photo may use it to promote a product, and so many people could see a photo you took! If the customer’s campaign takes off and he or she gets relevant content from you, it is likely there will be another future purchase.
While automation can work with email campaigns, it can be used with other tools too. Use it with social media, landing pages, management activities and more. If you can send information that is based on what the people in your contact list like, then it should not be considered spam.
To produce a workable campaign to promote your photos to interested customers, there should be a place where you have access to important information – a central marketing database. This information includes prospect and customer interactions and behaviours. You should also have access to create and manage relevant marketing campaigns, such as your email campaigns. Additionally, make sure the technology provider you use provides analytics, so you can understand what worked, and what didn’t.
It is certainly true that large companies use marketing automation to promote their products or services, but small and medium-sized businesses are using it too. In the early days of this strategy, it was primarily the high-tech and business services industries that used it, but now healthcare, media and entertainment industries use it too, and there are numerous great free tools to get you started such as Azuqua, Sales Autopilot, Leadsius, or very cost-effective efficient paid for solutions such as Ematic. So using such tools to promote photographs could definitely work for you, and result in a loyal base of satisfied customer.
Marketing automation tools can help you reach your sales goals, or just make a bit of extra cash from your photos. According to Nuclear Research, 95% of companies who have used marketing automation report benefits. On average, sales productivity increased by an average of 4%. It can work for you and your product too, because photography is a product many want. Technology, business owners, blog owners, and others need sharp and eye-catching photos, and if you sell them right, they will sell.
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