Wonder whether marketing automation planning can really help all that much in building your business? The answer is a wholehearted YES it can! Let’s look at an example to illustrate how: Let’s say you have actually done more in your business than the average business owner by collecting the contact information of prospects that had an interest in your products or services. So you started a list, but what have you done with the list? Did you send emails, newsletters, direct mail letters, catalogs, and more on a regular basis? Or did you just let your list sit idle? If you sent follow up marketing to these prospects, did you do it manually? Did it take you hours and hours to address all of those postcards you sent out in your last mailing? Well if you had marketing automation set up from the second you received a prospect’s contact information, you wouldn’t have to worry about any of this. Why? Because your follow up marketing would run practically on autopilot. Marketing Automation Example A prospect comes into your business to look at a big ticket item he’s interested in purchasing. Your salesperson gets the prospect’s contact information in exchange for a free guide on what to look for when purchasing this big ticket item. The salesperson enters the prospect’s contact information into the marketing automation system. Marketing Automation Follow Up Begins Day 1 – System automatically sends an email to the prospect thanking him or her for the visit. By offering the prospect the free buyer’s guide in exchange for their contact information, you had the ideal opportunity to follow up practically on autopilot with marketing automation. Without marketing automation, this prospect may not have returned to the store to make the purchase. When ready to buy, he or she may have bought somewhere else. The marketing automation follow up kept the store vividly in the prospect’s mind and that lead to the store getting the sale.