A Comprehensive Guide to Simplifying Your Marketing and Sales Process
In today's online world, companies always look for new ways to improve their sales methods and customer connections. One effective approach that's changing how businesses work involves joining marketing automation with Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems. This thorough guide will look at how this combination can increase sales and make business operations run more.
Understanding Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and Marketing Automation
Let's explain what these systems do before we talk about why combining them helps:
Customer Relationship Management (CRM): A CRM system forms the core of your sales process. It handles a company's talks with current and potential customers and keeps important info about customer actions, likes, and what they've bought.
Marketing Automation: This tech works as your non-stop digital marketer taking care of jobs like email campaigns, social media posts, finding new leads, and grouping customers.
The Power of Integrated Marketing Systems
When you combine CRM and marketing automation, you create a unified system that provides a 360-degree view of your customers. This integration allows seamless data flow between your marketing and sales teams, ensuring every lead runs smoothly.
One powerful solution that offers seamless integration is Keap. Keap stands out as a comprehensive platform that combines both CRM and marketing automation functionalities in a single system.
How Keap Combines CRM and Marketing Automation to Boost Sales
Keap offers a comprehensive solution that seamlessly integrates Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and marketing automation functionalities within a single platform. This integration addresses the common challenge businesses face when trying to synchronize separate CRM and marketing automation systems.
As a CRM, Keap provides robust tools for managing customer relationships, including contact organization, interaction tracking, and sales pipeline management. Concurrently, it incorporates advanced marketing automation capabilities such as email campaign management, lead capture mechanisms, and automated follow-up sequences.
The synergy between CRM and marketing automation in Keap enables businesses to streamline their entire customer journey management process. From initial prospect engagement to post-sale relationship nurturing, all stages are handled within one cohesive system. This integration ensures that sales and marketing departments operate with consistent, up-to-date information, facilitating more targeted lead nurturing, personalized communication strategies, and ultimately, enhanced conversion rates.
By consolidating these crucial functions, Keap empowers businesses to create more efficient workflows, reduce data silos, and make more informed decisions based on comprehensive customer insights.
Key Benefits of Integrated Marketing and CRM Automation
Improved Lead Nurturing: Send out new cutting-edge emails and text messages that are based on a person's expressed interests, interactions, and web behaviors, analyzing the buyer's journey to know when to reach out with targeted promotions.
Enhanced Customer Profiling: Combine data from multiple sources to create comprehensive customer profiles. This integration allows you to track customer interactions across various touchpoints, even when cookies are cleared or devices are changed. The result is a more accurate understanding of your customers' preferences and behaviors, enabling you to deliver more personalized and relevant marketing messages.
Streamlined Sales Process: Equip your sales team with comprehensive customer insights. By integrating marketing data with your CRM, salespeople can access detailed information about each prospect's interactions with your company, including their response to marketing campaigns and website behavior. This allows for a more personalized and effective sales approach.
More Accurate Reporting and Analytics: Monitor the entire process, which starts from your customer getting to know about your products to when he/she buys and even after, hence get new marketing plans that can get people to buy.
Improved ROI Tracking: Making revenue can be ascribed to certain marketing campaigns or channels, making it possible to prepare a better marketing ROI.
Better Alignment Between Sales and Marketing: Tear down walls between teams by giving data equality to both of them.
Automated Lead Handoff: Assign the leads from marketing to sales immediately, this leads to a quick follow-up on sales-ready leads.
Improved Customer Retention: Detects upsell and cross-sell opportunities. Initiate the automated customer retention campaigns based on the buying history and behavior.
The Impact of Integrated CRM and Marketing Automation: By the Numbers
Companies using marketing automation to nurture prospects experience a 451% increase in qualified leads. (Source: ANNUITAS)
Businesses that use marketing automation experience an average of 53% higher conversion rate from initial response to MQL than non-users. (Source: Aberdeen Group)
91% of users agree that marketing automation is "critical" to the overall success of their marketing across channels. (Source: Marketo)
Implementing Integrated Marketing and CRM Automation: A Step-by-Step Guide
Assess Your Current Setup: Survey your current CRM and marketing tools to see if they support communication with other software platforms. Does their framework allow them to connect with other necessary systems?
Choose the Right Tools: If the software you are using is not able to collaborate effectively, try to find the latest product that integrates CRM and marketing automation software, so it's all in one bundle. As a recognized Keap Certified Partner, we recommend checking out and leveraging Keap’s marketing automation tools to optimize and streamline your digital marketing efforts, ensuring maximum efficiency and effectiveness in your campaigns.
Plan Your Integration: Chart out your target audience's ideal journey and recognize areas that would benefit a lot from automation technology.
Data Migration and System Setup: Access all customer data and transfer it to the wanted system accurately.
Train Your Team: Devote sufficient time to upskilling both your sales and marketing teams in order to fully harness the capabilities of the integrated system.
Test and Optimize: Continuously evaluate the performance of your strategies and modify your processes with the effectiveness in mind.
Overcoming Common Challenges in CRM and Marketing Automation Integration
While the benefits are clear, some businesses face challenges in implementation. Common hurdles include:
Resistance to change from team members
Data migration issues
Difficulty in choosing the right tools
Integration complexities
Working with experienced automation partners can help navigate these challenges and ensure a successful integration.
Tips and Best Practices for Successful Integration
Not sure where to begin? Take our C3Quiz to identify your priority path and how to best allocate your resources before you get started.
Start with a Clear Strategy: Define your goals and KPIs before implementation.
Ensure Data Quality: Clean and standardize your data before migration to avoid inconsistencies.
Prioritize User Adoption: Involve key stakeholders early and provide comprehensive training.
Implement Gradually: Start with core features and expand functionality over time.
Regularly Audit and Optimize: Continuously review and refine your integrated systems for maximum efficiency.
Industry Applications: How Different Sectors Benefit from Integrated CRM and Marketing Automation
E-commerce: Integrated systems enable personalized product recommendations and abandoned cart recovery campaigns, significantly boosting conversion rates. B2B Companies: Streamline complex sales cycles with automated lead scoring and nurturing, allowing sales teams to focus on high-value prospects. Healthcare: Improve patient engagement and follow-up care with personalized communication based on patient history and preferences. Real Estate: Automate property matching and client follow-ups, ensuring timely communication throughout the buying or selling.
Measuring Success: Key Metrics to Track
To gauge the effectiveness of your integrated system, monitor these metrics:
Opt-in’s
Lead conversion rates
Sales cycle length
Customer retention rates
Revenue per customer
Customer Lifetime Value (CLV)
Use these insights to refine your approach and drive even better results continually.
Future Trends in CRM and Marketing Automation Integration
As technology continues to evolve, so do CRM and marketing automation systems. Here are some emerging trends to watch:
AI-Powered Predictive Analytics: AI-based predictive analytics, one of the most significant use cases, formulating marketing strategies, and customer profiling can be achieved. The technology unlocks a deepened understanding of customer dynamics that only AI can provide.
Voice-Activated CRM: That one that carries a conversation with a human but uses commands to perform tasks like setting appointments, reading emails, and even managing your calendar! For increasingly busy professionals who can utilize voice commands to control their CRM platform, this will be incredibly convenient. Furthermore, CRM's ability to interact with voice recognition technology. (Click here here to learn more about our Generative AI Agent)
Blockchain for Enhanced Data Security: Blockchain technology is a perfect way of ensuring the integrity and security of customer data through an integrated system that can't be easily tampered with by other systems.
Augmented Reality in Customer Engagement: Who doesn't like experiencing the latest technology these days, such as AR, that allows people to use their smartphones to watch videos of the products being assembled, try-on apparel, and virtually interact with the salespeople who answer all the questions? In addition to that our software has been able to integrate the CRM system along with marketing does the real-time management and tracking of these events.
The Future of Sales is Integrated
Integrating your marketing automation and CRM systems is no longer just a nice-to-have—it's essential for businesses looking to thrive in today's competitive landscape. You can create a more efficient, effective, and profitable sales operation by leveraging the right tools and strategies. As we look to the future, the possibilities for enhanced customer relationship management through integrated systems are inspiring.
Ready to take your sales to the next level with integrated marketing and CRM automation? Contact a Keap Marketing Automation Expert today. Call or text 602.900.9345 or visit https://automation.agency/ to learn how we can help drive your business growth.
(Chandler, Ariz. – May 16, 2023) – Automation Agency, a leading digital marketing agency and Keap Certified Partner, has been awarded 2022 “KKOP Partner of the Year” for their exceptional Keap coaching, training, and onboarding services. The award recognizes Automation Agency’s commitment to excellence, innovation, and leadership in helping small businesses leverage the power of sales and marketing automation with Keap. Keap is an all-in-one CRM, automation software, and sales solution for small businesses to grow revenue and save time.
“We are thrilled to receive this prestigious award from Keap again,” said Jason Benedict, Co-Founder of Automation Agency. “We have built an amazing team over the last ten years that is highly skilled and dedicated to delivering world-class coaching, training, and onboarding to Keap users,” said Therese Benedict, Co-Founder of Automation Agency.
Viewed as a trusted advisor in the world of sales and marketing automation, the Automation Agency – husband & wife team, Jason & Therese Benedict, have built an unwavering reputation for delivering consistent results. In 2017, they were the first Keap Certified Partner to ever receive the prestigious “KKOP Partner of the Year” award. And now, they are the only Keap Certified Partner to have achieved that same honor twice.
“This recognition is a testament to our relentless innovation, hard work, and dedication to the overall success of small businesses. It reinforces the Automation Agency’s commitment to providing our customers with innovative marketing solutions they can trust,” added Jason Benedict.
The Automation Agency is incredibly skilled at developing go-to-market strategies, flowchart and funnel diagram mapping, and developing Keap marketing automation campaigns that increase sales growth, margin growth, and value growth for small businesses.
Through a combination of hands-on training and on-demand support, Automation Agency has successfully onboarded, coached, and trained more than 5,000 small business owners, resulting in significant growth and success. The company has been instrumental in helping Keap users maximize the potential of the Keap CRM through targeted and personalized training sessions that adapt to varying skill levels.
“Jason & Therese Benedict are more than just the Co-Founders of the Automation Agency, they are true partners to Avalon Pharmacy and are deeply committed to our continued growth and success,” said Amit Kakar, PharmD. Owner of Avalon Pharmacy.
“We’ve been working with the Automation Agency for three years now and have learned so much about marketing automation and how to effectively engage with our patients. In return, its created consistent growth and freedom to focus on my other passions in life,” added Kakar.
About Automation Agency The Automation Agency is an award-winning marketing agency that helps small businesses to collect more leads, convert more clients, and create more fans by leveraging the power of their proven and tested C3 Growth Framework. It was founded by husband-and-wife team Jason & Therese Benedict. For more information about the Automation Agency’s services or to speak with a Keap Marketing Automation Expert about how they can help your business grow, call or text 602.900.9345 or visit their website at https://automation.agency/.
As a first-generation black entrepreneur, Brandon Anthony Clark wasn’t always living his dream. In fact, he was living day-to-day in what he called his “regular job” that was a means to an end.
“I just wasn’t living the type of lifestyle that I had imagined living as a kid growing up, because I wanted to be a professional athlete (football player to be more specific). And, one day I’m 28 years old, and I’m working at my regular job. And I’m like, wait a minute, how did I get here. I’m not driving what I want to drive, I’m not living where I want to live, I’m not doing anything that I want to do. I’m literally just going to a job, living paycheck to paycheck – living for the weekends, for football, sports, and to get away from real life. So, I had to make some different decisions,” said Clark.
Fast-forward a few years and Brandon is now the owner of Thrive Wealth Solutions, who teaches everyday people his patent pending F.L.I.P Method that helps him and his clients to obtain more wealth through a unique life insurance investment policy.
“I had never in my life thought that I would be selling life insurance for a living, right, because I’m not even a good salesman at that,” Clark added.
When asked to explain what the F.L.I.P method is, Clark stated “The simplest way I could put it is – imagine you had this credit card, and this credit card paid you an average of 3% cashback on every single thing that you purchase, for the rest of your life. That’s what the F.L.I.P method is … Basically, what we do is we take a life insurance policy, (not something that a lot of people are, let’s say familiar with, in terms of using a strategy like this). But to keep it simple, all we do is we take the life insurance policy, and we structure it in a way that allows you to be able to use your cash as collateral and borrow against your own money.”
As you pay money into your policy, it’s like paying money towards a mortgage. As you pay your mortgage down you are creating equity in your house, right, and that equity can be tapped into it anytime. So, we’re taking that same concept, but we’re applying it to a life insurance policy that provides many tax advantages.
Brandon not only used this F.L.I.P method to create wealth for himself, but says it works for nearly anyone looking to secure their financial future.
While Brandon is living his dream life he is also no stranger to the challenges of starting and growing a small business.
“There’s a lot of legwork involved in running a business, especially when you’re first starting out,” he says. “It can be tough to keep track of everything, from sales and marketing to customer service and operations.”
That’s why Brandon decided to leverage Keap CRM & Automation Agency to help organize and automate his small business.
“I remember a point in my business where I wasn’t busy, I’d keep track of everything. I literally had a piece of paper that I would write down what I needed to do the next day, maybe five tasks, maybe 10 at the max, and I would fill up my whole day, and I have downtime. But once I started growing, the business started growing, more people started reaching out and tasks and other things started getting left behind. There were just too many tasks to put on a piece of paper. And I knew then that I was in trouble. I needed to be able to either hire somebody or develop a system that can do the repetitive tasks, the things that I don’t like doing,” Clark added.
So, Brandon decided to do both. By hiring the Automation Agency, a growth agency located in Tempe, Arizona, Brandon was able to get organized, save time, and automate many repetitive tasks after purchasing the Automation Agency’s flowchart and funnel diagram service.
When asked about Brandon’s experience with the Automation Agency, he stated “I feel like this is the best money I’ve ever invested, you know, best money I’ve ever invested. I’m naturally not a very structured person. You know, I’m more of a creative person. But when you guys were able to sit me down and ask me all these questions about my processes, questions that I didn’t even really know should be asked – you asked. And basically you were able to take that information and plug it into my flowchart. And when I saw the flowchart, I was just so impressed. I was showing everybody – like I’ve got another partner who wants to experiment with the Keap CRM system. And I showed him the flowchart, he said, Man that is “Elite,” just the start to finish.”
In order to scale his business and continue delivering high-quality work to his clients, Brandon and his team began to use the Keap CRM solution that the Automation Agency customized to their specific needs. With Keap, he is able to manage his contact lists, create and send email campaigns, set up appointments and reminders, collect payments, track his progress towards sales goals, and much more. All of these features have helped him save time so he can focus on growing his business.
“It felt like a weight had been lifted off of me. And what I experienced with you guys (Automation Agency) is just your level of knowledge, I just knew it was gonna be good, just because of how I was, I came into contact with you, I know you guys were gonna be just great. Everything from start to finish was outstanding,” added Clark.
As a young, inspiring, black entrepreneur, Brandon has always had a servant’s heart that wants to give back to others. When asked about what advice he might provide to other young professionals not living their dream or those who want to start a small business, said
“I would tell them that they will never be successful or make more money than they believe that they can make. So, the first work that you gotta do is work on your own personal attitude. Before you go out and try to change – just know that as your personal attitude gets better, as you grow as a person, that your income will grow. And you can serve more people because that’s what it’s all about. Serving more people. In order to serve more, you have to become more. It’s that simple.”
When Brandon is not inspiring other young professionals or creating TikTok videos or YouTube videos on his patent pending F.L.I.P method, he enjoys spending time with his wife and kids.
As a small business owner of a rapidly growing company, Brandon knows that he can’t do everything himself. He also knows that his time is valuable and that he needs to be strategic about how he spends it. That’s why he decided to leverage the power of automation by using Keap CRM. By automating tasks like email marketing, lead capture, and appointment scheduling, Brandon has been able to free up time with his family so that he can focus on running his business and making sure that his customers are happy.
However, Brandon isn’t the only one who has benefited from automation. His customers have also appreciated the fact that they can schedule appointments and make purchases without having to talk to a live person. This convenience has helped Brandon build a loyal customer base who keep coming back for more advice.
Thanks to the Automation Agency and the Keap CRM, Brandon has been able to streamline his business and make it more efficient. He is now better positioned than ever to continue growing his business and achieving even more success in the future. As he looks towards the future, Brandon is confident that automation will continue to be an important part of his business and help him scale to new heights.
“What the Automation Agency has done for me is give me a system that I want to imitate, like, the way you guys work with me, Jason, I was like, man, if I could take my clients through the same system, or that process. I love your guys’ process, it just is everything that I want in my business to where we’re working as a team, right. But then I can just kind of be hands off and just step in when I need to step in and just help our team members, you know, get the job done for our clients, right. But it’s been awesome. Definitely saving some time already,” added Clark.
Brandon Anthony Clark is proof that the American dream is still alive and well. By leveraging the power of automation with Keap CRM, Brandon has been able not only to build a successful business, but also inspire other young black entrepreneurs to pursue their own dreams. We’re excited to see what Brandon will do next!
If you’re a small business owner who is looking for ways to automate your business, then Keap CRM is definitely worth considering. Thanks to its powerful automation tools and robust reporting features, Keap CRM has helped first-generation black entrepreneur Brandon Anthony Clark save time and grow his business. To learn more about how Keap CRM can help your business, schedule a demo today.
If you’re like most small business owners, you wear a lot of hats. You might be the CEO, the CFO, and the head of marketing all rolled into one. And while you might be a jack of all trades like turmeric farmer Ed Taylor, from American Turmeric Company, there’s one area where you could probably use a little help: automation.
Luckily, there’s a tool that can take some of the daily tasks off your shoulders and help you collect more leads, convert more clients, and create more fans: Keap. Keap is a CRM and all-in-one sales and marketing automation software that helps small businesses automate repetitive tasks, data collection, email marketing, invoicing, collecting reviews, getting more referrals, and following up with prospects and clients.
American Turmeric Company is one of the many small businesses that has leveraged the power of marketing automation and Keap to great effect. In the last year alone, they were able to grow sales by 52%. “It’s amazing to see our clients continue to grow revenue from the campaigns, automation, and customer journeys that we’ve developed leveraging the power of Keap and its sales and marketing automation solutions,” said Jason Benedict Co-Founder of the Automation Agency. One way American Turmeric Company was able to increase sales was by using marketing automation to launch targeted email marketing campaigns. They used behavioral data — like which products a customer purchased and time lapsed since a customer’s last purchase — to segment their list and send each group highly-targeted messages. For example, they sent discounts to first-time buyers and special offers to customers who hadn’t purchased in a while. Behavioral data is data that describes the observed actions of customers. It gives you real insights into how people are using or will potentially use your product. The Keap CRM helped the Taylors to not only grow turmeric but also grow their customer base. “It is one thing to hear what people say they want, but to see how they actually behave is even more insightful for business owners to make decisions that can lead to accelerated growth and better customer service,” said Benedict.
Another way American Turmeric Company increased sales was by using lead generation forms on their website. They used these forms to capture new leads of potential customers who had shown interest in their product but hadn’t made a purchase yet, and then followed up with them through automated email drip campaigns without losing the personalized touch required to build client relationships. These follow-up emails contained valuable content like educational tips, remedies about turmeric and what it does for inflammation, along with recipes for making everything from drinks to shakes to delectable meals with this miracle plant. With the help of the Automation Agency implementing proven and tested marketing automation strategies into their business, American Turmeric Company was able to free up the necessary time needed in their business to focus on expanding their product line into new markets like skincare and dog food. They even donated 30 pounds of turmeric each month to the North American Elephant Reserve to help elephants with arthritis! “The problem with elephants is the same problem with humans or dogs or anything – is that as we get older, our joints get stiff. We have so many testimonies Jason, from people that have experienced the healing qualities of turmeric. It’s really a privilege for us to be able to do what we do, and work with some of these people,” said Ed Taylor, Owner of American Turmeric Company. When asked about how Ed and his wife Diane balance the farm life of growing turmeric along with running a small business and keeping organized, he said, “Soon after we got our website up and got our E-commerce site going, started selling products, shipping – we didn’t realize it, but we were building a customer base. But we didn’t really know what to do with it (at that time). They were just names and email addresses in a spreadsheet. So, we started thinking, what are we going to do with it (the email list)? I don’t know who’s buying, you know, more than once, who are my repeat customers? What are they buying? Where are they located? I didn’t know any of that stuff. So, we started looking around and we found Keap and the Automation Agency and decided that Keap was the vehicle that we wanted to use to put our information in regarding our customers.” This was a leading indicator that the Automation Agency identified during their initial assessment that could help American Turmeric Company benefit from analyzing its behavioral data. By tracking, storing, and organizing their customer database in one centralized cloud-based solution, using Keap, these powerful analytics along with automation proved effective in helping them grow sales revenue and increase their efficiency. Before hiring the Automation Agency to help them build out more advanced automations and designing a frictionless customer journey, the American Turmeric Company started leveraging Keap on a basic level. “We started doing that in a rather simplistic way. And then we discovered there was this thing called Zapier, that would move our customer data out of our website every time we made a sale, and it would put into Keap,” said Taylor. Like most new Keap users who start with humble beginnings, their curiosity grows alongside their sales, leading to continued revenue growth and more efficiency in their business, which means more margin growth. More margin growth means more profits and longevity for small businesses. “The thing that impressed me once I understood what was going on… Is that this is an evergreen process. It’s not something that you need to focus on daily. Like you know, you wake up, you set your priorities, you do the important things that need to do. Once the automations are set up in Keap, you know, as far as I know, as long as there are computers, as long as there’s the internet, that’s kind of going to keep grinding it out. I don’t have to go in. And I mean, I can update it if I need to. But it just works. And that’s the miracle to me, is that we’re able to communicate to our customers, through the series of seven emails, initially, we have reminders in there, we have thank you’s in there – it’s just been very interesting. And to me, one of the more rewarding parts of what I do is work with Keap and work with Automation Agency, and see this thing work,” said Taylor.
So, if you’re looking for a way to grow your small business, investing in marketing automation software is a great place to start. Marketing automation will help you save time and money while still reaching new customers and growing your sales. Just take it from American Turmeric Company—automated campaigns helped them increase sales by 52% within their first year of working with the Automation Agency.
When asked about why Ed and his wife Diane chose to work with the Automation Agency, Ed stated “I liked your approach. I just liked the feeling of it. I liked what you showed us you could do. And I’ve said to you and to others before, that the team that you have the team that we worked with through Automation Agency, was part of my team. It wasn’t just your people. It wasn’t just Automation Agency, people that we were working with, they were our people. Because, really, we are in the middle of all of this, we launched a whole new website, that was a big deal for us to launch a whole new website. We brought on our new products and your team members were right there with us. If we need technical work done, it was done. They really went above and beyond what I had expected to help us solve some of the problems that we faced.”
Interested in getting results like the American Turmeric Company? Request A Free 14-Day Trial To Keap, (the all-in-one CRM for Sales & Marketing Automation) and receive a complimentary 1-hour assessment of your business from the Automation Agency.
After eleven years as a retail pharmacist, Dr. Jamie Wilkey, PharmD decided it was time to ditch the 9 to 5 retail pharmacy job and transform herself into an entrepreneur by combining two of her greatest passions: consulting and online education in pharmacogenomics.
Dr. Wilkey’s one-year metamorphosis into entrepreneurship began by becoming certified in Pharmacogenomics (PGx) and starting her own business, Arches Health.
This relatively new field of Pharmacogenomics is an emerging ground-breaking branch of medicine that combines both pharmacology (branch of science which deals with study of drugs) with genomics (the branch of science which deals with study of genes) for development of effective doses and safe medications tailored according to an individual patient genetic makeup.
When used appropriately, pharmacogenetic testing can be a practical tool to optimize drug therapy and avoid medication adverse effects. In layman’s terms, it is an examination of how genes affect an individual’s response to drugs.
Like most entrepreneurs, Dr. Wilkey felt a rooted desire to share her knowledge and passion with the world, however, she knew going into business for herself was not going to be easy, nor was there an established path for success as she pioneered her pharmacogenomics consulting practice into a successful business.
A Pioneer Entrepreneur
Dr. Wilkey cited the following motivators for her decision to exit a safe career as a retail pharmacist to start a unique practice in a new field as:
• She was becoming increasingly frustrated with the lack of long-term opportunity as a retail pharmacist for advancement.
• She noted while she had great experience and a terrific education to become a pharmacist, she constantly felt she was underutilized.
• The inability to innovate as a retail pharmacist was a constant disappointment.
• The onset of COVID-19 put her squarely on the frontline, at risk, and away from her isolated kids and work-from-home spouse.
For Dr. Jamie Wilkey, the transition involved much more than just embracing a new discipline and carving out a new niche in a very competitive industry, the move involved immersing herself in learning how to become an entrepreneur able to organize, launch, and manage a new business complete with service offerings, marketing campaigns, accounting, e-commerce, and time management.
One of the greatest obstacles Dr. Wilkey faced began with not knowing anyone else who had built a Pharmacogenomics consulting practice. In addition, she had no experience in launching or running a small business that required sales and marketing activity, and she had limited resources at her disposal.
Before meeting the Co-Founders of the Automation Agency (Jason & Therese Benedict), Dr. Wilkey admitted she didn’t know what a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) was or how significant the ability to create an effective and consistent “customer journey” would be to her new business. Upon hiring the Automation Agency Dr. Wilkey received expert coaching, a proven and tested lifecycle marketing framework (used by thousands of small businesses), along with her own account to Keap, the leading CRM for Sales & Marketing Automation (SMA).
Generally, a lifecycle marketing plan is a three-phase framework, Collect Leads, Convert Clients and Create Fans. In Dr. Wilkey’s case the Automation Agency identified that her new startup needed to focus on collecting leads and converting clients to help drive immediate revenue to sustain her PGx-Based consulting practice.
When Dr. Wilkey received access to Keap she immediately saw the value in having all of our data in one centralized location (which helped her to save time and get better organized), while also creating a customer journey that would help her remove many manual tasks and obstacles that she faced on a daily basis and replace it with sales and marketing automation.
“Specifically, from the moment the Automation Agency introduced me to Keap, I was able to abandon my notebook approach, categorize prospects, and identify the most likely to become my customers. Since every interaction is trackable, you can see your database grow and understand through email opens and click-throughs which communications are the most effective in creating engagement,” said Dr. Wilkey.
Creating a customer journey is the process that small businesses can use to align their marketing efforts with different stages of a customer’s life cycle. Lifecycle marketing is the process of providing your audience the kinds of communications and experiences they need, want, or like as they move from prospects to customers then, ideally, to advocates.
“It’s important for small business owners to know exactly where their prospects and customers are in the buying cycle so they can provide them with appropriate information at each stage: collecting leads, converting clients, and creating fans,” said Jason Benedict, the Co-Founder of the Automation Agency.
This ensures entrepreneurs and business owners like Dr. Jamie Wilkey are spending time and money on initiatives that will generate revenue for them in the long run (rather than just focusing on short term gains).
“By following the Automation Agency recommendations, I was able to quickly replace the chaos of ‘all over the place’ note taking and scrambling through notebooks to figure out who, when, and how to appropriately follow up with my prospects with compelling messages,” said Dr. Wilkey.
Results
After devoting months of research and conducting due diligence before attempting to launch her first online training course and consulting practice (tailored to other pharmacists looking to break free from their day job), Dr. Wilkey hired the Automation Agency to expertly assist her in developing a go-to-market strategy that included sales and marketing automation to scale her business quickly and minimize the potential pitfalls and obstacles.
The Automation Agency started by helping Dr. Wilkey create a unique and memorable customer journey that fast-tracked her success and allowed her to attract several new clients and collect $18,000 in revenue from launching her first online course, PGx Confidence Course, which teaches other pharmacists how to start their own consulting practice.
The Agency’s experience in creating highly customized individual communications, suitably segmenting prospects by category, and focusing on the prospects with the highest probability to become customers, had an immediate impact for Dr. Wilkey. The Keap CRM tools recommended by the Automation Agency helped to jumpstart Dr. Wilkey’s new endeavor. From the beginning, the agency believed what she had to offer was unique and valuable. They had a significant track record in delivering the most efficient and effective way to communicate a complex subject.
“The Automation Agency helped me understand how to target and automate the communication timing as well as the message to a seemingly overwhelming potential universe without sacrificing the personal touch. This is of particular importance to me in pursuing my goal of helping my individual patients to thrive in health using personalized, precision medicine,” said Dr. Wilkey.
The Future is Bright
With every passing day Dr. Wilkey’s positive mindset contributes to the formation of an even firmer business foundation for her future. She has continued to gain confidence in her value to other health professionals and enjoys spreading the news of the success of her company and the pharmacogenomics field.
When asked what advice Dr. Wilkey would recommend to other pharmacists and healthcare professionals who are considering starting their own business or breaking free from their day job, she replied, “invest in yourself and go all in. It’s easy to doubt yourself or to wonder if it’s right for you. But you need to invest in yourself and believe in a brighter future and take action on it. Taking action opens up so many opportunities.”
Dr. Wilkey also adds that you need to put that belief into action by hiring experts like the Automation Agency who can help support your growth and fast-track your success. “When you make a monetary investment, your skin is really in the game, and you are held accountable. And when you work with experts you can achieve remarkable success. Engaging the Automation Agency was the best move I ever made.”
Dr. Wilkey concluded that there was more risk in not initiating a career change in the long-term, than going forward in pursuit of the vision of her new endeavor. Pharmacists interested in learning more can visit: www.DrJamieWilkey.com.
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“The Automation Agency set me up with all of my contacts and communications in one place. The notebook approach I was using just wasn’t effective or sustainable. By deploying CRM tagging and segmentation tools, I have been able to appropriately communicate with every prospect in the database with the right messages at precisely the right time”, Dr. Wilkey noted.
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One of the greatest obstacles Dr. Wilkey faced began with not knowing anyone else who had built a Pharmacogenomics consulting practice. In addition, she had no experience in launching or running a small business that required sales and marketing activity, and she had limited resources at her disposal.
