In this issue you are going to learn a secret that I have been using for almost 25 years to pull in millions of dollars that would have otherwise been lost forever.
In 1991 I developed one of the first marketing automation tools in the world, a piece of software called ‘Cyclone’. It was desktop software which automated the sending of personalized, segmented follow-up messages through the mail (this was before the era of email).
Rather than sending the same message to every person, my ‘cyclone’ letters were customized to hit the hot buttons of each individual prospect. The software made this possible in a way not commonly available at the time. The software also enabled a series of letters to be automatically mailed out in a predefined sequence based on set criteria, such as a request for a specific piece of information. In our modern digital age, this is now referred to as an ‘autoresponder’, which is quite common. But back then it was revolutionary.
As results poured in, I quickly became a believer in automated marketing.
Now, over 20 years later I am a stronger advocate than ever for marketing automation and rely on it to drive my entire business. After taking two of my companies public, I retired for seven years, so admittedly I got a bit behind the curve of new technologies. Not that the principles changed. But the tools certainly did. Cyclone was overtaken by more robust automation tools that leveraged digital communications and greater personalization.
In 2009, when I began to emerge from retirement, I realized I needed to upgrade my skills and over the past six years I have spent over ten thousand hours adapting my tried-and-true marketing formula to the new market realities.
More than ever I realize that marketing has become a game of specialization. The experts of today know their craft well and I’d like to think that marketing automation is one of my specialties. But now I am no longer alone. Below I share a few of my favorite articles on the topic of Marketing Automation. I’m sure you’ll enjoy them as much as I have.
Hubspot’s Beginner’s Guid to Marketing Automation
Read Now…
HubSpot.com
By Alyssa Rimmer
Perfect Content Marketing: How Content Generates Leads and Sales at Every Step of the Funnel
Read Now…
digitalmarketer.com
By Russ Henneberry
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