What is Marketing Automation and is It Right for You?

May 12, 2021 | Marketing Tips, Online marketing

If you feel marketing automation is for people who’re lazy about their marketing efforts, you need to think again. While marketing automation revolves around improving efficiency, it also aims to provide personalized experiences for customers and prospects alike.

Marketing Automation is Not New

Marketing automation has been around for a while. According to a study carried out by the Aberdeen Group in the last decade, close to 70% of participant businesses used marketing automation platforms (MAPs) or were in the process of implementing one way back in 2014. Over 40% had been using MAPs since 2010. Social Media’s Today State of Marketing Automation Survey report suggests that around 75% of all companies used at least one type of marketing automation tool in 2019.

What is Marketing Automation?

Marketing automation involves managing multiple marketing processes and campaigns across different channels automatically. Workflows that carry preset instructions ensure automatic implementation of processes. It is possible to define workflows by using templates, create them from scratch, or modify them at later stages. How It Helps Marketing automation gives businesses means to identify probable customers and nurture their leads to sales-readiness automatically. An automated process brings prospective customers to a stage where sales teams can approach them directly to close sales and create new customers. Through marketing automation, you may expect a significant improvement in your sales funnel’s efficiency because it helps convert leads to customers. You may look forward to increasing qualified leads by implementing marketing automation in different ways. Examples include:

  • Tracking behavior/demographic information by using a scoring model
  • Providing highly personalized dynamic content
  • Using landing pages that look and feel like your main website

Consider these numbers released by Roger West:

  • Businesses that nurture prospects by using marketing automation witness more than a 450% increase in qualified leads.
  • Around 80% of all top performing companies have used marketing automation for two years or more.
  • More than 60% businesses that use marketing automation are faring better than their competition.

Is it Right for You?

If you’re among or like the 49% respondents of the Demand Gen Report’s 2020 Lead Nurturing & Acceleration Benchmark Survey who said that their lead nurturing strategies need improvement, you might benefit by looking at what marketing automation has to offer. You might also be a good candidate if:

  • You publish high quality content regularly
  • You have a steady flow of new organic leads
  • You wish to scale up your efforts
  • You have mapped your customers’ journey through a content strategy
  • Your have been tracking your leads across different parameters through multiple channels
  • You have an indication of what type of conversions should happen through sales and what type through marketing

What You May Expect

If you choose to hop on the marketing automation bandwagon, you may expect your business to benefit in different ways. These include, but do not limit to:

  • Lead nurturing. This involves sending a series of messages to engage your target audience by offering it relevant and useful information.
  • Personalized marketing. Personalized marketing across mediums – be it emails or social media – gives businesses means to build better customer relationships.
  • Campaign management. Marketing automation gives you the ability to streamline and manage your advertising and promotional campaigns across channels effectively.
  • CRM integration. Integration of custom CRM software and automation gives businesses a quick and easy way to transfer lead-related information across departments.

Conclusion

Marketing automation is the obvious way forward for businesses that hope to hold on to their existing customers and consistently attract new ones. Even if you’re building a marketing engine to boost your business, you need to account for automation to remain relevant. Fortunately, given that your options typically include paying by the month or per contact, finding an MAP to suit your needs is relatively easy.

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