What is Marketing Automation?
Marketing automation is the use of technology to manage and automate marketing processes and tasks. Typical Marketing Automation functions include campaign management (prospect tracking, launch, and closure), lead scoring, email marketing (personalization and A/B testing), and marketing analytics (campaign and funnel reporting).
CRMs and websites can be integrated with Marketing Automation. Using tools like Zoho Marketing Automation, HubSpot, Marketo, and Pardo, you can build marketing campaigns (drip campaigns, for example), automate tasks and track your results, and identify new leads. In addition to making your business more efficient, it can also enable you to be smarter about how you market your business.
Marketing Automation can be used by small businesses to generate more leads, increase sales opportunities, get more qualified traffic to their website, get more people on their mailing list - and so much more.
The use of Marketing Automation can help increase conversion rates on your website by creating a personalized experience for each visitor. Most businesses are becoming more customer-centric - that is, they are putting the needs of their customers at the center of everything they do. Market Automation helps these companies stay on top of their game by knowing their audience - how they act, what they like, and what they're interested in.
By automating marketing processes, you can avoid manual data entry, reduce repetitive tasks, and facilitate consistency. Furthermore, it can improve the quality of customer service by automating requests and reducing response times.
Six (6) types of Marketing Automation?
Lead Management
Email Marketing
Social Media Management
Marketing Campaigns
Sales Automation
Web Analytics
Twelve (12) ways small businesses can benefit from Marketing Automation.
The promise of marketing automation is immense: it can speed up processes and make them easier to do, but it can also help marketers be more efficient and smarter with their efforts. Now let's consider if it is something beneficial for your business. The most commonly cited benefits include:
1. Lead Generation /Customer Acquisition
Improved customer acquisition, engagement and retention through personalized, relevant offers at scale. More qualified leads by using data on previous purchases and interests to send tailored offers that appeal more.
2. Lead Qualification/ Scoring & Data Collection
Lead qualification is easier with lead scoring (automated email follow-ups) and behavioural data collection. Using marketing automation systems also helps businesses collect more data about their current customers by asking for feedback at different stages of the buying process. This allows small businesses to offer personalized deals and offers that increase revenue.
3. Sales Forecasting
Predictive lead scoring creates an earlier view of revenue trends and opportunities for sales forecasting.
4. Sales Process Optimization/Shorter Sales Cycles
Streamline the sales process through automated workflows that support a more efficient path to purchase with personalized content served up at every stage of a buyer's journey. Streamlined processes enable teams to be more productive. In addition, marketing Automation tools help shorten sales cycles by engaging leads at the right time with the right message via email or social media.
5. Improved Conversion Rates
Higher ROI through improved campaign efficiency increased conversions and better data insights.
6. Faster Campaign Execution
With Marketing Automation, you can save hours of manual work every month by automating tedious tasks like email follow-up or social media post scheduling.
7. Improved Customer Experience
With Marketing Automation, you can build trust with your prospects by providing them with relevant, personalized information based on their actions and interests.
8. Increased Revenue
A higher number of qualified leads will lead to increased revenues. Also, since Marketing Automation tools help you deliver personalized content at scale to more people, you'll be expanding your total addressable market - which means more chances to convert prospects into paying customers.
9. Automate Tasks
One clear fact about Marketing Automation is that It allows you to automate the marketing process for higher efficiency and provides tools that help you to automate tedious and repetitive tasks. For example, suppose your company sends out weekly newsletters. In that case, you'll be able to create templates with personalized content and deploy them automatically also with email follow-ups and social media post scheduling.
10. Tracking User Behaviour
Another great benefit of Marketing Automation is the ability to track user behaviour. If someone visited your website but never made a purchase, you will be able to keep in touch with them through automated email campaigns and push notifications reminding them about what they did on your website.
11. Customer Relationship Management
Marketing Automation also provides a better customer relationship management system by tracking and measuring all the interactions with your customers. This allows you to give personalized service to each individual through every stage of the buying process, even after they've purchased from you.
12. Testing
A/B testing helps small businesses figure out the best-performing strategies and content so they can optimize their strategies and campaigns over time. It can use real-time tracking and testing to optimize marketing campaigns. Tools like Zoho Marketing Automation Page sense enables A/B testing on emails, web pages and other marketing assets.
What are some drawbacks of Marketing Automation?
While there are many benefits to Marketing Automation, it can be challenging to implement correctly without the help of a professional.
Takes some time to set up and the implementation process can be complicated if you have no prior marketing experience.
Marketing Automation works best when used in conjunction with other marketing tactics.
You might end up with a lot of data that doesn't lead anywhere.
It requires a significant level of resources (time, money, people) to customize it to specific business requirements.
It may require changes in marketing processes and business structures.
An adjustment period is required for employees before they fully understand the system and its capabilities.
Although there are some drawbacks to marketing automation (such as cost and the need for training), the benefits far outweigh any costs associated with implementation. If you need help getting started with marketing automation or would like us to manage your marketing automation for you, reach out to us. We’d be happy to help!