What is Marketing Automation?
Marketing automation is the use of software to automate all marketing activities. Many firms automate the most repetitive activities in the marketing department, such as social media postings, email marketing, and ad campaigns.
Marketing automation not only helps your firm run smoothly but also improve the customer experience, building a better relationship with them.
The software helps in generating leads, scoring them and nurturing them to convert them to real buyers. The cost-effectiveness of the software is seen more as the firm grows.
What Does Marketing Automation Do?
Marketing automation plays the following roles;
Generate Leads. This involves collecting the information of individuals who may be willing to buy your products and sending them useful marketing content. For example, a how-to guide, to engage them.
Manage Leads. Not all leads are potential buyers, and some leads have more potential than others depending on their position in the company. Lead management includes gauging the leads, nurturing them until they convert to actual buyers.
Create and Manage Email Marketing. Email marketing is one of the cheapest and most effective types of marketing. You can create marketing emails and use A/B testing to see what works. The automation software will help in sending triggers when action is required.
Build an Effective relationship Between Sales and Marketing Team. The sales team can inform the marketing team on the successful lead to know their impact on the sales and know how to improve.
Report on ROI. Every business owner expects the marketing campaign to bring revenue to the business. Marketing automation software helps in having a clear statement on the performance of the marketing campaigns.
How to Get Started With Marketing Automation Process?
Here are some of the best practices to use in launching successful marketing automation;
People love real numbers. No one is ready to risk a lump sum of money without seeing what they are investing in, and what they get in return. Approach your stakeholders with numbers to justify the investment.
Talk to other departments. The marketing automation software will disrupt how multiple sectors in the firm operate. Collaborate with them to come up with software that best suits everyone.
Use Visualizations. Create diagrams to show how the entire organization will be with the installation of the program. By so doing, you can rectify any leaks before the actual process for accuracy and efficiency.
Prepare for database segmentation. Who are your customers? Who would you love to engage and why?
Invest in content creation. Come up with engaging and interesting emails and messages to send your customers.
Launch the automation slowly. The best programs are released in bits, so if there are any faults, they can be fixed before it is too late.
Learn as you go. Take your time to analyze the performance of the marketing automation tool as you grow. Let go of what doesn’t work and maximize on what works.
Why Does Marketing Automation Fail?
Most of the times, marketing automation fails because marketers do not establish a steady flow of leads before automation. They, therefore, use the process to keep pressing the little market they already have on their database. On the other hand, their competitors are figuring out how to win the untapped 99% market on their side.
It is vital to understand an extensive database is required to see the impact of the software on revenue. However, on realizing this, many marketers invest in buying email lists, which makes everything worse.
Sending an email to an individual who never asked for it destroys the reputation of your business not to forget all the money used to buy the list.
Before investing in marketing automation, learn how to run successful campaigns.
How do I know “Good” or “Bad” Marketing Automation?
Traditionally marketing automation involved triggering emails depending on clicks, delays, or opening. Is it enough to judge a lead by sampling their email clicking?
Marketing automation that gives such little information is likely to lead to failure and wastage of resources. You need to know precisely who your lead is and what they want to engage them successfully.
Marketing automation, together with an inbound strategy, is tailored around the lead. Inbound marketing automation utilizes all the information about an individual to come up with an automation system that shows him what he requires to make a purchase when he needs to use the information and where to make a purchase.
A good marketing automation tool takes into account all the behavior traits of a customer across all the channels and not just email. This may be; interest in a specific type of content, checking the pricing page or any other information marketers need to understand the needs of a consumer fully.
Effective marketing automation also uses other channels besides email to communicate with the leads.
When is the Right Time to Invest in a Marketing Automation Software?
When is the Right Time to Invest in a Marketing Automation Software?
Here are some questions that you need to ask yourself to know whether you are ready to spend on a marketing automation software;
Are you getting a constant flow of new and qualified leads?
Has your marketing and sales team decided on what communication each should handle?
Do you have an informed content strategy based on your customer’s journey?
Are you capturing the digital body language of your leads across all channels?
Do you have an established lead nurturing approach that you want to scale?
All these are pointers that you are ready for marketing automation. The most important thing to understand is that marketing automation does not do any marketing for you but help scale your efforts.
How Do I Choose an Effective Marketing Automation Tool?
When you are selecting a marketing tool, don’t judge it with the features. Focus on the way it fulfills the needs of your business presently and in the future.
Conclusion
Anything that saves time in your business is valuable to you. Marketing automation software will help you manage all your leads, nurture, and eventually convert them to buyers.
For success with the software, be sure your business is ready for the tool by answering the questions discussed in the article.
Also, educate both your sales team and marketing team for effectiveness and efficiency.