by Nick Lauria
Associate Agency Director
Many tech-savvy businesses have already jumped on the automation bandwagon to streamline their business and develop their sales pipeline.
Marketing automation refers to software platforms and technologies designed for marketing departments and organizations to more effectively market on multiple channels online (such as email, social media, websites, etc.) and automate repetitive tasks
– Wikipedia
It can take the form of email marketing, integrated CRM databases, customised landing pages, lead generation forms, retargeting campaigns, lead scoring and customer lifecycle management.
Here’s how marketing automation can perform, streamline and measure tasks to increase your business’ operational efficiency:
Data is the key to successful marketing automation. Make sure you start with accurate, relevant information and build on your database whenever possible.
Before long, designing database cultivation into your business’ marketing activities will come naturally and as a result the data pool will be a valuable tool for new business and client retention.
As with any data, it’s only useful if it’s up-to-date. Make sure you take care of your marketing database and it will grow into a precious, business building resource.
The easiest way to maintain accurate data is to regularly engage with your database with valuable communication and be active in updating the entries.
Now that you have an up-to-date, active database of customers, you can target your communication with personalised content unique to each individual customer.
Information that is tailor-made for individuals will allow for more direct communication. The less generic your message, the more chance your customers will remember it and value the interaction.
This is where marketing automation really comes into its own. Once each process is set up, you’ll spend less time contacting customers and more time running your business so you can sit back and watch your marketing machine go!
Each process is set up with a trigger and subsequent actions forming a completely automated communication system complete with in-depth analytics reporting.
Getting the message right is key, but when the whole process is automated it’s almost too easy.
Now you’re up and running with marketing automation – what’s next? Time to measure, test and adjust. Use A/B testing and analytics to evaluate where your automation can improve.
Understanding what’s worked and what hasn’t will help you get the most out of your automated marketing engine.
Marketing automation creates more engaged customers, more pipeline and a more effective sales team. But does it really work?
Marketing automation drives a 14.5 percent increase in sales productivity and a 12.2 percent reduction in marketing overhead
– Nucleus Research
While automation is a great tool for lead generation, prospect nurturing and customer engagement, it’s only part of your marketing toolkit.
The need for the old-fashioned hard graft when it comes to brand awareness and business development will always exist, but with the help of automation, you’ll be able to streamline your marketing approach and improve its effectiveness.
Research has found that Business to Consumer (B2C) marketers who are using automation- including everything from birthday emails to cart abandonment programs – have seen conversion rates as high as 50%. – eMarketer
So what are you waiting for? Getting started with marketing automation is not as difficult as you might think.
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