Many of you must have heard people talking about marketing automation, but do you really know what it is and who it can optimize your business? In this guide of Thatware, you will get to learn all about marketing automation. So let’s start!
Marketing automation is the application of software to automate marketing processes and promotions across a variety of platforms, such as email, social media, text messaging and more. A simple definition like this, of course, does not adequately convey the vast multitude of rich possibilities that a suite of marketing tools will open up to an enterprise.
Automation and the goal of marketing
There is a sales and marketing lifecycle in any business and online businesses are no exceptions to that status quo. The process of customer acquisition begins with marketing, which attracts the interest of relevant visitors. Once they agree to buy purchase the products, they become customers. But the cycle doesn’t ends here, because the ultimate goal is not just to sell a product. The main aim of marketing is to satisfy the customers completely, so that the consumers can become evangelists and brand ambassadors.
Combined with solid strategies, marketing automation tools are used for digital marketing and are powerful allies in the quest to achieve your marketing goal. Marketing automation also has the advantage of reaping rich rewards in increased revenue through maximization of ROI.
Overview
There are 3 large platforms of online marketing that you can, to some degree, automate.
The first is email marketing; applications can be used to automatically send such emails after creating activities, such as opting into a sign-up form. Distribution is one way to automate the emails, and delivery is another. You can also automatically segment your email list, depending on who opted in and from where. In the end, auto-responders are a great way to automate email sales.
Secondly, social media is in there. By now, hundreds of software tools from third parties allow you to automate the distribution of your content across most social media platforms. But, by automatically engaging with followers and leads, you can also automate your social media for growth.
The third major platform is landing pages. They used to take a long time to design, manually coding them in both HTML and CSS. But, by now, you can use prototypes and just constantly replicate the same designs. You can even, to some degree, automate the copy of your landing pages using A / B testing.
Benefits Of Using Marketing Automation
There are many benefits for implementing marketing automation.
Each particular company would have a unique set of use cases for implementing marketing automation techniques and tools effectively.
Having said that, let us look at some common explanations why marketing automation is considered as the digital marketing future.
- Automation promotes efficiency – Although this argument is definitely not confined to marketing automation, in a general sense the advantages of automation are apparent. Automation’s beneficial characteristics, such as effective execution of repetitive tasks, elimination of human error from the equation, and pace improvements, are common for any automation, not just marketing automation. Moreover, as individuals are liberated from boredom through the insightful use of powerful technologies, they have time to consider more complex tasks and problems. Consequently, the benefits are not only productivity but also human resources, which would otherwise be squandered.
- Campaign management hub – A marketing automation system is comprised of customer data, such as demographic data, behavior patterns, purchasing history, etc., and digital marketing technologies. It thus includes all of the relevant information in one location. This may seem a simplistic aspect on the surface but may have enormous implications for successful implementation of emerging digital strategies. All marketing campaigns can be designed, prepared, developed, introduced, monitored, evaluated, and checked in one location itself.
- Track and review – The outcomes of traditional marketing have always been veiled somewhat in a hazy cloud. One could never accurately determine how much profit was owed to marketing campaigns. There is really no guesswork though with marketing automation. So not only can you accurately measure the campaign’s performance, but more critically you can analyze the results, collect feedback, and tie those into the next initiatives that are being produced.
- Scalable – Consider sending the email campaign to 10 people to build a little more on the illustration we have used above. It’d just be quick. As that number increases, the comfort reduces, the tedium rises and the probability of mistakes increases exponentially. In short, it is clearly not possible to apply a manual method. Marketing automation gives you the ability to market to a huge population at once. Moreover it is as simple as setting up a portal program.
The Do’s and Don’ts of Marketing Automation
Now that we have described what marketing automation is, we would like to send you a couple of tips. This will help you to learn about implementing a new framework into your method. This will outline what you should do with your marketing automation, and should not.
- Do combine marketing automation with your marketing strategy
Inbound is about providing valuable information that suits needs and interests of your consumers. When you continue using the marketing automation, this should not change. It should actually improve the interactions, as you can provide the information they need at the exact time they need it.
- Don’t just blast or broadcast general messages
There is no need to send a generic or broad message to your entire contact list with marketing automation. It will inevitably be discarded or classified as spam because it is not appropriate.
- Do get customer engagement programs lined up to keep the existing customers satisfied and ask for more
Everything is not about money but the fact is that it is much easier to sell someone who has previously bought from you. Holding your customers engaged in content marketing is an important part of growing your company.
