The digital world has evolved, and so has marketing.
Business leaders are continuously making an effort to invest in technology to provide better customer experience. This is where marketing automation comes into the picture.
Marketing automation has been sweeping the marketing industry for a while and firmly cemented its place among the top digital strategies.
Essentially, marketing automation can help businesses in their marketing efforts.
With the advent of technology, businesses can streamline their marketing and sales engagement processes with ease through the power of Artificial Intelligence (AI).
This article will feature marketing automation, its key benefits, and its importance for businesses.
What is marketing automation?
Marketing automation is the use of software to automate marketing tasks to streamline business processes, increase efficiency, and save money.
According to Acumen Research and Consulting’s latest report, the global marketing automation market size is forecasted to grow to USD 12,178 million, a CAGR of 12.1% by 2030.
Through marketing automation, brands can create automation workflows that follow up with leads and customers on their behalf based on certain conditions.
For instance, if consumers visit their website but don’t fill out a form, they can send an email thanking them for visiting and offering a free trial.
If they fill out a form but don’t submit it, businesses can send them another email asking if they have any questions about their product or service.
With marketing automation, businesses are able to save time by automating routine tasks like sending emails or setting up meetings online. It frees team members’ time to focus on more important aspects of their jobs.
In addition, marketing automation can help get better results from marketing efforts by providing insights into how people are using their products or services.
Here are some of the components of marketing automation:
- Email marketing – email marketing automation software allows businesses to send personalized messages to their customers at scale. For example, schedule emails based on specific events or actions by recipients (such as visiting a certain page on the website).
- Social media management tools – enables brands to schedule posts across multiple platforms and monitor mentions using artificial intelligence (AI) technology.
- Lead scoring – a measure of how interested a person is in the product or service. The higher their score, the more likely they are to convert into a sale.
- Lead nurturing – once someone has expressed interest in the product or service, the business needs to let them know about it again and give them reasons why they should buy the product.
- Lead management – ensuring the business keeps track of which leads are still open and which are already closed.
How does marketing automation work?
Marketing automation helps businesses reach their customers with relevant content and offers at just the right time.
Here’s how marketing automation work:
Running marketing campaigns
Marketing automation software makes it easier for businesses to run marketing campaigns that target specific audiences.
This includes automated emails, landing pages, social media posts based on specific events, and emails when someone signs up for a newsletter.
Setting up workflows
Marketing automation also works by automating the repetitive tasks in a marketing workflow.
It allows an enterprise to create workflows that connect data sources and automate the sending of emails, creating landing pages, and running social media ads.
Organizing and storing data
Data is the lifeblood of any business. It is important to see where customers come from, how they engage with content, and what they like or dislike about the products or services.
With marketing automation software in place, it is easy to organize all data in one place so that it’s ready for use when needed.
It also provides an easy way to store future data essential for analyzing trends over time and making more informed decisions on how to market business in the future.
Mapping the customer journey and touchpoints
Marketing automation also helps identify which customers are at each stage of the buying cycle and use this information to send them targeted messages at the right time.
For example, if a customer has been browsing products but has yet to make an order, the business can send an email with special offers or free shipping on similar products.
Key benefits of marketing automation
Businesses benefit from marketing automation in many ways. Here are some of its key benefits:
Efficiency
Efficiency in business processes is one of the primary goals of automation. Marketing automation helps companies minimize human error in repetitive and mundane tasks.
This allows the sales team to spend less time on monotonous tasks and more time developing strategies that drive revenue growth.
Create a personalized customer journey
Nowadays, there has been a continuous increase in consumer expectations when it comes to using certain brands.
Salesforce study found that 80% of customers say the experiences provided by a business are as important to them as its products and services.
This led to many businesses leveraging marketing automation to create personalized customer journeys or leads based on consumer behavior, preferences, and needs.
With marketing automation, a sales team can also create customized landing pages for each prospect, allowing them to convert into customers more easily.
Marketing and sales alignment
When sales and marketing teams work together, businesses can create a more seamless customer experience.
Marketing automation helps sales teams maximize all their efforts by sending lead-nurturing emails, and encouraging prospects to interact with them further.
Sales teams can also schedule outbound calls or set up meetings with prospects based on their responses.
Generate better leads
Using marketing automation software helps enterprises generate better leads by automating the process of finding new prospects and nurturing them until they are ready to buy.
This allows brands to concentrate on other business areas, such as sales and customer support.
Increase conversion rate
A lot of companies struggle with converting their visitors into leads or customers because they don’t have an efficient lead-generation system in place.
Using marketing automation tools can easily capture visitor information and send personalized emails encouraging them to take action (sign up for a webinar or demo).
Why does marketing automation matter?
Marketing automation is a relatively new field that has been revolutionizing the lives of entrepreneurs, including small and medium-sized businesses.
It enables marketers to boost their sales by strategically planning, executing, and tracking campaigns across various media channels.
That being said, marketing automation is one of the essential elements of any digital marketing strategy today.
It helps streamline essential business processes, build customer relationships and increase sales and revenue.
