In today’s digital world, marketing is no longer just about getting your message in front of potential customers.
It’s about getting your message in front of the right potential customer at the right time with the right offer.
Companies must be able to efficiently test new marketing strategies, implement analytical optimization and have real-time segmentation and personalization at their fingertips – marketing automation tools can be the key.
In this article, we’ll talk about marketing automation tools and how this new tech is disrupting the market.
What is marketing automation?
Marketing automation is a type of marketing software system designed to manage and automate marketing activities, like email campaigns, social media marketing and lead management.
Marketers can use marketing automation to create targeted campaigns for prospective customers in a cost-effective way by sending emails, creating content and managing leads — without having to hire additional staff.
Marketing automation software allows companies to create a customer-centric approach to marketing that’s fully automated and optimized across the entire customer journey.
For more information, check out “What is marketing automation?“
It allows marketers to create lead-nurturing sequences, automate social media posts and emails, identify buying patterns, increase sales and automate repetitive tasks.
Marketing automation is a strategic way to bring together various marketing channels, including email, social media, online display advertising, and web analytics, to produce consistent and measurable results.
This can include managing a customer journey (from first touchpoint to retention) and generating sales leads.
The importance of marketing automation tools
In today’s hyper-competitive landscape, it’s essential to have a strong, consistent marketing strategy that’s set up to succeed.
To do so, marketers need to segment their audiences, implement the latest technology tools and provide customers with an experience that’s tailored to their individual needs. Otherwise, your audience will simply go to the company that does.
Marketing automation allows you to scale marketing efforts to drive more qualified leads, higher conversions and increased revenue.
It helps you stay ahead of your competitors by improving your lead generation campaigns, automating your sales processes and reducing marketing costs.
Marketing automation is more than just a tool that helps you send emails. It’s a strategic approach to marketing that brings together various channels (like email and social media) to produce consistent and measurable results.
Why marketers are reluctant to implement marketing automation?
Marketing automation, as disruptive as it is, has seen a lot of pushback from marketers. While they appreciate the benefits that come with this technology, they are reluctant to commit to its implementation fully.
There are three main reasons why marketers are slow to adopt marketing automation:
Fear of losing control
Marketers have always been in control of their brands. They handle their marketing campaigns, social media management and lead nurturing efforts meticulously.
As such, the thought of “outsourcing” these tasks to automation may be a bit overwhelming. However, marketing automation is not about outsourcing. It’s about strategically managing your team and resources to achieve more with less.
Unclear ROI
Marketers want to make sure that their investments will pay off. And while it’s clear that marketing automation can improve marketing performance, marketers want to know how much it will cost for them to implement such a strategy.
This is why marketers are interested in exploring the cost of marketing automation.
Lack of expertise
Marketers are concerned that they don’t have the right skill set to implement marketing automation. This is why they want to wait until they have the right team prepared to execute this strategy.
Reasons to implement marketing automation now
As a marketer, you’re probably wondering: When is the best time to implement marketing automation?
Certainly, there will be a point when you’ll want to go down this path. But when exactly is that? Well, the sooner, the better. Here are three reasons you should implement marketing automation now:
No time like the present
The best time to implement marketing automation is right now.
There’s no rule that says you have to wait until your marketing efforts are already successful or until you have a large budget to invest in automation. You can start with a small budget and grow from there.
Start building now
Marketing automation is not a project you should wait to start until your business is more mature. Rather, you should start building your marketing automation efforts right now.
This will allow you to build your skills and experiment with various tools that can help you scale your efforts down the line.
Don’t miss out on the benefits
Marketing automation can provide many benefits for your business, including increased lead volume, improved lead quality, and increased sales.
However, if you don’t implement marketing automation now, you may miss out on these benefits entirely.
How to successfully use a marketing automation platform
Before you start using your marketing automation platform and implementing various marketing automation tools, you need to make sure your company is ready.
You need to have clear goals and objectives in place, a sound plan for implementation and a strategy for monitoring your progress with everything relating to the marketing and sales teams.
This can help you avoid falling into the trap of having too many marketing automation tools. If you don’t have a plan in place, you may be investing in too many solutions, which will increase your overhead.
Before you begin building your marketing automation platform, there are a few things to consider:
Define your objectives and goals
Before you start implementing marketing automation, you need to determine your objectives and goals. What do you want to achieve with your marketing? What message do you want to send to your customers?
How do you want to engage with your audience? By clearly defining your goals, you’re setting yourself up for success.
Pick the right tools for the job
Not every tool will be a good fit for your marketing automation platform. Some tools may be too basic, others may not be compatible with your company’s goals and objectives.
Define your lead-scoring strategy
Achieving a higher level of lead conversion is one of the main reasons marketers turn to marketing automation.
You can help your marketing efforts to succeed by implementing a lead-scoring strategy.
Lead scoring helps you determine which leads are ready to be sent to sales and which leads are still at the bottom of the sales funnel.
Plan for post-implementation
After you’ve implemented your marketing automation platform, you want to make sure you’re on the right track.
You want to track your efforts’ progress and make necessary adjustments. You also want to make sure that you’re incorporating real-time segmentation and personalization as you go along.
Key takeaways of marketing automation
Marketing automation tools have the potential to help marketers achieve higher lead volume, improve lead quality and increase sales.
Marketing automation is more than just a tool that helps you send emails. It’s a strategic approach to marketing that brings together various channels (like email and social media) to produce consistent and measurable results.
Get started today!
