Marketing automation is a system of using software with the goal of automating marketing activities.
It can be an excellent tool if you know how to use it correctly for your business. You can use it, for example, to guide your potential customers through your website, social media, and emails with the aim of generating new leads and improving existing ones (a lead means a buyer’s interest in purchasing your products or services).
A Nuclear Research study reported that 95 percent of companies that used marketing automation experienced at least one benefit. Meanwhile, InTouch CRM reported that 75 percent of companies recovered their ROI within one year with its help (ROI stands for return on investment).
Where can you use marketing automation?
– in your email marketing,
– analytics,
– managing your social media and leads
– etc.
A concrete step-by-step example of marketing automation:
1.) You send an email invitation to certain potential customers and invite them to download your e-book
2.) You send a thank-you email to everyone who downloaded the e-book
3.) A few days later, an automatic email is sent to everyone who downloaded the e-book, offering them some additional content, e.g. a study or research from that field
4.) After downloading the additional content, the person managing customer relations is also notified (a potential customer who has gone through all these processes is certainly closer to a purchasing decision than someone who doesn’t know you)
Preparing for marketing automation
If we want to set up marketing automation correctly, I recommend thorough preparation. You need to define the goal you want to achieve. Usually the goal is to convert more interested buyers into actual customers by increasing the company’s profit. The goal needs to be written out specifically, for example: 25 percent of those subscribed to the email list will become your customers who will return to make a purchase at least once within half a year. After setting the goal, focus on the content you will offer and choose the tool and analytics you will use. This is followed by a promotion plan, where you ask yourself how you will reach the right potential customers. Without an influx of the right interested customers, marketing automation will not be successful. The final phase, which you must not forget, is whether the employees in your company support the marketing automation campaigns.
What about the downsides?
Among marketing professionals, the main discussion was about whether it is worth the investment, and in some cases companies, as with any other activity, over-invest in the automation itself (in terms of time and money), so as with any activity and investment, be careful to achieve results with a minimum investment.
Software and tools that will help you with marketing automation:
- Activecampaign
- GetResponse
- iContact
- Post planner
- Buffer
- dlvr.it
- HubSpot
- Marketo
- Net-Results
- pardot
- Act-on
- leadsquared
- salesfusion
- sales manago
- sales force
- Inter com
- TargetEveryOne
- shopify
- volusion
- foxmetrics
- Leadpages
- Instapage
- leadliaison
