These modern times rely on modern technologies to lead the way towards innovations. That is one of the reasons why automation has become almost essential in today’s businesses, especially when it comes to the marketing department.
In fact, 45% of companies are currently using marketing automation, while 91% of successful users agree that it’s “very important” to the overall success of their marketing across channels. After all, marketing automation can help an organization become a recognized brand, but only when used correctly.
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Let’s face it, the competition on the market is quite massive and it seems that it will only get harder to achieve border marketing awareness without a bit of help. And what better way to gain a competitive edge than by adopting marketing automation?
What is Marketing Automation?
You can find a number of marketing automation definitions online. However, they all point out the same characteristics that define this valuable tool. Marketing automation is a software solution that optimizes various marketing processes, from time-consuming responsibilities and marketing content to the relationships with customers.
This special approach efficiently reduces the amount of time spent on repetitive tasks. But more importantly, marketing automation is an excellent strategy for launching creative campaigns that will definitely not miss their targets.
The software in question is a powerful CRM system. Wait, what is CRM? It’s a Customer Relationship Management toolset customized to improve your campaign management, marketing team collaboration, client data integration, and marketing operations in general.
So if you’re wondering why your business needs it, first take a look at all the ways it can enhance your marketing efforts.
Time and Productivity Saver
“The beauty of our auto-response system is you set it up, and then allow it to work for you. We could not be nearly as effective as we are without it.” – Jess Tiffany, Marketing and Networking University President
One of the perks of marketing automation is the ability to create multiple personalized campaigns which you can post in real-time or schedule the release date. When you have a schedule, the system will automatically post them when the time comes. In other words, you can make a bunch of campaigns and set them up, and the system will post them throughout the month on your favorite social media channels.
Furthermore, automation doesn’t only save time but also your staff’s productivity. How? By eliminating the need for manual processes which therefore gives the marketing team with a chance to focus on other vital tasks. You can note a spike in productivity once the common routine becomes simplified via automation.
Marketing Consistency Manager
It’s not unusual for marketing projections to fail the ultimate ROI goal and it’s often due to poor time management. But marketing automation helps organizations achieve the much-needed consistency. Since you get to choose when you wish to launch the campaign, you can select the days when the majority of users will be online.
Plus, by prioritizing dates and automatically posting scheduled tweets and posts on Facebook, you can retain and engage the audience. Not only does consistency attract consumers, but it enables better management of customer interactions as well.
Cutting Costs Solution
Apart from benefits for enterprises, marketing automation is an ideal tool for small or medium sized companies who might not have the budget to spare. Given that modest marketing efforts result poorly, adopting automation might just save the day, month, year, and so on.
Most automation software available on the market comes in the form of cloud-based systems that offer a complete service for a low monthly fee. This immediately cuts the costs of on-premises IT maintenance, software updates, and certificate expenses.
In addition, by reducing the staff’s task requirements such as collecting data and distributing messages, more money is left on the side to invest in a quality marketing efforts.
Lead Provider & Converter
Perhaps the best part of automation is the fact that it can help companies convert leads into loyal consumers. The system enables users to use website traffic to their advantage via streamlined processes.
Automated marketing personalizes the experience for each site’s visitor. Whether it’s a lead or a returning consumer, each guest gets to see content based on their needs. You have probably seen “the top pics for you” section on high-trafficking websites like Amazon which is precisely the type of content designed by your preferences. Ant it’s also the type of the content your audience will experience with automation.
Campaign Refiner
“The most important benefit of marketing automation is how it enables marketers to leverage the increasing volume of data for better targeted, personalized and intelligent campaigns across the value chain.” – Robert Black, Panopta Director of Marketing
Marketing automation is a great source of information. With a centralized database, potent analytic tools, and automatic assortment of crucial data, you can use accurate reports for refining your marketing strategy.
Armed with a 360-degree overview of customer shopping journey insights, you can efficiently pinpoint the type of experience your target prospects expect and want to see from your business. Creating campaigns around the customer’s history, likes, and dislikes, will refine marketing efforts and define how you nurture your customers.
So it’s safe to proclaim that automated marketing can assist in the creativity department. Meaning, campaigns will become more inspirational, which is quite important.
Campaign Tracker
Remember the ROI marketing problem mentioned earlier and how a projection doesn’t always meet the end objective? Well, that’s what happens when marketers don’t have measurable data to support their marketing success.
On the other hand, with automation, you get more that real-time data based on the software’s big data crunching abilities. Automation marketing allows you to accurately determine, track, and monitor the success of your campaigns.
Based on specific parameters, you can easily note if there is room for improvement and what innovations you need to implement for increasing customers retention. Also, by monitoring the process every step of the way, you get to monitor responses until you reach the estimated goal.
Revenue Maker
Forrester research shows that marketers can expect a 20% increase in sales, on average, due to a proper lead-nurturing tactic. This claim is also supported by 77% of high-performing CMO’s who identify marketing automation as the key to growing revenue.
So far, all 2017 marketing automation statistics confirm marketers can expect a 12.2% reduction in marketing overhead and at least around a 15% increase in revenue. But what is more interesting, with a CRM system, you get an average $8.71 return of investments for every dollar invested.
Automated Email Helper
According to a Gunter report, by 2020, customers will manage 85% of their interactions with the enterprise through artificial intelligence programs. Automation is only the beginning of the future changes the industry will go through in the following years. Why does this matter?
Thanks to automation, your email marketing can now better encourage people to fill out carts and continue with their checkout steps. Automated marketing emails automatically send follow-ups to remind consumers that they left something behind. And with personalized email content, this additionally tightens the bond a business shares with the audience.
Top Reasons Marketers Choose Automation
To sum all the benefits up, here are the main reasons to consider adding automation to your marketing department:
- Improved access to customer data (74% of users agree)
- Lead management (organizing, tracking, and managing leads)
- Task management (tasks are organized according to priority)
- Better performance (accurate analytics, simplified customer management, and labor reduction)
- Optimized collaboration across departments (one database with an unlimited access to important data)
- Positive and personalized customer experience (70% of consumers prefer automation)
- Lower marketing costs
- Increase in revenue
- Ease of use (the leading factor for 86% of marketers)
- Solves the top marketing challenges (generating lead and traffic, proving ROI activities, securing the budget, website management, targeted marketing content creation)
Final Thoughts
Marketing automation is the most gratifying tool the digital age has to offer. The software efficiently tackles all of the problematic marketing areas and boosts the department’s productivity for delivering only quality marketing content at the right time and on the right channels.
For a small price, your business can experience a meaningful transformation which can help set it apart from the rest of the competitors on the market. In these busy times, automation grants a moment of peace by eliminating time-consuming tasks in order to save those lost hours for even better marketing content design.
But the best part is that customers like this approach. And customers are ultimately the key brand definers responsible for the company’s success. So, be sure to remember the wise words of Bill Gates: “The first rule of any technology used in a business is that automation applied to an efficient operation will magnify the efficiency.”
