[vc_row][vc_column width=”1/1″][vc_column_text]There is this phenomenon that, since its breakthrough, has improved and streamlined marketing practices for multiple businesses. We’re talking about marketing automation, a use of software that turned into a billion-dollar industry in just a few years and today, an average 49% of businesses has implemented it. However, that also means that there are many marketing professionals that have yet to jump on this bandwagon. Are you one of them? Perhaps you’re trying to collect some arguments to convince your boss to make a budget for it? Then this post is for you.
Here we present some of the main reasons why you should get on this marketing automation-sensation and what your business can gain from it. But first, back to basics.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/1″][vc_column_text]
WHAT IS MARKETING AUTOMATION?
Marketing automation is the software behind stellar content marketing. The general idea here is to tend to your leads, guiding them from the very first point of contact, to sales interaction and then post-purchase, with relevant content.[/vc_column_text][divider line_type=”No Line” custom_height=”30″][vc_column_text]
With marketing automation, you automate the delivery of perfectly timed content based on recipients’ behavior. – Tweet this
[/vc_column_text][divider line_type=”No Line” custom_height=”30″][vc_column_text]Whether your marketing involves channels such as social media, email, mobile and/or web pages, this content could be built, scheduled and distributed via your marketing automation system. But that’s only a small piece of the puzzle. A marketing automation software also allows you to efficiently handle segmentations, campaigns, measuring, integrations and more. I know, it’s a mouthful, but that’s to show that there’s plenty of opportunities with a system like this.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/1″][vc_column_text]
WHY YOUR BUSINESS NEEDS MARKETING AUTOMATION
Implement and Embrace Behavior Based Marketing
As the name implies, a system like this lets you set automations, where some of your send outs are triggered by an action one of your site visitors or subscribers take. For example, someone signs up to receive your newsletter (action) and a welcome email from you is activated. Opens, clicks, forms submissions or specific answers could all also be trigger-based actions. First off, it’s a great goldmine in regards to collecting data about the behaviors of your leads since you can track each click. Secondly, automating processes like this frees more time for you to focus on more sales, better content and improved strategies. Last but not least, you are constantly relevant to your customers, which brings us to the next point:[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/1″][vc_column_text]
Lead Nurturing Made Simple
Nurtured leads produce, on average, a 20% increase in sales opportunities versus non-nurtured leads. Of course, we want to join in on those 20%, so let’s do some serious lead nurturing to avoid prospects dropping out of your marketing funnel. A lead requires several points of contact from you before they make a purchase, and with marketing automation, you make each one of those “touches” relevant for the leads. Each click, sign-up or other actions taken by your lead, triggers another send out in reference to the topic that the prospect engaged in. This way, you nurture and guide the lead throughout the buyer’s journey with information that they want. Your send out frequency is not based on your content calendar, but on the interest of your leads, catching them as they are the most responsive. Hey, lead nurturing done right![/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/1″][vc_column_text]
About 2/3 of businesses that are ahead of their competitors use marketing automation – (Lenskold and Pedowitz)
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Gain Valuable Insights
The marketing automation software monitors the actions each lead takes, which means that you can see exactly what content works for whom. Also, did you know that personalized emails generate 6 times higher transaction rates? The data collected in your marketing automation system gives you enough information to use personalization as well. Also, the reporting feature allows you to track and measure your results (opens, clicks, unsubscribers, etc) for each one of your campaigns, giving you insight into what you can do to improve your marketing moving forward.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/1″][vc_column_text]
Automated emails saw a 152% higher click-rate than business as usual emails. The open rates were up with 77% – (Epsilon)
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Become Best Friends with the Sales Team
There is this little “dispute” that has been going on between marketing and the sales team. Sales blame marketing for not getting enough qualified leads, marketing thinks sales should do a better job at following up, and on and on it goes. The solution to this? Full transparency. Many marketing automation platforms can integrate with your business’ CRM system, where automations are set up to notify the sales team when a lead has engaged on particular marketing content and therefore knows the perfect time to initiate contact.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/1″][vc_column_text]
Streamline Your Marketing Activities Across Multiple Channels
A marketing automation software lets you have complete control over your buyer’s journey, across several different marketing channels. For example, a form answer could trigger an email campaign that eventually leads to a text message delivering a mobile app. Also, with the ability to save your own customized templates you use for your content, you get a lot more time for you to plan and create more high-quality content. Plus, a marketing automation system with a user-friendly editor could have you build your mobile app, email, landing page, or whatever it might be, in minutes.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/1″][vc_column_text]
Companies that use marketing automation for lead nurturing see a 451% increase in qualified leads – (The Annuitas Group) Click to Tweet
[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/1″][vc_text_separator title_align=”separator_align_center” color=”grey”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/1″][vc_column_text]Perhaps it’s a little easier to get a grip of this if we have something to compare it with, so to conclude what this post was all about, I give you a list:[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]
Without Marketing Automation
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Distribution:
[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Posting and sending content to different channels (social media, emails, web) is done manually, taking up a lot of extra time and work.[/vc_column_text][divider line_type=”No Line” custom_height=”20″][vc_column_text]
Measuring:
[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Well, hard to say how well you’re doing since there’s no system that tracks the performance nor give us insight on how the leads are behaving.[/vc_column_text][divider line_type=”No Line” custom_height=”20″][vc_column_text]
Insights. Who is your subscriber?:
[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]The only information you have on your contact is the email address. Without the ability to define the audience, behavior and interests, lead segmentation is a challenge.[/vc_column_text][divider line_type=”No Line” custom_height=”20″][vc_column_text]
Lead Nurturing:
[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Without any data, customized content is a no-go. The same email is sent to all your contacts, even though they might not be interested in it and might unsubscribe from your emails.[/vc_column_text][divider line_type=”No Line” custom_height=”20″][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]
With Marketing Automation
[/vc_column_text][divider line_type=”No Line” custom_height=”1″][vc_column_text]As all content is kept in the same place, you can distribute it all to multiple channels with the click of a button, saving a lot of time for other important marketing tasks.[/vc_column_text][divider line_type=”No Line” custom_height=”45″][vc_column_text]Opens, clicks, unsubscribers and more, it’s all monitored by the software, and that information can be used to improve your future campaigns.[/vc_column_text][divider line_type=”No Line” custom_height=”45″][vc_column_text]You keep track of who clicked on what, you use that information to build different email lists and relevant content can be built thereafter.[/vc_column_text][divider line_type=”No Line” custom_height=”45″][vc_column_text]Automations are set up, which means that emails with suitable content are sent depending on the behavior of the contact. That’s lead nurturing done right.[/vc_column_text][divider line_type=”No Line” custom_height=”45″][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/1″][vc_text_separator title_align=”separator_align_center” color=”grey”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/1″][vc_column_text]Tempted to try it out? Most marketing automation services offer a free trial and demo for you to explore each of their features (Click here if you’d want a close-up look on eMarketeer).
What are your tips on streamlining marketing tasks?[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]