You've heard about it, you know plenty of marketers are infatuated with it, but at the end of the day what is marketing automation?
Any respectable digital marketing expert will tell you that the best performing small to medium-sized companies (both B2B and B2C) use marketing automation tools to boost their productivity, however, the majority of business owners are still dubious of marketing automation services for the following reasons:
- They assume that marketing automation is an expensive tool
- They think creating content is taxing and hard
- They think configuring the campaign to their business model is too complex
- And finally (and probably most importantly) they don't understand exactly how marketing automation works
This article will explain the real life benefits and application of marketing automation to help you decide if it's the right service for you.
Marketing Automation Explained
In a nutshell, marketing automation software allows businesses to automate certain tasks in their marketing campaign. Examples include creating emails, scheduling social media posts along with various other website actions, for example, you can alter the settings on your website to ensure online visitors are shown suggested products according to their browsing history.
HubSpot, Salesforce and Infusionsoft are excellent examples of marketing automation software.
The goal of marketing automation is twofold:
- To create a personalised service to help convert online visitors into loyal, paying customers
- Secondly, marketing automation makes your life easier as your business won't need to waste time and resources on tasks that can be done automatically
Here's a comprehensive list of the key benefits.
1) Shorter Sales Cycle
Marketing automation drastically reduces the sales cycle, because unlike lead generation and pipeline management, marketing automation focuses primarily on converting leads into customers - rather than acquiring as many leads as possible. Marketing automation bridges the gap between when a customer expresses an interest in your business and the time it takes for them to receive valuable content (like social media, an offer or an email) which encourages them to complete their purchase.
2) Collecting Valuable Customer Data
Marketing automatic gives your business access to behaviour metrics which you can then be used to fine-tune your entire marketing strategy. To put this into perspective, when a prospect enters their contact details through a form on your website, your marketing automation software will then begin to monitor that specific user every time they access your site. This data allows you to setup "actions" based on your choice of triggers. For example, if a particular customer is routinely looking at the TV section of your website, you can use then send that user an automatic email with the latest deals or content of your choice to increase your sales.
In short, marketing automation lets you gauge the interest of their prospects and their engagement, rather than waiting patiently for them to contact you. This means you can follow "hot leads" immediately as opposed to waiting and letting the opportunity slip away.
3) Streamline Your Work Load - Saves Time & Resources
Despite the initial investment cost, marketing automation will save your business hundreds or even thousands of pounds in the long-run. With marketing automation the days of logging into different accounts for different tasks is over! Marketing automation is like a master control panel giving you access to lead flow, customer dashboards / interactions, website metrics, customer engagement rates, emails and social media (and much more) all under one roof.
This will save your staff a great deal of time, allowing them to focus on different tasks in your business, as well as eliminating the risk of human error.
4) Detailed ROI Reporting
Successful businesses in today's fiercely competitive market must constantly evaluate their sales and marketing strategy to pinpoint areas for improvement. Businesses that say "we've always done things this way" will soon be left behind in the dust. Marketing automation software automatically calculates your business' ROI based on pre-set conditions. Spotting fluctuations in revenue allows your business to make appropriate adjustments to your business strategy to ensure overall profitability and increased performance year on year.
Every Business Can Benefit From Marketing Automation
Marketing automation software is truly worth its weight in gold. Marketing automation platforms like HubSpot make the practice of enriching your customer base simple, quick and actionable. The JDR group are proud HubSpot Platinum Partners (1 of only 11 in the UK) with over 13 years' experience helping small to medium-sized business expand their marketing potential.
Contact a member of our team today to arrange a FREE 20 minute informal chat with our marketing specialist Andy Gibbins who can explain the countless benefits of marketing automation, helping to take your business to the next level.
