Wouldn’t it be great if simple software could make marketing related jobs a whole lot easier, convenient, and more efficient? If you are a marketer, then, you would probably agree with that. In today’s world, marketing automation is one of the newest technological innovations that aim to help businesses perform at its best. Marketers have long been enjoying all the great benefits this medium gives, regardless of the firm’s size. However for some people who are unaware, they are asking “what is marketing automation software about and how will it help them in leveraging their current marketing system?”
Marketing automation is an excellent tool only if it is utilized the right way. At the end of this article, you will be able to know about the definition and some benefits of marketing automation software for your business. Read through the end and know how to select the best marketing automation software that fits your needs.
What Is Marketing Automation?
Marketing automation refers to a tool or software created to automate marketing processes. Routine and repetitive tasks such as leads generation, segmentation, content creation, email and social media marketing, and other important tasks are being automated to help the marketer do everything easier faster and more effective.
There are multiple lists of marketing automation software; each is made for certain types of business that bring the same results. Marketing automation is embraced by many firms because of the many great benefits it gives to their current marketing system. Below is a list of some of the many advantages of using these platforms from the article “Top 10 Benefits of Marketing Automation” – SimplyCast.com:
- Save Time – it allows you to create multiple marketing campaigns ahead of time and set them for a schedule to be published in the future, thus helping you do other important things and be more productive at the same time.
- Reach Target Audience – it enables you to reach your target customers. The tool allows you to set standards and restrictions to who fits the criteria you’ve set for the recipients of your campaigns. For example, if your business is about beauty and cosmetics, then, you will set standards and restrictions in accordance to the niche you belong.
- Reduce Staffing Budget – a job usually done by a team manually is now possible to be done by a single person through the aid of a marketing automation tool. That means you get to save so much money by not needing to hire more employees. Hiring people could actually cost a lot as you have to consider a bigger space, add more office equipment’s like computers, tables, etc., and the monthly salary. A job done by a single person through the tool is with the same or even better quality than that of a team.
- Simple and Easy To Use – not everybody is keen with technology, thus, most marketing automation apps are built to be simple and user-friendly to make it easier for every user to navigate. If you are a marketer, the last thing you would want to do is study the technicalities of your marketing automation system; therefore, simplicity is an indispensable factor to consider.
- Effortless Lead Nurturing – your leads are very important as they are the ones who will potentially become your customers. It allows you to make constant communication with your leads. Most marketers tend to make the mistake of forgetting to do follow ups with prospecting leads; this tool allows you to reach each leads with the assurance that not a single one is being overlooked.
The Do’s
When dealing with marketing automation, it is important that you abide with a few guidelines in order to avoid committing mistakes that could affect your marketing strategy. As a marketer, you need to remember that marketing automation tools are only aids to make you be more effective in doing your job. Below is a list of the dos in terms of marketing automation:
- Do Segment Your Prospecting Leads Through the Tool. Marketing automation allows you to do that by simply setting restriction and standards to determine who your best qualified prospects are. The ability to segment leads is one of the best features of it as it makes it easier for you to reach target customers. Therefore, you need to make use of it.
- Do Constant Tweaking and Make Alterations if Needed. Though it is created for the purpose of automating the process, this does not mean no effort from your side is needed. Constant monitoring and management is the key to get desirable outputs.
- Do Make Use of the Real-time Lead Lifetime Recording To See if Leads Are Taking Actions Towards Your Website. This allows you to grab the opportunity of converting those leads as paying customers. Take advantage of having real-time visibility with the status of your prospects as this is the phase closest to winning sales.
- Do Lead Nurturing Campaigns Through the Software. One of the best marketing automation software benefits is that you can reach leads and customers and build good communication among them effectively. Lead nurturing allows you to retain customers too by promoting campaigns that they will find interesting and inviting. By doing that, the chance of gaining and retaining customers can be elevated.
- Do Choose Marketing Automation Software That Fits Your Budget. Marketing automation should be a tool to help you with your marketing needs and the one to help you to earn more instead of it being a burden. Marketing automation is an investment and not a cost only if you wisely choose the one that is within your reach. To help you with that, you may read reliable reviews of marketing automation software to have a bit of a rough idea about the price range of the tools and see genuine unsponsored reviews.
The Don’ts
While there are sets of guidelines on what to do with marketing automation so that it brings out excellent outputs, there are also sets of guidelines on what not to do with it. Many people tend to use the tool wrongly without having knowledge that they are actually preventing the tool to work the right way. Some people are also expecting too much about marketing automation, which gives them higher tendency to make mistakes. Below are some of the things you should never do with marketing automation:
- Don’t Expect for the Tool To Set Up Automatically. Many people have the perception in mind that because marketing automation is made to “automate” marketing tasks, setting up is also automatic. Marketing automation platforms requires for the user to do constant hands-on whether that’s for setting up or the actual marketing work phase.
- Don’t Flood Subscribers With Email Campaigns. Almost all types of marketing automation software allow users to promote campaigns via email. It enables you to automatically send emails to individuals in one go, which for most marketers, is one of the most used features in the tool. It is a big mistake to bombard email lists with tons of marketing campaigns because more often than not, these subscribers will eventually block you or you’ll find your way into their spam box.
- Don’t Expect for the Tool To Sell for You. Probably one of the biggest and dangerous misconceptions about marketing automation is that users expect for it to sell for them. The tool only acts as an aid for the user to easily reach target customers and keep good communication among them; however, having the tool sell on your behalf is beyond its purpose.
- Don’t Stick Yourself Around the Idea of the More You Pay the Better You Would Get. Many marketers tend to make the mistake of choosing software that is more expensive because they think that it would get them better results. On the actual fact, the way a marketing automation program works do not depend on its price, but it depends on the features and functionalities it has. Tons of different marketing automation software types are being sold on the market with various purposes depending on the kind of business it is made for. As a marketer, your goal is to choose the one that fits your needs and not on its price tag.
There you go! Those are the basic facts about marketing automation and the guidelines on how to do it and what not to do with it. As an aid for marketing, the approach of automation could bring so many perks in the way marketers and business owners go about their marketing strategies. It is important to remember that the key to achieving marketing automation success is through proper utilization of the tool. Even if you choose the best marketing automation software in the market, if the user’s knowledge in using it is very little, success is hardly possible.
If you are seeking for reliable marketing automation software to use, you may check out reviews of marketing automation software or the latest recap of the best marketing automation software from CrowdReviews.com.
Keith Moore
Latest posts by Keith Moore (see all)
- What Is the Best PoS Software and How to Choose It? - January 12, 2017
- What Does Database Management Software Do for Small Businesses? - January 9, 2017
- What Are the Distinct Features of the Top App Development Software? - January 8, 2017