In today’s competitive marketing world, new and innovative tools have been developed in order for businessmen and marketers to level up the way they go about their daily business activities. Marketing takes up one of the biggest corners in corporate activities and is one of the main factors to impact corporate status. Thus, new tools are developed to improve marketing related tasks. One of these marketing evolution is the development of marketing automation software.
The fact that competition in the marketing field has become so tight, business owners are on an unceasing hunt for new ways to get an edge from its competitors. Marketing automation has been one of the most useful tools to shape up companies’ marketing strategy. If you are a marketer and you are not yet using this tool, you might need to think twice about it.
Read through the end of this article to know more about marketing automation and get to know the top marketing automation software that will help you elevate your current marketing system.
Definition of Marketing Automation
Marketing automation is one of the technological innovations that are developed for the purpose of automating and measuring marketing workflows in order to increase efficiency and grow revenue faster. It helps marketers to unify lead generation and segment and manage acquired leads, sales, retention of customers, and ROI measurement.
According to an article The Definitive Guide to Marketing Automation – QuickSprout.com, defining marketing automation is a bit of a mouthful, and there have been a lot of misconceptions about it. Below is a list of facts and myths about marketing automation.
Fact: Marketing automation bridges multiple marketing platforms such as email marketing, content marketing, and social media. One of its main purposes is to nurture prospects on a long-term aspect, thus targeting goals apart from direct sales.
Myth: Marketing automation is robotic and impersonal. “Automation” is another word for spamming.
Fact: Marketing automation keeps a strong communication through personalized emails. It enables you to add personal touches to your marketing campaigns by allowing you to collect data about the prospect’s interests, thus, making it easier for you to customize a more relevant offer.
Myth: It is a spam.
Fact: A big NO! Marketing automation is actually one of the best user-friendly marketing medium because it is in accordance to personalization.
Marketing automation is used by many large firms since dealing with marketing among larger ventures can be quite knotty; thus, a tool to centralize things is always necessary. On the other side, marketing automation software for small businesses has also been a great choice. According to an article What is Marketing Automation – Marketo.com, midsize and small businesses make up the largest segment growth in the space nowadays.
There are tons of marketing automation platforms in the web that are designed for various types of businesses. Before choosing which software to invest in, it is important to carefully take some time to make a list of the things you need in your marketing. See some marketing automation software reviews and feedbacks from people. Some software have free-trials, you may take advantage of those. To see a list of reliable marketing automation tools, check out CrowdReviews.com.
Ways to Use Marketing Automation Software
Any kind of automation requires constant maintenance and precision. Same goes to marketing automation; it is never a one-time process. It needs maintenance in order to nurture what is already acquired. However, it is not a hundred-to-one to use this strategy successfully.
Doing marketing automation incorrectly can put you to many risks and leave your clients confused and make them think you are a spam. But through thorough study and careful use of the tool, you can avoid common mistakes that will ruin your whole marketing strategy. Below is a rundown of the ways to use marketing automation software and how to do it properly from an article How to use Marketing Automation Correctly – DuctTapeMarketing.com:
1. Content Marketing
Content marketing is an effective way to grow email list and develop engagement upon subscribers. It is an excellent marketing strategy if you are offering products and services. When dealing with this strategy, it is essential to create campaigns that are relevant and interesting to prospects. It is an effective way of building strong bond between you and your audience while promoting sales at the same time.
2. On-boarding Email
Chain email on-boarding has become more popular as a marketing tactic with the use of email marketing automation software. Many companies dedicate enormous amount of effort to make the prospects sign-up for free software trials and get them on the list of sales funnel. Free trial users are more likely to eventually become paying clients.
In order to automate on-boarding emails, you need to synchronize your marketing automation system through the marketing automation tool to the software you use to sell your products and services, thus, making it easier for you to target prospects based on their behavior.
This strategy is somewhat similar to the content marketing, but instead of sending of a series of informative content, on-boarding email campaign is usually more on personal aspect discussing how to use certain software.
3. Promotions
Offering discounts and promotions have been one of the best and effective marketing tactics among business owners. It is great for driving sales online or offline making it even more enticing to give all the best offers you can give to everyone. However, in order to make this strategy successful, you will also need to consider the user’s behavior just like the two other tactics mentioned.
Not every marketing automation system you see on the internet are the same; vendors do not make software that is only intended for one type of industry. Big or small, all businesses can take advantage of the benefit marketing automation can give.
Benefits of an Automated Marketing
If used properly, marketing automation can be an excellent tool. It allows businesses of all types and of all sizes run campaigns effectively and manage time and resources efficiently. It also allows marketers to connect with prospects and nurture communication among clients in a personalized approach.
There are so many misconceptions about using this medium that puts off many marketers in using it. However, there are also tons of benefits that will make every business owners change the way they do marketing. Below are some of the many advantages marketing automation can give.
- Save Time – marketing automation allows you to create multiple posts and campaigns at a time and set a schedule to publish each. This is ideal for marketers who do not have enough time to make campaigns on a regular basis. Being a marketer means you need to do multiple things on a constant basis; thus, you need enough time. Marketing automation not only helps the user save time but also improve campaign quality since a content made was given enough time.
- Reach Target Customers – marketing automation allows marketers reach audiences within the niche it belongs through the aid of automated segmentation. Marketing automation software features allow you to create standards and restrictions that will automatically separate customers. You can then send promotions to those segmented customers that relates to their interests and preferences.
- Reduce Employment Costs – with marketing automation, a single employee can complete a job of a whole manual marketing team. This allows a company save employment costs; instead of hiring a team consisting of 10 people and more, a single person or two is enough to do the work in a timely manner with the same or even better quality.
- Improved Consistency – in marketing, consistency in many aspects is essential. Consistent publishing is one, which can easily be achieved through the aid of marketing automation app as it allows marketers make multiple posts at once and schedule it to go up in a certain time.
- It Is Simple – not all marketers are technically advanced, some are still considering it as a laborious thing to deal upon. The good thing about marketing automation is it’s a simple and user-friendly platform. Many vendors make marketing automation tools that are easy to navigate and do not require complex technical skills.
- Maintain Customer Relationship – marketing automation does not only help in reaching target audiences but also in maintaining a strong bond among customers. It allows marketers to send emails to both prospects and existing customers with personalized touches making it a bit more special. The tool also allows marketers to know who those loyal customers are; therefore, giving of loyalty freebies and rewards is never a hard job.
So there you have it! Those are the basic facts about marketing automation. Marketing is never an easy job, especially in today’s competitive world. You need to keep on taking steps forward to not get left behind. Moreover, marketing automation is one of these important steps a marketer needs to take.
CrowdReviews.com provides genuine marketing automation software reviews that can help you decide on what software to go for. Plus, see who’s made it as the Top Marketing Automation Software.
Keith Moore
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