How Marketing Automation Can Enhance Your Business
Marketing has always been about connecting people with the products and services that can enhance their lives. As technology has evolved, it’s become easier than ever to identify and reach the right audiences for your brand. But providing them with a personalized online experience can be extremely time consuming to properly execute.
That’s where marketing automation can help. Marketing automation is broadly defined as a collection of software that helps eliminate repetitive tasks across channels to collect data and build more fluid engagement. Many may think of it as an email tool, but it’s actually so much more. Most marketing automation platforms integrate with social media, landing pages, chatbots, digital advertising and more to trigger cohesive and customized interactions across platforms.
“According to EmailMonday, an average of 51% of companies currently employ marketing automation with more planning to adopt it in the future. It’s on the rise among B2B and B2C companies alike because it creates efficiencies, drives sales and helps nurture leads into customers,” said Star Bazella, senior vice president of digital engagement and martech strategy at Curious Plot.
Curious to explore how marketing automation can enhance your business? Bazella outlines three reasons organizations adopt it.
- It’s good for your team. According to Instapage, 47% of users say their most important goal of marketing automation is increased sales revenue. Automation is proven to boost sales productivity by 14.5% and reduce marketing overheads by 12.2%.In addition, the data collected through automated workflows helps your marketing and sales teams understand how people actually respond to your brand vs. assuming. This helps them create more engaging content and supports business decisions around future communication efforts.
- It’s good for business. Research gathered by V12data indicates companies that employ marketing automation can experience a 45% average increase in qualified leads, 63% outperformed competitors and those with the strongest omnichannel engagement retain 89% of customers, compared to 33% without. Marketing automation also offers a strong return on investment with 44% of those implementing it experiencing a return within six months and 76% seeing it within the first year, according to Marketo.
- It’s good for your customers. When done correctly, marketing automation enables your company to increase lead generation and nurture customers more effectively with targeted messages. Personalization is key for today’s savvy shoppers who gravitate toward content that appears to be made for them. In fact, Campaign Monitor indicates personalized emails have an open rate on average of 26% which is much higher than generic email newsletters.“Personalized automation workflows perform the best out of any marketing automation workflow because they use analytics to predict the best time to send, post and promote each piece of content for maximum engagement,” Bazella said.
While marketing automation offers these benefits, it’s important to remember there are a few things it can’t do.
“It’s not meant to entirely replace traditional channels of delivery such as out of home, print and broadcast. It also won’t replace your seasonal promotional campaigns, write content for you or intervene when you need that human touch from sales or customer service,” Bazella said.
Outsource or In House?
Now you may be asking yourself if it’s better to manage marketing automation in house or outsource it to an agency like Curious Plot. You may be surprised to learn that even the largest, most successful companies in the world make a habit of outsourcing their marketing automation despite having the resources to build an in-house infrastructure. Why?
“Google, Apple and Amazon realize that using the martech stack through a third-party specialist makes them more money,” Bazella said. “Focusing their efforts on revenue-specific actions instead of worrying over analytics and tracking makes a huge difference.”
Are You Ready? Take Our Assessment
If you’re thinking about moving into marketing automation but aren’t quite sure where to start, we can help you assess your needs and develop a customized approach. Get started by filling out the form below get our Marketing Automation Maturity Assessment emailed to you. If you decide to take action, contact us for a free consultation with Bazella and her team of digital experts.