Marketing nowadays has become as demanding as ever before; with the constantly developing technology and rising customer expectations, businesses are striving for tools and techniques which can make their services more efficient and satisfying. There are many ways in which marketers try to engage customers; most of the activities, however, tend to be repetitive, monotonous, and time-consuming. With an overload of information, plans and goals, it is almost impossible to provide a fast-working, effective service that would persuade your customers to stay. Luckily, there is a solution: Marketing automation.
In this article, we will discuss the principle of marketing automation and the reasons why in modern businesses, it is no longer a nice-to-have but a definite must-have.
What is marketing automation?
Automation generally refers to transferring or replacing manual activities and repetitive tasks with automatic ones. In other words, the processes which were previously done entirely by people can now be conducted by automation software.
Marketing automation is this kind of technology. It is usually referred to as software that automates marketing activities and processes to increase the effectiveness and precision of campaigns, messages, and advertisements. As stated before, organizing and performing these repetitive tasks manually is a great challenge for both employees and the business itself; in situations like these, marketing automation platforms come and save the day.
How does marketing automation work?
The most crucial role of marketing automation is gathering and organizing information about customers’ experiences and activity. The customer data is available through different channels which are used to maintain communication: Emails, social media, applications, and websites.
The use of marketing automation software makes it possible to automate all the necessary activities which have to be done by marketers. This way, they are no longer obliged to spend long hours sending emails, posting on social media, or even creating ads or campaigns. All of these processes are performed by the software, which, thanks to its machine learning and automation, provides more efficient and streamlined results.
Why does your site need marketing automation?
Automating your processes will bring plenty of benefits to your business. Let’s take a closer look at the essential ones.
- Efficiency. Both your business processes and your team will benefit from marketing automation. As stated before, it frees up your marketers from repetitive tasks and time-consuming activities. Thanks to automated processes, your employees can focus and spend more time on other, more creative aspects of the marketing business, such as planning and organizing campaigns.
- Accuracy. This seems to be a broad term, but mostly it refers to reports and analyses of your customers’ experience. Yes, information can be collected and analyzed by marketers, but this solution may have a few gaps. Let’s take, for instance, differentiating warm and cold leads – while your team has to spend a great amount of time searching and guessing who can become a part of your potential audience; marketing automation does it precisely on the basis of the online activity.
- Personalization. Automating marketing processes is connected not only with accurate but also personalized content targeted to particular customers. The information gathered by the marketing automation software makes it easier to create well-tailored messages aligned with customers’ personal experiences.
- Management. With marketing automation, each and every important aspect is categorized, segmented, and labeled to help the team organize their work. It is also much easier to conduct such processes when everything has its own place, and one click is enough to start an activity. Automating online marketing campaigns elevates your business to a higher level, providing you with more aligned, personal content, better timing, and bigger efficiency. But how can you implement it in your company?
Popular marketing automation tools
Before deciding on a proper automation tool, it is important to consider a few aspects of your business and company goals. What is the size of your business? Some tools will work better with smaller companies. However, if your business is thriving, you can afford more expensive, hence more advanced marketing automation tools. What are your goals? Are you focused more on sending emails, or maybe more processes need to be covered? Having answered these and other necessary questions, have a look at some popular choices on marketing automation tools:
- HubSpot – An all-in-one tool providing basic functionalities
- Marketo – A mature, well-known tool perfect not only for marketing but also for sales processes
- Eloqua – Exceptional, advanced, but also top of the line
- Omnisend – Perfect for creating well-tailored, personalized content for your customers
By choosing a marketing automation platform that matches your business expectations perfectly, you will certainly make the most of marketing automation.