In an era where consumers get bombarded with adverts, it is pretty tough for a campaign to stand apart. Marketing teams are under increasing pressure to come up with creative feats. Failure to perform better than competitors can churn their whole revenue streams.
Marketing automation is the buzzword that can change the tide for entrepreneurs. It is a technology to manage marketing procedures and multifunctional campaigns across different channels automatically. With this tech in their pockets, a business can target customers with automatic messages across websites, social media, text messages, and emails.
It is a big business for vendors. Oracle and Salesforce, for example, have made notable market automation acquisitions in the past nine years.
According to a 2020 report from Research and Markets, the global marketing automation size will reach $8.42 billion by 2027. It will be an expansion at a CAGR of 9.8% from 2020 till 2027.
What Does Market Automation Do?
Essentially, market automation is the set of tools designed to streamline and simplify the most time-consuming duties of modern marketing and sales.
Whether it is automating the lead qualification process or creating a hub for a digital campaign, automation involves simplifying a complex business. It helps to accomplish projects swiftly and effectively.
In simpler terms, market automation helps you to implement a digital marketing strategy. There is no need to manually press the “send” button whenever you are willing to dispatch an email or a post. Good automation tools allow you to identify your audience, design content, and trigger actions according to customer behavior.
As your campaign enters the market, you can focus on frying bigger fishes, like how to tweak and improve the ads, how to get more conversions etc.
Needless to say, an automated marketing strategy saves a lot of time and resources yet gives you peace of mind. It amplifies revenue and ROI while you focus on much essential tasks.
How Does Market Automation Work?
At its optimal level, market automation sends specific content to target customers. The goal is to close more deals by focusing on behavior and data. A well-designed campaign can turn out successful with well-planned market automation techniques.
Some tasks that you can automate include:
- Campaign segmentation
- Social media marketing
- Website visitor tracking
- Multivariate testing
- Content creation
- Analytics and ROI Testing
Advantages Of Market Automation
A report from the Lenskold Group stated that 80% of the marketers credited automation to be the lead player behind their success. Meanwhile, a 2019 report from Automizy found market automation was quite a challenge for 16% of the marketers.
Factors like integration and content creation caused significant hurdles for marketers. However, one cannot undermine the perks of automation. If played right, it can bring incredible rewards for an organization. In fact, it won’t be wrong to state market automation is the way to double your profits.
Here are some benefits it will bring your way:
Higher Conversion Rates
In the modern marketing era, a successful campaign arrives by target marketing and delivering the right solutions to the customers. Earlier, there was a lot of guesswork by the marketers.
They used surveys, interviews, and conjecture to come up with products/services. This often-brought random acts of marketing with no way to know what was effective and what wasn’t.
With market automation tools, businesses can do wonders in this segment. They can identify the web visitors and turn them into leads by offering them valuable solutions. An eMarketer study discovered that marketers found an incredible increase in the conversion rates that would go up to 50%.
This enables a business to present market initiatives to the right customers. They get inquiries from potential buyers. Consequently, the chances of closing a deal go up a notch.
Saves Time
Marketing lies at a sweet spot between business and art. By leveraging tools that keep employees at work, the business can reap extraordinary rewards. These tools keep employees engaged and focused. They can create revolutionary content and strategies that take organizations ahead.
The pinnacle of technological advancements lies at the heart of market automation. Tasks that took days and months to complete are now finished within minutes and hours. There is less time required for mundane and menial tasks. As a result, marketers get more time to be creative and bring strategic solutions to the table.
Automation has substantially improved the lives of marketers. They get to higher levels of self-actualization and come up with innovative solutions for the organization.
Nuclear research stated by Marketo found that 95% of the companies claimed employee productivity increased due to market automation. Thus, it is a chance for companies to make employees enjoy the work, which boosts their productivity in return.
Creates a Better Customer Experience
Modern customers are looking for tailored experiences that will put them in the driver’s seat. This means they want less overt sales techniques and subtle thought leadership that informs people. The idea is to keep people in the loop instead of pressuring them to purchase.
As a marketer, your job is to leave a lasting impact on the customers. You must work on building solid relationships, so customers keep coming back. According to Forbes, market automation can help to create a trusted relationship with the customers.
Even though the objective is to improve sales, there are many steps that come before that. You must ensure you are providing a cordial relationship to the customer that is educational and personalized. Market automation will help you to personalize content in the following ways:
- The tools provide rich and accurate data. You can leverage this to tailor your content for prospects and align it with their behavior.
- With adaptive technology, you can directly speak to the target customers. This could be via emails, landing pages, or contact forms.
Placing content that speaks to the customers will hit their pain points. It will increase site traffic, time spent on the web pages, and conversions. Automation makes it easier for you to predict and respond to the varying needs of the market.
More Effective Spending
When you use marketing automation tools and techniques, you can reduce the amount spent on meaningless activities. There is little budget tied up in labor costs. You can spend the surplus on activities like training the workforce to enhance their functioning.
Automation of marketing helps you focus on frying the bigger fishes. You can lead your team better and invest money where it is most needed. For instance, you can use the money on a larger ad spending, the premium on elite talent, or any other aspect that requires an upgrade.
It sorts out transactions, creates a schedule, systematizes activities, and helps to collaborate in the workplace. Invespcro found that 77% of marketers noted an increase in conversions due to automation.
Advanced marketing tools enable business owners to perform effective corporate planning and budgeting. It will make things a lot easier if the users know how to effectively use the strategies and tools.
Scalability
Whenever you set up a marketing process, it is essential to keep scaling in your mind. How would these procedures help your company to grow? If it is not scalable, there is probably no point in investing in these plans.
Market automation helps you to create a scalable company. If the process is manual, there is little scope for the company to grow. On the other hand, the automation tools enable the marketing department to create a streamlined and repeatable process. This helps the marketing department to spend less on personnel and fixtures.
Invespcro declares this is one of the reasons why 63% of the marketers’ plan to increase their marketing budget this year.
Faster Return on Investment (ROI)
Market automation is all about nurturing more leads. The software can help you to create a drip-email campaign and track its success. At the same time, you can use effective social media tools to run productive campaigns.
Unlike many other marketing methods, market automation brings a faster return on investments. A study conducted by Forbes Insights on American Marketing executives reported that marketers saw their revenues increase about three times when using automation techniques.
You can easily follow up on the prospects to know their perspective. For example, you can send an email inquiring them on why they abandoned the cart. Or, you could contact them via phone to know their opinion about a product or a service they used. These methods will also escalate your ROI and keep your sales team trailing the qualified leads.
This figure provides the buyer journey you can work on to make better decisions:
Maximize your Market Automation Efforts
When effectively implemented, market automation can help companies of different sizes to achieve their marketing goals and increase their profits.
These metrics from CMO prove why:
- Over 90% of the marketers agree that automation is quite significant for success
- About 80% of the chief marketers say that market automation will help to grow the revenue
- Market automation boosts sales productivity by 14.5%
Here are six simple tips to get the most out of your market automation platform:
Design your marketing automation campaign from the start
Don’t do it all at once. Start from the basics so you can generate ROI in no time. Build your capability, maintain momentum, and expand your customers. Take one step at a time.
Optimize at every step of campaign creation
Insufficient data does not create better leads, inadequate procedures don’t help a prospect to pass through the funnel, and weak messages fail to engage your audience. You have to be the best at every stage.
Align marketing and sales
You must work with the sales team to determine and implement best practices to nurture the leads. According to the Harvard Business Review, companies that respond to new leads within the first hour are seven times more likely to qualify that lead.
Customize your marketing efforts
Great marketing is specialized for the user. The marketers create accurate and well-developed personas to deliver meaningful messages. You must make data as your guide and not assume anything.
Make a business case for your automation software
Your company is spending quite enough on fancy technology. Now, your task is to educate the stakeholders about the value of the platform. Make sure it is supporting your marketing efforts to create efficiency and improve revenue.
Adopt and achieve
You must have a mindset of adaptability. It is software, but people using it are not flexible. Your marketing philosophy should stay intact, but methodology might ask for occasional compromises.
Market Automation and Sales
Market automation helps throughout the customer journey. Whether it is about building awareness or improving communication – you must stay in touch with the customers. Here are three ways market automation helps to improve sales:
Generates Leads
Landing pages are the most viable tool in your automation arsenal. When you pair it with good content, they turn into an automated flywheel that gets new leads and starts nurturing them.
Customizes Campaigns
Landing pages and emails can help you to generate new leads. It enables you to determine the qualified leads and use data to track website behavior. Later, you can use these leads to move them towards conversion.
Take Benefit of Triggers
Trigger emails are a distinct marketing method. They hit the customer inbox at prime time. For instance, once they finish a free trial or leave the cart. When you pair them with unique offers, it is an effective nudge to make a purchase.
Final Words
Market automation is an aspect of marketing you can’t skip in the present era. It is all about making a business more responsive to the customers and supports them/guidance over time. The goal is not to make the sales team happy. Instead, you must focus on the larger picture. How can you make leads more productive? How could you create positive experiences for every person who knocks at your door?
When you find genuine solutions to these issues, you will eventually climb the corporate ladder and achieve the dreams you always had for your venture!
