Have you ever tried hanging a portrait without having the necessary tools on hand? No hammer to push the nail into the wall. No nails to hang the portrait on. You get the idea, right? If you don’t have the necessary tools to complete a task it becomes almost impossible to accomplish. 

The same is true in marketing. Without the necessary tools such as marketing automation, your business could be lagging in qualifying leads and generating sales. It’s an effective tool that’s helped thousands of businesses to reach their full potential.

Marketing automation companies provide diverse solutions for any type of business and budget. From assisting with Email campaigns to data management and lead scoring among other services. It’s all geared towards achieving a greater return on investment (ROI) for your business.

Defining Marketing Automation

Are you still not clear on what exactly marketing automation is? Let’s try and define it by what it’s not. Perhaps that can help bring better clarity as practiced in philosophy by Hegel using antithesis. Marketing automation isn’t:

• A way of spewing out spam to your clients and overloading their inboxes
• A replacement of your marketing team but rather offers empowerment to your team
• A tool that can create marketing campaigns for you but assist you in scaling your campaign sustainably
• Only an Email marketing tool but incorporates all your channels
• Only designed to benefit your marketing team but can be a huge advantage for your sales team and other staff

Now that we’ve clarified what it’s not let’s offer our definition of what it is. Marketing automation is a software solution that helps to automate and streamline your marketing activities. It also measures your tasks and enhances your workflow processes to increases efficiency & revenue.

Image courtesy of LeadExpress

The Different Types Of Workflows In Marketing

Marketing automation helps you improve the following workflows:

• Lead generation: It assists with generating qualified leads through platforms such as LinkedIn, AdWords and other industry sites. It doesn’t simply attract possible leads but nurtures them through marketing automation.

• Email marketing: This is one of the most well-known functions of marketing automation. It sometimes requires more than only tracking the Emails you’ve sent and who opened them. Insights also include how long a potential prospect has shown interest and how to prioritise contact in the future.
• Lead nurturing: It’s important to nurture and value relationships with potential clients. Marketing automation assists in sending personalised messages to potential clients by tapping into consumer behavior. Linking your marketing automation to your CRM also increases the possibility of converting a lead into a sale.
• Retention: Marketing automation helps retain existing clients. It helps you to connect to your clients through multiple channels such as social media, Emails, and phone calls. It can also provide valuable insights of the client journey.
• Landing pages: Landing pages are crucial to convert prospective leads into customers. If your landing page isn’t a post-click landing page you’re losing potential customers. Marketing automation helps you guide your leads towards relevant pages and platforms for further engagement.

Advantages Of Marketing Automation

There are numerous benefits to using marketing automation but these are the most noteworthy:

• It increases employee satisfaction as the marketing team embraces the technology that enhances marketing activities 
• The increased communication and messages sent across various channels improves the chances for sales to be realised
• It saves a lot of time as some tasks are automated and all you have to do is “set it & forget it”
• It works across all industries 
• It leads to better strategic thinking which helps you stay focused and reach your goals 

Disadvantages Of Marketing Automation

To make an informed decision when purchasing any product or service you have to weigh the pros and cons. Here are some drawbacks to consider:

• The messaging can become excessive so it’s important to tone it down as customers don’t generally appreciate an overload of messaging
• The navigation can be complicated with longwinded pathways when setting up
• The smaller the segment the more content and enhanced customer profiles it needs which can leave a company strained during product development

Check If You Need Marketing Automation

Let’s go through some key questions to see if you need marketing automation in your business:

• Are you able to recognise, track and connect with individual clients online?
• Are you able to discern from a catalog of clients who to prioritise as potential buyers?
• What are you filtering leads on if not engagement levels and interest?
• Are you able to quantify the profits contribution each of your marketing campaigns attained?

If the answer is no to most of the questions, then you’re in need of marketing automation in your business.

Final Thoughts

Now that you know how it works what is the next step on your journey to incorporate marketing automation into your business? Finding the right service provider. That’s as important as deciding what features should be included in your software.
Many reputable service providers can customise your marketing automation solution to suit your business. Integrating it with other systems such as CRM and sales software is also an important consideration. Book a consultation today to find the right marketing automation for your business.