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Financial success has been said to be addictive, and this is even more apparent in the field of marketing automation where it is possible to obtain tremendous financial rewards nearly instantly. It helps businesses capitalise on any potential clientele by streamlining the process of nurturing leads to sales-readiness. Automating actions that bring prospects to where they can then be directly approached by your sales team to close a sale, this process happens much faster than if you were to go about it manually.
Marketing automation is a term that gets thrown around more and more these days, but what does it mean? It's all about making sure that you're working smart and not hard. You must be putting the data generated from marketing initiatives to the best use possible. It's no easy feat, but with proper implementation, it can lead to a huge increase in revenue and brand loyalty.
So let's dive in without further ado:
What exactly is marketing automation?
Marketing automation is a process geared towards helping marketers streamline their repetitive tasks. For example, marketing automation can be utilised to send out audience specific email communications and social media updates.
Using this technology also helps provide a more personalised experience for consumers who might otherwise be bombarded by advertisements. As the tech becomes more advanced in the future, we hope that marketing automation will enable us to forge a stronger connection not only with current customers but also attract brand new leads and potential new business partners that may have been interested in our company's product or service from day one!
How can marketing automation help your business?
It's not just the big businesses that face a struggle with producing leads and keeping customers connected. It is an issue that every single business needs to contend with! There are several ways to deal with this. One of the most effective ways is to use a technology that is positioned to take advantage of such trends. By using the right technology, you are not just cutting costs while increasing productivity, but also streamlining the way you work with your customers and giving them a better experience!
Marketing automation software is becoming increasingly popular with businesses. In fact, it's expected that 93% of large businesses will use marketing automation by 2022. Why is this? After all, most businesses are working with limited budgets and a relatively small number of marketing and sales staff. To overcome these challenges, businesses can use marketing automation software to manage their workflows and make sure that data is put to work.
Benefits of Marketing automation
Nearly all businesses regard marketing automation a tool for nurturing leads through email marketing strategies. On the surface, it seems like a middle-of-the-funnel solution. But done well, it's so much more than that!
However, automated marketing strategies should be integrated into customer lifecycle management. When it’s applied correctly and thoughtfully integrated, marketing automation serves as fertile soil for healthy long-term relationships with your customers. When done well, marketing automation delivers three main benefits to your business:
1 Personalised workflows
The new marketing landscape is constantly changing. Marketing automation software allows businesses to keep up with the shift in what works for their audience, by giving them valuable data about prospects’ needs at every point of reaching out to them.
Your prospects' actions are like data points that help to determine your marketing strategy, but without a well-designed system for tracking them manually, it can be next to impossible.
Fortunately, with marketing automation software at hand, companies can collect these inputs from multiple channels and deliver the “right content at the right time” based on what is learned about their customers at the moment. These workflows generate warmer leads that businesses can then nurture into loyal customers through ongoing engagement. Best of all, by placing the customer at the centre of everything they do, businesses can keep on bringing them back to engage in meaningful relationships that last a lifetime and keep bringing new customers into their circle!
2 Streamlined processes
Your customers will always be at the center of your business focus, and there are many ways that you can ensure their satisfaction. Building seamless processes across different teams can help decrease customer effort at each stage of the journey by ensuring a consistent experience right from first contact, right up until they become a customer!
With effective marketing automation, there is no need for complex and exhaustive hand-off processes anywhere from any given point in the business' workflow. A complete customer experience will be easily handleable as internal workflows allow you to prioritise.
You'll be able to measure your ROI so that you can ensure you have a more unified customer experience from the very first touch stage until purchase completion - which means you'll eventually be making more money!
3 Integrated data and analytics
The best way to nurture your marketing efforts is through a marketing automation workflow. Marketing automation uses technology and processes to automate certain tasks. Marketing automation workflows can be used to help businesses nurture leads into loyal customers. Some of the ways that a marketing automation workflow can nurture leads include providing content based on previous interactions, recognising repeat customers and sending them more personalised content and reminders, and continuing to follow up with customers who were not converted into customers. Workflows can also be used to help businesses understand the needs of their customers better by providing a customer feedback survey that can be used to improve the business's customer service, loyalty, and product offerings.
How to make marketing automation work for you?
Marketing automation at its best can be a blend of software, strategy, and customer centred focus. Marketing automation helps companies nurture their connections with prospects through personalised, useful content that moves those prospects closer to becoming delighted customers who then become loyal advocates.
Businesses can use Marketing Automation to integrate into the day-to-day procedures of their business. Start by identifying the different touchpoints that customers or potential customers have with your company, such as by reaching out online via email or social media, then developing a process that will follow up with them and cater to them at these time frames. This allows you to make sure they are receiving an efficient resolution depending on their level of interest in a specific product as well as ensuring they feel heard, leading into a continuous cycle of engagement that helps your company grow faster.
A CRM software that integrates with your marketing automation software, is an ideal way to gather customer contact information so that everything the customer does is recorded as an additional piece of data.
To determine what steps your customers should take next, whether they need informative content, a sales person, or someone to check in with customer service, you will need to use these data points. A big advantage of Marketing Automation is that it provides you with the opportunity to work with hundreds of customers at the same time on a personal basis.
Lastly,
No matter the industry, marketing automation is the key to building strong customer relationships. Businesses that do this well understand what each customer needs and then they use automation to make sure they get it.
Marketing automation is a system that allows you to funnel prospects based on certain criteria. You can then use this system to segment your prospects, create targeted lists and take action to improve the customer experience. Marketing automation is about understanding your customers so you can develop the processes needed for customer success. With the right automation in place, efficiency and effectiveness are maximised and your sales will be hitting all-time-highs!
