Marketing automation is one of the many buzzwords in the marketing industry. Many companies have adopted some form of it as their go-to solution for their digital marketing efforts. However, it isn’t a quick fix or low-cost solution, so you may be wondering, does it live up to the hype? Is it something your business needs to implement? In a word, yes! But let’s explore what marketing automation is and how you can use it to grow your business.
Marketing Automation Platform Selection
You may have seen some of the marketing automation tools available, or even tried one or two. But how do you decide which tool is right for your business?
The first step when deciding whether to invest in digital marketing automation technology is determining if it’s a good fit for your business. It’s important to consider the following factors:
- Your ability to market effectively
- Your goals and objectives
- Your budget and resources (time, people, etc.)
Our team has worked with a variety of platforms including Adobe Marketo Engage, Salesforce Pardot, Oracle Eloqua, Hubspot, and more. If you’re feeling unsure about your platform choice, schedule a marketing technology assessment to receive feedback on your existing instance or to help you select the best platform for your organization’s needs.
5 Benefits of Marketing Automation
1. Scale your Marketing Activities
If you want to drive more people to your website, automate everything from the social media posts you share to the email campaigns that reach out to leads and customers.
2. Scale your Sales Activities
No matter what product or service you’re offering, there are always new opportunities for revenue growth as long as it’s relevant and timely enough for customers’ needs at any given moment in time.
3. Scale your Customer Support Activities
As much as we’d like everyone in the world to be happy with our products or services at all times, some may still have questions about how best use them or problems using them (or both). By automating responses via messaging platforms like Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp or by setting up live chat sessions on websites, companies have a better chance of providing quick answers—and hopefully positive interactions—to any queries they receive from customers who might otherwise go unresolved without this type of automated response system in place!
It’s hard to reach scalable, repeatable success if you don’t know how to get there. Check out our Marketo Assessment Guide for step-by-step instructions to help you better understand your organization and align your people, processes, and marketing automation platforms—no matter what platform you choose.
4. Create Measurable Goals with Better Insights
Marketing automation allows you to set goals and track progress, giving you a better understanding of where you are making progress and where your efforts are falling short. It helps you adjust your strategy to meet those goals, and it measures the impact of your marketing efforts.
5. Nurture Your Existing Contacts
Nurturing is the process of communicating with customers and prospects to help them take a desired action. It’s one of the key components of any marketing strategy. It allows you to build relationships with your customers, and builds trust between you and them. Nurturing can also help you turn one-time shoppers into loyal fans who will recommend your business to friends or family.
Learn more: Nurture Your Target Audience with Intelligent Marketo Engagement Programs
Create Company Value Immediately
How will it help me?
This is a big question and one that can be very difficult to answer. If you’re like most marketers, you are juggling several technologies, managing budget restraints and possibly a team. You want to know whether or not marketing automation is worth the cost—and not just of the platform, but the time and knowledge resources to implement and manage it.
At the end of the day, though, the question becomes can I afford not to automate my marketing?
Marketing Automation is a tool that enables business growth and ensures that you are properly nurturing leads through all stages of the funnel.
It allows you to create targeted campaigns based on the message your target audience has received, as well as better understand how they interact with it.
Marketing automation is an effective way to drive sales and build brand loyalty, but it can also help save time by automating repetitive tasks such as lead generation, email marketing or social media management.
Can you afford not to use marketing automation?
If you are looking to grow your business and stay competitive in today’s marketplace, then marketing automation is an essential tool that enables business growth and ensures that you are properly nurturing leads through all stages of the funnel. While you may experience some initial sticker shock, marketing automation actually worth every penny when considering how much time and money will be saved by having more efficient processes in place. Don’t let this technology pass you by!
