September 12, 2018
It’s no secret that the digital age is upon us and with so many people to reach, in so many places, it’s almost impossible without a little help from some artificial intelligence. That’s where marketing automation comes in. It can make your life easier in so many ways.
The US Marketing Automation Software industry is a $3.3B market in 2017, growing 30%+ annually. There’s a reason for that. It is reshaping how we do business in every way. If you’re a brand that is interested in AI but not sure how to approach it, here are 8 ways in which marketing automation can benefit your brand:
Marketing automation allows a business to streamline processes, boost efficiency, and draw key insights that all add to your bottom line. In fact, 78% of marketers say automation increases revenue and 75% of brands using automation see ROI in under 12 months. There are a variety of reasons for that.
With marketing automation, a business can keep smaller teams. Campaigns can feed through the system without the need for guidance. If you cannot afford a social media manager, perhaps a cheaper automation program would be the solution. You won’t be the only one. Spending on marketing automation tools is set to reach $25.1 billion by the year 2023.
In digital marketing, saving time empowers a brand to do more, with less. It drives a greater return for your marketing calories. There are so many tasks that can be tedious and time-consuming which a computer can easily perform. And with marketing automation, it goes a tad further. That’s because these computers are smart enough to trigger campaigns that make customers feel special. There’s no need to remember where each customer is in the pipeline if you set your automation correctly.
When the menial tasks are taken care of by robots, it allows marketers to focus more time on responsibilities that make better economic sense. This includes customer engagement, deeper analysis, and big-picture initiatives. From segmenting your consumer base to posting on social media, marketing automation frees up your time like no other type of software on the market.
Sales departments around the globe love marketing automation. That’s because not only does it save them time, it helps them to develop a strategy. They can better know their customers without having to remember everyone’s life story.
According to the Harvard Business Review, 23% of companies never follow up with leads. Marketing automation can follow up for sales and notify them when a call needs to be made. Email drip campaigns and automatic triggers can be set to alert sales teams in real-time when a follow up is essential. That way no one wastes time trying to reach customers that may not need or be ready for a follow-up.
One of the most powerful uses for marketing automation involves lead nurturing. This is the process of identifying where customers are in the buyer funnel and doing what is needed to help them through their journey (with the end goal being a purchase).
Sales love nurtured leads because studies show that nurtured leads make 47% larger purchases than non-nurtured leads. This also takes away the need for any type of cold calling. Simply put, marketing automation makes lead nurturing a vast number of customers a real possibility. And when sales know exactly where customers are in the funnel, it’s easier to sell to them.
Marketing automation allows a brand to better deliver the right type of content to the right people. Why waste your message on an audience it doesn’t apply to? Lack of content relevancy has been shown to generate an 83% lower response rate in the average marketing campaign. It is that important.
It is also critical to establish relevancy so you don’t waste costs on labor. Incredible content is great but if you are shouting it into an echo chamber, it does nothing for your brand. Marketing automation creates relevancy by giving you greater insight into who will respond to your message.
The more you customize your content, the more relevant it will be. Marketing automation helps a business to better know their customers, so they can create more personalized content. 79% of consumers say they are more likely to engage with an offer if it has been personalized. This means it should also reflect previous interactions they have had with the brand (if applicable).
Critical junctures in a buyer’s journey are best addressed with personalized content. Marketing automation can watch things like a consumer’s actions and engagement level to ascertain their interests. The program can then tailor messaging accordingly. This is a far more powerful form of marketing than simply blasting one message to all different kinds of people.
Marketing automation can also demonstrate which channels you should focus your personalized content in. Increasing personalization in more channels has been shown to grow consumer spending by up to 500%. There’s no need to manually comb through a database with AI software. It does all the heavy lifting for you.
As Bill Gates says:
“The first rule about any technology used in business is that automation applied to an efficient operation will magnify the efficiency. The second is that an automation applied to an inefficient operation will magnify the inefficiency.”
What that means is that bad marketing will scale, but so will good marketing. Using marketing automation is like putting your campaign on auto-drive. It will continue to repeat actions until you change things. That is why creating an incredible customer journey means you can scale in a positive manner over and over again.
The best marketers know their campaigns so well, they can create triggers and hurdles within the buyer journey that can scale efforts up or down accordingly. This method enables a lead to be guided and nurtured every step of the way, without much effort from live human beings.
Marketing automation can digitally synch with customer relationship management systems (CRM) that allows users to create a closed-loop reporting process. This means the data captured by both platforms is automatically aggregated and shared for a 360-degree customer view.
This type of reporting enables greater operational efficiency and funnel visibility. It also leads the way for sophisticated data tracking that can help a business make more informed and data-driven decisions.
In modern business, it is critical that sales and marketing teams are aligned. Simply put, collaboration is vital to business success and long-term growth. Marketing automation helps bridge the gap between the two teams. It promotes a universal buy-in of shared business initiatives and creates a more holistic environment.
Closed-loop reporting creates a level of transparency that establishes accountability for everyone. It promotes cross-departmental alignment and communication. When everyone has access to the same shared data, there are fewer questions and more productivity.
Marketing automation also helps clearly define the buyer journey for sales and marketing teams. This enables them to better segment customers. From influencers to repeat purchasers, AI delineates the roles of sales and marketing departments.
Since marketing automation also tracks the behavior of consumers, putting them into “boxes” is a lot easier and allows for more personalized content.
People can change their minds so it’s important to constantly test your content to determine what comes out on top. Then you can promote accordingly. Marketing automation makes A/B testing a breeze. Why not send out two slightly different email campaigns and then test the open rate to see which your audience prefers? AI allows for this to happen easily.
Closed-loop reporting also allows for the data you collect to be directly funneled into your marketing automation to inform recommendations and nurture marketing strategies. So, from the start of A/B testing to the system making decisions for you, automation takes care of everything.
Marketing automation produces a wealth of insight that leads to greater success and an increase in ROI. However, it’s important to remember that the system needs to be nurtured itself before performing to its greatest efficiency. Triggers and campaigns should be set up, A/B testing performed, and the results studied in order for automation to work best.
At the end of the day, a business will always be managed by humans. Marketing automation simply streamlines the process.
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