Why Marketing Automation Matters - Today And In the Future

Imagine a world where marketing is... automated.

A world where you can just sit back and reap the rewards – plus an extra 14% (in some cases). Sounds like a utopian reality? Not quite. I’m talking about marketing automation – a solution that helps you do more, in less time and with better results. Curious? Keep reading!

In a rush? Here’s what we’ll be talking about in this blog post:

• Marketing automation streamlines complex processes, and automates and measures your marketing tasks...

• … And as an effect, it makes the most out of your time and your marketing budget.

• As it monitors your traffic, it gathers and nurtures leads and follows prospective clients as they move down the sales funnel.

• With the help of the collected data, you send out the right messages to the right people and at the right time...

• … And the results are visible in your financial statements!

The Everyday Challenge of A Multitasking Marketer

Both you and I know that marketers are masters of multitasking. On a daily basis, you need to plan and manage events, social media platforms, websites, create content, chase leads, set up strategic plans, nurture clients and customers and attend numerous meetings – the list goes on…

Here’s where marketing automation comes in. How does the notion of a complete management of leads and campaigns sound to you?

Ironing Out the Basics: What Is Marketing Automation?

Within the field of marketing, marketing automation is truly a buzzword. And with all due right! As a matter of fact, within the last six years, the adoption of marketing automation has increased by an impressive 1100%. 

But what is marketing automation? It’s essentially a software tool that streamlines complex processes, and automates and measures your marketing tasks. And as the software churns, it frees up time so you can maximise your marketing budget in other important areas.

Marketing automation isn’t about sending out irrelevant and impersonal messages to the mass market. Rather, the end-goal is to effectivize and free up marketers’ time, while still holding on to the authenticity and quality of your produced content. It generates leads, makes sense of the buyer’s journey, and converts leads into clients!

What Purposes Does It Serve?

It’s impossible for you to chase every single lead, and to nurture every single relationship. If you’re dealing with workflows like email marketing, cross-channel marketing, landing page creation and ROI-measurement: an automation software tool will cut corners where possible and needed.

When you automate, you make the most of your time and your budget. This means that the pesky and time-consuming ordeal of manual lead generation is taken care of. As a result, you can refocus your time towards other important business tasks - such as customer engagement and services.

The ultimate end-goal of your marketing efforts can be boiled down into one single purpose: to increase revenues. In order to succeed, you need to drive traffic to your website, convert the traffic into leads and turn the leads into customers. It’s in this very process that marketing automation excels!

Gather Data, Target, Monitor and Hand Over

Marketing automation lets you reach out to the right person, with the right message, at the right time. This sounds like a marketer’s dream, but it’s actually how it works! With the help of marketing automation, you stop shooting in the dark, and you start hitting bullseyes.

Instead of trying to reach everyone with the same generalised message, marketing automation tracks the online history of each person. This way you can understand your potential customers’ interests and behaviours towards your company.

The result? Personalised yet automated messages that are relevant to (and aligned with) what your customers are looking for. And when you have easy access to valuable customer data, you can monitor lead activity and connect with your potential customers when they express an actual interest.

It’s the difference between shoving a product into a customer’s hands, and to simply hand it over into the palms of their outreached hands.

An Illustrative Example of the Marketing Automation Process

Personalisation is at the very core of marketing automation. There’s quite a difference between sending out automated emails and automated personalised emails. Imagine the following:

1. You send out an email invitation to a targeted list of contacts and encourage them to download your latest whitepaper.

2. You send an email to thank them for the download and expressed interest.

3. A few days later, you send an email to the recipients who chose to download your whitepaper, and you offer them a new deal.

4. If they accept the second offer, there’s a tremendous likelihood that they’re invested in your products or services. Time to queue the sales team!

This is just one instance of marketing automation. You’re not simply sending out emails haphazardly to people who aren’t interested in your products or services. Rather, you’re sending additional information to those who’ve already expressed interest. Thus, it feels personalised. Traffic becomes leads - leads become clients.

The process of marketing automation gives you greater visibility, creates a larger lead insight and an understanding of how your potential clients are moving down the sales funnel. And along the way, you can monitor and measure how the system you have in place is performing. If the results show that the conversion rate is low – tweak the system and reap the revenues!

5 Steps To Get Your Marketing Automation Running Towards Success

Getting started with the process of market automation might easily sound daunting. However, I’ll guide you through the very principles in order to relieve your concerns.

Here’s what you need to do:

1. Define your requirements and goals upfront. Before you take the step to implement the software, it’s critical that you define what outcomes you’re expecting.

2. Choose an automation software. (Like the new APSIS Marketing Automation tool!) Consider its features, ease of use, integration possibilities, support, pricing...

3. Consider what it’s going to entail. Do you have the right budget and enough internal resources to make marketing automation flourish?

4. Put a plan in place. When you’ve defined your goals, chosen your supplier, and mapped out your resources, it’s time to develop a documented plan for rolling out the system.

5. Finally, remember: crawl, walk and run! As tempting as it may seem, you need to tread lightly when starting out. Establish the very basics before you attempt to address the complexities and you’ll be well on your way!

Would you like to discover how APSIS can help you in your quest towards marketing automation? Explore our solution, and let’s talk!