How do you define Marketing Automation?

As a marketer, you likely have a basic knowledge of what automation in marketing is and what it can do for you. However, considering the number of people involved in marketing, only a few genuinely understand what it is. Well, this is no surprise because marketing automation can be a stumper and there has to be a better way of explaining the concept.

So first, let’s start digging what it means.

The bottom line of any customer’s brand relationship is marketing which heavily combines with sales. Just like a business on its first launching, fabricators and sellers run the show; builders do the construction and retailers make the connection with customers. So a sales method is the nucleus of any marketing, including Google maps marketing.

When a business starts growing, maintaining a one-on-one relationship with everybody is hard. Now is the time to employ a marketing personnel who can implement large-scale programs that are conversion-centric and performance driven.

Sooner or later, your company gets bigger and bigger, and you might find it difficult to manage the business anymore with the use of simple Excel spreadsheets, Outlook, and Word. Eventually, you will need to hire a specialist to perform the job and help you with your campaigns to cover social media and even local maps marketing.

That is where marketing automation comes in.

Defining Automation in Marketing

Automation in marketing is a very complex concept to explain in simple terms. Below are some clear definitions we can compare to gain a deeper understanding of the matter.

Automation in marketing is a software genre that automates, streamlines, and measures tasks and workflows so businesses can increase efficiency in operations and, in turn, increase revenues at a faster pace.

Another definition is automation in marketing uses software to computerize processes such as segmentation for customers, data integration for customers, and campaign management. That goes for all kinds of automated marketing including other digital and maps marketing. It makes it easier to finish tasks compared to when you’re doing it manually. Automation also helps marketers be more efficient by making new processes easy to handle. Marketing automation is the heart of a relationship management with customers.

So, enough for now with definitions. It looks like you already have a grasp of the meaning of automation in marketing.

Separation of Myths from Facts

Marketers usually use email marketing and automation marketing interchangeably since the latter is an element of the former. However, they really are different from each other. Automation marketing integrates different customer investments and detention channels to comply with the conversion funnel of a company.

Here is the meaning.

Each company’s cycle buying expands various touch points. For example, a customer accessed your business by searching for it. Then he decides to ‘like’ the Facebook page of your company, and he keeps visiting your site to read the articles you’re posting or any blog entries you shared. The blog that catches his attention will pave the way for him to send you an email and later subscribe to your site.

Here are some facts about Automation in Marketing.

Automation in marketing links to various touch points and market channels which include social media, content marketing, and email subscribing. The central goal of automation in marketing is nurturing prospects for a length of time, which means achievement of goals above and beyond direct selling. That’s how we assess who the best is in Google maps marketing, social media campaigns, and other digital strategies.

Automation in marketing makes it easy to dispatch personalized one-on-one messages. Meaning, marketing automation makes communication compelling. When you say automation, the focus is on the quality of the campaigns and messaging. Further, it provides your team with the know-hows of adding a more personal touch to the campaign. That happens through a collection of data on the goals and interests of your prospective clients and the provision of custom-tailored and relevant offers in the future.

As a result, automation in marketing will encourage your organization to perform the following:

1. Add a significant element to a person’s particular user profile. For example, you can dispatch targeted offers based on patterns on the website.

2. Identify clients and prospects through their behavioral interest and demographic information. That will be the basis for customer segmentation.

3. Develop appropriate marketing designs. Automation in marketing can assist your company to try different variations like assessing the number of times the email was sent, evaluating the topic headings, and checking thoughts for personalization.

4. Consolidate market channels to convey an all-embracing user experience. Just make sure all touch points are planned carefully for a flawless conversion optimization.

What Automation in Marketing Looks Like

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Let’s get into the specifics about the campaign in future discussions. What we want to emphasize sooner is about automation marketing as software. Our goal is to set up an email list. Some five people on the email list are easy to handle but not 10 or more.

Lots of businesses are dealing with ten thousand or more emails every day, sometimes ten million even. We’ll walk you through an example – a platform referred to as  Act-On.

Act-on is for small businesses with limited marketing resources and a lack of IT staff for a supposedly focused, dedicated database administration. The platform is also for those in need of a cloud-based solution and of a flexible, tiered pricing scheme with monthly agreements.

Different kinds of business have different designs of automation marketing platforms. Act-On is just one solution. It’s vital that your business explores automation marketing options like Act-on, HubSpot, Eloqua, GetResponce, MailChimp, and Marketo to know which one is best suited for you.

Usually, these companies offer free trials so take advantage of that before you make a purchase.

These companies are all excellent in their own right, but it doesn’t mean that everything they offer fits all approach. You need to select a solution with the right features to suit your needs and capabilities of analytics.

Other features to focus on are CRM amalgamation, Customer data import/export features, and the ability to execute own customizations.

The platform comes with email messaging, tracking website visitor, social media, reporting and analytics, CRM, and lead management. Business owners’ core value suggestion is to execute their market from one place to another to generate leads which are of high quality. And they would want the leads to transform into sales eventually.

Automation in Marketing is not just a Software

We emphasized the worth of tactics, channel marketing, and software. Remember, automation marketing is more than just software. Research studies were done to put this guide together. Software companies are the “think-tank” of automation in marketing. Automation in marketing begins with understanding two words: tactics and strategies.

Strategies are structures or creative marketing frameworks for which programs will commence with the big picture. Tactics are implementing particular market techniques, and these two makes a successful automation in marketing.

The Role of Inbound Marketing

The term ‘inbound marketing’ is the partner of automation in marketing. Inbound marketing is an acquisition practice of customers built on human-to-human connections. HubSpot, an automation and content marketing platform, is one of the groups that made the approach popular.

The concept has been existing since 2006 and has since become essential to the digital age. HubSpot calls it the most excellent method of marketing for online business.

Instead of giving weight to an outbound marketing system of buying ads, email lists buying, and in tapping audience to become leads, inbound marketing is putting into practice users’ attraction through high-quality content that will convince consumers to buy your product and patronize your company. By aligning your information and tools in marketing in consonance with your target customers’ interests, your brand is in a scenario to attract, satisfy, and communicate over time with clients.

The biggest forces behind inbound marketing are as follows:

1. Content generation. That is the creation of focused materials that can cater to the demands of a customer. Contents for this purpose should be entertaining, shareable, engaging, and exceptional.

2. Funnel Targeting Conversion. To respect and pay attention are what marketers should do because people pass through many stages in dealing with your company. Each step does require a variety of needs in marketing.

3. Personalization – You will later explore your leads upon establishing automation in marketing and inbound marketing strategy. This approach will make your company strong enough to re-invest useful data to refine strategies in marketing. Software for marketing automation will help you outline the process and establish a one-on-one communication with 100,000 or even millions of users.

4. Cross-Channel. Customer’s path is the integration of multi-channel marketing strategies which links all touch points. It’s but natural for users to engage first in different brands before they decide to make a sale. Analytics will be critical to this framework, so be sure you are well aware of the primary web analytics tool.

5. Integration. Analytics and Marketing software must be connected to guarantee that your brand is sending the correct marketing messages to the right viewers promptly.

Four significant Marketing Automation actions can be identified as follows:

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1. Attraction and Engagement. Acquiring traffic is only one segment of marketing calculation. Organizations need a qualified and focused traffic to achieve success in marketing. We need to appeal to our audiences who, in turn, should be satisfied in the long run and recommend us to other customers. Here are some marketing strategies that can help attract viewers to your site:

Blogging. Creation of contents that are educational which respond to the queries of an audience.

Social Media. Where customers engage with the profiles and human presence you create.

Keywords. Accessibility to your audiences in a prompt manner when they search for information.

Pages. Optimizing your website to attract and communicate with your target buyers. Establish a web page flow to respond to the queries of your audience. Automation in marketing simplifies different actions wherein you can reach customers using software to build rapport rather than doing it in person.

Conversion and Progression Through The Funnel

The moment traffic starts on your website it’s best to convert that into buyers. Start a collection of email addresses, then start reaching out to customers so that you can reconnect them to your content: Ebooks, tip sheets, and white papers. Here are some important elements of optimizing conversion:

Calls-to-Action (CTAs). These are sign-ups on emails, purchase buttons, and generation lead forms. CTAs are instrumental into how to push audiences to the conversion funnel and convert them into customers who do pay.

Landing Pages. These are special offers for customers to buy online.

Forms. Is collecting information about personal data of customers so that you can link them with particular offers.

Contacts. Never let your contacts loosen your grips. Maintain an email database to build a longer, beneficial relationship with them.

Closing

Now you need to close the deal using marketing messages that will encourage users to buy. These techniques should correlate with automation in marketing such as:

Lead Scoring. Use a calculated index of the frequency of converting the lead into a sale. HubSpot can do this for you.

Email. Lead can be converted using an automated email. Sequencing is where you automatically send a series of emails to customers for their information.

Automation in marketing. Automation in marketing can assist your company in converting the lead through the sales funnel.

Reporting. Track everything so that you will have complete data to summarize and monitor the trend.

Delight. Continue to build healthy relationships with your customers after the sale.

Is It Okay to Sell With Automation in Marketing

Absolutely Yes! That is the biggest question for business owners when they talk about Automation in Marketing.

Marketing automation isn’t always the be all and end all. There are some instances when you might want to sell, and sometimes you do not want to sell. In all these, a decision must always be taken into consideration when it comes to automation in marketing.

Takeaway

image04To recap, here is a summary of what we discussed:

The core of marketing is the human relationship. The problem lies in how to maintain the essential relationship on a wider scale. Marketing automation handles all these grunt work from campaigns by bridging the gap.

Automation in marketing is not just about software but about conversion funnel and psychology.

When executed well, automation in marketing can build a strong relationship with prospects. With the business model that you have, one lead is worth ten thousand dollars and up.

Automation in marketing is not merely an email messaging but a cross-functional marketing strategy that links various touch points and channels to include social media, content marketing, and email marketing. In other words, the heart of marketing automation is to foster a long lasting relationship with prospective customers and buyers, that is, goals over and beyond sales.

Remember, a great foundation in marketing content, brand-building and analytics are pull mechanisms that position the campaign for success.

This article was originally published at Startafire.com, by author Stephen Twomey.

Original article >>

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