How Marketing Automation Is Changing Business

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Have you experienced this?

You visited an e-commerce site, added, say, a fridge to your shopping cart, entered your details to check out but failed to complete the transaction? Then you received an email 30 minutes later, encouraging you to complete the order? You know, just in case you got distracted by a text message or your favorite TV show.

Such is the power of marketing automation - At least in part.

So effective is the process that the marketing automation industry is exploding. In the past five years, there have been over $5.5B in acquisitions of automation providers, with the largest occurring in 2018 when Adobe acquired Marketo for $4.75 billion. 

A report from ResearchAndMarkets.com estimates the market will reach $8.42B by 2027, growing at a CAGR of 9.8%.  

So, the stats are impressive. The industry is booming. How will marketing automation change your business? 

This post answers that. 

What Is Marketing Automation?

According to Lechner-Becker, chief marketing officer at LeadMD, 

“Marketing automation tools are tools that make marketers more efficient. Their purpose is to streamline and scale lead management and other marketing activities to generate more revenue.”

Simply put, it’s the process of taking advantage of software solutions to automate recurrent marketing tasks. 

The process helps:

  • Nurture leads (by integrating the automation software with customer data platforms and customer relationship management software)

  • Personalize and automate marketing messages

  • Increase efficiency, sales, and revenue faster

  • Plus, much more.

An example: Sending an automated email to your list based on predetermined triggers set way ahead of time (by you) inside the automation platform. The email could be a welcome series targeting new subscribers or a reminder to website visitors who have abandoned their shopping cart.

Another use case involves:

  • Tracking how a visitor lands on your site (denoting the referral source)

  • Monitoring where they convert (it could be by engaging with your chatbot or filling out a form)

  • Orchestrating when, how, and what marketing and sales messages engage prospects throughout the sales cycle

  • And finally, reporting through multiple lenses the marketing and sales campaigns with the most impact on revenue (or the referral source driving the most traffic.)

How Automation Is Changing the Way Marketing Is Done 

Marketing automation software solutions are becoming more powerful, with added functionality like adtech-geared tools and real-time personalization. That combined with the surging pool of experts generously sharing best practices and other insights, the scope of what automation can achieve is expanding by the day. 

Marketing automation can:  

Simplify Your Social Media Marketing Efforts 

Social media presence is an essential part of your digital marketing strategy. By creating an interactive platform to find individuals interested in specific niches, social media provides you with substantial exposure to generate and even convert new leads. For more tips on this, explore Loudmouse, as an example

Now, many social media conversations may demand your presence but automation does step in to simplify the process. By automating tasks such as:

  • Posting new content

  • Thanking new followers

  • Sharing posts

You can leverage peak times, gain maximum exposure, all without spending any unnecessary time on social media marketing.

Automate Live Chats

The live chat feature helps answer real questions from web visitors in real-time. 

The downside is, it often requires a standby support team; in case visitors need further assistance. That calls for more hands-on-deck support, which translates to increased expenditure of time and resources.

Marketing automation steps in to rectify that.

With it, you only need to install an application on your site that interacts with visitors just like you would. This means you’ll only need to engage them when they need further assistance. In return, you’ll have more time to focus on your core business activities.

Help Track Marketing Performance (Even Better) 

Traditionally, you'd start a marketing campaign and, somewhere along the way, lose track of what’s working and any improvement opportunities.

With marketing automation, you can leverage relevant analytic tools to track and monitor your ad performance. This makes it easy to spot what’s working and make the necessary changes to generate more leads and grow your business.

Help Leverage Data-Driven Insights to Stay Relevant

Marketing automation can help track trends in your market, as well as changes in your clientele base. That, in turn, provides you with a better outlook on your target customers – informing your lead generation strategies. 

More precisely, marketing automation helps eliminate guesswork. Like a good bottle of wine, it becomes better with time.

So instead of relying on hunches to determine what content to send to specific leads, how to score leads from certain marketing channels, or even the length of time to wait before sending those follow-up emails, use marketing automation to obtain definitive answers and eliminate guesswork.

Reduce the Time Spent on Marketing Activities  

Traditional marketing would leave you buried beneath time-consuming tasks that had to be repeated for as long as the campaign was live. Think of ensuring the ad is compliant with marketing regulations, answering questions to ensure clients get maximum value from the offer, and so forth. 

For a B2B company selling digital products, that meant even more headache especially when helping clients set up and maximize the use of their newly bought software. 

Marketing automation takes on those repetitive tasks, freeing up time to focus on core business activities. You only need to set up the marketing campaign and leave the rest to the automation software. 

The list is endless.

As Marketing Automation Becomes ‘Smarter,” Tailored, and More Accessible 

It translates to increased effectiveness and more businesses adopting the solution to reap the benefits.