As technology becomes more advanced, more and more businesses are leaning towards automation. Whether this transition refers to the start of using AI or robotics in various industries, there is no denying that automation is the future of different brands across the world.

Nowadays, several people are beginning to start their own companies, making the business scene much more competitive. Because of this, it has become harder for everyone to catch the attention of their target audience.

To cope with the changes, most businesses have decided to go digital. They built websites containing information about their brand and the products and services they offer, and some set up social media accounts. Doing this allowed them to attract and engage with their target audience much easier.

Companies also made sure to use various techniques in digital marketing for eCommerce sites. By doing so, they were able to bring their brand and products into their customers’ buyer journey.

As time went on, businesses have become more adept at using digital marketing techniques in servicing their customers. To get ahead of their competitors, they decided to find ways to improve their customer relations and make their processes more efficient and productive. Companies achieved this through marketing automation.

What is Marketing Automation?

Marketing automation—also called automated marketing—refers to the practice of using different types of software to address repetitive marketing tasks. Using automation in marketing allows businesses to become more efficient and provide their customers with a more personalized experience.

Businesses use a variety of software to automate marketing tasks in their organizations. Some of the most commonly used tools in digital marketing are the following:

This software is typically utilized by companies that offer products and services to several customers. They use the customer relationship management (CRM) tool to handle and keep track of individuals’ information, such as the following:

• Names
• Job titles
• Company names
• Email addresses
• Purchase history

Knowing all these about every customer will allow you to learn more about their characteristics and needs. Additionally, these details will help you provide your customers with a more personalized experience whenever they interact with your brand.

Email Marketing

Email marketing is one of the widely used digital marketing strategies because of its improved ability to communicate and engage with your target market. This process involves sending customers emails containing discounts, invitations, or content when they complete a certain action or whenever you have something new to offer.

Sending emails to your customers manually means tediously keeping track of how each one interacts with your website, the actions they take, and their interests. This is not a sustainable practice, especially if you intend to launch an email marketing campaign.

Luckily, you can use email marketing software—such as Mailify. This tool will allow you to automatically send personalized emails to your customers and launch successful email marketing campaigns.

Marketing and Sales Workflow Automation

Consolidating the efforts of your marketing and sales team is now easier with the help of this type of automation software. Marketing and sales workflow automation tools will allow you to accomplish your marketing tasks easily, including the following:

• Managing content
• Creating landing pages
• Setting up marketing campaigns

This type of software can also help you in mapping out the customer journey and monitoring and analyzing the performance of your marketing efforts. It can be regarded as an all-in-one marketing automation tool because of all the functionalities that it offers. However, marketing and sales workflow automation tools can be expensive, so you need to ensure that it suits your business before acquiring one.

Social Media Marketing

Most businesses use social media platforms to reach and engage with their customers. They also use these sites to provide their target audience with updates regarding their blogs, products, and services.

To make the practice more efficient, you can use a social media marketing automation tool to create your posts in advance and schedule them for posting. Doing so will allow you to line up various posts that will only be published on the date and time that you set. You can also use this software for network management and performance monitoring.

Marketing Analytics

One of the most important steps in digital marketing that most marketers neglect is monitoring your performance. It is important that you observe how your marketing efforts are doing to see whether you are meeting your KPIs. Doing this will also help you in determining which strategies worked and which ones did not.

To make the monitoring process easier, you can use a marketing analytics tool, such as Google Analytics, SEMRush, and Ahrefs. This kind of software allows you to view data that will help you evaluate your marketing efforts better. You can also use this tool to combine data gathered from several channels for a much efficient comparative process.

Benefits of Marketing Automation

Automating your marketing efforts will help you attain your business goals much easier. Some of the most prominent advantages enjoyed by businesses that switched to marketing automation are:

Improved Efficiency and Productivity

Using marketing automation software in your company can help you save time in launching marketing campaigns. This type of tool can also free up your staff from repetitive tasks. Doing so will provide them with more time to focus on other, more important duties.

Additionally, since marketing automation banks on minimizing human intervention on various tasks, using automation tools will help you become more productive. Your automated marketing software can keep running and completing marketing tasks even outside your office hours.

Generate and Acquire Better Qualified Leads

Marketing automation tools are mainly used in communicating and engaging with customers. However, there is also software that you can use to generate and identify qualified leads that can help your business grow.

You only need to use various criteria and a scoring system to teach your software whether a lead is sales-qualified or not. Then, you can leave your marketing automation tool to find qualified leads based on the conditions you set.

Better Lead Conversion

Marketing automation tools can help you increase your lead conversion rates. This is possible because using this type of software allows you to provide personalized experiences to your customers.

This means that whenever you acquire a new, sales-qualified lead, you can nurture them until they are ready to pay for the products or services that you provide. You can accomplish this easily because automated marketing tools can help you learn more about the characteristics of individuals and their specific needs.

Increased ROI

Sending automated messages to your leads depending on their needs and preferences provides you with more chances of turning them into your customers. You can use your marketing automation software to provide them with updates regarding your promos, discounts, or new products and services. Doing so will help entice them to support your business and pay for the products and services that you offer.

Following up after a user made a purchase can also contribute to a higher rate of repurchases and increased average revenue in every transaction. Sending them a thank-you email after they have completed a transaction will help in keeping your brand in their mind. This can make your brand one of the primary choices whenever they need a product or service that you offer.

Customer Loyalty

Marketing automation software allows you to provide your target audience with a more personalized experience whenever they visit your website. This kind of tool helps you in offering your customers branded content that suits their unique style.

Through personalization, you can improve your customer relationships and provide individuals with a positive experience every time they transact with your brand. Over time, users will have a positive opinion about your brand, and your business will become one of their main choices.

Omnichannel Monitoring

Nowadays, online customers go through a variety of channels before they complete a transaction. To make sure that each user interaction leads to a purchase, you need to keep your branding consistent across all channels.

You can do this by monitoring various channels and seeing if your brand message is constantly delivered among them. To make the process easier, you can use marketing automation software that will allow you to monitor user behavior across different channels. You can also use this tool to create customized experiences for every user based on their needs and traits.

The Right Time to Invest in Marketing Automation

Marketing automation is a great way of improving your business’s marketing efforts. However, before investing in this technology, you should make sure that your organization is ready for it.

To help you decide if marketing automation is the right move for your business, ask yourself the following questions:

• Do you have a steady flow of qualified leads?
• Have you created a content strategy that corresponds with your buyer’s journey?
• Do you constantly track your leads’ behavior across different channels?
• Do you have a tested lead nurturing technique that you can use on a larger scale?

If you answer yes to a majority of the questions listed above, you can consider investing in marketing automation for your business. You just have to keep in mind that although this type of software will not do the marketing for your organization, it can still help you improve your efforts.

Now that you have learned about the basics of marketing automation and the advantages it can provide for your company, you have the freedom to explore this technology and enjoy the benefits it offers. With automated marketing, almost nothing can stop you from improving your business’s profitability and efficiency.

Author Bio: Marc Bartolome is a strategist and enabler of hundreds of successful digital marketing campaigns. Always looking out for the little guys, he specialises in helping SMEs create a bigger impact online – which is why he writes blog posts like this.