In this episode of Actionable Marketing In Minutes we talk about marketing automation, what it is, and how you can use it to push your marketing campaign to new heights!
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Problem:
Marketing is crucial to your company’s success. You’ve got a product or a service and you need to get the word out. But, as your business grows it becomes impossible to maintain, let alone build, those one-to-one customer relationships.
You might have heard the term marketing automation as one possible solution to your challenge of building performance-driven, conversion-centric programs, but you might also have heard the myths that oftentimes accompany the term. And, because of that, you may have been hesitant to learn more.
Today, we’re going to take a look at exactly what marketing automation is and what it is not by exploring and dispelling a few of the myths.
Solution:
Marketing automation is an integral component of customer relationship management (CRM) that makes processes usually performed manually much more efficient. It does this by focusing on defining, scheduling, segmenting and tracking your marketing campaigns with special software.
It helps you to nurture your prospects with highly-personalized content that converts. Ideally, it should generate new revenue for your company as well as a tremendous return on investment.
Marketing automation is used to not only guide potential customers through your website, social channels and email to generate new leads but should also convert existing prospects.
So, what are some of the myths that have been bandied about?
1. Because marketing automation uses software, a good number of business owners and managers think you simply set it and forget it. Nothing could be further from the truth. It is a supplement to your overall strategy.
What if you met someone at a party who offered a moment of good conversation and who gave you interesting thoughts to ponder? But, the minute you showed interest, your new friend just walked away? That’s exactly how your potential customer would feel if you emailed him or her something really thought-provoking but did not bother to engage when they responsd.
2. Another myth is that marketing automation is only used for email marketing.
Again, so not true.
Yes, email is one of the stronger applications for marketing automation. But, it is also used for social, landing pages, lead generation, management, analytics and much, much more.
3. And, as an aside, email marketing automation is not spam – if used correctly. We all know what spam is. We’ve all been on the receiving end. But, not all unexpected emails are spam. If you plan and send relevant emails with useful content, and then respond quickly to continue engagement, you are not spamming anyone.
As a matter of fact, companies that use marketing automation in a prospect-nurturing capacity experience a 451% increase in qualified leads.
Of course, prospect nurturing means you need to deliver relevant content based on who the prospects are, what their likes and interests are, and how they found you in the first place. So, you still need to do your homework.
Benefits:
Once you learn to leverage automation usefully and to respond to your prospects productively, you will see the myths you’ve heard were probably from marketers who did not use it properly. Dare I say it… they are probably lazy marketers looking for something that will do their job for them. There is no such thing.
But, if you research and buy the software that offers solutions to your unique marketing challenges and use it in tandem with your marketing strategies, it will cut your work in half and streamline mundane processes so that you can meet your goals of increasing your business success with quality leads and conversions.
We hope you’ve found this information helpful. Please connect with us on Twitter @DirectiveGroup or on LinkedIn. Let us know what you think and what you’d like to hear about next. And if you like our podcasts please share with your networks using hashtag #actionablemarketing.
Join us for an upcoming episode as we discuss The Dangers of Tactical Thinking in Marketing.
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