I remember it like it was yesterday.
There I was standing in line at the supermarket confused and panicked. With an apple in one hand, sour cream and onion potato chips in the other, and not a cashier in sight.
Trying my best not to look perplexed, I slowly observed the store around me only to hear the familiar beeping sounds of goods purchased, but there was not a single employee in a mile radius to ring up the total.
It was just customers and kiosks—and me.
As ludicrous as it sounds, this was a groundbreaking moment in my life. The future of technology was evolving right before my very eyes. The influence of automation had arrived, and little did I know, things were only just beginning.
What is Marketing Automation?
Movie tickets? Sure. Heat sensing air conditioning? Of course. But marketing? Marketing? What in the world does automation have to do with marketing? A ton…
It is difficult to sum up marketing automation in a few words as the term continues to broaden in both functionality and practice. However, marketing automation, when used at its best, allows companies to distribute digital marketing content automatically as a means to reduce overhead, increase productivity, workplace efficiency and acquire new revenue faster.
Now that you have the big picture, we’re going to delve into the specific benefits of marketing automation, and exactly how this subset of customer relationship management instigates a plethora of business opportunities.
1.) Connects Customer Interest with Corresponding Content
At the end of the day, the bread and butter of marketing automation is generating leads. Sure, traditional advertising methods like cold calls and billboards can be effective, however, it simply cannot compete against the overwhelming prospects that are created via marketing automation. When a prospect shows an interest in an eBook, case study, video, blog article, etc., they can be seamlessly aligned with corresponding content.
For example, a customer downloads a white paper concerning the future technologies of home security. Once received, the customer is automatically given an email that discusses the latest and greatest home technologies that your business installs.
Connecting customers with relevant content continues to drive an incredible surplus of new opportunities, as you now know have what topic a customer shows interest in and how to entice that interest. Marketing automation gives you the rare ability to nurture leads without having to manually track and engage with your contacts, giving you the ability to focus on what’s important: your business.
2.) Reduces the Risk of Human Error
We are humans, and humans, like to make mistakes.
In the business world, where competition is extraordinary high and market uncertainty is even higher, one mistake can cost you. From misspelled landing pages to sending the right email to the wrong person—a highly probable opportunity can disintegrate right before your eyes.
With that said, one of the more undervalued advantages of marketing automation is that it assures you that simple mistakes such as this are much less likely to occur. And having the confidence to know that your marketing content is free of error and correlated correctly is a beautiful, underappreciated thing.
3.) Its Functionality is Simple
Marketing automation, on the surface, can sound intimidating and confusing to apply, however, that stigma simply doesn’t stand true. Whether you’re a tech specialist or not, you don’t need extensive training to ensure marketing automation is applied correctly.
The hardest part is simply creating the content itself. Once the content is built and integrated with a marketing automated platform, you merely align the content with the right email contact(s).
4.) Constructive for Sales Personnel
Whoever said marketing automation only benefited…marketers were clearly mistaken. Sales and marketing strategies are made cohesive and fortified via marketing automation. The identification of leads and the realization of where leads are in the sales cycle simplifies the opportunity-to-conversion process.
Cold calls are made less dependent, as sales and marketing personnel can work in a joint effort of collaboration. The solidification of sales and marketing not only decreases lead conversion time but also improves productivity and frees up employee’s time and energy for other tasks.
5.) Provides Real-Time Analysis of Marketing Results
An integrated marketing automation platform, like MioDatos, not only gives you the ammunition to revitalize your distribution of email and social media content, it also helps to direct you into which things are working and which things that aren’t. This additional benefit dramatically improves productivity as well as allowing you to leverage and expand on the strategies that are producing results.
Start automating your emails and social media posts today!
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