 |
| Marketing Automation
The lure of marketing automation
is clear: companies could increase sales productivity by 14.5 percent while
reducing marketing overhead by 12.2 percent. That’s tempting for both marketers
and their managers who realize marketing automation — properly
implemented — can have extraordinarily positive impact on revenue and
efficiency, yet the statistics on marketing automation make quite the splatter
chart depending on which studies you look at. One master list of marketing
automation statistics cites studies showing:
80 percent of users in one study
saw an increase in conversions, while another study showed half the companies
experiencing no increase in qualified leads, with only 19 percent showing a dramatic
increase. Other studies have found that 74 percent of respondents consider
their marketing automation efforts to be either very or quite beneficial to
their company, while a different study found a mere 32 percent of companies
believed marketing automation was very successful.
What’s going on? Is marketing automation a
game-changer or not?
Marketing automation can change
the game for marketing teams — if your efforts don’t get obstructed by any of
these common marketing automation myths:
MYTH #1: MARKETING AUTOMATION FIXES YOUR MARKETING PROBLEMS.
One of marketing automation’s
great advantages is its ability to offload rote tasks and perform those tasks
at a much faster pace than if some tired, overworked junior marketer had to do
them. Which is to say: marketing automation amplifies whatever your team is
already achieving — or not achieving.
One team uses accurate, relevant criteria to qualify
and segment prospects, and has high converting content available that it uses
to nurture them successfully. For this team, automating tasks like selecting
which prospects will get what kind of content or touches, and when, lets them
apply a proven, successful process onto a large data pool. Even if their high
conversion rate doesn’t go higher, they’re doing better because they’re
executing their successful campaigns on
a bigger pool.
For a team without proven
processes and content, automating so-so or even bad workflows doesn’t magically
make their content effective or compelling. It just means the team can now send
out crappy, irrelevant content faster and to more people.
MYTH #2: MARKETING AUTOMATION GLOSSES OVER BAD DATA.
Similar to myth #1, marketing
automation won’t fix your data problems. Too many companies try to implement
marketing automation software without ensuring that the data they use to run
that software can handle the workload.
The first problem is too little
data or lack of a strong steady stream of new data coming into your system. To
work effectively, marketing automation needs a certain volume of data to get
going and then thrives on a steady volume of new prospects in the database. You
will churn and burn your list if you keep pounding the same people with
automated blasts every week, so focus needs to be paid to expanding lists.
The second data issue is just that: bad data. If you
import data from your other marketing programs and Business Intelligence (BI) software to add to what you collect from your marketing
platform, take time to clean up the formatting and duplicate data across
systems. Then set up integrations that will protect your data integrity moving
forward. You don’t want to send a new customer the promo for an even better
deal just one week after their first purchase.
Bad data means bad campaigns, no
matter what software you use. Take the time to implement good data hygiene
before you automate.
MYTH #3: MARKETING AUTOMATION IS ONLY FOR EMAIL CAMPAIGNS.
The email drip, lead nurture
campaign is the quintessential use case for marketing automation software. Once
you get a name into your database, the data collection and personalized content
push can begin.
Don’t leave it there. Most
marketing automation platforms include tools that help with lead acquisition as
well. This includes contextual sign-up forms that pop up on your website based
on which page a visitor goes to, and lead gen forms that appear on your social
media platforms. If you’re stuck with shallow data stores (see myth #2),
refining and automating your lead acquisition processes may be the right place
for you to begin your automation efforts.
Focusing only on creating email
campaigns can obscure another critical advantage of marketing automation; let’s
make this one myth #4.
MYTH #4: MARKETING AUTOMATION FREES UP TIME BECAUSE YOU CAN IGNORE
WHAT YOU AUTOMATE.
Popularly known as the “set it
and forget it” fallacy. Having an automation tool doesn’t mean that you’ll never
have to look at your campaigns again. If you don’t actively glean insights from
your automation efforts, you’ve missed the point.
Marketing automation frees up
team resources to focus on the creative and person-to-person aspects of
marketing. This found time should also be used to assess and analyze what your
campaigns and automated workflows achieve. Because it works on large data
collections, an automation tool returns statistically relevant information
about what works and what doesn’t, with greater precision as to what variables
are having an impact.
Automation platforms continue to
improve the tools to help users make actionable decisions quickly, like
providing multivariate testing. If you aren’t learning from your automation
workflows, then it’s no wonder they aren’t improving.
You also want to monitor more
than the metrics. Spot check to ensure that your workflows work as intended,
and that the wrong messages don’t get sent to the wrong people.
MYTH #5: MARKET AUTOMATION’S WORK IS DONE AFTER THE SALE
IS CLOSED.
Why ignore engaged customers? Follow
up and help them get the most of what they purchased. They represent upsell,
cross-sell, and repeat sales opportunities. Continue to engage them and remind
them why they love you. By keeping the conversation open, you develop brand
ambassadors who share your content.
You’re not ignoring them, are
you? You have campaigns and content designed just for them. Marketing
automation will nurture the post-sale relationship just as well as it does for
the lead nurture.
Check the services about Marketing Automation Visit — ADOHM
|
Comments
Post a Comment