Marketing Automation Explained Simply

What is Marketing Automation?

Marketing Automation technology and software helps to streamline repetitive marketing tasks to increase productivity and efficiency within both the sales and marketing sectors of your business. The aim is to ultimately attract new leads, generate sales and increase revenue in the easiest way possible.

Many surveyed companies have on average 23% of their total sales to thank automated email marketing for and for every £1 spent on automated email marketing, this proven successful strategy generates an average £38 in ROI. Therefore you are six times more likely to create a lead from an email than a Twitter link.

Marketing Automation Benefits

• Boosted sales readiness of your leads
• Improved marketing and sales productivity and efficiency
• Increased sales revenues
• Increased customer engagement through enhanced targeting
• Deepened and maintained customer relationships
• Can see how each person is interacting with your brand
• Frees up time to focus on closing the leads and generating a sale with the leads that matter
• Helps you to see which marketing campaigns bring in the most sales

Examples Of Marketing Automation Software 

• Hubspot
• Infusionsoft
• Sharpspring
• Active Campaign
• Pardot

The Process

1) First you will create a workflow, meaning create the emails that will be distributed to your leads when triggered, focusing on different areas and topics surrounding your business.

2) A good way to build a targeted list for your emails to be sent to, is by creating an Ebook or a CTA (call to action) to use as an incentive. This works by having your leads submit their email to gain access to the information and content.

3) Once you have their contact details, the nurturing begins, and the first email will be automatically sent to that person. This could contain for example, a blog post on a topic relating to a page they visited on your site.

4) A few days later, a webinar you previously uploaded to social media could be emailed directly to the them, engaging them with either the product or service your business provides. This is in no way pushing people, it is just softly informing your potential customers of what you are about.

5) As time goes on, Market Segmentation will automatically come into practice, dividing your email lists by their contact details, activity on your website and their reaction to your automated emails. This helps target the correct leads with the correct campaigns and content, personally aiming it at their interests and helps to pinpoint the exact customers you wish to target. This can be as specific as you like, for example, an email could be triggered and sent to female users who have viewed a particular product on your site.

6) By this point you would expect your contact list to be pretty clued up on what your business does and caters for through your powerful content and extensive Marketing Automation strategy. So, it’s now time for your sales team to work their magic by picking up the phone and generating a sale!

7) After you successfully secure a sale, the opportunity to up sell and cross sell will arise due to the customer loyalty that will have developed. This will dramatically further increase your business' rate of ROI.

8) After the sale, they will then receive a customer satisfactory survey to complete. If they are not satisfied, a further set of automated content will be sent to the lead to try and put your company in a positive light.

What Might Your Emails Include?

• Blog posts
• Prize draws
• Webinars
• Relevant News articles
• New products/services

When Will Your Emails Be Triggered?

Your emails will be automatically triggered and distributed to your contact lists when, for example, the leads visit your website, fill out any forms on your site, date triggers and default auto responses for any replies you get.

Here are a few other articles related to Marketing Automation than you may be interested in:

• How Much Does Email Marketing Automation Cost?
• 12 Reasons Why Marketing Automation Works For Small Businesses
• Marketing Automation Tools Comparison – 4 Of The Best Platforms 

Hopefully these steps have helped you understand the Marketing Automation process a little more and its purpose. If you have any queries, please comment below or call us on 01332 982256 for an informal chat.