There is a new kid on the block known as marketing automation. It is a product that automates routine marketing tasks and makes targeting and capturing leads easier than ever. Marketing automation frees up time for you to focus on other important things, all while still running a successful marketing strategy that will grow your business. Note that on average, 51% of companies are currently using marketing automation and more than 58% of B2B companies are planning to adopt this technology.
What is marketing automation?
Marketing automation usually refers to the application of software that executes marketing actions including sending out emails and publishing social media ads without using manual efforts. Essentially, it makes everyday marketing tasks easier and faster.
If you’re wondering whether small businesses are succeeding in marketing automation, the answer is yes! 91% of companies that have used marketing automation successfully agree that it has played a significant role in their business growth.
Now that you are all caught up on what marketing automation is, here are the benefits of using marketing automation software to help your small business grow:
1. Market Faster and Easier
With the ability to create custom landing pages, pop-ups, Facebook ads and email marketing campaigns, marketing automation frees up time for you to do other things on your daily to-do list. These tasks, that would usually take someone hours of work to execute, are now able to be automatically completed with just a few clicks. Just think – you could have email campaigns set up and sent out as soon as someone fills out a form on your website. This will keep your business top of mind, and you can nurture the lead until they are ready to actually make a purchase.
2. Reduced Marketing Costs
Marketing automation can help save money in many ways. Perhaps the most significant money-saving feature that marketing automation offers is the fact that an individual can wear many marketing hats using the product. You should understand that not all marketing automation softwares are equal. However, the best ones allow an individual to follow, schedule, reply, as well as complete multiple marketing responsibilities from one interface. This makes it possible to have a small marketing team (or even just one person focused on marketing), while still being able to retain productivity and effectiveness. For a small business, this would be the difference between generating profit and losing money.
3. Better Customer Relationships and Retention
A lot of marketing automation products enable you to stay in touch with your current and future customers. Automated marketing platforms give you the tools you need to strengthen these customer relationships. For starters, you can create a consistent customer experience with the implementation of email marketing. With this feature you can personalize each email throughout the marketing journey to appeal to individual customers, which in turn keeps your customers hooked to your business.
Another way marketing automation can help you retain current customers is by using the analytics feature. You can get reports and track all customer journeys, engagement, impressions, and more to see what’s working and what’s not. That way, you can fix any problems and allow your customers to have a seamless experience with your business!
4. Get More out of Your CRM
Another great use of marketing automation is the implementation of a contact manager feature (CRM). Having a CRM allows you to save contact information from your customers in one place – like phone numbers, addresses, names and often customer behavior. When you use a marketing automation tool with a built-in CRM, you will be able to see your contacts’ marketing and sales activities.You will then be able to send targeted emails directly to the contacts in your system. It’s important to note that without a built-in CRM, you will have to manually upload all of your contacts from your customer database and email contacts separately, which wastes time, money and increases the risk of running into an error.
It is time to take your marketing game to a whole new level and insert more effectiveness into the process. Remember that with marketing automation you can streamline, organize and improve your overall marketing process. You will also free up time to do other things and achieve your ultimate goal of working smarter, not harder. Contact us today for more information on how to improve your marketing strategy using marketing automation technology.
