What is Marketing Automation? Benefits, Types and When Your Business Need

Staying on the cutting edge of technology is essential for any small business. Some business owners avoid new technology because of the learning curve involved in implementing new tools. This thinking prohibits a business from growing and reaching its full potential.

Over the past few years, marketing automation tools have become wildly successful. This is due in part to how easy they are to use. Studies show that nearly 49 percent of United States businesses use some marketing automation tool.

What is Marketing Automation

Marketing automation is a streamlined software with several features and benefits that offer a solution to the marketing team and its company. It automates the work progress by measuring tasks, assigning workflow, and monitoring progress. Through it, the company experiences an increase in revenue, more business growth, and a more efficient marketing team.

When you consider using marketing automation tools for your business, it is essential to know its features and benefits. Here are why it is worth investing for marketing teams and businesses who have not yet utilized the automation tools.

4 Signs Your Business is Ready For Marketing Automation

You may notice the following signs when it is time to embrace the marketing automation revolution.

1. Your Day is Consumed With Repetitive Tasks

The main goal you should have as an entrepreneur is making your business ventures successful. If your workday is consumed with performing repetitive tasks related to your marketing campaigns, it will be nearly impossible to work on expanding your company’s reach.

Instead of letting these tasks get in the way of business growth, you need to embrace the power of marketing automation. Tools like SEO BUDDY allow you to automate blogger outreach campaigns. Each time you develop a new piece of content, you can use this automated software to reach out to influencers in your industry. Getting these influencers to promote the content can help you increase website traffic and increase sales leads with ease.

2. You are Extremely Short-Staffed

During the beginning stages of a business, the owner will manage and complete nearly all of the tasks required to keep customers happy. While this can save you a lot of money due to having no payroll, it can also hinder your ability to market your products or services to new consumers adequately.

The best way to solve this problem is by using marketing automation tools like SEMrush. With a program like this, you can do the work of 50 people with the click of a button. Running competitive searches on competitors and optimizing marketing campaigns will be as easy as clicking a button. Oftentimes, automated programs geared towards Internet marketing will allow you to completely customize things like when social media posts are made or how to nurture new leads.

3. The Competition is Leaving You in the Dust

One of the first things most entrepreneurs do before starting a new business is conduct market research. During this research phase, you will need to get an idea of who your competition is and how they are reaching consumers. Once you start a business, you should keep a close eye on how well your competition is doing.

Does it seem like the competitors in your industry are growing leaps and bounds? If you are having trouble competing with other companies, it may be time to use marketing automation. With the help of this software, you can grow your company’s online presence.

Automated marketing software allows you to launch campaigns on several platforms and track their progress. The more content you can put out for consumers, the easier it will be to grow your customer base over time.

4. Wasteful Marketing Spending

If you are like most business owners, staying on budget is one of your main priorities. Most businesses spend around $5,000 a month on their online marketing efforts. If the money you are spending on marketing is not producing results, you need to make some changes immediately.

One of the best aspects of using marketing automation software is the insights it can provide. Most of these programs will show users a detailed breakdown of where their traffic is coming from. This information lets you determine whether your marketing dollars are properly distributed.

What Are the Types of Marketing Automation Software?

1. Customer Relationship Management Software

Customers and website visitors are always welcome. But, there are moments when you get tired of managing their data. Fortunately, customer relationship management software can help collect, store, and retrieve customer data. The timely data collection can help the business provide better customer service leading to high satisfaction rates.

This management software collects and stores the customer's personal information and activity details. You must determine the type of CRM software best suits your business's needs.

2. Email Marketing Software

Email marketing is an ancient form of digital marketing yet considered the most effective solution. It enhances the return of investment of every business. You might wonder why you still need the software; using email marketing requires a broader scale.

With the help of email marketing software, you can automate a message quickly and send them to the target audience. The software facilitates a large-scale distribution of customized emails. You can personally customize the email to maintain the quality of the email content. It is essential to make the reader feel they are the email's recipient.

3. Marketing Analytics Software

Some marketing teams neglect to measure the performance of marketing strategies. It is essential to track the progress of your efforts and plan to determine whether they worked out. It will help you focus and omit the strategy to maximize the return on investment.

Thus, the marketing analytics software helps the marketing team gather essential data. You can quickly combine and compare data to determine effective channels.

4. Marketing Automation Software

We all know how difficult it is to manage daily tasks to drive website traffic. It goes from creating landing pages to providing marketing strategies. Thus, it is better to integrate marketing automation software to help you map the workflow while unifying the data across all channels.

5. Social Media Marketing Software

As mentioned, there is a behavioral shift in media consumption among consumers. Thus, social media is the best avenue to reach and engage with the target audience. Businesses can post an update quickly through their social media. Using social media as a channel to promote products and services leads to consumer engagement and brand awareness.

What Are the Benefits of Using Marketing Automation Tools

If you do not have integrated a marketing automation tool, here are some of the reasons why marketing automation tools are worth considering:

1. Increases Team Productivity

Marketing automation tools simplify the hectic day-to-day routine. It eliminates manual processes by giving an automated solution. No matter the size of the marketing team, it increases the productivity of each member. They can focus on tasks that require manual labor.

Furthermore, it is less likely for task repetition to happen with the automation tools. The tools help improve the accountability and performance of the marketing staff and other departments.

2. Refines Marketing Processes

Automation tools help the marketing team visualize the activities of the consumers. It gives them data on how to create and improve the marketing process. Automation tools help businesses reach customers and organize the product list and prices.

It nurtures leads through email marketing and retains customers through customer relationship management. The gathered customer information enables the marketing team to predict the needs and decisions of the consumers based on their behavior. 

Furthermore, marketing automation keeps prices competitive. It optimizes the price list as the competitor shifts or optimizes its pricing. An automation tool is a good option for sellers who competes in a price-conscious market like Amazon and other e-commerce websites. Thus, if you sell on Amazon, use an Amazon auto repricer.

3. Tracks and Monitors Marketing Progress

Digital marketing is data-driven; data reports and analysis are critical to determining each marketing channel's progress. You can only assess success through measurable data, and you can only have accurate data through precise tracking and monitoring. Furthermore, you can determine which strategy works with data tracking and analysis.

4. Cost-Effective

As Gartner Customer 360 Summit said, managing businesses in 2020 will not require human interaction to build customer relationships. With the help of marketing automation software, one member can complete several tasks. If the automation tool saves time, it saves money. Remember, time is money. Integrating automation tools reduces labor costs. 

Furthermore, you have the opportunity to focus on breakthrough decisions that can help your business grow. Marketing automation guarantees a positive return on investment when implemented effectively. 

The information and benefits given by integrating marketing automation tools may be baffling. But, what are the things you need to consider to know whether your business needs it?

Take Your Time When Choosing Marketing Automation Software

Rushing through the marketing automation software selection process is a recipe for disaster. By taking the time to research all of the programs at your disposal, you can make an educated decision regarding which one to use.

Marketing automation tools are expensive, and it may be an obvious solution to manage and scale enterprises effectively. But, you need to scale your business and marketing operation first. Your business does not require an automation tool if you do not have at least three of the following:

• Marketing Team – You need to allocate a marketing team with at least one member to make the marketing efforts. The automation tool may give more time, but it still needs a team member to streamline and improve the efforts.
• Marketing Channel – Look for an avenue where the automation tool can scale your marketing.
• Marketing Efforts from Defined Strategy – You need a concrete plan to guide the progress of the performance and efforts of the team.
• Budget – Allocation of the budget is the primary concern in integrating a marketing automation tool. The tools are expensive, and you need to have an allocated budget for them.

Final Thoughts

Marketing automation tools provide a holistic strategy for helping businesses better serve the market. It helps gain customer conversion, acquisition, and retention. We hope we have given you a better understanding of improving your business through the marketing automation tool.

What are you waiting for? Increase your customer retention and satisfaction through maintaining active engagements and building brand awareness with the help of automation tools.

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