Should my business have a Marketing Automation Platform

30 Jun Should my business have a Marketing Automation Platform

Everyone within the marketing world has heard the term “Marketing Automation” but still so many businesses are struggling to understand the simplicity of how important it is becoming to the future of their success.

Marketing Automation software is revolutionising the way we send out and track online marketing. If you send out emails, post social media and have a website it is essential you have a central system to view & analyse all this activity.

By using Marketing automation, it makes several tasks a lot easier. By doing this it allows marketers to use their time more effectively developing more personalised campaigns and analysing data, which leans towards giving off a larger Return of Investment from marketing activity and spend.

The embracing of marketing automation has been high in large B2B businesses over the past few years and 2017 will see the tipping point for SME’s to bring the software into the mainstream and standard within most organisations in a short space of time.

To begin with let’s look at some published statistics about the benefits.

• 14.5% increase in Sales productivity
• Nurtured leads make 47% larger purchases
• 53% higher conversion rates
• 12.2% decrease in Marketing overhead
• 451% increase in qualified leads

Based on our own experience of running marketing automation programmes for a SME client base, we outline some of the real benefits:

Time is money

Procedures that would usually be carried out manually can be automated. By automating these processes, it can lead to saving a huge amount of time for your marketing teams. This could include sending emails or creating social media posts

However, the set-up of the platform is compound and time-consuming. So, do not be fooled into thinking it’s a magic wand, it’s not and it requires work.

Studying the data

By having a stronger understanding of the precise interests of prospects, helps being able to be more technical about the way you segment and target different audiences.

You can be more productive

By eliminating precious time on repetitive tasks, it allows your team to be more creative, focusing on more content, design, and campaigns.

Higher conversion rates & sales qualified leads (SQL’s)

The quality of your Leads are likely to be much higher as most of the hard work is already done in the nurturing stage ensuring the prospect is ready to buy. This also makes it easier for the person making the phone call to the prospect to commit them further.

Targeted campaigns where you understand your audience

The main reason for a Marketing Automation platform is to be able to interact on a personal level over a set period of time to each and every one of your Prospects. It substitutes the need to send out individual stand-alone marketing campaigns and instead your campaigns can span the entire length of the buying cycle.

The outcomes of this are:

1. Increase in web traffic
2. More known website visitors
3. Increase in opt-in email addresses
4. Increased sales conversion rates
5. Increased number of inbound enquiries
6. Improved open and click-through rates

However, the benefits do not occur overnight and the platform will need time to gather momentum and learn what your prospects like and dislike. Just like in any relationship you need to get to know someone first.

It is a very clever technology that allows you to run effective lead nurturing campaigns. Nurturing your Prospects will generate leads. However, it may be 6-12 months before this happens and your hard work and actions are rewarded by a steady flow of inbound leads.

There is a long sales cycle for your service or solution

One of the main advantages that marketing automation has over email marketing is marketing automation can monitor and record your prospects activity across email, your website and social media posts – not just count opens and click throughs.

When there is a prolonged buying cycle, marketing automation allows you to monitor prospects through the different stages pushing them towards their desired goal.

This will also allow you to focus on prospects looking to engage with you NOW! Ensuring you don’t miss out on opportunities as they arise.

Is Marketing Automation for me?

The marketing industry has been completely flipped on its head and will continue to rapidly change in the next 5 years. The use of mobiles, the internet and social media are common in 99% of industries. So, the answer to the questions in our opinion is you cannot afford to ignore it. Most companies have embraced digital marketing for lead generation but not all companies have recognised the fact they will get better results and analysis via one central platform.

Decisions, Decisions!!

Marketing Automation is much more than just a software purchase, it’s a new way of working. The easiest way to get started is to think in stages and don’t get too overwhelmed with creating the perfect platform and strategy overnight. We can guide you in the right direction and help you along the long journey.

If you are considering implementing a Marketing Automation platform but undecided as to whether you require an Agency to help, the blog below might be of interest,

Should You Consider Using a Marketing Agency

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