Marketing automation. Now considered a must-have for many modern marketing departments, but often misunderstood and overlooked.
At Bigwave, we believe in taking the time to pause and get back to the basics. That’s why we’re here to explain exactly what marketing automation is, what good marketing automation practices look like, and how to use it to boost your business. You can then decide if it is right for you.
What is marketing automation?
Marketing automation is any type of software platform that streamlines and automatically processes marketing tasks or workflows. Simply put, the software lets marketers automate marketing activities or analysis and hand over admin work to a computer or artificial intelligence (AI). This means that you can automate repetitive tasks such as email campaigns, social media posting, and ad campaigns – leaving you free to get on with bigger jobs.
There is a big distinction between marketing automation completed using trigger points and administrative tasking and the type realised through AI. In this blog, we will focus squarely on the triggered and administrative forms of marketing automation.
Marketing automation software allows you to do a lot of different marketing activities more effectively, for example:
- Email marketing
- Social media posting
- PPC ad posting and management
- Creating landing pages
- Cross-channel marketing campaigns
- Lead generation
- Lead management
- Segmentation
- Lead nurturing and scoring
- Cross-sell and up-sell
- Retention
- Website personalization
Why do marketing teams use automation tools?
For small marketing teams, in particular, managing 1:1 connections with customers using the manual tools available becomes almost impossible. That’s when marketing automation comes in handy.
The use of marketing automation platforms doesn’t just save time and make marketing more efficient, but it can also help provide a more personalised experience for customers and improve customer service.
Instead of relying on remembering to – and having the time to – connect with your customers, leads, and target audience, marketers can rely on automation to send out communications on their behalf. This keeps the customer engaged with your brand and makes them feel valued.
What’s more, successful marketing teams use marketing automation to make their campaigns more accurate, which in turn helps their sales team find better leads and increase ROI, profit, and growth.
This is because automation tools can give greater insight into the entire sales funnel, which then lets you effectively determine when leads are ready to buy. Automation also allows you to attract new leads by automating PPC, social media, and overall marketing campaigns, as well as helping you keep leads warm with e-marketing automation.
Marketing automation helps you to scale your campaigns, reach and engage prospects, better qualify leads, and effectively demonstrate ROI. What’s not to like?
Should your business be using marketing automation?
Of course, no business is the same and no two tools with help all businesses. However, there are a few key questions to consider when deciding whether marketing automation has the power to boost your business.
- Is all your time taken up by creating and sending emails, social media posts, or adverts?
- Is your content marketing reaching your target audience?
- Can you identify, track, and engage individual buyers online?
- Can you look at a list of customers and prioritize them based on fit and likelihood to buy?
- Can you measure the ROI of your marketing campaigns?
Marketing automation can save you the time, stress, and hassle of day-to-day marketing.
Bigwave’s e-marketing software (eCampaigns), for example, has been designed to help brands consistently create the right email, at the right time, for the right audience. With our e-marketing automation software, you can create and schedule emails that engage and convert your leads. What’s more, you can see real-time reports as soon as a campaign is launched, including how many people opened and read it, clicked through to your website, sent it on to a friend, and purchased after the email.
