Marketing Automation = Marketing Acceleration

Previously an expensive tool, excellent software for your marketing automation approach is now more accessible than ever before thanks to recent technological advancements. From sending a simple newsletter to managing intricate omnichannel marketing initiatives, marketing automation is a collection of technologies and procedures that help automate work. The ultimate objective is to boost traffic, engage audiences, and attract new clients.

However, although automation technology makes the duties of marketers easier, its core elements should consist of both software and strategy. According to predictions, the market for these technologies will grow to $25.1 billion by 2024. Should marketers make a financial investment in a clever marketing automation plan? The answer is a resounding "yes."

Why use Marketing Automation?
It is very hard for small businesses to compete with larger ones using traditional digital marketing strategies. Modern marketers are under pressure to accomplish more with fewer resources while delivering better results. By placing a "call now" button at the top of a Facebook page, marketers can increase call leads from their marketing campaign, but ultimately, marketing automation solutions can make marketers far more productive when setting up affiliate and influencer marketing programs in terms of outreach and communication.  

To automate marketing efforts, one must have a platform that triggers an automatic flow or planned action once a certain scenario arises. This condition, known as a process trigger, might be anything from a user subscribing to the newsletter to a buyer leaving a product in the cart. If the marketing automation tool handles these tasks, the marketer saves a lot of time that can be used for more strategic tasks, resulting in improved accuracy and effectiveness in the marketing strategies put into action.

How does marketing automation work?
Marketing automation is the use of technology to complete tasks that would otherwise require manual labour. In addition, a set of tasks may be initiated in marketing automation that are more complicated. For instance, when a new user registers for an account, it may result in the sending of a welcome email, a series of onboarding videos, and the addition of the individual's data to a spreadsheet. Over the course of a workweek, this automated approach helps marketers save hours.
 
Campaign optimisation using artificial intelligence (AI) is a rapidly growing subset of marketing automation technology. In some marketing automation solutions, for instance, the send times for an email campaign can be optimised using AI. Also, AI can help with content creation by suggesting keywords, grading headlines, and other things.
 
Marketing automation can be used throughout the whole customer journey, from the time a prospect first learns about a product or service to the point where a customer recommends your business to others. For example, In the case of marketing automation for generating leads and brand awareness, it used to take a lot of time to post on social media sites to raise brand recognition. Marketers can now identify appropriate hashtags, schedule posts, publish them, and even leave comments thanks to marketing automation. Chatbots can help with lead scoring, provide relevant information, or point interested website visitors to a sales representative without the need for human involvement.
 
Building a Marketing Automation Strategy: What to Do
Building a solid marketing automation strategy essentially requires creating a customer's journey, thoroughly understanding analytics, defining business goals and the ideal customer first, and then serving customers by offering them a multichannel experience. To see noticeable results, you need to do more than just use a Marketing Automation tool. An upstream strategy, where automatic flows are a component of a mechanism to deliver personalised content to users, cultivate and engage leads, optimise marketing time, and track results, is what really makes a difference.

Let's look at a few great marketing automation strategies that can be used by both established companies and start-ups:

1. Segment your contact databases using marketing automation
Create audience segments with the help of the data offered by the leads you collect so that you can target particular campaigns at them. A Marketing Automation program that is integrated with your CRM allows for quick and accurate segmentation. You can choose strategic segmentation criteria for the products you sell and your market by using demographic data, geographic information, engagement, buying patterns of visitors to your website, etc.

2. Automate the use of chat on your website
Although providing round-the-clock assistance is ideal, doing so manually would require a dedicated resource and a sizable budget. Implementing a chatbot on your website that instantly and automatically responds to user inquiries is a good way to deal with the issue. You can increase your chances of finding new qualified contacts by having conversations with site visitors and gathering vital information that will help you create new content and improve your services.

 3. Set Drip campaigns based on specific triggers
Using a Drip campaign, you can automate the production of a flow of emails based on user behaviour. For instance, when a lead subscribes to your mailing list, your system might send them a welcome message. When a potential customer visits a product page on your website, it sends them information about that product and may also include an offer or discount. The Drip campaign allows you to personalise your content for each lead based on their behaviour.

4. Include automated nurturing campaigns in your funnel
Not every visitor to your website is prepared to purchase what you have to offer. What you require is a nurturing campaign that matures your leads (from the awareness phase to the consideration phase, all the way up to conversion) automatically. By automating this process, you increase the effectiveness of the content you send to your contacts and make it easier for them to move on to the next stages of the funnel.

5. Establish a MailUp strategy for email marketing automation
To manage the sending of personalised email campaigns more successfully, you can apply marketing automation to email marketing. Because it is based on user interests and actions, email automation enables you to take advantage of all the information you have about your database contacts (demographic, geographic, and behavioural) to enhance the customer experience and reach each user with a personalised and relevant message.

We are living in the era of AI and digital automation, even when it comes to human interaction. And this progress in new technologies has made marketing a totally automated process. The secret to successfully managing your online marketing program is marketing automation. To create marketing automation strategies that will be successful over time, you must pick the best approach. By implementing the above strategy recommendations, you will be in a great position to reap the rewards of automation and raise your ROI.