Marketing Automation

What is marketing automation?

Marketing automation consists in software solutions that can be used to automate individual marketing and sales processes. The digital platforms combine CRM synchronization, email marketing, web controlling, and more, and they have access to databases.

What marketing automation offers

Not only does marketing automation save time and effort in day-to-day tasks, but the budget spent on measures can also be considerably reduced compared to not using automated solutions. In addition, the digital tools help to better plan, manage, and evaluate cross-media campaigns. The automated software processes support marketers in:

• Email marketing
• Collecting and updating data and transferring it to other systems
• Creating landing pages
• Posting social media content
• Publishing targeted content
• Calculating the ROI
• Customer service and retention

Although not all tasks that form part of a good marketing strategy can be incorporated into automated workflows, marketing automation tools simplify and optimize the segmentation, generation, and scoring of leads.

Automated workflows can thus be implemented in order to appropriately address the target group without marketers having to constantly make changes or apply individual measures.

Prerequisites for marketing automation

For automated marketing processes to offer maximum added value, companies and marketers need to take into account various aspects.

#1 Know the target group        

If you don’t know who your target group is, you probably won’t be very successful in B2B marketing. Buyer personas should be clearly defined beforehand, otherwise a marketing automation system has no chance of addressing potential and existing customers in a personalized way. Automated communication can then quickly backfire. Messages shouldn’t be randomly sent to users en masse in the network you have built, for example on LinkedIn. That comes across as unprofessional, and recipients could mistake them for spam.

#2 Adapt the technical infrastructure

If a company wants to use marketing automation tools, it has to be aware that they necessitate major digital changes. Interfaces must be created between the new tools and existing CRM systems as well as the company’s website. Introducing a new data management framework is a complex matter, so it is advisable to involve both the IT department and data protection officers.

#3 Clean up your database and define a data pool

Clear data structures, up-to-date datasets, and uncluttered CRM and ERP systems are crucial to successful automated marketing. Eliminating duplicates and updating or removing contacts may be time-consuming, but it’s the only way to ensure, for example, that the emails you send actually reach the right customers. Ideally, the contact data you have stored should be checked once every quarter to guarantee successful email marketing.

#4 Step out of your marketing comfort zone

For marketers, data-driven marketing also means letting go of their preferences. Once the workflow has been determined for a campaign, last-minute or custom adjustments are no longer so straightforward. They also have to trust in the data that the system provides them with – and use it as a basis to decide to what extent processes need to be optimized.

Automating B2B marketing

Establishing workflows using marketing automation tools can take the current marketing strategy to new levels and significantly influence lead generation. To achieve those goals, it is worth building automated workflows in the following areas:

#1 Lead generation

Automated processes generate leads by shaping the customer journey of website visitors. They are directed from one stepping stone to another, ultimately ending with their contact details being recorded in the company’s database.

If, for example, users stumble across a blog article via the organic page and find it interesting, they may want to learn more about the topic. In that case, it pays off to offer users a whitepaper to download. By embedding a call-to-action button, you can automatically direct them to a landing page for this purpose. To receive the desired information, users then complete and submit the corresponding contact form. These details land in the contact database and the leads have thus been converted completely automatically.

Tip: You should first check the quality of your forms and optimize them if necessary.

#2 Lead segmentation

Leads can be recorded in a database and managed there using various criteria, including:

• Demographic aspects
• Purchasing intentions
• Downloads
• Interactions with content
• Completed workflows

Categorizing the leads makes it possible to adapt and distribute targeted content based on their personal interests.

#3 Lead nurturing

Even if leads have been successfully generated, you shouldn’t assume that they will immediately buy your products or use your services – you need to regularly nurture them as contacts. Frequent, targeted email marketing is an easy way to do that: personalized newsletters are great for strengthening customer bonds.

#4 Lead scoring

A lead scoring workflow established within the framework of marketing automation automatically classifies leads in the database and assigns them to their current stage in the purchasing process. Further actions and strategies can then be derived for converting the leads into customers.

Marketing automation makes processes more efficient

Automated processes don’t just save money and time in day-to-day marketing tasks, they also allow campaigns to be launched within a more comprehensive scope, on more channels, and more frequently. Communication can also be tailored more precisely to leads thanks to marketing automation. The more companies gear their marketing measures toward the needs and behavior of their leads, the quicker they will win them over as customers.