Today, not all customers wonder how businesses manage such a massive amount of data and provide such accurate offers. For many, the first guess would be they have big teams designing tons of personal messages. Yet, it is not necessarily true. How so? More than half of businesses use automation within their marketing strategies as they know it helps to improve management of tasks and be productive. Whether you are a consumer, entrepreneur, or marketer, you are very likely to have encountered it at least once. That’s why it is more interesting to understand the magic behind the curtains of sales and marketing automation technologies.
So, how does marketing automation software work? Read on to know the principle at its core and see the ways businesses apply them to get higher revenues.
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Marketing Automation Process Explained: Vivid Examples
Marketing automation contemplates optimization of processes, management of repetitive tasks, as well as their unification and standardization. Sounds complicated?
Considering the software development part, it is, for sure. Developers take time to design an algorithm to automate specific actions. That is the very principle behind it.
However, the tools themselves are simple to use. Marketers apply the interface with all necessary functions, opening them a door to productivity and organization.
That’s why almost every business has some marketing automation at their disposal, and no one asks, “Does marketing automation work?”. Marketers know it works. Tons of personalized messages in customers’ email boxes are nothing but sounding proof. The marketers use personalization tools to offer appealing content and design subject lines.
Besides, when customers see the posts on Instagram at a specific time, it is likely to be the job of marketing automation software. Right, marketing automation systems are applied in social media marketing. They are concerned with scheduling and posting content, including previously prepared captions, pictures and hashtags.
Why Businesses Need Marketing Automation Solution
So, as you can guess, the firms and companies use marketing automation to save time and efforts usually spent on repetitive actions. They refer to management, control, research and communication operations.
In this regard, everything depends on the goals of the business or the entrepreneur’s strategy. In sales, one may use automation campaigns to generate leads, design campaigns, produce follow-up sequences regarding buying, develop communication or gather data on the customer.
Let’s consider the example. A marketer within a small business company needs to start a new campaign with a specific audience in mind. Yet, they have a question: “How can I get thousands of email addresses?“. One would recommend going to corporate sites or LinkedIn and searching for each address manually based on the target audience. However, it will take much effort and time.
That’s why an automated solution can be a better solution helping to save hours of work. For instance, email finders can extract emails in bulk with all the information into CRM, where the marketers would continue their research.
That way, any marketing automation system integrated into the marketing strategy can add to the team’s productivity by coping with the higher volumes and more important data. In terms of modern communication technologies and rapid business growth, such implementation can become a game-changer for the business.
Marketing Automation Technologies: The Most Popular Ones?
As you can see from the example, the marketing automation software can be used to extract emails of leads. So, yes, one of the areas for the application of marketing automation technologies is lead generation. However, there are more areas that you can improve with different techniques.
Email marketing automation
How does marketing automation software work for email marketing? Besides scraping info and extracting the emails from the web, it can add personalized elements into the subject line and body of the email. Considering that 50% of marketers have issues with personalization, some may incorporate automation tools with AI elements into their strategies.
The software can help build relationships with customers having only their names, positions, and specific details. That’s why if you use email marketing a lot for engagement with the customers, marketing automation technologies can make a difference.
Besides, automation tools can send “welcome letters” or “abandoned cart” reminders having only an algorithm at its basis. Such an automated marketing campaign allows having one email marketing specialist instead of three that will design messages for each client.
Social media automation
Another area where automation software shines is social media management. If you have several social media accounts with many followers, it can help you a lot. Many social media managers use it to schedule and organize posts.
For instance, the best time for posting can differ based on the audience and the social media. That’s why social media specialists can first create a message and then spread it with automation software at a particular time.
The same applies to the insertion of hashtags. Social media tools can make it automatically with one click, while a marketer doesn’t need to type manually every time.
Chatbot and Communication
Besides, many marketers use chatbots in their operations. Almost any B2B company has a chatbot on the main page. It serves the function of communication and data collection. In most cases, such a bot can produce the answers to the most frequently asked questions or even have a dialogue with the customers.
If you do not have enough funds for the support department, you can hire one or two specialists and integrate the bot. That way, the bot would be used for insignificant queries, and when there is something beyond the bot’s knowledge or understanding, it will connect customers with the real person.
Also, chatbots are great for doing research to learn data about the customers. It can be used for polls and collecting information. With the help of developers, marketers can design a chatbot to ask questions and collect answers instead of connecting with each customer and asking specific questions every time.
