Marketing automation is the process of leveraging technology to take over repetitive tasks that help create customers, and keep those customers engaged after their initial purchase.
If you’ve been following along with our series on drip campaigns and sales funnels, you are already well on your way to understanding marketing automation.
While most of our recent posts have dealt with automating email, it’s important to note that marketing automatization can also include automating social media, in-app messages, website tasks, or even direct mail.
Marketing Automation Software
While you can easily automate individual marketing tasks (think of WordPress plugins that will post on social media whenever a blog post is published), the real key to marketing automation is data.
Imagine how much more insight you have to a customer if you can connect all their interactions with your company (social media, website, and even speaking with customer service). When you gather all this information together, you can gain a better understanding of a user’s interest, and what they are likely to buy.
To track and use data effectively requires a single system that can follow a customer across all of your platforms. Thus when you hear the term marketing automation, it’s often referring to leveraging platforms such as HubSpot, Marketo, SalesForce or InfusionSoft.
Examples of marketing automation
Example #1: Abandoned Shopping Cart
- Jane comes to your website after seeing an ad on Facebook.
- She pokes around your site a bit and eventually adds a product to the shopping cart.
- Whoops! Jane leaves your site before completing the purchase.
- Next time Jane is on Facebook, she sees another ad, this time it shows her the products she was interested in and encourages her to go back and check them out.
- Jane clicks on the ad again, and this time completes her purchase on your site.
Example #2: Reengagement
- Joe comes to your website after doing a Google search and lands on a page offering a free download.
- Joe pops in his email address and receives an email with the free resource.
- Now Joe is on your email list and opens the next three emails he receives from you. In the second email he clicks a link to read one of your blog posts.
- Some time goes by and Joe stops opening your emails. In fact six emails are sent out and Joe doesn’t open any of them.
- A win-back email is triggered, speaking directly to Joe and the things he has been interested in (the original free download and blog post he clicked on).
- Joe opens the email, clicks on your offer of a free consultation and makes an appointment to speak with someone in your company.
– OR –
Joe ignores this email too and receives a “break up” message. If this one is ignored as well, than Joe is removed from your list.
Give me some numbers
- 79% of leads never convert into sales
- 68% of online shopping carts are abandoned
- 50% of sales leads are qualified, but not ready to buy
- 90% of prospects lose interest in a product within an hour
With marketing automation
- 77% of companies using marketing automation see increased revenue
- 53% increase in conversions using marketing automation over bulk emails
- 47% larger purchases are made by leads that have been nurtured through the sales process
The bottom line is that marketing automation systems can help you keep up with leads that you either didn’t know about, or may not have had time to follow up with. That said, it will take an investment of time and money to create an effective system.
Overflowing with questions, or wondering if this is right for you? Give us a shout.