What is marketing automation and how has it helped us professionals in the sector? It is the technology that helps automate all marketing processes, without detracting from personalization of the message. Facilitating the professional’s work and thus being able to respond to all users with each campaign.
Not long ago, it was necessary to perform many actions manually in order to design large campaigns. Needing several people or entire teams to develop them. Instead, now automation marketing has come to fix our lives, simplify our work and let the human factor dedicate itself to more valuable tasks.
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What is marketing automation or marketing automation?
This concept started as an email marketing tool , but since then it has evolved into a solution capable of automating repetitive tasks, reducing human error, managing complex tasks such as measurement, and optimizing marketing efforts.
We no longer have to spend hours sifting resumes to try to find the multipurpose marketer capable of developing marketing campaigns on all platforms that exist today, since digital marketing automation software can supply the missing skills.
Let’s face it, you also got those crappy marketing emails that you haven’t even bothered to open after reading the matter. Those who have a catchy phrase that aims to convince you to open the email, such as “Ten ways to make money that your colleagues do not want you to know.”
Or maybe you decided to risk it and open it only to find that it wasn’t with you at all. These emails are an example of failed attempts to use this technique, and are the first thing people have in mind when they think of automation marketing .
Actually, you and your team have hundreds (if not thousands) of successful interactions with automated marketing every day, but you don’t even realize it.
So the question is, to automate or not to automate?
When to use marketing automation?
Good automation marketing is about using the tools available to scale your marketing efforts around real people.
The problem with failed attempts is that the potential buyers (leads) are not well segmented.
Most of the time we do not respond to those emails or interact with the automation attempt because we are not interested in the topic at hand.
The automation of the marketing is successful when well segmented, because then the content of the marketing campaign is aligned effectively with the audience they are trying to convert.
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So, to answer the question, you must use marketing automation to create new leads that align with the marketing campaign you want to run , increase the scalability of potential leads, improve tracking, reduce human error, and add creativity. to marketing directives.
The effective marketing campaigns that get conversions for sale are the ones that are aligned from start to finish.
They are not curvy roads that the consumer has to travel to reach the main objective, but they are easy to follow from start to finish, like a straight road.
Automation helps optimize the successful campaigns you are already running to scale the potential leads you are going to generate and provides additional analytics to help you grow even faster.
New analytics from digital marketing automation help improve tracking of potential sales actions, reduce potential human error, and help deliver effective marketing campaigns for different channels.
When should you not automate your marketing?
The next thing you and your team need to understand is when not to use this tool.
Sometimes marketing automation can be seen as robotic and less personal.
It is a reasonable perception, since most of these campaigns are run through different channels and try to reach a large audience.
So basically it should not be used when a more personal approach is needed , for example in the final stages of the sale it is not recommended to automate.
Whether this type of approach is necessary depends on the marketing campaign or the product / service itself.
You can’t expect big conversions selling products or services related to personal issues through a generic marketing message, as it seems inconsiderate with the recipient.
Nor are you interested in automating your team’s marketing campaigns if you don’t have an effective lead generation system in place.
Too many businesses fail time and time again to buy leads from external sites that claim to be segmented for a niche, but actually belong to a different industry.
If you and your team decide to use automation campaigns for sales conversions related to personal or sensitive topics, you have to make sure they don’t appear automated. Extreme customization is the secret weapon of automation.
Every marketing message should feel like something personal, not something generic and thoughtless that is sent to hundreds of people every day.
This is where these tools we mentioned above can be great for you and your team, as they allow you to see which campaigns are working best.
The best marketing automation software
Several of the best marketing automation programs available today are:
- 1) Hubspot. It has many very useful tools for marketing professionals and its core is to facilitate the automation of marketing and sales. Your workflow solution is designed to drive growth and spend less time on repetitive tasks. It also offers a free CRM to start with unlimited lead capacity.
- 2) Marketo. Another classic in the sector. This company claims to have “solutions for all digital marketing needs, ” from lead management to sales marketing.
- 3) Salesforce. Marketing automation software designed for B2B companies, which helps marketers generate more leads, close sales and maximize the return on investment.
- 4) Oracle Eloqua. Award-winning software with tons of features, from segmentation and targeting to campaign management.
- 5) Adobe Marketing Cloud. This marketing automation technology is actually a platform where content management, campaigning, customization and B2B marketing solutions are combined . In short, a comprehensive solution of the most complete.
And if you want to know the best you can consult this complete article on the 24 best marketing automation tools .
In summary, this technique can be extremely effective for you and your team: it is the marketing equivalent of having an automatic motor instead of using horse carriages.
