What is Marketing Automation and How Can You Apply it to Your Business?

With marketing automation software, you can send targeted communications based on the needs and behaviors of your customers and leads. It’s a key aspect of marketing that allows you to set it and forget it. How can you leverage it for your business? Here, we’ll discuss what marketing automation is and how you can apply it to your advantage.

Benefits of digital marketing automation

Marketing automation software helps marketers communicate across multiple channels such as websites, blogs, and social media, automates repetitive tasks, and helps to streamline workflows. For example, when a blog post leads to a piece of gated content where a lead or customer fills in their information and enters a nurturing workflow, that’s marketing automation in action. Benefits of this include:

• Personalizing the customer experience by showing segments of your target audience content that is helpful and relevant to them
• Keeping audiences engaged with lead nurturing email campaigns that continue the conversation
• Delivering analytics that allow you to track your content and campaign performance
• Streamlining workflows by reducing repetitive tasks
• Increasing marketing ROI over time

Although it’s a common practice among marketers, only 49% of companies leverage it. Marketing automation is a gamechanger — according to Instapage, 80% of marketing automation users see increased leads and 77% see increased conversions.

Lead nurturing

Lead nurturing is the process of developing and strengthening relationships with leads as they move through the sales funnel. But it’s more than encouraging your leads to buy — it’s about customizing their journey with personalized communications and experiences.

How do you nurture leads with marketing automation? Email workflows — also known as drip campaigns — can help. A drip campaign is a series of emails that a lead is opted into after interacting with a piece of content. Examples of this include watching a webinar, engaging with an augmented reality (AR) experience, or filling out a form. After the initial interaction, the lead receives a series of emails over a period of time to keep them engaged, answer any questions they have, and keep them moving through the sales funnel.

Marketing automation software also allows you to act on the data you have about your leads and customers. Beyond sending emails, you can segment lists, allowing you to send targeted pieces of content based on your lead’s actual behaviors and customer journey. For example, if your lead downloaded an eBook on marketing for manufacturers and they live in Dallas, they should receive targeted emails from a list that sends to manufacturing leads in their local area.

Auto-responder emails

Auto-responder emails are excellent ways to leverage digital marketing automation, especially for B2B and B2C companies. When a lead or customer makes a purchase or engages with a piece of your content by filling out their contact information, marketing automation software will enable them to automatically receive an email with a thank you message or more relevant information.

Instapage found that autoresponder emails have a 75% higher open rate than others and that personalized automated emails are opened 46% more often than traditional marketing communications. 

A/B Testing

A/B testing is a powerful example of where analytics come into play with marketing automation software. An A/B test is when you add variation to a single web page, landing page, or email. For instance, if you send two or more sets of promotional emails that are essentially the same, but with one different variable — different subject lines, CTA colors, or a differently-worded opening paragraph — you have an A/B test.

Marketing software like HubSpot can allow you to easily create an A/B test out of any page or communication — and track results. By evaluating analytics, you can see if your email with a blue CTA button performed better than the one with a red button, or if one subject line garnered more clicks than another. In this way, you can take the information you learned by conducting your A/B test to create more eye-catching and effective campaigns later on.
 

Digital marketing automation is a process that simplifies marketing strategies while putting the power of data into your hands in real-time. It enables you to streamline processes, nurture leads, and gain insight on what keeps your leads and customer base engaged.

Are you looking to use the power of marketing automation to boost your business? Get in touch for help achieving your goals.