1. Targeting
In the marketing automation age, targeting is no longer a simple matter of demographics. Successful automation combines online behaviours with known information to create a complete picture of:
· A person’s roles and responsibilities.
· Specific business pains that need resolution.
· Their position in the buying process.
· Any previous interactions with your brand.
This information then helps marketers to craft highly effective messages tailored to the user, increasing the chances of a successful conversion.
“Personalised email improves marketing campaign effectiveness by 32%.”
Circle Research – B2B Email Marketing Trends
2. Engagement
Talking to customers is as old as the sales process itself. In the automated marketing arena, however, the focus has shifted away from your company and its products to the customer’s needs and preferences. Your customer engages you when they are ready – your team needs to know how to handle and act on that information.
Your business needs to collect relevant background data so that when your customer reaches out, you have the correct content with which to engage them. Finely targeted information will help convert that engagement into a sale.
“Event-triggered marketing can potentially save 80% of your direct mail budget.”
3. Conversion
Having engaged your customers with relevant content, by the time they reach out to your sales team, they will have almost certainly already made their purchasing decision. The marketer’s job now shifts from providing information that informs, to content that enables the customer to make a decision.
This means:
· Identifying and addressing specific customer pain points.
· Maintaining contact with leads through their chosen communications channel.
· Using experience and knowledge gained from previous transactions to assist the customer.
4. Analytics
Each engagement and subsequent conversion yields information that can be recorded and analysed to yield additional insights and value. By automatically collecting data at each stage of the customer journey, your marketers can see:
· Which assets used in a campaign were most effective.
· Segmented figures to calculate performance according to position, geographic location, company turnover or any other metric you care to consider.
· Whether certain actions were more effective than others in moving customers along the sales pipeline.
These analytics can then be applied to future campaigns to further increase conversions and return on automation investment. The data can also be funnelled into traditional CRM functions to provide both service and sales teams with a full relationship history to improve customer service.
“Only 21% of marketers say their current tools are even capable of measuring the right things. Furthermore, only 26% believe the data they collect is even accurate.”
BtoB Research – Defining the Modern Marketer: From Real to Ideal
5. Marketing technology
The magic behind marketing automation technology is the actual infrastructure that turns guidelines and triggers into actions. Technology is responsible for engaging with clients initially, then supplies them with the information they need in a format they choose.
Marketing automation technology should:
· Complement existing systems to recognise maximum value.
· Help unify sales and marketing departments for ‘joined-up’ selling.
· Assist with achieving revenue goals.
· Provide you with the tools you need to reach your customers in the ways they choose.
“Marketing automation platform users have a 53% higher conversion rate from marketing response to marketing-qualified lead than non-users.”
Remember, marketing automation can help you:
1. Target – be relevant to your customers and leads.
2. Engage – provide your leads with the right information, at the right time, at their request.
3. Convert – close the deal with compelling decision-based content and conversations.
4. Use analytics – learn from previous experiences to create better campaigns in future and to provide your new client with higher levels of service.
5. Gain maximum benefit from technology – by using innovative tools to automate the marketing cycle in line with revenue goals.
To learn more about marketing automation and why it is the future for savvy businesses, download our free eGuide: Marketing Automation Simplified.
