Why your business needs marketing automation

Whatever the size or nature of your business, there are lots of moving parts. You still need to keep engaged with your marketplace; the people who don’t know you, nurturing prospects, retaining clients and incentivising business partners.  

Marketing automation systems, used by millions of companies globally, manage tasks such as e-mails and social media updates, ensuring tailored, relevant messaging and are proven to professionalise the process, save time and provide valuable insights. 

It’s easy to understand why companies in a high growth mode or are large enough to fund and run such a system would consider the investment this involves. However, start-ups and companies who need to re-evaluate their marketplace are also increasingly turning to automation systems to help with their strategy. 

REASONS FOR USING MARKETING AUTOMATION: 

Your customer relationship management or sales databases (CRM) contain old, tired data which is not being utilised. 

• Time is being wasted performing both regular and ad hoc actions that could be automated.  
• CRM is not connected to the rest of your sales and marketing efforts, such as social networking, blogs, content, campaigns, e-shots or events and you generally have a lack of visibility. 
• Your competition seems to be ahead of you or have a better relationship or understanding of your marketplace. 

 Considering a strong inbound marketing strategy will reduce time taken chasing your target audience without permission. We’ve not mentioned the four-letter word ‘GDPR’ but using automation systems will help with your content strategy, opt in and engagement processes, making your life much easier. 

THE TOP WAYS MARKETING AUTOMATION CAN IMPROVE YOUR BUSINESS: 

1. Become a market leader - know and understand your audience better 
2. Get inbound – audience adoption and engagement process (GDPR)
3. Save time and effort – work your data 
4. Reach out to your market from ‘stranger’ through to ‘customer’ more efficiently 
5. Gauge and measure the effectiveness of interactions 
6. Get personalised, structured and professional in your interactions
7. Better integration – with tighter processes on social, CRM and service activities 
8. Your eyes and ears – never miss an opportunity 

There are excellent automation systems out there and you'll need to find the right one for your requirements. Some that we'd recommend taking a look at include Hubspot, Marketo and Eloqua. Our list below tells you some crucial points you really need to get answered before signing on the dotted line! 

5 ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS TO ASK YOUR SUPPLIER: 

1. How does the business model work – i.e. will you be charged by number of contacts or number of licensed users? What features are included? Check you’re not going to be paying for elements you won’t need.
2. Charging after year one – what will the extra costs look like after the honeymoon period? 
3. How will future integrations with systems outside of automation work? –  e.g. live chat, finance and CRM. 
4. What does the onboarding process look like? – you can then determine what type of outside help you’ll need. 
5. Will it be an open or closed platform? Open means you can use any CRM, building tool or site. Closed means you can’t and can end up being more expensive.