Technology has changed nearly every facet of human life, and business is no exception. This wave of change has shaken us to our cores. Nowadays, consumers are driven to consume readily available information before making their decisions. They proactively search content and products online, read reviews, seek social referrals, and dig into expert reports in order to make informed purchasing decision. As a result, if want your company to get to the front front of the line of prospects early on and establish expertise and deliver personalized content, you need to embrace innovative technologies such as marketing automation.
Marketing automation has changed the face of marketing drastically and over the last few years has become a hot topic for businesses of all sizes. Its use has become ubiquitous as it is being utilized by companies in nearly every industry. If you are a CEO of a company, and you have heard about marketing automation, the nine-figure question on your mind should be, is your business ready for it?
It is easy to stick to the old tried-and-true methods of marketing and rely on your sales team to nurture your leads until fruition. However, as more and more companies are embracing the use marketing automation plans, your company might be at a disadvantaged position without this technology. Additionally, as your client base continues to grow, replying manually to all their emails becomes time-consuming and chaotic. Luckily, by opting for marketing automation, you will kill several birds with the same stone as you will learn from the following points.
What is Marketing Automation?
Marketing automation can be defined as any marketing tool that enables a company to measure, streamline, and automate marketing tasks and workflows. The right marketing automation tool can you help stay razor-close to your customers electronically, understand which marketing programs are working (or not), and close on target customers through your sales funnels. And to make things even more interesting, you will be able to do all this with far less effort and at much lower costs.
Signs That You Need a Marketing Automation Solution
The need for a marketing automation solution can present themselves in several ways. Noting these signs is beneficial because it will help you get the right marketing automation platform that will suit the precise needs of your company. If you find that your marketing department is having a rough time tracking and maintaining multiple marketing campaigns, then you should really consider getting a marketing automation solution. A good marketing automation will ensure that tracking and managing various marketing campaigns is but a walk in the park. If you find that your CRM solution to track contacts is not generating business for you or your past closed deals are not generating any significant repeat business, your answer might be an automation solution.
Lacking enough staff to contact every lead and each existing customers manually might also be a telling sign that you need a marketing automation solution. Additionally, is you find that even the surest leads always require comprehensive nurturing before committing to buy, then your company requires a marketing automation.
After you have finally decided to get a marketing automation for your company, there are some several factors that you have to consider. These factors will help you implement a ideal marketing automation system for your business without any hiccups. These factors include
Cost
Before you commit to any vendor, you need to research. The internet offers you a viable option to conduct a painstaking and meticulous research. As you research, check out the various cost of different vendors so that you have an idea how much it is going to cost you to license a marketing automation solution. You will note that the pricing of marketing automation solution vary widely. Make sure that you choose a solution that is within your budget. However, apart from cost, there are other important things you have to consider to make an informed decision.
Features
A marketing automation is only as good as the features it offers. Therefore, you need to make sure that the marketing solution you choose for you business has the right features. Some of gem feature that you should look out for in a marketing automation solution include visitor tracking, real-time sales alert, lead scoring and grading, lead nurturing, email marketing, closed-loop reporting, progressive profiling, and dynamic content. Make sure that your team can easily use the features on the solution because most businesses that buy marketing automation are not using it to its full potential.
Time Commitment
Setting up a marketing automation system takes time. Your team will need to learn the basics before they can start using the system effectively. It is hence important to know whether a marketing automation solution is self-serving and intuitive or it is consult and detail-oriented. The latter might take more time as its learning curve is steeper compared to the former.
Conclusion
Once you have determined that your business is ready for a marketing automation, you need to choose a demo first to see exactly how it will fit into your business. It is also important to take your time to under the current marketing trends and how buyers want to be marketed to so that you choose the right marketing automation solution.
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