How Does Marketing Automation Work

Many companies struggle to keep up with ongoing marketing efforts. Repetitive tasks such as emails, social media, creating conversion-focused landing pages and website updates are often forgotten. Many companies choose to automate these tasks through the use of marketing automation software to reduce the burden and collect valuable information about their prospects. Marketing automation software helps companies nurture leads and increase the rate of conversions by streamlining activities and allowing the marketer to work in a more efficient way.

What Exactly is Marketing Automation?

Marketing automation refers to software platforms that are designed to automate repetitive marketing tasks. Marketing departments use marketing automation platforms to increase efficiency. Typical marketing automation tasks are email, social media and digital advertising. Marketing automation allows dynamic segmentation of marketing campaign contacts and allows for specific actions over a period of time.

Although marketing automation provides the tools necessary to turn prospects into customers, you need a database of leads (emails) to use the platform. This doesn’t mean that companies should use purchased email lists. This technique wastes both time and money. It also hurts the reputation of your company. No one wants to receive unsolicited emails. This is where paid advertising campaigns can step in and increase your lead generation efforts to capture more qualified email addresses.

Marketing Automation Features

Common marketing automation features include inbound marketing strategies such as email marketing, custom contact forms, landing page creation, campaign management, lead scoring, CRM & CRM integration, social media marketing capabilities, mobile marketing, file management, and web analytics. Each software platform (HubSpot, Marketo, Eloqua, etc.) offers different integration platforms to help you work as efficient as possible. The foundation for all marketing automation platforms are essentially the same, the features and the amount of contacts within each platform will dictate what your monthly subscription cost will be.

  • CRM (Salesforce, Insightly, etc.)
  • Google Calendar
  • SurveyMonkey
  • WordPress
  • Shopify
  • Leadpages
  • Hotjar
  • Zapier
  • Call Tracking
  • LiveChat
  • Project Management
  • EventBrite
  • Hundreds more…

Marketing automation should not be limited to just email. People often become tired of the constant flow of emails and will eventually ignore or block these messages. More and more people rely on the advice and recommendations of others when choosing a product or service. This is where social media comes into play. Each marketing automation platform has social media integration points that connect to your organic and paid social media platforms.

Potential leads will visit your social media websites to learn about your business and see if what you’re offering can benefit their needs. These individuals often move from social media to your website, providing a greater opportunity for conversions. If email is your only source of marketing automation, you’re missing out on a lot of potential leads from both your website and social media.

A Well-Executed Marketing Automation Plan Focuses on all Marketing Channels

It’s crucial that you do not limit your marketing automation to just one approach. Focusing on all marketing channels such as SEO, paid advertising, email & social puts you in the best possible position to understand how to turn leads into customers. The information collected through various channels helps you change your marketing efforts to accommodate the evolving needs of your prospects.

Well-executed marketing automation provides a detailed view of your prospects needs and behaviors. This information gives you a competitive advantage.

Choosing a Marketing Automation Provider

When choosing a marketing automation provider to work with, it’s important to select a company that is able to accommodate your business’ unique needs and goals. Choose a provider with a deep understanding of marketing and conversions. Please contact us to learn how marketing automation can help your business.

Schedule Your Free Marketing Automation Consultation Today


Michael Delpierre
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