Marketing automation has become a buzzword so fast that it is hard to remember what digital marketing was without it. But what does the term “marketing automation” really mean?
What is Marketing Automation?
According to Hubspot, a marketing automation company that drives continued innovation in the digital market, “Marketing automation refers to the software that exists with the goal of automating marketing actions. Many marketing departments have to automate repetitive tasks such as emails, social media, and other website actions. The technology of marketing automation makes these tasks easier.”
To some, that may sound like the easy way out. On the surface, it almost seems as if automation is taking the human component out of marketing initiatives. Fortunately for marketing professionals like myself, that belief could not be further from the truth.
The truth is that just like personal computers, smartphones, and email, marketing automation is a tool that allows professionals to do more with less. Prior to widespread marketing automation systems, marketing campaigns were either incredibly generic or specific and small in scale. In order to explain what I mean, I first need to explain exactly what marketing automation can do.
When marketing professionals hear “automation”, their minds might immediately fly to blast emailing, but properly utilized automation systems can do so much more than that. Below are three little-known but powerful uses for marketing automation.
Three powerful uses for marketing automation:
1) Tracking customer interest & building buyer personas.
Let’s say that you responsible for marketing at a cosmetics and skincare company. Your verticals include makeup, female skincare, and male skincare. When a user lands on your site, you can ask them to fill out a brief form in order to access content. Once your marketing automation system has identified their IP address, you will be able to track their movements throughout your site.
Let’s say Customer A fills out a form in order to gain access to a makeup tutorial. She then plays the video all the way through, downloads a coloring guide, and puts three of your makeup items in her cart.
Customer B fills out a form to access a coupon on men’s skincare products. He then puts 4 men’s skincare products in his cart, and reads a blog post about facial care hygiene.
With this information, you should be able to discern the general characteristics and interests of both Customer A and Customer B. Customer A is nicknamed “Makeup Mary”, and Customer B is nicknamed “Skincare Steve”. Now that you know their interests and have them organized into buyer personas, you can leverage marketing automation even further.
2) Building custom campaigns surrounding buyer personas.
For consistency’s sake, we’ll remain the CMO of that cosmetics and skincare company in this hypothetical as well. Let’s say that the holidays are rolling around, and you have put out a great piece of content on Holiday Party make-up looks. You want to alert customers of these resources via email, so you draft a compelling piece and cue it up for send. If you were to send to everyone in your database, then you would be hitting contacts who have little to no interest in makeup guides. Skincare Steve isn’t worried about making his eyeliner pop. In fact, he may unsubscribe from your blast emails if the messaging isn’t targeted to him.
Buyer persona development through marketing automation allows you to segment your audience and build custom campaigns for your different customers.
3) Real-time communication between marketing and sales.
Prior to marketing automation, the success of campaigns were unknown until the campaigns completed and sales numbers came in. Now, real time notifications can push customers through the sales funnel at a much faster rate than before. For example, let’s say a blast email went out to all Skincare Steves highlighting the importance of overnight moisturizer. Within moments, your marketing automation system will be able to see who opened the email and who clicked through to read your blog post or look at your products. If a customer lingers on a product page without adding it to cart, you can program a timed pop-up offering them a coupon code. This entire flow is conceptualized and programed ahead of time, so that once that email goes out, everything following it happens automatically.
Revisiting life before marketing automation:
Prior to marketing automation, marketers at that cosmetics and skincare company who wanted to share big news would have had to run a campaign that invariably alienated a portion of their audience. For example, a billboard pushing makeup is bound to be seen by customers who are not in the market for makeup.
If a more targeted campaign was wanted, it would have to move much slower as sales data for individuals would have to be aggregated, studied, and responded to. Imagine receiving a sales report on men’s skincare product a full month after the sales were made, and attempting to send messaging to that list either through manual emailing or snail mail.
Why you should use marketing automation:
Marketing automation requires quite a bit of conception and set-up before campaign launch, but by transitioning the brainpower from a reactive to a proactive place, customers experience a seamless, more personalized experience. And considering that customer engagement is the goal of any and every marketing professional, why wouldn’t you leverage the latest and greatest marketing tool to help you achieve your goals?