According to Social Media Today’s “State of Marketing Automation Survey Report” (2019), 75% of marketers indicated they use at least one type of marketing automation tool already. In fact, Forrester’s “Marketing Automation Technology Forecast,” further indicates the spend on marketing automation tools is estimated to touch a whopping $25.1 billion by 2023. So, what exactly is marketing automation and how can it help you as the owner of a small business? Let’s take a closer look right now!
What Is Marketing Automation?
As digital marketer and entrepreneur Neil Patel puts it, “marketing automation is the use of software to automate marketing processes such as customer segmentation, customer data integration, and campaign management, that would have otherwise been performed manually.”
Why Is Marketing Important for SMBs?
Small companies can substantially benefit from marketing automation – if you are short on team members, time and resources, marketing automation tools allow you to automate tasks and processes. In a nutshell, it allows you to accomplish a lot more with much less time. For example, here are some of the many marketing areas you can automate –
- Social media
- Audience segmentation & personalization
- CRM and Lead management
- Drip email campaigns
- Website forms and actions
- Customer service / chatbots (according to American Express’ report, poor customer service led to 60% of consumers deciding against an intended transaction / purchase. Likewise, according to another study, 70% of respondents prefer to contact a brand via a chatbot rather than an app.)
- Schedule bookings, meetings and conference directly
- Event registration process
- Follow-ups, lead nurturing and conversion
- Feedback and lead nurturing
- Repeat business generation & cross-selling
How Does Marketing Automation Really Help Small Businesses?
Small companies can harness the power of marketing automation in the following areas –
- Enhanced communication – Marketing automation tools allow you to proactively communicate with your audience in a manner that is timely, consistent and personalized, whether it be automated drip email campaigns, dynamic Website experiences and everything else in between. How? Well, marketing automation tools allow you to track customer behavior closely and also enables you to segment your audience smartly so specific sets of messages to reach the right person based on actions they have previously performed. Use marketing automation tools to plan your content in advance, identify trigger points for different actions your audience takes and let the communication cycle roll on autopilot with access to in-depth analytics to further fine-tune your strategy and understand your audience better. Serving relevant content in such a personalized manner is bound to help you convert leads into customers more effectively (think Netflix and Amazon!). You can even upsell to existing customers (according to the authors of Marketing Metrics, the probability of selling to an existing customer is 60 to 70% instead of 5-20% for a new prospect). Enhanced communication = faster lead conversion & trust building.
- Reduced error – Marketing automation tools prevent employee burn-out, and it also reduces the risk of human error substantially – whether it be the messaging being sent to the wrong audience segment or at an incorrect time. Reduced error = enhanced brand credibility.
- Trust-building – Marketing automation tools allows hyper personalization rooted in data. It ensures your communication is meaningful, relevant and authentic, which ultimately builds trust and loyalty, which are the cornerstones of a solid client relationship. Trust-building = brand loyalty.
- Scale-up easily – As your small business grows bigger, manually completing each task – i.e. posting on social media platforms, sending out emails, sharing content resources, etc. – is not a feasible option. Scale up and down with ease thanks to flexible tools that are adaptable. Scale-up easily = flexible & better use of resources.
- Refine strategy – Marketing automation tools offer in-depth insights about your customers / clients, including patterns. This information is gold when fine-tuning strategy. Make well-informed decision based on actual facts, not guesswork. Refine strategy = well-informed, smarter decisions.
- Increased sales – According to DemandGen report, nurtured leads yield a 20% increase in sales opportunities versus leads that didn’t receive the right amount of attention. Small businesses benefit from CRM because it boosts revenue by streamlining the entire sales cycle. In fact, CRM systems can increase a brand’s revenue by 41%. Capture more leads from different honey pots setup on your Website, prioritize them smartly, nurture them smoothly in real-time through pre-set trigger-points and track them throughout the entire process with ease. Increased sales = business growth!
Indeed, marketing automation is the way of the future for businesses everywhere. Research indicates 4 out of 5 users who adopt marketing automation enjoy increased lead generation; nearly 77% witness better conversions! Say goodbye to guesswork, delays, errors, missed opportunities and team burn-out. Harness time-saving opportunities to interact with customers and take them through a memorable journey with your brand – get ready to see your business transform from small to mid to large in no time!
