Automated Marketing Is Advantageous Even for Small Companies
Marketing automation is becoming increasingly popular and relevant in today’s digital world, but it still has a ways to go. To date, the use of marketing automation correlates with company size: Nearly two-thirds of companies with sales exceeding $500 million are using marketing automation, but that percentage drops abruptly to 10 percent of companies with revenue in the $20 million to $500 million range, and only 5 percent of companies with sales below $20 million (1).
Besides cost, a major reason why automated marketing is still more popular among larger companies is that the functionality of automated marketing platforms requires more learning and a higher head count to get up and running. This point is supported by a recent survey showing that 85 percent of B2B marketers using automated marketing feel they are not yet using it to its full potential (2). Of course, larger companies also tend to serve larger customer bases, making marketing automation a more appealing concept. Nevertheless, as more companies achieve success with it – some are reporting 10 percent increases in their sales pipelines (3) and the majority claim ROI within one year of implementation (4) – automated marketing will find greater penetration in smaller organizations as well. Improved software interfaces and greater integration with other marketing tools will undoubtedly aid adoption further.
At a high level, the siren song of automated marketing is that it allows brand marketers to engage customers with personalized communications on a large scale in a way that is simply not practical through any other, more traditional methods.
At Six Degrees, we have planned and executed a series of marketing campaigns on two different automated marketing platforms. Here are our top five reasons to consider it for your brand(s):
- Efficiency
Managing and maintaining a large database of contacts can be daunting. Say goodbye to the Rolodex. Automated marketing systems provide very intuitive solutions for loading, organizing and managing your contacts. Simply bring in your customer lists and turn them into leads and relationship-managed contacts easily and quickly.
Although it will take some learning and training – which is especially difficult for smaller companies that have fewer resources – automated marketing will ultimately allow you to do more and better marketing while eliminating repetitive and tedious manual work. Not only does this reduce human error, but it also leads the marketer to operate much more efficiently, a significant benefit for those smaller companies. Through a series of tasks and workflows, a single person is able to implement and schedule emails for a complete campaign. He or she can control when and how frequently they are sent, as well as how to handle different levels of customer engagement.
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In addition to saving time, marketing automation allows you to track detailed statistics for your campaigns and outreach efforts. Automated marketing tools provide reports outlining email open rates, bounce rates, unsubscribes, clicks and other forms of engagement. These analytics can help you tailor communications to your clients, design future campaigns and reach out to interested contacts in an extremely organized manner. The power of these analytics is such that you will always be in learning mode, identifying the best times to send emails to your targets, the most effective subject lines to use, the most appropriate social media tie-ins, etc. Your marketing has never been this accountable and manageable!
- Customer Information
Marketing automation allows you to gain insight on how to optimize customer engagement on an individual customer/prospect level, building useful, detailed profiles for specific users by tracking their activities and browsing behavior and the time they spend navigating your system. This is real customer intel based on behavior, not a self-report in a survey. Based on this information, you can re-prioritize your outreach efforts and focus on the greatest number of “low-hanging” opportunities to increase your success.
- Maintain a Personal Relationship With the Customer
By using merge variables, automated marketing allows you to address each customer on a personal basis. You can address them by their first and last names, their company name, job title or any other variable loaded into the database. A recent study shows that personalized emails have 29 percent higher unique open rates and 41 percent higher unique click rates. That will boost your campaign analytics quite a bit!
- Constant Business Activity
By using automated marketing, you are able to show your customers that your brand is active, engaged and committed to maintaining a relationship with them. In our 24/7 world, customers are expecting more personal and timely interactions with brands than ever before. No longer just a matter of customer service, this has become a matter of brand experience and brand differentiation.
Of course, getting up to speed with marketing automation can come with its challenges and hurdles. It can take time to learn and master but has proven to be extremely beneficial for those who take advantage of it. To find out how Six Degrees can help you get on your automated marketing feet, visit us at https://www.six-degrees.com/automation and tell us about your aspirations, questions or experiences. We’re learning every day, and we are happy to share our knowledge and opinions as well as benefit from yours.
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