Marketing Automation: everything you need to know

In this text, we are going to explain how marketing automation works. We are also going to list the advantages of investing in these tools and show how this concept helps your business grow. Check this out!

There are lots of myths surrounding marketing automation. It is important that we clarify this at the beginning of this article, which, although a little long, is worth reading.

Actions like following back, sending SMS Marketing or scheduling publications on social media are indeed automatic, but while interesting, they are far below what we consider marketing automation. The concept is much more powerful and, mainly, strategic.

This is about understanding and acting in a personalized and scalable manner with your audience on the most diverse online media. This is about understanding and deeply respecting the interest of the lead in their purchase journey, nurturing them with required information, in key moments, in an automated manner.

This means that the work goes far beyond that developed by a robot. Marketing automation helps your sales team in an essential aspect that cannot be solved by a machine: the relationship.

When the automation flow works well, this means that the relationship with the customers gets real benefits. The idea is to optimize processes and achieve the expected results

In this text, we are going to explain how marketing automation works. We are also going to list the advantages of investing in these tools and show how this concept helps your business grow. Check this out!

What is Marketing Automation

Marketing automation is a digital marketing strategy that tries to use tools to automate relationships processes with prospects. In other words, the focus is on sending online materials in a segmented manner.

Then, the idea is to analyze the results of each sending action and, consequently, to manage the relationship with the consumers. Through automation, data and information are made available so that the contacts — or leads — advance in their purchase journeys.

The same work is also done with customers in order to optimize the after-sales stage and thus provide pleasant experiences and new sales. In order for the process to flow in the best possible way, it is crucial that the company has a very well-prepared and very attentive marketing team.

In marketing automation, in addition to reaching a particular audience through relevant content, aligned with the content marketing methodology, you will be able to automatically replicate tasks that must be carried out over and over again.

Thus, your productivity increases considerably — since you are able to manage your time better, to become a much more qualified professional and to deliver better results.

Advantages of Marketing Automation

Marketing automation generates innumerable advantages to the company and enables the increase of revenue and profit in addition to improving customer retention and lowering customer acquisition costs. Among its benefits, we point out:

Nutrition of immature leads

It is very common to experience a situation in which the prospect is not prepared to buy. The reasons for this can be several: the customer may have a restricted budget, they may have other priorities or may not have realized that they have a problem and need to solve it, for example.

In these scenarios, the leads are still immature in their purchase journeys, but they may reach the end of the journey soon. In all these cases, the relationship is very valuable since, many times, your company still needs to educate people.

It may also just be a question of timing. That is why it is crucial to stay close to the prospect, generating value and gaining credibility to keep your brand in their mind when it comes the time to buy. The automation enables this approach in an efficient manner and, in general, requires little effort.

More mature leads enable bigger tickets

Who do you think buys more bags? A woman who does not understand much of fashion and chooses at most one option per year or someone who always buys, has read books on the subject, goes to fashion shows and has more than 300 pairs in her closet, being a great connoisseur of the topic?

The more the lead knows the topic in question, the greater the likelihood of being aware that they have a problem and making an effort to solve it. More mature leads enable bigger tickets and the automation ensures the role of offering the right content to generate a sales offer.

Mature leads take more advantage of the product

We highlighted that people with more knowledge are usually synonymous with higher tickets and, at the same time, they also know how to take advantage of the product or service in the best way possible. This allows them to be more successful and generate new recommendations.

A more productive sales team

Since the first stages of the purchase journey are automated, the sales team can be much more efficient and productive on a daily basis. If the tool has done a good job, the salespeople feel much safer and more comfortable to approach prepared leads.

In addition to that, these sales professionals also become confident as to the fact that a lead may be immature, but they will return at the right moment. Because they do not have to complete the initial education, it is possible they become experts in the final stages, ensuring a much higher purchase rate.

Personalized content

In automation campaigns, it is possible to make very specific segmentations, such as the moment of the purchase, niche of performance, position, company, among others.

With this, it is possible to personalize your content and direct your communication, making each persona go their own way. In practice, the result is a much more efficient relationship that adds value to each stage and keeps the leads eager for the next contacts and interactions.

A more productive work

Much of the work of maturing a lead is done automatically through automation. Obviously, there is an effective effort to create the trajectory of the different leads, but when this is adjusted, there is no need to resume work from scratch.

This makes the marketing team much more productive. They can focus on establishing relationships with prospects.

Sales team receives prepared leads

According to the lead time, the conversations with the salespeople are very different. The one who is starting to discover the topic may offer a lot of resistance.

However, the contact who understands the topic is much more open and prone to make a decision favourable to the sale. With more prepared leads, the sales team needs to invest less time to get a deal done.

A shorter sales cycle

When all the work is done by the automation system, the sales team can receive leads that are already in the last stages of the purchase journey.

This reality makes it possible for the customer to spend much less time negotiating with the sales professional. That way, the prospect’s time is used to help the contact make the best choice.

A more efficient funnel

During the entire purchase, the consumer necessarily goes through some stages. There is no point in trying to sell a registration for a 42km race to those who are used to 5km races only, for example

From the moment you track the behaviour of the prospect, marketing automation allows you to identify the interests and purchase stages of each prospect.

Thus, it is possible to send the appropriate content to take the lead to the next stage. As a result, we see a funnel flowing and taking people to the final stages so that they are converted into customers.

The right moment to invest in automation

Is there a right time to invest in marketing automation? To give a short and straightforward answer: it depends. This varies greatly depending on different aspects, such as having a good website online. If this is not your case, the ideal is to deal with that first and then think about investing in a marketing automation system.

However, if you are already registering consumers’ emails, there is already a good lead capture process going on and if you want to expand your operations, this may be a great moment for you to start working with automation.

Multichannel Comunication

Marketing automation tools like E-goi provide a single place from where you can manage all your communication channels (email, social networks, SMS, Web Push and others). In addition, the audience dedicates different times and moments to each channel of communication and, therefore, it is essential to communicate with the right user at the right time, but also in the right channel.

Marketing Automation in practice

In order to put marketing automation into practice in your company, it is essential to pay full attention to some issues:

1. define the strategy, its personas and its metrics for automation actions;

1. research a good marketing automation tool. There are several companies in the market that offer this type of service;

1. establish the form of interacting with the lead in each of the stages of the sales funnel;

1. clearly define which content will be offered by the automation system in each stage of the funnel;

1. carry out the implementation of the system;

1. track all results closely;

1. make several tests and apply the required improvements.

How to choose the automation system

Would you like to know how to choose a good marketing automation system that really meets your needs and is fundamental to generate more revenue and profits for your company? You must pay attention to some points.

After all, you need to, for example, invest in a system that understands perfectly when a lead goes from one stage to another in the sales funnel, right? Therefore, one of the first stages to choosing the best system is to check if it includes the above described function.

Another point that needs to be taken into account in a good automation system is: does it personalize the information you want to capture from the contact or is it standard and fixed for all leads? If it is in that first case, that is a good indicator.

Moreover, it is also very important to assess if the chosen tool is easy to handle and does not have an excess of options. Keep in mind that the more tools the system has, the more complicated its understanding will be. After all, the excess of options can be an obstacle when it comes to translating the results, right?

Marketing Automation to generate sales

Marketing automation allows a series of actions that include, for example, dynamic lists, click-through segmentation, and priority flows. Here we are going to explain 3 ways to use automation, with a focus on leveraging the leads to generate sales for the sales team.

Look at this!

Leads that need to be prepared to buy

If the lead has a good profile, it is worth tracking them closely and making the approach at the right time. To achieve this, you can:

• create a segmentation list, focusing on criteria that your company considers to be a good alignment (companies of a given size, some positions, niches, etc.);

• create an automation flow with one condition: if the lead enters this list, a salesperson must become the “owner” of that contact;

• set the flow to notify the lead “owner” whenever the contact carries out an action, such as clicking a link or downloading some material.

In this way, it will be possible for the sales professional to carry out a closer follow-up. When you realize that the lead is more mature, they can approach them in a much confident manner and more likely to close the sale.

In this scenario, the challenge is to track the leads with the highest potential closely and approach them only when you feel they are more interested in the purchase. It is possible that this maturity is identified in different ways.

However, the most common actions are the clicks on some links included the e-mail marketing and the download of certain materials.

Leads that are almost prepared to buy

Here, the idea is to work with those leads that show some signs of interest in your product or service. It is natural to use a Call To Action in the nutrition e-mails, directing the contact to go to the product page.

Think about the following opportunity: If leads have opened several emails and received different materials, they have a minimum of interest, even if they have not actually converted, right?

Some do not convert because they really have no interest in the product, but others may be too lazy to fill in the fields, for example. This is exactly where the challenge lies: you must identify, track and address the contacts that have shown interest, but have not made the conversion.

To track those leads, you may:

• create a segmentation for leads that clicked on an e-mail marketing link to, for example, run a free trial on the product but did not start the test

• create an automation flow with one condition: if the lead enters this list, a salesperson must become the “owner” of that contact;

• set the flow to notify the lead “owner” by email.

Although the lead is not totally ready for the purchase, they have already shown a minimum of interest in knowing more about your product. So you should approach them. Remember that, in this type of action, it is extremely important to keep track of notifications and actions in real time, ok?

Leads that are prepared to buy

In this last case, obviously, the life of marketing and sales becomes simpler. However, do not be fooled. Great opportunities are missed because due to lack of speed. The lead is ready to close the purchase and has already shown it through the conversions. This way, speed of approach is vital to the success of your business.

According to a survey by The Ultimate Contact Strategy, when you approach a contact in the first minute after a conversion, the possibilities of it buying increase by up to 400%. Through the automation, you can accelerate the lead journey process and save precious time. For this to happen, you can:

• create a segment for leads that have shown a real interest in your product or service (budget request, landing page conversion with free trial, etc.);

• create an automation flow with one condition: if the lead enters that list, a salesperson must become the “owner” of that contact;

• configure the flow to mark the contact as an opportunity and send the lead to the salesperson.

This lead is delivered through the integration between the automation tools and the company’s CRM. This ensures that the Lead is promptly sent to the sales professional.

Main Marketing Automation mistakes

Although a somewhat sensitive topic, it is very important to address it. While marketing automation is crucial to virtually any type of company, it is indispensable that the initial plan is well executed by professionals who truly understand the topic.

A small error targeting or setting automation rules can result in aggressive submission of campaigns to the same user, which will compromise the end results.

However, despite its automatic nature, marketing automation remains dependent on constant planning, monitoring and analysis to function properly. It is difficult to predict the behaviors at the beginning and we must always rely on mutations of behavior over time, which may force us to modify the strategy or even the message.

Another serious problem that can happen with automation is forgetting to think about the consumer’s purchase journey. When this happens — and it is not uncommon —your lead nutrition is entirely compromised.

Situations in which there is a lack of alignment between the needs of the sales team and those of the marketing team are also very detrimental to your strategy.

Important tips for successful automation

For your automation project to be successful, it is crucial that you follow some of the tips below:

• never, under any circumstances, purchase a contact list. This may even seem like a great advantage, but the possibilities of being a shot in the foot are extremely high. Run away from this option and create your own list. It is more work, but it will surely offer many benefits to your business;

• do not copy the competition. Not only it is ugly, it is also inefficient. Obviously it is important to assess your competition’s actions since this can bring powerful insights to your company. However, always work to be authentic and original. This is what will make the difference in the market and will help you move to the next level;

• start with simpler systems and gradually improve your functions. Remember that it is very important to take one stage at a time. There is no point in entering a game which you are not yet ready to win;

• be very careful when creating your messages. They must have a human touch. Remember that people like to talk with people. The humanization of your interactions will be indispensable for the success of yours actions;

• always keep in mind that the main reason for marketing automation is to guide the lead to the end of the sales funnel. When this is very clear, the work becomes much more productive. Teams that work with clear goals are much more involved in your company’s everyday life and bring much more results.

Conclusion

You could see throughout the text that marketing automation (see this example) is a very powerful strategy. Through it, it is possible to interact and communicate in a personalized and automated manner. This brings a base of more prepared leads.

After all, it will deliver value content and, at the right moment, content of interest to your prospect. The automation definitely helps companies to reach prospects on a large scale and in a totally personalized manner.

With an increasingly competitive market, it is indispensable to have more agility and efficiency in delivering the results — and this is precisely one of the objectives of marketing automation.

If you are thinking about expanding your brand and increasing your revenue and your profits, take advantage of the numerous automation tools. Be strategic and choose the tool that will bring more cost-benefit to your organization. Then, you just have to apply our tips and follow the results.

With the information received throughout this article, we hope you have understood the importance of creating marketing campaigns to work in automatic mode. As we have highlighted, this is a way to speed up the marketing and sales teams’ action.

The entire process becomes more fluid, enabling gains for the company and for the customers. Over time, you will have more experience in this area and much more knowledge of your audience. From there, all you need to do is keep using the formula that worked so you can reap all the benefits of this action.

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