On today’s business landscape, there are plenty of approaches, strategies and tools that can enhance performance and results. And then there is a smaller group of solutions that are flat-out ESSENTIAL – which means that embracing and exploiting them isn’t an optional “nice-to-have,” but a basic necessity for long-term business survival. And at the top of this list is marketing automation. Here are the 5 reasons why:
1. Marketing automation saves massive amounts of time.
Forget mere “efficiency” -- that’s nice, but what marketing automation accomplishes in terms of saving time is nothing short of magical. It literally saves hundreds of hours of time by automating various workflows, including those that would be simply possible do achieve manually.
2. Marketing automation delivers unprecedented control.
Manual marketing is typically a “one-sits-fits-all” approach, since it’s not feasible launch multiple campaigns or reach segmented target audiences – it would simply take too long, cost too much, and be too confusing to manage, However, these daunting challenges are a walk in the park for marketing automation, which empowers businesses to automatically segment their customers and reach them through different channels and with different messages. Ultimately, this means that their customers will be engaged with more relevant, timely and meaningful communication and content -- which is the key to all successful marketing.
3. Marketing automation turns small teams into a powerful force.
Many small and mid-sized business leaders assume that marketing automation is something that only large and enterprise organizations can take advantage of. This is completely false! In fact, marketing automation was MADE for small and mid-sized businesses, precisely because they don’t have large in-house marketing teams and annual marketing budgets in the six and seven-figures. With marketing automation, even the smallest businesses can compete with the “big boys” in a way that was never possible due to cost barriers.
4. Marketing automation supports consistent marketing.
One of the biggest challenges in marketing is to achieve consistency – because there are always other tasks and priorities that demand attention and require resources. However, marketing automation provides a structure for consistent marketing. As a result, businesses can create a unified, integrated brand voice across all of their platforms (web, social media, etc), which makes a vital difference between attracting new customers…or alienating them.
5. Marketing automation delivers powerful, accurate reports.
One of the biggest problems – and indeed, strongest criticisms – of conventional marketing is that it’s very difficult (and sometimes impossible) to track and measure. As a result, businesses don’t know if they’re generating ROI, or if they should make tactical or strategic adjustments. Marketing automation delivers powerful, accurate reports across all desired metrics and KPIs. Businesses can leverage the data in a number of ways for current and future campaigns. So it’s goodbye guesswork and gut feels, and hello hard evidence and big data!
The Bottom Line
As you can see from the above, marketing automation is smart, strategic -- and essential. As such, if your business hasn’t yet started reaping the rewards, the question to ask yourself isn’t “when should we take advantage of marketing automation to drive efficiency and results?”, but rather “how can we afford to sit on the sidelines and watch our competitors with marketing automation leave us behind?”
To learn more about making marketing automation a core, cost-effective part of your results-based marketing machine, contact us today.
Topics: Inbound Marketing
