To further increase the profitability of marketing campaigns, businesses have been turning to various marketing automation platforms.

Driving a 14.5% increase in sales productivity, it’s no wonder these systems are taking the industry by storm. If you haven’t yet considered introducing a marketing automation tool to your workflow, here are the reasons you should and how you can get started.

What is Marketing Automation?

Marketing automation platforms aim to increase the efficiency and productivity of online marketing campaigns by automating time-consuming tasks.

These might include crafting emails and messages, scheduling them for delivery, triggering specific actions based on customer behavior, or doubling as a campaign analytics tool. Used by thousands of B2B and B2C companies across the U.S. below lists the benefits your business can reap from this type of service.

• Personalization

By pinpointing valuable consumer information and incorporating customization features, you can easily personalize marketing campaigns to suit specific customer needs and preferences. Through this, you can cut down marketing costs drastically while acquiring business intelligence (BI), improving your overall customer experience (CX), and integrating them seamlessly into your customer relationship management (CRM) systems.

• Increased Revenue

For most businesses, higher revenue is an ongoing goal, regardless of how much your business has grown. Automation has been able to grant marketers greater control over their campaigns, allowing them to glean over data insights in a more methodical manner. Historically, automation campaigns have proven to increase the retention rate of customers as well as achieve other peripheral goals.

Who Uses Marketing Automation?

Despite the misconception that marketing automation tools are useful only to larger corporations, small and medium-sized businesses can just as easily benefit from them.

Some of the top marketers have attributed their success to the use of such platforms and have improved lead management and campaign measurability, irrespective of their company size. If you’re experiencing any of the problems below, it may be time to invest in an automation tool.

• Your Email List is Lagging Behind

If you haven’t given consumers an incentive to sign up for your email list, you’ll need to up your game. With marketing automation, you can strategically place an opt-in form on an area of your website that increases their chances of signing up. You can then effectively track how your email efforts have fared based on metrics such as open rates, link clicks, and sales through email.

• You’re short on manpower

If you don’t have the budget to hire a specialist who can oversee your marketing campaigns, investing in an all-in-one marketing tool can substitute for a dedicated full-time member. Automation platforms will execute commands and actions depending on your workflow and already-developed marketing campaign.

• You Aren’t Seeing the Profits You Want

If your business isn’t making money, you can mitigate the problem by better tracking the statistics that dictate how well your campaigns are doing. In particular, marketing automation allows you to focus on results, tweaking upcoming campaigns based on how well your previous campaigns have fared. Through this, you can more effectively split-test your ads and course them through your campaign analytics software.

• You Don’t Have the Time

If your marketing strategies require more effort than they should, you can either simplify your efforts or incorporate a marketing automation tool into your workflow. For a campaign to succeed, consistency is vital. If you can’t test, segment, and analyze conversions on your own, a tool may be able to do it for you—and save you the time you would’ve been dedicating otherwise. By delegating the bulk of the work to your platform, you can zero in on the bigger picture.

• Your Growth Has Plateaued

Seeing your entrepreneurial dreams succeed is a powerful moment for any self-made marketer. Yet, you can’t let your business run its natural course from here. If you haven’t yet explored marketing automation as a means to grow your business, you can leverage your tools by having them run repetitive tasks while you focus on other priorities.

How to Choose a Marketing Automation Platform

To guarantee success in your digital marketing efforts, utilizing a platform that combines power and simplicity is the first step towards crafting modern solutions.
Among the other things to consider are:

• Simplicity

More complex software doesn’t necessarily beget more useful features. Marketing automation is a software that promises high levels of potential—you want it to be a simple platform that is easy to navigate. Creating and tracking marketing campaigns should be as streamlined as possible, which may prove impossible if your interface is difficult to maneuver.

• Lead Management

Being able to determine which leads will generate the most revenue is key to a systematic conversion process. With funnel mapping and tracking, you can rank leads that are most likely to convert to sales.

• Enabling Sales

As previously mentioned, marketing automation provides users with insights that allow them to predict consumer behavior. Through this, you can project campaigns according to high-ranking search terms and popular web pages that make closing a sale quicker and easier.

• High-Performing Analytics

With a live and real-time analytics software like MarketPlan, you can easily measure the effectiveness of your ongoing marketing campaigns and make the appropriate adjustments instantaneously. Especially useful when it comes to email marketing, you can easily maximize the profitability of your campaign.

• Integrated Social Media Marketing Tools

If your business isn’t capitalizing on the potential of social media platforms, you may already be behind. To improve your overall branding and find better ways to engage with online users, marketing automation software can help you achieve your Facebook and Instagram goals.

Conclusion

Given the near-limitless potential of marketing automation software, companies that employ them can justify price points according to their short-term and long-term goals. If benefits such as campaign optimization are outweighing the costs, then yes—marketing automation is worth the investment!

There’s no better way to throw in automation into your marketing mix than with Market Plan. With our funnel mapping and tracking tools, you can easily map campaigns and collaborate with teams across the U.S.—all from a live and centralized interface!