The face of marketing has changed drastically in recent years. A short while ago, few people had even heard of inbound marketing, and now it is the most upcoming, prominent marketing strategy for most businesses. The cold calls, hard sales tactics, and zealous sales people have given way to new terminologies and ways of getting customers to their doors. It’s like going back to school all over again. One of those new strategies that have taken hold of the industry is marketing automation. Let’s take a look at marketing automation and the marketing automation benefits for your company.
What Is Marketing Automation?
Simply put, it is a means of allowing a business to provide consumers with valuable and practical content that will motivate them to take the next step towards becoming an actual customer of your business. This marketing approach can be done through the use of several different marketing automation softwares that can help a business make major strides in improving their return on investment. While it may not be the most basic of marketing automation, the approach to this strategy is pretty straightforward.
Marketing Automation Software
When you take into consideration that nearly every consumer starts his or her buying process online it makes sense that you as a business would want to be found online. Since your goal is to build leads that can be used to convert consumers into paying clients, using marketing automation software can be very effective in helping to manage those leads. While the software does not generate your content for you, it can be instrumental in identifying which leads are ready to go to sales and which ones need a little more nurturing. By using marketing automation software you can simplify the management of your leads without having to expend much manual labor.
The Platform
Today’s inbound marketing strategies include making an evolutionary move from concentrating solely on email marketing as their primary focus to utilizing a more integrated program including but not limited to emails, social media, bloging, SEO/SEM, and premium content for developing their campaign. When your automated marketing platform includes a combination of strategies, your potential customers will be better prepared to distinguish you from your competition. Your visibility will be much more readily identified through your marketing automation efforts and you’ll be much more efficient at converting leads and improving your return on investment. Because you have so many different options to choose from, it is strongly recommended that before you make a decision you determine the current success of your marketing plan, and where your business can stand some improvements. With this information you’ll be better equipped to determine exactly what type of platform or automated marketing solutions will work best in helping you to reach your goals.
There are many things that can be included in your marketing automation strategies that could simplify your inbound marketing programs. As a small business marketing manager you have a wide choice of options that can help you to increase your company’s conversion rate. Whether you’re choosing to use automated email marketing, content marketing, or a combination of strategies that have been proven effective in the past, it makes sense to take advantage of the many marketing automation benefits and tools that are now available to you.