How Marketing Automation Tools
Improve Marketing ROI
Since its rebirth a few years back, marketing automation tools have taken the world of eCommerce by storm. From start-ups and small businesses to corporate big-wigs and enterprise companies, marketing automation software has reinvented the way they do business.
Ready for the good news? Marketing automation software can do the same for your business.
With the proper resources, automation tools can introduce an entirely new culture to your business that benefits both your customers and your employees.
Teams who do employ marketing technology into their sales strategy get amazing results.
Take a look at this infographic from Act-On :
Have you defined the trend?
Whether you’re in the nonprofit sector or running retail through eCommerce CRMs, marketing automation services are redefining the way businesses look at sales and marketing. With an integrated team and realistic goals, teams across the world flourish with sale and marketing automation technology by their sides. If you’re interested in creating a digital strategy for your business, it’s time to invest in marketing automation tools.
**Side Note: On the chance you’ve made it to this blog post through your search for marketing automation services, visit Enfusen’s services page here.
But enough of that! Let’s talk more about how you can get the same marketing productivity by combining sales and marketing automation.
8 Ways Marketing Automation Tools
Maximize Your Marketing ROI
Though the benefits of technology in the workplace are limitless, it helps to get a realistic view of how marketing automation tools benefit your business from a bird’s eye view.
Check out the many ways marketing automation tools can empower your team and maximize your marketing ROI.
For the marketing team:
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Schedule Campaigns and Social Media Ahead of Time
Whether your company is already maintaining a digital marketing strategy or you’re simply running a business blog, marketing automation tools can help you gain control of the time you spend managing content.
In addition to giving you the ability to schedule blogs and other content ahead of time, the majority of marketing automation tools allow you to integrate your social media management tools into the process as well. Not only does this allow you to handle long stretches of time, it helps your marketing team get back to what they do best: marketing.
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Generate Targeted Content Customers Actually Want to Read
Help your marketing team visualize the buyer’s journey through marketing automation technology. Allow your team to build visual funnels that let them see the strengths and weaknesses in every step of their strategy. This leads to more targeted content that will ring loud with the right customers. Let your marketing team open the door to personalized content. Your customers will do the rest.
After building all this new content, you may be asking yourself: “How can I milk my old blog content to be useful for my website?” Fear not! The market research and big data capabilities of marketing automation tools allow you to refresh old content. With a little keyword research, even the worst performing blogs can be edited into masterpieces.
Often times we post blogs to social media and leave them there to die. Automation tools allow marketing teams the opportunity to re-purpose that content through content marketing and SEO strategies that answer questions and benefit your visitors.
The result? Engaged customers that push your content for you.
With platforms like Enfusen’s Marketing Control Center that utilize predictive analytics marketing, you can even generate content ideas with predictive analytics that help you deliver the right message at the right time. Learn more about the Marketing Control Center here: https://enfusen.wpengine.com/services/
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A Realistic Idea of What’s Working for Your Digital Marketing Strategy
Nothing beats cold, hard data. The company-wide detailed reports are the most realistic view of your business you can get. These detailed reports allow everyone to see where they need to improve. More importantly, it allows your marketing team to understand what campaigns are working and which are turning people away.
After a few trial and error runs, your marketing department will know exactly how to approach those customers and start increasing success across your business. They’ll be focused on what can bring in more leads rather than how to keep the marketing effort afloat.
For the sales department:
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Automatic Follow-Ups
With the age of technology in full swing, leads are more likely to move on to the next company if your sales team isn’t available at the moment. Automated email follow-ups and interactive tools help you avoid that situation. With autoresponders set to respond to your customers within seconds, they can get the information they need.
Maintaining this form of instant contact is incredibly important in the world of eCommerce. In fact, the Harvard Business Review stated a few years back that you are 60 times more likely to qualify a lead if you make contact within 1 hour.
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Prioritize Contacts to Help Generate Stronger Leads
When your sales department is less than successful, it’s difficult to pinpoint exactly what they’re doing wrong. Though it may look like your team is failing at closing the sale, has your marketing team provided qualified leads?
Despite the simplicity of that question you’d be shocked with how many times the answer is no.
The reality of that statement is a failed sales quarter. No matter who you ask, lifelong customers are better than 1 time strangers. When your sales team is connected to people who are actually interested in your product or service, you have a much better chance of creating a relationship with that customer. Not only does that give you another familiar face, it gives that customer a reason to tell people about your brand and business.
The various management tools provided by marketing automation tools allow your sales and marketing teams to pull detailed reports on your customer. From the last time they visited your website to the last person who made contact from your sales team, knowing exactly where your customer is in the buyer’s journey is essential to your sales team closing those sales.
In addition to detailed contact reports, your team can stay focused on your ideal customers.
For your business overall:
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Automation Tools Refine Your Marketing Process
The best aspect of implementing marketing automation software is the culture these tools introduce to your employees and your business. If you haven’t fully mapped out your business marketing strategy, this technology will help you visualize and solidify the different aspects of your marketing efforts.
For example, the very steps you take to implement the tools of this software throughout your operations and procedures will help you define vital aspects of the sales cycle, your customer personas, and your niche within the industry.
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Improve Your Marketing Productivity
Though these tools can reveal a lot of weak points in your sales and marketing teams, it also creates a way for these teams to create accountability with one another. Far too often sales and marketing departments are viewed as separate entities. Not only does this lead to division within the workplace, it creates a circle of blame instead of a line of change. With marketing automation software the skips in your company record are heard loud and clear.
Luckily, these issues are often dissolved by communication. With the feedback system of closed-loop data reporting your sales and marketing teams can deliver instant feedback to one another. Instead of numbers being a quarterly showdown, the two teams can become one sales-crushing entity that benefit one another.
Long story short: Marketing automation services make your teams more effective.
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Increased Revenue and Reduced Staffing Cost
Now before the marketing managers begin to panic, reducing staffing costs doesn’t mean cutting employees. It means making more efficient and influential people out of the employees you have. With marketing automation software, the members of your marketing team can focus on growing the image around your business instead of entering social media posts one-by-one.
After the initial creation of your essential marketing campaigns, much of your online operations may become entirely automated. The hours your team used to spend responding to blog inquiries and generalized business questions can now be answered through autoresponders.
By automating these processes, your sales and marketing team are able to focus on creating meaningful relationships with your customers whether it be through sales calls or social media. Combining automation with better management results in sales activity that produces better ROI. With the legwork out of the way, all ends lead to increased customer lifetime values.
How Do Marketing Automation Tools
Influence Marketing ROI?
Though it should be obvious, marketing automation services improve every area of marketing budget. When your sales and marketing teams are working together to produce results, you get more out of what you put in. You’re granted the opportunity to double your ROI on the marketing efforts you’d be paying for anyway.
When it comes down to the skeleton of your business, it’s about the people. Whatever your product or service may be, you entered this business with the pursuit of sharing your ideas the world. High sales happen when good employees make lasting relationships with your customers.
With less footwork and filing, your sales team can focus on the core aspect of their job: forming relationships with your customers. Though the journey of implementation can be trying, the results are well worth the work. Detailed sales reports and lead generation allow salespeople to know exactly where a customer is in the buyer’s journey.
Instead of fretting over marketing campaigns, your sales and marketing teams can make sound decisions and get back to your customers. Better yet, your entire team can focus on growing the business instead of maintaining it.
Now that we’ve covered the nitty-gritty let’s get straight to the bottom line: It’s time to start looking at marketing automation software providers. Whether you’re a marketing manager or a business owner, it’s important to compare your company’s needs against different automation providers.
Get your feet wet on providers by downloading Enfusen’s free whitepaper Marketing Automation Tools Match-Up. In the downloadable whitepaper, we’ll share 3 bottom-line charts that compare and contrast the capabilities of top providers.
