Digital marketing automation is the use of software to perform marketing actions in an automated way. This means that a company can perform processes that would naturally be difficult and achieve more efficiency and better results. An example of this could be setting up an email message to be triggered when a customer's credit card expires.
how do you get the most out of digital marketing automation?
To get the most out of the automation process, there are three things you need to consider:
- Develop a solid strategy. The software is a complement, not a substitute. For this reason, developing a solid and successful strategy must be one of the top priorities to optimise marketing automation.
- Always remember the customer's needs - focus on using the tools that truly serve the needs of your customers.
- Measure results: To know if you are effective in your business, you need to always keep an eye on your results, not only for that, but also to improve or change strategies. For example ,if you notice that the email open rate is much lower in your automated messages compared to the ones you normally compose in real time, it is a red flag that you need to re-evaluate and adjust your automation efforts.
why is digital marketing automation beneficial for businesses and marketing agencies?
Automation is not only trendy for businesses, but it also has a number of benefits that make it a must-have. Here are some of them:
- reduces stress and workload - Most marketers feel overworked and complain about understaffing in their companies, so automating marketing takes work off their hands and also helps them save a great deal of time.
- they offer a fantastic ROI - marketing automation delivers a positive return on investment very quickly.
- it allows you to design automatic education and maturation processes for a database. Marketing automation delivers the right email and content, to the right user, at the right time.
- identify more leads- marketing automation systems understand buyer signals, score them appropriately and surface more (and much higher quality) leads.
- they make reporting easier. Most digital marketing automation tools incorporate analytics and reporting so you can measure the effectiveness of your campaigns and activities. That information would be difficult and time-consuming to collect manually, so having it at your fingertips is a huge advantage.
Some of the best and most effective digital marketing automation tools are:
- Hubspot: It is the best platform for inbound marketing and automation and is a very special and easy to use tool that integrates email marketing, SEO, data analysis, blogging and social media.
- Mailchimp: It is a great email marketing tool, with which you can also create your landing pages and generate reports on the performance of your marketing campaign. It offers a free version and a paid version with more features.
- Rd Station: A platform similar to Hubspot, you can create personalised emails, landing pages with specific templates and a comprehensive data analysis system for decision making.
- Marketo: It is a simple platform that has many automation functionalities, including e-mail marketing, social networks and SEO, among others.
- Canva: A freemium online graphic design software tool that is easy to use and versatile enough to allow you to create anything from company logos to presentation slides, posters or social media posts.
- Google Search Console - Google Search Console (GSC) is a free tool from Google that allows you to track and measure your organic search effectiveness and SEO performance. Connect it to your website to find out which keywords people are using to find your website, and the best performing URLs for your site.
- Salesforce CRM- One of the most popular and widely used customer relationship management (CRM) platforms, Salesforce CRM provides a single, shared view of every customer for every department, including marketing, sales, commerce and service.
- Pardot is an advanced marketing automation solution that focuses primarily on driving sales. It is designed to accelerate pipelines through lead generation, scoring and nurturing, as well as personalised email marketing, sales alerts and social media integration.
- Buffer is a social media tool that allows you to plan and schedule posts for different social media platforms in advance. Not only is Buffer incredibly useful for planning ahead, but it also gives you a series of analytics and a clear dashboard tool to help you determine what's working and what's not.
In conclusion, marketing automation is a fabulous option for any business looking for greater efficiency, as well as lower cost, improved productivity, more detailed analytics and better customer service.
