Does your company need to invest in marketing automation?

Every modern marketer should be using some sort of marketing automation. As a way to increase efficiency in your marketing efforts, marketing automation software can be used to automate some of your marketing interactions that you don't need to waste time manually completing; this could include email workflows, blog management, social media publishing, content offers and building your contact database. Ask yourself this: Does it sound better being the operator of a system that works for you or preforming each mundane task manually on your own? Having a good marketing automation software will give you access to all these tasks at your fingertips.

First, what is Marketing Automation?

"The software that exists with the goal of automating marketing actions. These tasks can consist of emails, social media, and other website actions. The technology of marketing automation makes these tasks easier." – (HubSpot, ArcStone's Certified Partner for marketing automation)

So... marketing automation is a software? Yes, marketing automation refers to software platforms that are designed to automate repetitive tasks. Not having a marketing automation software in place can cause for many missed opportunities for both your marketing and sales teams.

The Cold Hard Facts

HubSpot put together a few ROI stats to show you that marketing automation really does work:

1. 75% of companies that use marketing automation see a return on investment within 12 months, and 44% within 6 months (Focus Research).
2. Sending out relevant emails through marketing automation drives 18 times more revenue than sending email blasts (Jupiter Research).
3. Companies that excel at lead nurturing, through marketing automation, generate 50% more sales-ready leads at 33% lower cost (Forrester Research).  

Why You Need Marketing Automation

Based on Marketos: Do You Need Marketing Automation test, here is a list of questions to ask yourself. These will give you a better understanding of why you might want to consider this investment:

• Are you able to identify, track, and engage individual customers online?
• Are you able to prioritize each and every customer based on their fit and likelihood to buy from you?
• Are you able to filter leads and customers based on level of engagement and interest in your brand?
• Are you able to measure the ROI of every marketing campaign you have run?
• Are you able to do all these without losing your temper?

If you answered no to any of these questions, you should take a serious look at different marketing automation platforms and which one could be the best fit for you. In another post we ask 5 questions that will further help you quantify this need.

What Marketing Automation Can Do For You

Automating your marketing tasks can make your marketing team more efficient in their efforts, but the real reward here is the ROI. This is achieved by closing the gap between marketing and sales. How do you do that? The answer is in the subject of this blog post... Marketing Automation!!!

It is often the case that companies have prospects reach out through a contact form or phone call. Those prospects are then labeled as a 'Marketing Qualified Lead' (MQL) and forwarded on to the sales team with nothing more than their name and contact information. Don't you think the sales team would benefit knowing what stage of the buying process the buyer is in? Or what content they like on your site? 

According to HubSpot's Inbound Marketing Report: Sales Edition, while over 70% of sales teams typically have a prospect's email address and phone number, only 48% have their specific website interaction history before making contact.

Not having a robust marketing automation software can cause some missed opportunities for your sales team to gain valuable information on a prospect. A good example of missed opportunity would be a lead that is not worried about price, but rather just wants general information on the product/service. The sales team could possibly lose the lead by focusing too much on the pricing information. The more information the sales receives about a lead, the easier it is for them to qualify and sell to them. With the proper marketing automation, the sales team has an easier time understanding the mindset of leads and will understand the priorities of every lead on their list.

Which Platform to Use:

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Pardot, HubSpot, Marketo, Infusionsoft... the list goes on and on. All of these platforms have their own strengths and weaknesses. This chart is a quick peek into what each platform can offer. Everything varies from the starting monthly costs, all the way to the key differentiators. Do some research based off of this chart and definitely reach out to your marketing / web agency or our team if you have any questions regarding both the technical and marketing side of things!  

We hope this post convinced you of the potential in marketing automation and pointed you to even more ways to maximize your investment. If you need further help in choosing your software, implementing it or ensuring your using it to the fullest, reach out to our team. We are Hubspot partners but have also worked in Saleforce, Act-On, Eloqua, Pardot and more.