What is Marketing Automation? What is its importance?

What is Marketing Automation ?

The word Marketing automation can be decomposed into Marketing = customer development + automation = automated systematization. In other words, marketing automation , in short, is architecting customer growth automatically.

Also, using such tools to organize more effectively is also called marketing automation .

From Auto Marketing = marketing automation , if you add Marketing automation tool (hereinafter referred to as Marketing tool), the number of customers will automatically increase. You might have imagined a dreamlike story, but its not.

The Marketing Tool is like a helper to assist in the creation of a customer development system. Marketing automation tools help marketers organize and organize the various activities they need to perform.

For example, one of the popular marketing automation measures is to send automated e-Marketing newsletters to potential customers.

To send an e-Marketing newsletter, it is necessary to:

• • (1)Automatically get the e-Marketing address of potential customers
  • (2) Automate the creation of a destination list based on the acquired e-Marketing address
  • (3) Automate sending e-Marketing

You can get the e-Marketing address of potential customers with the form installed on the website and automatically register in the database (lead collection function).

Also automatically send e-Marketing newsletters with appropriate content at the right time.

Alternatively, you can redirect to the appropriate page by attributes of leads who have visited your website, or score leads by behavioral history to measure referral review progress.

In each case, the setup and management of the person in charge is required to some extent, but by automating the complex, day-to-day repetitive work, marketing activities can be much more streamlined.

This can be said to be the greatest merit of applying marketing automation tools .

The Importance of Marketing Automation

Market size of Marketing automation tools was $40.2 billion in 2019, but is expected to expand to 44.7 billion (estimated) in 2020 and grow to 73.7 billion in 2025…

One of the biggest reasons for this is online crawling.

The spread of the Internet has made all information available online. According to a US survey, 81% of consumers in BtoC do their research online before making a purchase.

But in BtoB this trend is even more pronounced, with 92% of companies trading goods and services before making a purchase (especially technical products), it is said to be a preliminary survey. sets are done online.

In the past, sales used to have to start without going to the company, but today, salespeople should gather the necessary information online first and then contact the product/service provider.

In other words, its much harder for sales reps to meet prospects in the introductory phase than it used to be.

In general, in marketing and sales activities, it is desirable to acquire leads earlier in the test phase.

This is because it is possible to work on customer development (lead nurturing) more effectively by contacting leads early and taking a step-by-step approach according to changes in level of performance. consider.

However, as mentioned above, the progress of online information collection has resulted in a reduction in service selection, and by the time it is finally possible to contact, the selection is almost complete. .

In other words, from the companys point of view, the way to communicate is not face-to-face and lead to a contract is a marketing problem for potential customers who dont meet, dont tell us their needs. their needs, and Informed about competitors.

It has become a huge problem. Thats why marketing automation aimed at a non-meeting customer development structure, is gaining attention and is gaining a lot of adoption.

See more:

• Systematic marketing process and 12 ways to bring products to customers

What can I do? Marketing automation tool specific functions

Now that you know you can use marketing automation tools to streamline customer development, what exactly can you do?

In general, BtoB Marketing automation is obtained as shown in these processes.

1. 1. Lead acquisition automation (lead generation)
   2. Lead management automation function (lead management)
   3. Lead nurturing automation (lead nurturing)
   4. Lead narrowing automation (lead quality assessment)
   5. Marketing automation function (automation)

Below, Chiasenow will explain each function one by one.

1) Automated lead acquisition (lead generation)

A function to get a large number of potential customers to become future customers, a function to make users who do not know the company recognize it (before being recognized) and a function to make the company homogeneous.

It can be broadly classified into two functions (after being recognized) to reach users who have contacted the company and ask them to disclose personal information.

2) Lead management automation function (lead management)

It is a function to manage the leads obtained during lead generation.

More specifically, the resulting lead information is registered and managed in the database built into the tool. Registered leads can be updated, segmented or tagged, or deleted as needed.

Lead nurturing is an activity to drive customers to buy leads using eMarketing, phone calls, pop-ups, push notifications, and targeted advertising.

3) Lead nurturing automation (lead nurturing)

For effective lead nurturing, its important to know information such as customer attributes, interests, and considerations.

By using a Marketing tool, it is possible to manage that information in an integrated way and use it when it is needed.

• • Create lists based on customer information managed by Marketing automation tools (Marketing tools) and send e-Marketing newsletters
  • Show targeted ads to potential customers who have already visited the company Encourage repeat visits
  •  Refer the most relevant workshop by the leads attributes and behavioral history

4) Automated function narrowing of leads

Lead evaluation is an activity to select potential customers with high accuracy in contracts (sales leads)

From a large number of potential customers and create a list of hot leads to hand over to the sales department.

The Marketing Tool has a function called scoring to estimate the probability of conversion based on the attributes of each lead and online/offline behavior history.

In addition, some tools are equipped with an SFA association function that effectively distributes the extracted hot leads list to the sales department.

• •  Potential customers who viewed the functionality listing and pricing page more than once were rated as having high contract accuracy.
  •  A list of leads is generated based on the scoring results and is regularly sent to the sales departments SFA.

5) Function to automate Marketing activities (automation)

It is a function to automate the approach to leads and marketing activities according to predefined rules.

In a sense, its the closest feature to the picture you can imagine from the name Auto Marketing .

By using automation, marketers can effectively implement actions to take for each lead.

How to implement Marketing automation tools

So far, Chiasenow has talked about the outline of Marketing automation and the functions of Marketing automation tools , but Chiasenow wants to give you one last important point.

As mentioned in the previous section, the tool automates marketing is not a marketing tool automatically increase the amount of customers. The tools are only intended to assist with Marketing activities and users can save or remove them.

If youre thinking of using marketing tools from now on, first categorize the marketing problems your company faces, and then organize what you want to solve with the tools.

Also, if possible, youll be able to make your introduction go more smoothly if you do the following things first.

1. Create a customer journey map (buyer journey)

Organize the route from when a customer finds your product or service to buy it, and create a customer journey map.

2. Do the basic design of the segment

Grouping customers by attribute, behavior history, etc. is called segmentation, and groups divided by segment are called segments.

Marketing In the tool, since you can set the measures taken for each segment, you may want to consider whether to pre-segregate for any segments.

3. Prepare content

Prepare content such as tips articles, blogs, product catalogs, upload white papers to put on the website.

If it is difficult for you to prepare a lot of content in the beginning, then even a small amount is not a problem as long as you can prepare the content that is in high demand.

4. Decide the operating system

After adopting the Marketing automation tool , be clear to the extent possible who will operate in which role.

If you introduce it without considering the operational system, you may find yourself in a situation where you cannot guarantee the operators and cannot fully utilize the deployed tools.

It is not necessary to decide on all team members prior to the operation, but at a minimum, it should be decided which department will be in charge of the operation.

In deciding the operating system, cooperation with relevant departments is also important. In particular, working with the sales department is an important point, so it would be good to adjust the working image first.

But collaborating with other departments is not as easy as people think.

For those who have difficulty adjusting, it is better to consult an experienced tool supplier for operational assistance or to share know-how with colleagues in the group. use.