What is Marketing Automation & How to Deploy It?

All businesses run with a motive to provide maximum customer satisfaction and maximize their profits in the market. They not only want an edge over other competitors in the market but also want to stand out with their policies and strategies.
 

In doing so and achieving their targets, businesses need to monitor and keep their eye on various sales and marketing related services. These set of features and functions of various services help entrepreneurs take business critical decisions and are based mainly on cloud platforms.
 

But think about it. How wonderful will it be to have all the functions and features of sales and marketing that businesses use every day, under one roof?
 

I’m not leading you to a dream but it is possible, with the help of marketing automation.
 

Image source: Cremarc
 

What is Marketing Automation?

Marketing automation mainly refers to a cloud-based application. The main purpose of marketing automation is to bring the features and functions required by businesses for sales and marketing every day, all in one platform which further helps to automate marketing actions.
 

It’s basically a category of technology through the medium, of which companies can streamline, measure and automate marketing tasks and workflows. In this way, businesses can increase their operational efficiency faster.
 

Marketing automation also guarantees higher ROI, which helps companies to grow their revenues faster.
 

The current market research suggests that marketing automation is growing at an exponential rate.
 

David Raab, Raab Guide said that:

“Marketing Automation replaces separate systems for email, web visitor tracking, lead scoring, nurture campaigns, campaign management and reporting with one solution that streamlines marketing processes and shares data with sales.”

The marketing department of businesses is the most to benefit from marketing automation. It has helped companies in improving quality and sales alignment, the end result of which is a significant increase in the revenue for a business.
 

Marketing automation can be used for exceptional marketing that helps businesses connect with their customers based on their respective preferences. It also encompasses marketing campaigns across all channels ranging from the direct emails to phones and online campaigns and social media initiatives.
 

Capturing leads is also a common reason why businesses adopt marketing automation.
 

Image source: Smart Insights
 

But if you are thinking at this point that marketing campaign is only for big companies, then think about it twice! You would be surprised to know that Small and medium enterprises make up for the largest growing segment right now.
 

Even startups have eagerly adapted marketing automation and are using it well to get a high return on Investment (ROI).
 

In the last couple of years, only B2B companies were seen adapting marketing automation.
 

More than 55 percent of these have adopted marketing automation already.
 

But with the marketing trends changing globally and companies getting more and more inclined towards cloud based services, the B2C companies are keen on adapting marketing automation as well.
 

“Business marketing has exploded in scope and complexity making it practically impossible for marketers to efficiently and effectively reach target customers without a fully implemented marketing automation system.” – IDC Group
 

Some of the most utilized features of marketing automation include email marketing, landing pages, campaign management, prediction/scoring, lead and prospect management, CRM integration, social marketing, and marketing analytics.
 

Getting to know about marketing automation might seem fascinating, but you also need to know how to deploy it if you are planning to adopt marketing automation.
 

Here’s what you need to know:
 

Image source: Slideshare
 

Appropriate Questions

If you want to roll out a global marketing automation deployment strategy, you need to ask yourself a few important questions in order to understand and determine the unique challenges faced by your organization.
 

Ask yourself, “What is your current size and how much potential do you have for growth?”, “How long will the deployment strategy take in order to be executed?”, “How will the deployment strategy be staffed?”
 

In case if you have already tried to deploy a marketing strategy in the past, ask yourself what were the key factors behind its success or failure.
 

“By increasing efficiencies through better qualifying leads and increasing effectiveness by ensuring sales efforts are more personalised and relevant, marketing automation enables sales teams to do what they do best – SELL.” – Kristen Hambelton, VP of Marketing Neolane Inc.
 

Choose a Deployment Method

Businesses much choose a deployment method in order to successfully roll out the marketing strategies. While a decentralized model of deployment enables companies to roll out their marketing automation strategies globally all at once.
 

As all the locations have their own deployment team, it becomes an easy task, On the other hand, centralized deployment method focuses on a core group of individuals to make major decisions.
 

Creating a Lead Nurturing Program

Nurturing leads and creating a lead nurturing program is crucial to the deployment of marketing automation successfully. Businesses can create a flowchart of their major lead nurturing programs to build nurturing paths, mention necessary triggers and keep a balance between sales and marketing activities.
 

Reviewing this flowchart can help you create meaningful experiences for your leads, ultimately achieving the marketing automation goal.
 

Image source: SmartTouch Interactive
 

Get Your Business Ready

Deploying a marketing automation does not only involve sorting out the technical factors. One of the most important things is to develop a sense of readiness in your organization and monitor the major factors involving marketing automation carefully.
 

Marketing automation can be a game-changing technology in today’s competitive market scenario.
 

Market research also suggests that the companies who adapt marketing automation are excelling far more than other. And not only this, the ultimate results lead to huge profits as businesses experience increased ROI.
 

Thus, marketing automation can transform the traditional way of doing business and provide an edge to the companies in the market.