Every marketer knows the importance of generating strong leads, collecting relevant feedback and implementing SEO optimization. The technology of marketing automation makes these tasks easier. Automation in digital marketing can also increase the return on investment (ROI).
What is marketing automation?
Marketing automation is the use of software and technology to help marketing and sales. By automating repetitive marketing actions concerning emails, social media and other website actions, your marketing and sales team can concentrate on what they do best. Marketing automation is software and tactics that allow companies to buy, sell, and turn cold leads into warm within a specific period.
How does it help?
- Enables you to find new customers faster
- On-board existing customers
- Increase customer loyalty
- Increase communication with high ROI segments
How does marketing automation work?
Technology helps you segment your audience based on their demographics, behavior, and preferences. This will help you create customized campaigns that can be fully automated according to preset triggers and customer actions. Predictive analytics along with automation can make your digital marketing campaigns very productive.
“On average, 49% of companies are currently using marketing automation, with more than half of B2B companies (55%) adopting the technology.” - CMO
Imagine you are selling a book. Thousands of people visit your website demonstrating various level of interest. Unfortunately, 98% of these visitors will not be ready to buy right away.
How do you gain their attention?
The answer is: By implementing lead generation techniques.
- When someone visits your site, you offer him or her a free download of some of your best work. All they have to do is provide their email address and some personal information. You have just created a new lead.
- They are then added to a personalized email drip campaign that sends emails with different content at a set period in time. By nurturing your customers in this way, you develop a relationship as well as engage them into your business.
- After heating up your leads, you strike at the right time to achieve conversion. These leads are then tied to your CRM and you can send even more personalized content.
Economic benefits of digital marketing automation:
- Improves customer relationships
- Saves time and boost sales
- Faster lead conversion time
- Reduces human error in campaigns
- More time for marketers to work on successful campaigns
Source: Statista
Is automation going to take marketers' jobs?
The answer is probably not. Automation is more likely to change how marketers work rather than replace them. It will supplement their efforts and not take their jobs. Creativity and originality can’t be replaced by automation. Roles that involve a high level of social intelligence and original ideas are less likely to be replaced by machines.
By 2030, 2 billion jobs will disappear – roughly 50% of all the jobs on the planet – as a result of technology advances. - Digitalist Magazine
However, people who work in the marketing industry are generally creative and they are not in the white-collar catchment that is likely to be hit earliest by the second machine age. Most marketers will realize the importance of adapting and learning new skills, so they can be up to date with the changing technologies. Although we are far from automating all marketing jobs, the future of marketing is already very different. It is only going to get more and more specialized and that is why marketers need to perform things that automation cannot do.
At the end of the day, it does not matter how many digital skills you already have but how you adapt and learn new ones in the future. Automation in digital marketing could only benefit the life and work of humans and increase utility.
It will reduce work on monotonous tasks, save time, increase ROI, and make customers more informed and involved with your business. New skills will be needed and some existing ones will become less important.
With interactive solutions like chatbots, AI tools, and the Internet of Things we’ll witness a future where consumers will have full conversations with computers. The most important thing is to stay hungry and competitive in a fast passed economy so that your business and skills can stand the test of time.
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