(Bonus: a few tips about marketing automation)
By Tara Alvey
It’s that time of year again. The time of year that we like to wish all of our clients a Merry Christmas and also take the opportunity to show off — but just a bit. Over the past year, FORTHGEAR has been researching, studying and implementing marketing automation tactics and strategies to great success. But first things first, what is marketing automation? We’re so glad you asked. Sit down (if you’re not sitting already), pull up a chair and keep on reading.
When manually performing repetitive, routine tasks, human error can get in the way. Marketing automation systemizes activities, processes and documentation, allowing for a smoother marketing workflow.
1. Productivity
One important function of marketing automation is simplifying routine organizational and marketing tasks. It effectively eliminates repetitive manual processes by substituting automated solutions. This, in turn, increases productivity office employees are able to put increased focus on tasks that require more stringent manual monitoring.
2. Channel Agnosticism
Marketing automation tools are channel-agnostic in the sense that they can be used in different marketing platforms that include email, SEO, CRM tools and social media. Additionally, the platform serves as a centralized hub for a variety of marketing activities, making the marketing/business management a whole lot easier.
3. Get Personal
Imagine that you’re walking down a busy street. Are you more likely to turn around if you hear someone say, “Hey, you!” or if they use your name? You’re more likely to pay attention if someone addresses you personally, and the same principle holds true with email marketing.
It wouldn’t make a lot of sense to spend hours painstakingly writing individual emails for every one of your customers. At the same time, you don’t want to send general email blast after email blast to your entire subscriber list. When subscribers get messages that are irrelevant to them, they’re more likely to unsubscribe or mark your emails as spam. Fortunately, it’s possible to avoid these problems and improve your ROI with marketing automation.
When you use an email marketing automation platform, you can include personalized fields (like first name and company name) that will be populated with information you have in your email list. Tailoring emails to the recipient can have a big impact: marketing emails with personalized subject line have a 26% higher open rate than those that don’t, and emails that include personalized content can have a transaction rate that’s six times higher than those with generic messages.
4. Segmented Emails = Bigger Impact
In a survey asking companies why they use email marketing automation, 83% said the biggest benefit they see is being able to send more relevant messages. With marketing automation, you can segment your customer or lead database into different groups and tailor different messages to those groups based on their interests, demographics, or purchase behavior.
5. Tracking and Monitoring of Marketing Campaigns
Determining the success of any marketing campaign will have to be supported by measurable data, data gleaned through precise tracking and monitoring. Marketing automation software not only helps in tracking marketing expenditures but also in monitoring responses to marketing campaigns based on specific parameters of success or failure.
So there you have it. Now that you know all about marketing automation, let us show you an example. This year to help wish all of our clients a happy holiday, FORTHGEAR created an automated marketing email campaign that served up different actions and emails based on the users’ behavior. And although you won’t be able to follow the email path exactly, you will see examples of the email funnel below and a final video that many of the users saw as part of their “Christmas Peril” experience.
Final Video:
To find out more about marketing automation and how it can help you and your business achieve it’s 2018 marketing goals, contact the industry experts at FORTHGEAR today. Merry Christmas, everyone!
