Why Marketing Automation Rocks: 10 Reasons to Try It Today

That's the trend nowadays. Salesforce says that 67% of marketing leaders use a marketing automation platform. Of those not using this technology, almost 40% will invest in it in the next twelve months.

Thinking about automating?

It isn't just a short-lived trend, either. Spending for marketing automation is projected to grow from $11.4 billion in 2017 to $25.1 billion in 2023. That's a growth of over 100% in just five years.

Still not convinced?

No problem. We lined up ten more reasons below. Read on to discover the benefits of marketing automation and why you're missing out.

1. Reduce Staff Costs

When you automate marketing, one employee can compete with a twenty man sales team. How do you ask? By setting up lead nurturing and marketing campaigns that run by themselves.

Certain user behaviors trigger events. For instance, if a prospect doesn't open your email, the software automatically sends him a follow-up email in three days.

Build your automated campaigns for a few months. By that time, you might be sending thousands of personalized emails each day. And it all happens on autopilot.

2. Refine Your Process

When you use automation software, you must visualize both your customer journey and marketing strategy. It's the only way you can build processes for them in the software.

The more you think about the buyer's journey, the more you'll begin to see it from different angles. You'll gradually refine how you can target and nurture your leads.

If you've never done this before, begin with a mind map of your sales funnel. See if you can make each stage of your funnel more detailed. Looking at your mind map, see if you can determine where most of your leads fall from your nurturing process.

Now see whether you can back up your hypothesis with hard data.

3. Target Prospects Across Multiple Channels

Digital marketing automation gives you the power to reach customers across many channels.

You can set up your software to respond to not only an email, but a text, tweet, postcard, and phone call too.

Nowadays, you're not limited to online channels. It's easy to blend traditional marketing with digital marketing.

Recognize that not all automation software is built the same. Some types have more options for multi-channel marketing than others. Inspect your software before you purchase it, and examine the options.

Note: Also keep in mind today's mobile-first trend. Be sure your software is built for mobile marketing.

4. Continuous A/B Testing

As any marketing guru will tell you, split testing is what sets the pros apart. The more pros test, the more they refine their approach. Over time, this counts for big bucks.

With automation, professionals no longer perform split tests once or twice a campaign. They now split test at every stage of their inbound marketing process . The software cuts down the work required to perform a split test.

Once you plug in the criteria, you can let the program run. A few weeks or months down the road, it'll spit the results back out to you.

It does all the work for you, making it simple to improve your sales funnel efficiency.

5. Enhance Your Targeting

When you adjust the focus of your target market, you decrease the number of useless prospects. That means you can spend more time on the prospects who are likely to buy.

And with automation software, you can do it all at scale.

Remember back to Marketing 101?

The more relevant your offer is to a potential customer, the more likely they are buy your stuff. With this kind of software, you can reach a thousand different leads. And you can send each different messages.

6. Post Automatically

When you consider marketing automation benefits, keep in mind scheduled posting. Mind you; this isn't a new feature. It's been around since the early days of email and social media marketing.

The difference with automation software is you can schedule unique posts to different segments of your audience. Furthermore, the program can choose for you based on data from the CRM.

7. Gain Certainty with Your Lead Scoring

As you set up your marketing automation software, you're required to create a set of rules for scoring leads. The program uses these rules to rank your incoming leads by their unique behaviors.

Leads are prioritized on a 1 to 5 scale. They're further broken down into sales qualified leads (SQLs), or marketing qualified leads (MQLs). With this scoring, the program can check what types of information to send to each lead.

That's huge. It means your sales team will never waste time on unqualified leads. They can spend their time converting pre-qualified SQLs.

8. Update Your CRM

If your CRM database is out of date, it's useless. Automation tools give you the power to connect your CRM to capture lead information. Then, you can confirm their crucial information remains the same, or change it accordingly.

9. Know Your Prospects' Schedules

The coolest feature of these tools is the ability to see when a prospect visits your website. You can set up alerts to find out, in real-time, which pages they're browsing. Use this information to discern when a prospect is thinking of you and has the time to check out your site.

If you agree with the philosophy of hitting while the iron is hot, you can pick up your phone right away. Contact your lead while he's browsing. He'll think it is serendipity.

10. Automatic Follow-Ups

Did you know you're sixty times more likely to qualify your lead if you follow up within an hour? If you're not around to make that follow up, it's no problem. Your automated software can kick into gear and do it for you.

Well, are you convinced? Have you learned enough about the benefits of marketing automation to finally make your purchase? If so, it's time to learn about different types of automation software available. If not, it's time to learn about other alternatives. Either way, take five minutes right now to check out the other articles we have on automation and marketing.