Did you know, there are 11 times more B2B companies using marketing automation than there were in 2011. Why, you ask? This blog examines why marketing automation is working and the best practices you can start using in your own marketing to see similar results.
What is marketing automation in 2016?
Marketing automation isn’t simply a system to replace your marketing teams hard efforts. No, it’s a combined effort of strategy and systems to enhance your marketing results and therefore improve your ROI. An effective marketing automation suite identifies your leads, feeds them relevant content at the relevant time and then passes them to sales when they are sales-ready.
Your marketing will still be responsible for attracting those strangers to your website and making sure your content and messaging is on point. Marketing automation simply keeps your sales process clear and simple.
Which marketing automation methods work best?
- Know your audience
There are plenty of marketing automation platforms that will just send out emails and hope that their messaging and timing catches a certain percentage of the audience. This method currently coverts around 8% of website traffic.
However, identifying your website traffic before you target them with any emails allows your to personalise your messaging even further. You can include first names, if the technology has their name in their database. You can also send them content relevant to their position in the company with the relevant company info in your database. This will increase your conversion rates even further.
- Customise your email workflows by interactions
Instead of running multiple campaigns, marketing automation allows you to anticipate every possible buyer journey on your website and set up the appropriate messaging in one workflow. This allows you to make sure every lead is ‘touched’ no matter where they are and the appropriate messaging is always in place. Think of it as your safety net, catching every lead you’ve worked so hard to get.
- Automate as much of your process as possible
The more automated your marketing workflows are, the less room there is for human error. By defining rules and groups, you can make sure every avenue is covered without one lead – whether they are new or on your CRM already – receiving mixed or more than one message about your product. The clearer your journey, the easier your products are to understand and the more likely leads will turn into customers and customers will turn into repeat, upsell buyers.
For those looking to make the most out of exceptional amounts of website data and turn high levels of ROI in 2016, this is the only viable option for you.
For more on marketing automation – take a look at our research on The State of B2B marketing automation in 2015.