Marketing automation is imperative in a sophisticated infrastructure, as it frees the marketer from being bogged down with routine tasks while improving accuracy. A recent study by B2B online: “Marketing Automation: Best Practices for the Management of B2B Digital Marketing Campaigns” reveals that 46% of marketers are already adopting marketing automation in some way, and another 20% are planning to do so in the near future.
However, the route to marketing automation is by no means a smooth ride.
The success of marketing automation depends on properly aligned systems integrated with marketing and sales processes. Failure to do so not only creates roadblocks but also leads to incomplete data, which can distort results significantly. Marketing automation allows for trigger-based messaging and customized campaigns — but success depends on the team of skilled and trained personnel who can follow up on such insights. Without a team, the intelligence generated by the system becomes an exercise in futility.
A common misconception is marketing automation is completely automated. While it frees the marketer from routine tasks, the marketer still has to develop content, set up campaigns and monitor them to ensure everything is working appropriately.
Again, there is no short cut on the creation of relevant content. Marketing automation becomes irrelevant unless the marketer infuses the platform with the right content for the right channel and the right audience. In the B2B tech industry, for instance, the average buyer consumes about three pieces of content for each phase in the marketing lifecycle. In general, nurturing a lead from the prospect to sales-qualified stage in the marketing lifecycle requires four or more interactions, all with appropriate content.
Many marketers mistake marketing automation as deploying a software that does routine tasks automatically, and scours over the available data to run analytics and throw up actionable insights. However, this is only the basic component of a marketing automation system.
Right On Interactive takes a different approach to marketing automation, where we decrease set up time and ensure core functionality, leaving you with time to create valuable campaigns and workflows for prospects and current customers. We focus on helping our clients utilize marketing automation to enhance the marketing lifecycle and provide a clear view of how to win new business, keep current customers and grow the right relationships.
