What marketing automation is and how you can apply it to your company

Marketing automation can be used, among other things, to optimize time management, improve productivity, and even increase sales. In this text, we will explain the concept and provide tips for its practical implementation. Keep reading!

The internet has revolutionized everything we know. Processes have been accelerated, the relationship between customers and brands has become more intense, and the competition for space has proven even fiercer. Naturally, a true digital transformation was necessary for companies to adapt and take advantage of the new reality.

Today, with increasingly advanced techniques digital marketing, reaching and engaging a large scale of potential customers is a completely possible practice. With this, companies can optimize their strategies and achieve better results.

To make everything easier, there is the marketing automation. In this post, we'll discuss what this concept is and what benefits can be achieved. Additionally, we've compiled tips for you to choose the best tool and implement automation in your company.

What is marketing automation?

Simply put, Marketing automation refers to the adoption of software and other technologies to optimize productivity and improve a company's results.. With practice, it's possible to plan actions, schedule posts, track results, and save a lot of time.

Automation is very present in strategies focused on Inbound Marketing which, unlike traditional marketing, seeks to attract Persona for the company's content.

So, the relationship with the customer becoming the central piece of the planning, as, once attracted, they need to be nurtured with material that has the potential to lead them to the moment of conversion.

Think, for example, to avoid a cold email campaign of marketing, First of all, it's necessary to invest in capturing qualified leads. To do this, content marketing techniques can be used to attract the persona to a landing page, where they will leave their contact information.

From this moment on, automation tools make it possible to organize leads and segment them according to criteria defined by the company. With the use of software, in addition to managing and segmenting contacts, you can schedule personalized message sends at the most opportune times for each group.

Why should you automate your company's marketing?

Still have doubts about the benefits of implementing marketing automation in your company? Try to imagine carrying out all the actions described in the previous topic without the help of specialized software. Difficult, wouldn't you agree?

So that there are no doubts, we will indicate other specific improvements that the use of automation tools can bring to your actions marketing. Check it out!

Time management optimization

With so many things happening at such a high speed, time management becomes a real challenge for company managers. Being able to effectively manage the time spent on each task performed is crucial for the health of the business. After all, if time is money, wasted time is an expense.

Marketing automation is one of the most efficient ways to solve this issue.. The mere fact of allowing the scheduling of publications and message broadcasts in campaigns email marketing It already makes it clear how this practice reduces the time needed to perform an action. And you can go much further, integrating tools with each other and automating a cadence of processes. An application that greatly helps connect applications with each other is Zapier. If you're interested, check out this tutorial: Zapier Tutorial 

Imagine, for example, that you are dealing with two segmented groups of leads. One of them shows greater engagement with materials shared in the morning, while the other is only interested in the evening.

With automation, there's no reason to worry. Just schedule the posts for the desired times, and they will be posted normally, without even needing any kind of human intervention. So, in a matter of a few hours, it's possible to cover all the content to be published over a much longer period of time..

Greater efficiency in the sales funnel

O sales funnel It is the representation of the consumer's buying journey. This path begins to be traveled from the lead's first contact with the company and only ends after the purchase decision is made. The funnel is usually composed of 4 stages, the order of which must be respected:

• top of funnel: attraction;
• Mid-funnel: Consideration;
• Bottom of the funnel: decision.

Knowing what stage the customer is in is fundamental for sales success. After all, there's no point in offering a product if the customer is still at the top of the funnel, meaning they haven't been sufficiently educated to make a purchase decision. How can automation help in this case?

With the use of software, it's possible to monitor lead activities, identifying exactly which stage they are in. This way, the content team will know exactly what type of material should be produced to guide the lead toward the bottom of the funnel.

Improved customer relationships

We are in the era of Marketing 4.0, and in it, consumers place extreme importance on how they are treated by companies, letting this become a decisive factor when deciding whether or not to do business.

If well reciprocated, the individual has everything to become a true brand advocate., recommending their services and products to other people.

Marketing automation allows companies to maintain active and personalized communication with each consumer, whether through email marketing or social networks. Consequently, the relationship with the general public has every reason to be improved.

Increased sales efficiency

Automation allows all the initial work of sales process be managed by the software. That is, when the decision point arrives, the lead is already educated about the product and understands the subject well. This greatly facilitates the salesperson's job, as they don't need to worry about explaining simpler aspects.

In this way, it's possible to qualify your sales team to focus solely on leads that have already gone through the entire process. Consequently, the salesperson can specialize in the final stages of the process and thus considerably increase the sales conversion rate.

After closing, the chances of the client being satisfied with the purchase also increase. This happens because they went through the entire nurturing process and thus knew exactly what they were acquiring. Ultimately, the company's reputation and market authority are the biggest beneficiaries.

How to implement automation in practice?

The implementation of marketing automation is naturally all about choosing the right tool for your company. However, you need to be careful not to skip steps. Before choosing the software to use, you need to ensure you have a well-designed strategy and a deep understanding of your persona.

It's not much use automating processes if you don't have, for example, efficient lead capture.. This contact base is essential for results to start appearing.

To create your lead base, it's interesting to apply Inbound Marketing concepts. Combined, the SEO and Content marketing are a great choice for attracting users who fit your persona and persuading them to leave their contact information. This can be achieved by offering exclusive material in exchange for their data.

Once you've defined the audience you want to interact with, you can start planning the type of content that will be offered. Then, it's time to decide on the ideal tool.

Choosing the right tool for your business

The most modern marketing automation tools have several attributes: lead management, CRM, social media interaction, email marketing campaigns, among others. It is up to the responsible manager to decide which area should be prioritized, as well as to define the amount that can be invested.

With these points decided, it's time to conduct real market research in order to know the widest possible variety of options and decide which best fits your context. Just like with any product, seeking feedback from those who have already experienced the tools can be an essential factor in making a decision..

The most important thing, however, is to evaluate your company's and your audience's characteristics. Let's say, for example, that your digital marketing strategy consists of a heavy investment in social media content. Observing what each tool has to offer in this regard is an excellent way to base your decision.

After all, even if the software is highly recommended for use in email marketing, funnel management, and other services, it doesn't mean it will be useful for your business's core activities. In that case, it's good to look at other options.

Marketing automation is not just an aspect that provides a competitive advantage for companies. Its use is already practically indispensable for businesses that aspire to compete for the top positions in the market in this era marked by digital transformation.

Besides simplifying processes, the use of automation software enhances the quality of customer relationships and increases team productivity. To efficiently implement this practice, it is crucial for the manager to have a deep understanding of the characteristics of the persona, the company, and its surrounding elements.

Hey, is it clear what marketing automation is and how to apply the concept? Did you see the benefits that can be accessed? If you wish to delve deeper into the subject, we recommend this article which indicates how to improve results using marketing and sales automation.

Content produced by Rock Content exclusively for UpSites.

Caio Nogueira

Caio Nogueira is co-founder of UpSites and a reference in website development and SEO consultancy. With over 10 years' experience and more than 900 projects completed for brands such as KaBuM, UNIMED, USP and Nestlé, Caio stands out for his competence in digital project management.Caio has also been a guest author on influential digital marketing websites such as Neil Patel, Rock Content, Hostinger, Duda, Hostgator and Locaweb, where he has shared his expertise in SEO and content marketing.

See all posts