A Marketing Automation platform, MAP, is a tool that allows marketers to reach potential customers at a faster rate while gathering more measurable results to refine future campaigns.
While campaigns can be set to run on autopilot, it doesn’t mean that marketers can shut off their brains. Marketers are still responsible for the planning and execution of the kind of campaigns that work to convert prospects into paying customers, and that means that marketers have to be smarter about using Marketing Automation (MA) technology, or otherwise, they can suffer from failing on a much broader scale.
Here are 4 ways MA can enable marketers.
- Refining Segmentation
Is your marketing team building highly targeted and personalized messages but sending them to the wrong segments of customers? Sending something targeted and personalized, but at the same time neglecting to send it to an industry-specific audience, for example, defeats the purpose of delivering specialized content – and this happens all the time.
MA enables marketers to work using refined campaigns while zeroing in on delivering the right messages to the right customers at the right time. When MA is properly executed, segmentation becomes a powerful tool that works to see customer engagement on a much deeper level. When it comes to targeting groups of customers, MA makes it possible to create highly targeted and more meaningful customer interactions.
- Aligning Marketing and Sales
MA works to align the Marketing and Sales process while allowing the two departments to work together within the same sets of definitions of what constitutes sales-ready prospects. Once Marketing and Sales establish the sales-readiness of each customer, Marketing can identify which campaigns work and which need to be further refined. Aligning the Sales and Marketing process streamlines the two departments and ultimately enables Sales on a sales call.
- Defining Content
MA helps marketers to plan out a content roadmap. What is the purpose of each publication? Or what stage of the sales cycle will a specific asset be introduced to a specific customer? These kinds of questions are all closely tied to the process of closing the loop between Sales and Marketing. By getting solid feedback from Sales, closed loop marketing enables the team to build the kind of content marketing collateral that resonates with customers. Content is something that needs planning, and having a content strategy in place allows marketers to take advantage of MA far more fully.
- Identifying Targeted Needs
There is nothing like building a relationship with a customer than by Marketing delivering on their promises. If a need is established, it is the job of Marketing to deliver on that need. By keeping their eyes on the end goal, marketers can execute automated campaigns that engage with customers through a series of touchpoints. Using the right content at the right time works to strengthen relationships with customers and season them to become sales-ready. This is why MA is so important. It enables marketers to really zero in on prospect needs, and then deliver on the promise of solving their problems.
How effective is your Marketing and Sales process? Have you streamlined the two departments in an effort to enable Sales to sell more?
