Page 14 - index
P. 14
BEST PRACTICES & STRATEGIES
Where is marketing automation heading -
and more importantly - what can you do to
prepare for these changes?
Frictionless marketing automation implementation
Let’s face the truth, implementing marketing automation
software is hard and getting to the point where you
have enough campaigns up and running to provide a
positive ROI can take anywhere from a few months to
over a year. On top of this, you typically need to hire a
specialized marketing automation consultant or agency,
go through intense onboarding training, and dedicate
significant development resources to integrate the soft-
ware into your business’ existing programs. However,
you may rest assured that simplification of marketing
automation software will occur over the next few years.
In fact, implementing marketing automation is expected
to become almost frictionless with software that is easi-
Using statistical models to identify what a customer is
likely to do next, in short is what marketing automation is er to access due to one-click integrations and simpler
all about, allowing you to modify automatically your cam- user interfaces or libraries of pre-built campaigns.
paigns cleverly around actions needed. In other words,
by making campaigns both smarter and more effective, The declining cost of marketing automation
marketing and sales are becoming less of a guessing
game. Further, as more and more vendors enter the market-
place, the cost of marketing automation software will
From ‘one-size fits all’ to sector-specific definitely continue to decrease to a point where the bar-
rier to entry is accessible to the large majority of small
No wonder that we have seen a number of sector- businesses. So, try to stay ahead of the game and start
specific marketing automation tools emerge over the building your marketing automation campaigns early.
past few years. These tools offer a competitive ad- That way, by the time your competitors are building
vantage over the ‘one-size fits all’ solution, as they are their first sequence, your business will have already
built around the specific pain points of a certain type of hundreds of fine-tuned campaigns working and you can
business. A tool designed for restaurants, for example, focus on your leads. Marketo, the company that makes
may come with built-in table booking software, and pre- marketing automation software, for instance, published
built campaigns designed to drive repeat bookings, so- that the most valuable features of marketing automa-
cial check-ins at the restaurant, and seasonal/holiday tion for users are lead nurturing (57%), analytics and
campaigns. In practice, this means enormous time sav- reporting (52%), and list segmentation (39%); and Hub-
ing, as what has previously taken six months to put to- spot revealed that relevant emails, sent with marketing
gether with a generic tool, could be achieved with a sec- automation software, drive 18 times more revenue than
tor-specific tool in just a few hours. Hence, expect mar- just email blasts.
keting automation to become more sector-centric.
All these micro-trends give some clues on the macro-
According to Capterra, there are 215 marketing automa- level direction the marketing automation industry is
tion solutions currently on the market, whereby B2B heading to, besides revealing that marketing automa-
companies are twice as likely to use marketing automa- tion is becoming smarter, more tailored, and more ac-
tion as B2C companies; and the larger the marketing cessible – both by cost and simplicity. The combination
team, the more likely they are to use marketing automa- of these trends explains why the industry has grown so
tion software. Pardot, the B2B marketing automation rapidly over the past five years, and why it does not
platform by Salesforce claims on the other hand that appear to be slowing down anytime soon. So, if you are
79% of top-performing companies have been using mar- feeling uninspired in your marketing campaigns, con-
keting automation for two or more years. sider marketing automation software. As the trends and
stats prove, it is an incredibly crucial tool that every
marketer should consider to have in the toolbox. ◊
By Daniela La Marca
14 Asian eMarketing June 2015 - Marketing Automation
14
Where is marketing automation heading -
and more importantly - what can you do to
prepare for these changes?
Frictionless marketing automation implementation
Let’s face the truth, implementing marketing automation
software is hard and getting to the point where you
have enough campaigns up and running to provide a
positive ROI can take anywhere from a few months to
over a year. On top of this, you typically need to hire a
specialized marketing automation consultant or agency,
go through intense onboarding training, and dedicate
significant development resources to integrate the soft-
ware into your business’ existing programs. However,
you may rest assured that simplification of marketing
automation software will occur over the next few years.
In fact, implementing marketing automation is expected
to become almost frictionless with software that is easi-
Using statistical models to identify what a customer is
likely to do next, in short is what marketing automation is er to access due to one-click integrations and simpler
all about, allowing you to modify automatically your cam- user interfaces or libraries of pre-built campaigns.
paigns cleverly around actions needed. In other words,
by making campaigns both smarter and more effective, The declining cost of marketing automation
marketing and sales are becoming less of a guessing
game. Further, as more and more vendors enter the market-
place, the cost of marketing automation software will
From ‘one-size fits all’ to sector-specific definitely continue to decrease to a point where the bar-
rier to entry is accessible to the large majority of small
No wonder that we have seen a number of sector- businesses. So, try to stay ahead of the game and start
specific marketing automation tools emerge over the building your marketing automation campaigns early.
past few years. These tools offer a competitive ad- That way, by the time your competitors are building
vantage over the ‘one-size fits all’ solution, as they are their first sequence, your business will have already
built around the specific pain points of a certain type of hundreds of fine-tuned campaigns working and you can
business. A tool designed for restaurants, for example, focus on your leads. Marketo, the company that makes
may come with built-in table booking software, and pre- marketing automation software, for instance, published
built campaigns designed to drive repeat bookings, so- that the most valuable features of marketing automa-
cial check-ins at the restaurant, and seasonal/holiday tion for users are lead nurturing (57%), analytics and
campaigns. In practice, this means enormous time sav- reporting (52%), and list segmentation (39%); and Hub-
ing, as what has previously taken six months to put to- spot revealed that relevant emails, sent with marketing
gether with a generic tool, could be achieved with a sec- automation software, drive 18 times more revenue than
tor-specific tool in just a few hours. Hence, expect mar- just email blasts.
keting automation to become more sector-centric.
All these micro-trends give some clues on the macro-
According to Capterra, there are 215 marketing automa- level direction the marketing automation industry is
tion solutions currently on the market, whereby B2B heading to, besides revealing that marketing automa-
companies are twice as likely to use marketing automa- tion is becoming smarter, more tailored, and more ac-
tion as B2C companies; and the larger the marketing cessible – both by cost and simplicity. The combination
team, the more likely they are to use marketing automa- of these trends explains why the industry has grown so
tion software. Pardot, the B2B marketing automation rapidly over the past five years, and why it does not
platform by Salesforce claims on the other hand that appear to be slowing down anytime soon. So, if you are
79% of top-performing companies have been using mar- feeling uninspired in your marketing campaigns, con-
keting automation for two or more years. sider marketing automation software. As the trends and
stats prove, it is an incredibly crucial tool that every
marketer should consider to have in the toolbox. ◊
By Daniela La Marca
14 Asian eMarketing June 2015 - Marketing Automation
14
