Marketing Automation? What does that mean?
Don’t you just hate it when you hear terms bandied around, and you’re not sure what they mean, but you don’t really want to ask? You’re sure that everyone but you knows what the terms mean, and you could really do without making a fool of yourself if the answer is obvious!
Marketing Automation seems to be one of the new buzzwords, and every time it’s used, I see a look of confusion cross people’s faces.
Marketing Automation – what does it mean?
Wikipedia tells us:
Marketing automation – is the name given to software platforms designed for marketing departments and organizations to simplify processes by automating repetitive tasks. Marketing departments, consultants and part-time marketing employees benefit by specifying criteria and outcomes for tasks and processes which are then interpreted, stored and executed by software, which increases efficiency and reduces human error.
Put in simple terms, it means automating things that are repetitive and would usually take a long time.
When we talk about marketing automation, it’s usually in relation to Email Marketing.
So, let’s look at an unautomated approach.
Potential Customer A sends you an email asking for some information. You send her an e-brochure, or a link to your prices, and make a note to drop her a line or give her a call in a few days.
A few days pass and as you’re driving into the office, you remember you haven’t followed up her enquiry, so you send her an email while you drink your morning coffee. As you press send, you realise you’ve forgotten to let her know about a special offer you have on at the moment, so you drop her another email.
A couple of days later you realise you still haven’t heard from her, so you drop her another email, and get a quick reply saying she’s not ready to buy just yet, but to contact her in a month or so. You make a note of this and hope you remember.
6 weeks later you suddenly find the note you wrote to youself and realise you haven’t followed up again – you send her an email reminding her of who you are, and the reply tells you that she thought you’d disappeared as you hadn’t been in touch, so she’s gone with your competitor, signed a 12 monnth contract and your chance has passed.
How many times has that happened to you?
Now let’s look at how this would have worked if you had AUTOMATED your process.
Potential Customer A would have sent you an email requesting some information, and this would have automatically been entered into your email marketing system, probably from your website. She would have received an email to ask her to confirm she wanted to receive the info, and informing her that she would be added to a follow up list.
The system would have been set up so that a few days after she received the info, she would receive another email automatically asking her if she had any questions. Maybe a week later another automated email would go out, alerting her to any special offers.
When she told you she wasn’t ready to buy just yet, but would be ready in a month, your automated system would allow you to make a note of this and ensure that her next email reached her at exactly the right time – one month later.
And all without you having to interfere or remember anything.
You wouldn’t forget details because your system would be set up with emails that had all the information necessary. You wouldn’t forget to email her because you were suddenly ill, or on holiday, because the email would go out automatically whether you were there or not.
And hopefully, you wouldn’t have missed the sale.
Marketing automation is just one of the services that we provide at PML Media, from initial consultation, through implementation and advice, all the way to monitoring and tracking the ROI and effect on your bottom line sales.
Why not get in touch and see what Marketing Automation can do for you?
