Automation is becoming prevalent across nearly every industry, general marketing included. According to the 2019 State of Marketing Automation Survey report, 75% of all companies are already using at least one type of marketing automation tool. The industry is currently worth $6.1 billion, and that is projected to double in size by 2023.
While there may be a lot of hubbub surrounding the technology and various tools, that doesn’t necessarily mean everyone understands how to leverage them properly. Moreover, some may not even understand what they are and what they do? If those questions resonate with you, then keep reading.
What Is Marketing Automation?
While most would define “marketing automation” as the use of “software” to automate marketingactivities, a better description would include technology as a whole. Now, the vast majority of marketing automation solutions are delivered via software and cloud-based applications. In many cases, however, artificial intelligence and machine learning play a huge role.
Essentially, automation streamlines a process or application, significantly reducing the amount of work that needs to be put in. Email marketing campaigns, for example, can be empowered through software solutions that auto-send communications to a predetermined list of contacts.
Automation can be used for many marketing tasks including — but not limited to — email, socialmedia, advertisements, customer service, research, and much more.
How Does It Help?
When implemented properly, marketing automation provides a variety of benefits, in addition to being a low-cost, and relatively low-maintenance solution.
- Time and costs savings
- High-efficiency; better than human laborers
- Unprecedented scalability
- Improved lead management, scoring, nurturing and segmentation
- Enhanced targeting and personalization
- Competitive advantage
Where Do the Benefits Come From?
General automation involves taking a task, process, or application and using machines or technology to automate the entire operation. In the past, it was largely used for repetitive and less-complex tasks. In manufacturing, for instance, easy-to-replicate assemblies were largely automated with robotics and industrial machinery.
The birth of modern AI and machine learning has allowed automation to become much more advanced and nuanced. We can now take a more complex process or application and automateit using various software tools — chatbots are an excellent example.
In marketing, automation intrinsically replaces highly-involved and time-consuming tasks to not only free up marketers but also to achieve a highly-efficient and targeted output. For example, machine learning solutions can leverage a huge collection of data to personalize marketing campaigns for a segmented audience.
Benefits tend to stem from the automation, as more time is freed up for the workforce, while the campaigns or solutions end up being much more efficient and successful. In other words, marketing automation improves work in the field exponentially.
There’s Never Been a Better Time
Thanks to the current state of the world—- COVID pandemic included — there’s never been a more important time to leverage automation tools, and boost lead nurturing. It’s especially relevant as people learn to distance from one another and the world collectively moves to more remote, and contactless operations.
