A brief definition of marketing automation
Marketing automation, also known as automated marketing, allows you to contact your current and potential customers by email, text message or any other relevant channels whenever you want, without even having to think about it.
The perks of marketing automation
Content sent and actions taken using automated marketing can be used to:
- Support your customers in their purchasing process
- Encourage recurring purchases
- Promote registration for a webinar or a newsletter
- Remain in your customer's top choices
- Grow your relationship with your customers
- Deliver a complete customer experience
- And much more!
A scenario to understand marketing automation
Sophie has a dog named Bella. She wants to stay in a hotel with her dog, so she calls to make a reservation. When she does, the standard information is requested, but the hotel also asks her dog's name and its weight. Upon her arrival at the hotel, Sophie finds a crate of the right size and dog treats in her room. Sophie has a great stay and returns home. A few days later, she receives a personalized email saying:
"Hi Sophie, I hope you and your dog Bella are doing well! Since your stay with Bella went extremely well, we are offering you and your dog a free night's accommodation. Use the coupon code BELLA on your next stay. Hope to see you soon!"
This highly personalized email could give the impression that it was written by hand. But in fact, a basic message was written, and personalized information was automatically added to it. It was then sent via an automated marketing platform.
The key: an optimal Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tool
So how does this automation work?
Customer information stored in your company's database (CRM) is first sent to the marketing automation platform.
You can then develop and customize communication scenarios right on the platform. These scenarios will be set in motion following a specific action taken by your current and potential customers.
In our example, the client's action is to book a hotel room for herself and her dog, which results in an automated communication, i.e., an email sent to offer a free night's accommodation after the stay.
The principle is quite simple: the automated marketing platform reacts to your customers' actions automatically without you even having to think about it!
Build a solid and personalized relationship with your client
This means that it is, in fact, possible to have both automatic and personalized communication using marketing automation.
Based on the information gathered about customers, messages will adapt and interactions will be personalized and relevant to them. If the messages customers receive are in response to a specific interest or action, it's a lot easier to send content that's interesting to them, right? In this context, building a strong customer relationship is much simpler.
You also gain more loyal customers, because a customer who feels that your company is listening and responding to their needs will be much more likely to be committed to you. Marketing automation is, consequently, a good tool to integrate into your loyalty strategy.
For an automated delivery, it's all about timing
Automation allows you to customize content for your current and potential customers, but it also allows you to deliver it at the right time. Even a highly relevant message sent at the wrong time will not have the same effect as a well‑planned message.
Hence, it's essential to know the customer conversion process, i.e. the path that customers go through to reach the purchase or perform any other action relevant to your business. In order to find the right time to send your automated communications, it's even possible to assign points to a customer for each action they perform (this is called lead scoring). From there, it's possible to predict when a potential customer will be ready to make a purchase and when to contact them.
Seems complicated? The good news is that our marketing team can help you.
Don't waste any more time on manual sending
Automation means saving time. Indeed, marketing automation allows you to save time by automating certain marketing tasks. This improves your time management and enables you to devote more time to other tasks. Same goes for your team.
But be careful, that doesn't mean that you shouldn't take care of it anymore! Like any effective marketing strategy, marketing automation must be monitored and improved as needed, whether by changing the scenarios, the media used or other criteria. The more we use the marketing tool and collect data, the more we can adjust accordingly in order to optimize the results.
Let's prepare your game plan
Marketing automation is an incredible tool that can be very profitable for your business. It can help you build a loyal customer base and a personalized customer experience. However, poorly executed, the tool may disappoint you.
Contact our team of specialists to use marketing automation at its full potential and get better results. They're here to help you!