Digitalisation has radically changed the role of marketing. Email marketing, content marketing, lead management and social media are just some of the tasks that marketing teams have to implement efficiently. This is because customer expectations have risen in recent years, particularly in the digital space.
And if you want to successfully fulfil these expectations, marketing automation is essential.
Marketing automation tools transform manual marketing processes and tasks into data-driven processes - and the possibilities extend far beyond the automated sending of emails and newsletters. In this blog post, you can find out which fields of application marketing automation covers and how you can use the appropriate tools to drive your company forward.
But what exactly is marketing automation?
Before we look at the 9 use cases of marketing automation, let's first explain our definition of marketing automation. We define marketing automation as the use of software and tools that standardise, automate, scale and measure marketing tasks and processes. These tools can save time, effort and budget. As a result, the performance and efficiency of marketing activities can also be increased.
Where & How? The practice
Marketing automation ranges from segmentation, generation and targeting to the nurturing of leads. It also helps to create, manage and analyse campaigns and to automate workflows and processes in general. Below we present 9 examples of how you can successfully use marketing automation in your company:
1
Measuring customer satisfaction
Web forms can be used for customer satisfaction surveys so that companies automatically receive valuable suggestions and ideas for improvement.
2
Automated callback service
If a call is missed, an automated e-mail is sent informing the caller of callback attempts or announcing the next callback attempt.
3
Status messages
Sending automated e-mails on the status of the ordered item, e.g. "Item has been delivered".
4
Seasonal offers
Existing customers can be reactivated with seasonal discounts. Offers can be sent to a retargeting audience via email, text message or social media.
5
Suggestion for follow-up purchases
Automated reminder emails to inventory customers for recurring events or consumable products for repurchasing.
6
Discounts & vouchers
Discount codes/vouchers are sent out on specific occasions, e.g. anniversaries or Black Friday.
7
Loyalty gifts & messages
Customers who have been customers for a longer period of time can be contacted by e-mail or text message on anniversaries (such as after 1 year) with a message of thanks and possibly a reward.
8
New followers
Existing contacts are automatically referred to the company's social media profiles by e-mail in order to gain them as followers.
9
Event Promotion
Contacts can be automatically notified or reminded of social media events by e-mail.
What needs to be considered before implementation in practice?
Before marketing automation is implemented in practice, the following 2 steps should be considered:
1. analyse the requirements in the company
First of all, the question should be answered as to which marketing automation tools make sense for your company and how these can be connected to your own CRM system.
This question is relevant for two reasons: Firstly, the marketing automation tool must fulfil the requirements of your company and therefore have appropriate functionalities. Do you "only" want to play out email campaigns or also implement SMS campaigns or even retargeting on social media via your marketing automation tool? This affects both the choice of tool and the costs. On the other hand, the technical status of your CRM system must be taken into account. It is important here that a seamless transition and exchange of data between the marketing automation tool and CRM is possible without a human interface.
2. definition of an action plan
In the second step, it is important to define a goal and record what you want to achieve with marketing automation. Do you primarily want to acquire new customers, encourage existing customers to make repeat purchases or both? Are you pursuing transactional goals to encourage your (potential) customers to buy quickly or do you want to use marketing automation for long-term relationship management? Depending on what your goals are, the appropriate measures should then be planned. Do you have enough relevant and well-prepared content to set up campaigns? Do you have enough internal resources to implement an editorial plan on an ongoing basis? Or - is your website at a good technical level so that it can be used efficiently in combination with marketing automation? For example, forms can be integrated into the marketing automation tool to send newly generated leads to an automated campaign and reduce the manual effort of the marketing team. And reducing the manual effort and improving the performance of your marketing team are ultimately the goals that marketing automation aims to achieve.
Wilhelm Schmid
Manager Digital Transformation
Nutzen Sie das Potenzial der Marketing Automation.
Ich helfe Ihnen gerne bei der Umsetzung.