How Automation Will Simplify Your Marketing Efforts in 2023

Minimizing expenses while increasing profit is the ultimate aim of any business, and marketing automation is a versatile tool that can play a significant role in achieving it. 

 

If you're interested in discovering how AI automation can elevate your marketing strategies, make sure to dive into our article titled 'Bring Your Marketing to the Next Level with AI Automation'. There you can learn about the significance of AI marketing automation, the various areas where marketing automation tools find application, and the essential principles and guidelines for achieving effective automation in marketing.

 

But now, let’s return to our topic and answer such questions as "what," "why," and "how" — all about marketing automation.

 

What is Marketing Automation?

Marketing automation is the utilization of software and technology to mechanize recurring marketing tasks and procedures. This approach enables businesses to enhance the efficiency of their marketing initiatives.

Metrics improvement percentage after automation implementation

Source: Statista surveys conducted 2019-2023

 

Through automating some processes, marketing automation makes it more efficient to connect with your desired audience, evaluate and report on ad performance, cultivate high-quality leads, and, in the end, boost progress while saving time and money.

 

Why Use Marketing Automation?

This process brings numerous advantages, not only lightening the workload for large enterprises but also enabling small businesses to remain competitive in today's market. There are various marketing automation tools, and lead generation automation is a great place to start.

 

Generate high-quality leads

Lead generation is a pivotal aspect of marketing, involving the discovery and attraction of potential customers (leads). To simplify this process, businesses are increasingly turning to automation.

 

Automating lead generation involves employing a range of tactics and tools, such as pop-ups, website notifications, chat boxes, and more. The essential aspect is to create systems that attract potential customers, direct them toward gaining a deeper understanding of your business, and inspire them to take action. Let's take a look at some of the tools.

 

Pop-Ups

Typically, a pop-up refers to a compact window or banner that emerges in the foreground while you're navigating a website. Pop-ups can be notifications, images, or redirects. The primary objective of a pop-up is to capture users' attention. Popups are designed to stand out amidst the potential clutter of a webpage.

Levi’s website uses automated pop-ups to encourage customers to sign up to get a 20% discount and free shipping.

 

Automation software can monitor when a fresh visitor lands on your website. When this occurs, you can trigger a popup that encourages them to provide their email address and name. This represents an excellent, automated method for gathering essential information about potential new leads.

 

Popular tools that can help you create pop-ups:

 

OptiMonk is a powerful e-commerce popup tool with a user-friendly builder and over 300 professionally designed templates. The drag-and-drop editor allows easy customization, while advanced triggering options ensure timely popups. OptiMonk also offers detailed analytics for tracking campaign performance.

 

Sleeknote provides feature-rich popups and a vast template library. It offers A/B testing, comprehensive performance data, and multi-step popup campaigns to tailor messages for various customer journey stages. The goal tracking feature helps set and enhance campaign goals. This tool seamlessly integrates with major CRM platforms and marketing tools.

 

Chatbots

A chatbot refers to software or a computer program that mimics human conversation, engaging in text or voice interactions.

 

This tool serves to both decrease the volume of incoming calls to your official customer service line and deliver real-time, high-quality service to potential customers. In doing so, it saves time and enhances customer relationships. If you aim to transform mildly interested leads into high-quality leads, a chatbot can be instrumental in assisting them in finding answers to their inquiries and developing trust in your brand.

 

There are many popular chatbot apps. For example:

 

Chatling - offers a personalized AI chatbot that can supercharge your ticket resolution rates by as much as 50%. You can train this chatbot using a variety of data sources, including website content, knowledge bases, documents, and your own custom text. Plus, you have the flexibility to tweak every design detail to align with your brand's identity and provide instant responses to customers in multiple languages using their multilingual chatbots.

 

ManyChat - enables you to automate your marketing efforts through AI-powered social media and SMS interactions. Implement chat marketing campaigns to enhance brand visibility and offer tailored experiences, including product suggestions, to drive more conversions. Creating your own personalized chatbot is a breeze with their ready-made templates and drag-and-drop builder. You can capture leads, boost sales, and deliver immediate assistance across Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp platforms.

Source: Statista, 2022

 

The above statistics illustrates the global chatbot market's scale in 2017 and offers a forecast for the anticipated market size in 2024. In 2017, revenues in the chatbot market amounted to nearly 370 million U.S. dollars, and estimates indicate that this figure will continue to surge in the upcoming years. This data underscores the significant benefits that this tool brings to businesses worldwide.

 

We named a few ways automation can help you score leads for your business, but there are plenty, and each of them comes with its own unique benefits. The choice of method hinges on what aligns best with your business requirements. Regardless of the approach, automation holds the promise of a continuous influx of leads as the ultimate outcome.

 

Effectively Nurture Leads

With the aid of marketing automation solutions, businesses can track the online behavior of leads, including activities like website visits, content downloads, and email interactions. When specific pre-established triggers are met, such as downloading a whitepaper or viewing a product demo, automated responses can be initiated, such as delivering personalized content or assigning leads to a sales representative for further engagement.

 

To gauge the interest and readiness of leads, companies employ automation marketing software equipped with a lead-scoring mechanism. This allows leads to be categorized into various groups, facilitating tailored nurturing strategies that align with their individual needs and preferences.

 

You can automate this interaction with your leads through automated email campaigns to accompany leads on their customer journey. Personalized emails boast an impressive open rate of 188%, in contrast to the 12.1% average without personalization. Remember, the journey to revenue commences with the email open.

 

Examples of tools for email automation:

 

Mailchimp is one of the oldest email automation software on the market. It boasts a straightforward setup and provides an array of features, including data segmentation, templates, and personalization choices. Businesses can establish triggers at various points in the customer journey, like when customers check out a particular page or product.

 

Brevo, previously known as Sendinblue, offers a comprehensive CRM suite that encompasses various communication channels, such as email, SMS, and VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol). This tool leverages user-friendly features to automate a significant part of your digital communication. It can dispatch welcoming messages to new contacts, deliver tailored offers, and reignite connections with past customers.

Source: Statista, 2023

 

According to Softwarepath, the utilization of email automation software has the potential to generate 18 times more revenue. Such targeted campaigns help to provide relevant information, answer questions, and retain leads until they are ready to buy.

 

Personalize Customer Experience

Following the conversion of leads, the next critical step in marketing is ensuring an exceptional experience for your existing customers. Nurturing these clients increases the likelihood of extending their lifetime value.

 

A key element of successful nurturing is personalization. Automation in customer service simplifies the process of personalization by reducing the need for direct human involvement in client interactions. It enables you to engage customers through tailored means such as seasonal and personalized discounts, satisfaction surveys, product updates, company news, and informative content to support their customer journey. Additionally, it serves as a wellspring of valuable consumer insights that you can utilize to tailor your content to your customer's unique interests and challenges.

 

Another facet of automated personalization is its adaptability. Automated decision-making systems utilize internal data, including established customer preferences and habits, to make tailored offers of new products or services, leading to the overall customer experience improvement. After analysis, it can suggest specific books to purchase, schedule the next appointment, send invitations to relevant events, and more, all based on individual customer behavior.

 

Here we can utilize such tools as:

 

HubSpot provides a range of free tools to enhance website and campaign personalization. Pop-up Forms enable the creation of personalized lead capture forms, triggered by visitor behavior like exit intent or scrolling. Personalization tokens allow customization of email marketing content, while lists help segment and target specific audiences. Smart Content enables the display of varied website experiences and calls-to-action (CTAs) based on factors such as lifecycle stage, device type, or referral source.

 

Segment’s features are designed to categorize and organize your customers by their web traffic. The identity resolution tool synchronizes data from visitors who have interacted with your site, analyzing the various paths and channels that brought them there. Using its trait-building tools, Segment tags these visitors with properties, effectively sorting customers into distinct audiences.

 

Clear and Fast Reporting

In theory, humans can perform the same tasks as computers, but human errors are inevitable in practice. Computers operate solely based on programmed instructions and lack the capacity for independent thought, which makes them error-resistant.

 

Another noteworthy advantage of marketing automation is the speed of reporting. There's no contest when it comes to who can generate reports faster. Automated systems handle vast volumes of data seamlessly, whereas manual reporting is time-consuming and resource-intensive.

 

Among trust-worthy automated reporting tools are:

 

Google Analytics. This reporting tool is both free and highly favored. Users have the option to embed a Google Analytics Tracking Code on their website, enabling the tool to gather data on users' HTTP requests, operating systems, cookies, and browsers. In just 24 to 48 hours, Google Analytics generates reports that assist businesses in monitoring particular KPIs.

 

SolveXia has the capability to automate a range of processes, including reconciliations, expense analysis, rebate management, and regulatory reporting, among others. SolveXia empowers businesses to do away with data silos, improve process transparency, and enable well-informed decision-making through a low-code/no-code solution.

 

Power BI primarily focuses on visualizing marketing data but can also function as project management reporting software. Microsoft Power BI seamlessly integrates with free connectors and various cloud-based data sources.

 

Reduced Workload = More Productivity

While it may seem counterintuitive, it's entirely feasible to boost productivity while lightening the workload. How? Automation comes to the rescue by liberating time from monotonous, repetitive tasks. This not only saves time but also undeniably enhances the well-being of your employees, as few relish routine work.

 

Some automation tools, like HubSpot or Marketo, let businesses centralize all applications and campaigns in a single hub. They promote collaboration within a team and reduce the risk of missing potential opportunities. The integration of marketing automation into various aspects like social media, Google advertising, blogging, SEO, and email amplifies your capacity to work more intelligently, not necessarily harder.

 

Operational inefficiencies can impose substantial costs on businesses, potentially consuming 20-30% of their annual revenue. Marketing automation serves as a remedy, slashing these inefficiencies and freeing up time that was once consumed by repetitive tasks.

 

AutomatedRules is one of those tools that exemplify the power of automation in reducing workload and expenses by automating routine ad management tasks. Automated rules handle tasks such as bid adjustments, budget allocation, and performance monitoring in digital advertising campaigns. This not only leads to savings in operational costs but also lets your marketing team dedicate their time and expertise to strategic and creative pursuits.

 

Boost Creativity

Automation acts as a catalyst for companies, enabling them to extract a greater burst of creativity in a shorter time frame. By automating, again, intricate, or low-value tasks, your team gains the freedom to redirect their time and concentration toward creative, strategic, and high-value pursuits.

 

Furthermore, automation serves as a wellspring of insights, feedback, and data, providing the resources needed to delve into uncharted territories and experiment with innovative solutions tailored to problem-solving and value creation. This dynamic combination of automation and creativity not only optimizes your workflow but also fuels the engine of innovation, driving your business toward new horizons of success.

 

Examples of tools to boost your creativity:

 

Hunch, a creative automation software that enhances ad performance by delivering on-demand branded content in large quantities without sacrificing quality. With Hunch, you can effortlessly create brand kits, resize designs for various platforms, export assets for omnichannel campaigns, run automated Meta and Snapchat ads, and collaborate seamlessly with your team for quicker results.

 

Celtra, a top-tier creative automation software, has been a creative force for renowned brands such as Adidas, Spotify, and DocuSign. This tool gives you the ability to effortlessly refine concepts, collaboratively produce, and deploy numerous creatives without the need for extra manual work. You can test and launch your own product ad creatives across multiple channels like Facebook and Instagram. It lets you enable your team to generate a variety of video combinations featuring visual overlays, graphic call-outs, and end-cards tailored for your preferred media buying platform.

 

In conclusion, we want to mention, that by automating tasks and enabling personalized campaigns, marketing automation enhances efficiency and effectiveness, leading to increased engagement and conversions. This streamlined approach and targeted strategy directly contribute to a significant increase in your ROI.

 

It's crucial to bear in mind that success hinges on the harmonious integration of automation with human oversight to attain the best outcomes. Through rigorous testing and experimentation, you can reveal which tools align most seamlessly with your unique business requirements.

 

Optimize your ad performance to new levels by harnessing the full potential of AutomatedRules. Seize the opportunity to enable a 30-day free trial now to experience the transformative power of automation!

 

Should you need assistance or have inquiries, don't hesitate to schedule a demo with our Customer Success team or contact us to kickstart your marketing automation journey.