Automation is often suspected of taking away jobs – even in marketing. Here, it has the reputation of feeding interested parties general, pre-formulated information, thus diminishing the user experience.
Neither point is true: strategically thought-through automation ensures a positive communication experience for users. And it certainly doesn’t make anyone redundant. So that’s really good news for digital marketeers!
Marketing automation isn’t the same thing as artificial intelligence: You remain in the lead and in control of the automated sales journey
AAlthough the term ‘automation’ may give the impression that processes can run on their own, meaning there is nothing left for you to do because the system can think and learn on its own, that is by no means the case. We are not talking about an artificial intelligence here that looks at visitors’ behaviour on your website and triggers corresponding reactions or suggests further content.
In marketing, automation means:
predefined, topically coordinated reactions
to previous actions.
Predefined by you. Set up by you in the system. Analysed and optimised by you. You are the one who is responsible for defining the process and preparing the further proposals. It is also your task to set up the processes in the marketing automation system and then analyse and optimise them.
So you will by no means become redundant by automating your marketing communications. Instead, you stay in control of the automatic processes.
Pre-formulated texts diminish the user experience?
Only if you send information that is irrelevant to the user.
To ensure your automated responses really are relevant to the user, you have to know the buyer persona – as is typical in inbound and content marketing. Using this knowledge, you develop content that will be graduated according to the defined funnel stages and thus can make a user into a lead and, ideally, a customer.
The development of content (e.g. whitepapers, videos, or infographics) and the definition of the periods in which a lead will receive this information is completely up to you. Automation occurs if you know a lead’s interests and therefore provide them with information according to the topics they are interested in. Meaning yes, you will work with pre-formulated texts. No one who works with a marketing automation system can change that for you.
However, it is really important that the information is tailored to the contact’s interests. Let's assume you have content on the topic of blogging for companies. If a visitor to your website downloads something on the topic of blogging, they should ideally receive additional content on the subject.
This may include links to further helpful information or another free download.
Ihre Buyer Persona will provide you with details,
as to which format is worthwhile here.
The user experience is designed to be positive as a result of the relevant information – despite the pre-formulated processes and texts.
So automation is just a new term for ‘spam’, then? Wrong! Spam refers to the receipt of unsolicited advertising emails.
Marketing automation, however, involves the use of a double opt-in process. The system therefore ensures you are not sending any emails to anyone without their consent. Furthermore, the emails are not only tailored to the target group in terms of subject matter but are generally not promotional at all.
They contain relevant and informative contents for the recipient.
With no price information. Without lists of features.
And even without mentioning your products at all.
Last but not least, the time period and frequency for maintaining your leads are based on the buyer persona and how long it takes until the informational and purchasing process is completed. You split this time period into intervals in the marketing automation system and send your emails within it. If someone has not carried out a predefined number of actions within this time period, they will be automatically – once again as pre-defined by you – marked as not interested and removed from the process.
Of course, contacts have the option to unsubscribe from receiving the emails themselves at any time. Most systems no longer even allow emails to be sent without including an link to unsubscribe.
Fotos: Guille Alvarez · Mohamed Nohassi · unsplash.com
Finally: personal freedom for other tasks
Preparing to use a marketing automation system is no small task. And it definitely takes quite a bit of time in the beginning if you want to do it right. But once you have created the buyer persona, the contents, and the processes, and have put the system online, you will have more time in your day-to-day business for other things – such as strategic planning or analysing or optimising ongoing processes.
After all, you no longer have to thank leads for their interest in your company manually. Or put a reminder in your calendar to send the next batch of content to a specific group of contacts at the right time. Everything runs automatically – according to your predefined specifications.
Marketing automation frees you from your data silos
In all areas of digital marketing, huge amounts of data are generated: on your website, blogs, in online shops, communities, marketing campaigns, apps – and, of course, through good old-fashioned email. Data also comes from various tracking, SEO, publishing, and CRM tools.
This data is normally stored in isolated silos, making its use complicated or even restricted. This is a problem, because important marketing decisions cannot be made if the required data cannot be evaluated. Marketing automation tools, such as HubSpot, can give you a hand with this. HubSpot helps you to compile and evaluate data from different sources in a central location and create meaningful reporting.
Important lessons learned on marketing automation
- Marketing automation helps give your contacts a positive communication experience.
- This is particularly true if you set up your processes for inbound and content marketing.
- You stay completely in control of the processes at all times.
- You cannot be replaced by a marketing automation system.
- Marketing automation takes the place of data silos and integrates all channels.
- This makes data available from different sources usable for your company.
The topic interests you? Delve deeper now!
The trend is clear: sales marketing works digitally, with automation, and is driven by data. We provide you with an entertaining overview of the possibilities and opportunities presented by digital, automated, and data-driven sales marketing in the third special from the ORT Media Group’s Fichtenhain Expertentalk series.
The clear sales trend for 2022: sales marketing goes digital. Watch the Fichtenhain Special Talk on YouTube (in German)!
In the talk, Uwe Freese, a Managing Partner of Coders Unlimited,and Patricia Peter, a Strategist at KONTRAST Communication in the ORT Media Group, provide inspiring best-practice examples for digitalisers and decision-makers in marketing and sales.
You will find detailed information on marketing and sales automation on Hubspot and, of course, directly at Coders Unlimited. We’re looking forward to your feedback. Write to us and tell us what interests you!
