What is the place of Marketing Automation in marketing strategy?

What is the place of Marketing Automation in marketing strategy?

Marketing Automation is not a destination, but a means to it. It should be treated as one of the main columns on which your business is based. Each marketing automation tool is just another product, but choose wisely, it could boost your selling strategies.

So if you have bought your marketing automation tool, what now? It is just the beginning. You must realize that the success of digital campaigns is a sum of many things like:

• Your knowledge about clients (gathered from different sources on and offline, behavioral analysis, and data from 3rd parties)
• Knowledge about the specific needs of your clients (buying products or services is always an answer for that needs)
• Ability to see, predict and use behavioral patterns of your clients
• Personalized content – adjust in form for specific needs and interests of recipients
• Professionally created UX (short buying path, user-friendly landing page, communication follow-up, etc.)
• Consistency of communication via different channels, and creating long-term relations of a brand with clients.

If even one of those points is lagging or left behind, making efficient sales won’t be easy. How does it influence a marketer’s reality? IBM was pointing at the same problem six years ago, reminding that more than 90% of data that was created by the human race appeared in the span of two years. Since then that speed keeps getting faster. No one is capable of managing that amount of data and no one is capable of using only his/her instincts while creating marketing campaigns. That is why Marketing Automation Tools were a “must” to happen.

Marketing Automation is more than just a tool; it should be treated as a methodology of work, framework, and state of marketer’s mind that is turning his/her ideas/views into practical solutions. Today, “easy” methods of reaching new clients are nonexistent. Preferences/Needs keep evolving and often turn very specific. The amount of data about those preferences and needs can easily crash lone marketers or even whole teams. That is why the Marketing Automation platform should be integrated with Customer Data platforms. Besides, Marketing Automation tools are only as good as your imagination. It is not important how much professional content you will have on your landing page, and how awesome your products or services are. If you don’t put yourself in your customer’s/client’s shoes and don’t understand his/her needs, all of your hard work will become pointless.

A key to modern marketing is empathy. This ability allows you to understand what exactly your clients/customers need and why. Thanks to it you can personalize your communication strategy in a way that recipients will not only read your messages, but they will also find them interesting and trustworthy. To do that it is important to create a “persona” of your ideal clients. Those must be enriched by adequate tools. Knowledge and strategies that used to work, would not be enough today.