What is Marketing Automation?
Posted: Wed Dec 04, 2024 10:50 am
B2B Marketing Marketing Automation
Marketing Automation, like any new trend, has spawned hundreds of articles and dozens of definitions. Unfortunately, not all of them are correct. If you read this material to the end, you will learn what marketing automation is. You will also learn what marketing automation is not. You will also learn the most important functions of marketing automation tools. Good luck.
What is Marketing Automation?
Marketing automation is a set of tools and processes that allows for identification and personalized communication with potential customers. Such communication is possible thanks to the analysis of information obtained directly from customers (e.g. data from forms) and through the observation of their actions on the network, i.e. digital body language (see also the article: Marketing automation ).
If you have doubts whether your knowledge is sufficient to successfully carry out such an implementation, I have good news for you. You can find all the necessary knowledge online for free. You can also buy a book by the creators of one of the best marketing automation tools, in which they explain the most important concepts (e.g. digital body language).
Marketing or email automation?
Also, not every software that facilitates the work of marketers belongs to the marketing automation group. The most common mistake is confusing marketing automation with e-mail automation tools. In short, e-mail automation functionality is just one element of marketing automation. Mathematically speaking, it is its subset
.
12 Most Important Features of B2B Marketing Automation Tools
So you already know that marketing automation is not just email automation. Here are the most important functions that you will find in good marketing automation tools. I am focusing here on the functions most often used in the B2B area and I am not going into the e-commerce area, which can also be integrated with marketing automation. More about that in a separate article.
1. Lead scoring
Automatic lead assessment and readiness to initiate sales contact. Lead scoring is created in the process of potential customer interaction with company content and resources. It consists of an assessment of activities (engagement) and information provided directly (profiles, sometimes called the match factor). Each activity and information provided is scored accordingly. For example, clicking on a link in an email means 10 points, but attendance at a conference is already 50. On the explicit side, the managing director (if he provided his position in the form) will receive more points than an intern in his department. Lead scoring criteria are established with the sales department and determine when salespeople are engaged in contact with a potential customer. Below is a simple scoring model containing an assessment of the profile (above) and behavior (below) - a screenshot from Oracle Eloqua.
social-selling-index-87-1024x604-2
2. Dynamic content
The ability to present different content on one site depending on the client's profile. This function is useful if we want users who return to us or enter the site from specific campaigns to see content tailored to the information we have about them. Thanks to this, we do not have to create multiple domains because only the content of the site changes.
3. Customer Profile
Report view allowing you to collect all the information cuba business email list available in the system about a potential customer. This tool is highly valued by salespeople. At the stage of preparing for the first conversation, they can check all the information about the potential customer that has been collected by the marketing automation system. If, for example, the customer opened our mailings immediately and downloaded a few e-books, we already know a bit about their interests or needs.
4. Content Management
Tools that allow you to create, accept, and publish content based on criteria (e.g. personas) defined for marketing automation activities. These types of tools help prepare content targeted at specific personas. They streamline the content acceptance process. If, for example, a lawyer's consent is required, he or she will be automatically informed of the new content and his or her opinion will also be marked accordingly. The best of these tools can even assess the text's SEO potential and even suggest topics that may interest the target group we have selected.
5. Interaction programming
Planning multi-threaded campaigns based on providing prospects with content tailored to their current profile and acquiring new information based on information obtained directly from customers (e.g. data from forms) and by observing their online activities (digital body language).
Below is an example campaign editor defining triggers, i.e. conditions of action and actions that will be performed based on the condition. Screenshot from the Userengage.io platform.
Marketing Automation, like any new trend, has spawned hundreds of articles and dozens of definitions. Unfortunately, not all of them are correct. If you read this material to the end, you will learn what marketing automation is. You will also learn what marketing automation is not. You will also learn the most important functions of marketing automation tools. Good luck.
What is Marketing Automation?
Marketing automation is a set of tools and processes that allows for identification and personalized communication with potential customers. Such communication is possible thanks to the analysis of information obtained directly from customers (e.g. data from forms) and through the observation of their actions on the network, i.e. digital body language (see also the article: Marketing automation ).
If you have doubts whether your knowledge is sufficient to successfully carry out such an implementation, I have good news for you. You can find all the necessary knowledge online for free. You can also buy a book by the creators of one of the best marketing automation tools, in which they explain the most important concepts (e.g. digital body language).
Marketing or email automation?
Also, not every software that facilitates the work of marketers belongs to the marketing automation group. The most common mistake is confusing marketing automation with e-mail automation tools. In short, e-mail automation functionality is just one element of marketing automation. Mathematically speaking, it is its subset
.12 Most Important Features of B2B Marketing Automation Tools
So you already know that marketing automation is not just email automation. Here are the most important functions that you will find in good marketing automation tools. I am focusing here on the functions most often used in the B2B area and I am not going into the e-commerce area, which can also be integrated with marketing automation. More about that in a separate article.
1. Lead scoring
Automatic lead assessment and readiness to initiate sales contact. Lead scoring is created in the process of potential customer interaction with company content and resources. It consists of an assessment of activities (engagement) and information provided directly (profiles, sometimes called the match factor). Each activity and information provided is scored accordingly. For example, clicking on a link in an email means 10 points, but attendance at a conference is already 50. On the explicit side, the managing director (if he provided his position in the form) will receive more points than an intern in his department. Lead scoring criteria are established with the sales department and determine when salespeople are engaged in contact with a potential customer. Below is a simple scoring model containing an assessment of the profile (above) and behavior (below) - a screenshot from Oracle Eloqua.
social-selling-index-87-1024x604-2
2. Dynamic content
The ability to present different content on one site depending on the client's profile. This function is useful if we want users who return to us or enter the site from specific campaigns to see content tailored to the information we have about them. Thanks to this, we do not have to create multiple domains because only the content of the site changes.
3. Customer Profile
Report view allowing you to collect all the information cuba business email list available in the system about a potential customer. This tool is highly valued by salespeople. At the stage of preparing for the first conversation, they can check all the information about the potential customer that has been collected by the marketing automation system. If, for example, the customer opened our mailings immediately and downloaded a few e-books, we already know a bit about their interests or needs.
4. Content Management
Tools that allow you to create, accept, and publish content based on criteria (e.g. personas) defined for marketing automation activities. These types of tools help prepare content targeted at specific personas. They streamline the content acceptance process. If, for example, a lawyer's consent is required, he or she will be automatically informed of the new content and his or her opinion will also be marked accordingly. The best of these tools can even assess the text's SEO potential and even suggest topics that may interest the target group we have selected.
5. Interaction programming
Planning multi-threaded campaigns based on providing prospects with content tailored to their current profile and acquiring new information based on information obtained directly from customers (e.g. data from forms) and by observing their online activities (digital body language).
Below is an example campaign editor defining triggers, i.e. conditions of action and actions that will be performed based on the condition. Screenshot from the Userengage.io platform.