What Is Marketing Automation? (And Do I Need It?)

What is marketing automation?

Marketing automation is technology that oversees and handles repetitive marketing tasks. It can help you automatically send emails, score leads, and much more.

You’ve got a lot on your to-do list, and the work doesn’t end when it comes to marketing your business. Marketing doesn’t have to dominate your day, though.

With marketing automation, you can streamline day-to-day marketing tasks.

If you’re like most people, you probably have a lot of questions about marketing automation. That’s why we’ll answer the questions that marketers and business owners should ask before investing in a solution. These questions include:

• What is marketing automation?
• How can my business use marketing automation?
• Why use marketing automation?
• When should I use marketing automation tools?
• Marketing automation best practices
• How do I choose the best marketing automation solution?
• Other marketing automation FAQs

Keep reading to get your marketing automation questions answered. If you’re looking to speak with a professional about whether your company could benefit from marketing automation software, feel free to contact us online or call 888-601-5359 to chat!

What is marketing automation?

Marketing automation is technology that oversees and handles repetitive marketing tasks. For example, it can automatically add users to email marketing campaigns, post content on social media, and track online leads (among other things).

How can my business use marketing automation?

The above definition of marketing automation only provides a preview of what your company can do with automation software.

When you automate your marketing strategy, you not only save yourself time, but also improve the efficiency with which you optimize your campaigns.

Here are several examples of how your business can use marketing automation:

Whether your company operates in the business-to-business (B2B) or business-to-consumer (B2C) sector, you can use and benefit from marketing automation. That’s why most organizations, including small- to mid-sized businesses (SMBs), use some sort of automation tool.

When should I use marketing automation tools?

Now that you know what marketing automation is and how to use it, let’s dive into when you should use it.

Automation offers an incredible amount of value, but when should you invest in it? Often, companies that meet the following criteria see the most benefits from it:

• Generates a consistent number of new and qualified leads
• Tracks online buyer journeys across channels
• Maintains a lead nurturing strategy eligible for scaling
• Supports a content marketing strategy that targets the entire buyer’s journey

If you don’t meet these benchmarks, you may want to consider working with a digital marketing agency. An online marketing company can help your business establish a content marketing strategy and develop an overall marketing plan that generates qualified leads consistently.

In some cases, these agencies will offer their own automation software with their services. At WebFX, for example, we give our clients access to MarketingCloudFX.

If you’re not ready to partner with an Internet marketing company or invest in a marketing automation platform, you can choose from a number of standalone tools that can automate marketing tasks.

Buffer, for instance, can help with scheduling social media posts, while Grammarly can help with finding and fixing content errors.

Get started with tools like these to start saving yourself time!

Marketing automation best practices

You might be wondering what you can do to get the best results from your marketing automation strategy. There are several steps you can take to help your automation tools be more effective for you, and here are several of the most important ones:

• Don’t rush the setup: Marketing automation tools can be time-consuming to set up. You may want to rush through it, but to get the best results, allow yourself to spend the amount of time needed to set everything up right.
• Keep the focus on your customers: When considering what to automate, don’t think about what your needs are. Think about what your customers will most benefit from. For example, automation is great for helping you send people more personalized marketing materials.
• Consider multiple teams: More often than not, integrating automation tools into your business processes will affect more than just one team. In the case of marketing automation, it will often affect the sales team, too, so get their input when using those tools.
• Track your automation results: Be sure to track the results of your marketing automation. Compare automated campaigns with manual ones to see what works better for you in certain situations, and then optimize your strategy based on what you find.

How to choose the best marketing automation solution for your business

Once you understand what automated marketing is and if your company is ready for it, check out these tips for finding the best platform:

1. Set a budget
2. Read the reviews
3. Look for experience
4. Check the results

1. Set a budget

Before requesting demos, pricing, or anything else, build a budget for your business.

A lot of times, companies will dive in without a price point, which makes it challenging to find the right solution. Setting a budget beforehand lets you focus on the providers and software within your price range, which saves you time.

2. Read the reviews

Even if a marketing automation software offers a free demo or trial, you can save yourself time by checking out the reviews first. If most reviews mention problems relating to customer service or bugs, you can probably remove that marketing automation tool from your list.

3. Look for experience

Experience is another useful way to vet providers. A company new to the field, for example, is more likely to encounter some setbacks. Customer support, for example, may respond later to help requests.

Updates may also come with more bugs, which can cause problems for you.

For the best results, choose a company with experience. When you choose an experienced provider, they make your life easier. You can trust, for instance, that they’ll respond to your help requests fast.

Even if they do launch an update with a bug, you can count on them to fix it quickly.

4. Check the results

Automation is about more than saving time. It’s also about improving your marketing. That’s why it’s worthwhile to check out a marketing automation provider’s case studies.

Look at what clients have accomplished with that company. It’ll provide insight into how this provider could help your business get a better marketing ROI.

At WebFX, for example, we’ve helped our clients earn the following (in just the past several years):

• $10 billion in revenue
• 24 million qualified leads
• 7.14 million phone calls

If you’re curious to see what else our clients have achieved, check out our case studies!

Additional marketing automation resources

• 3+ Benefits of Marketing Automation
• 10 Examples of How You Can Use It
• 3 Strategies You Should Try
• 6 Best Practices for Automating Your Digital Marketing
• 11 Marketing Automation Software Applications for SMBs
• What Does a Marketing Automation Agency Do?

Get a preview of what marketing automation can do for your business

Now you know the answer to the question “what is marketing automation.” Curious to see how automation can help your marketing efforts? Then you’ll want to try MarketingCloudFX.

This proprietary software from WebFX features the AI and machine learning power of IBM Watson, which helps your business automate, measure, and improve its marketing.

Already use a marketing automation solution, but looking to get more value from it? No problem.

WebFX offers marketing automation services to help your business get the most from your automation software, whether it’s HubSpot, Marketo, or another trusted platform.

Learn more about improving your marketing automation by contacting us online or calling 888-601-5359!