Marketing Automation Agency.

Your Marketing Automation strategy will be based on the tools you choose to use and the goals you want to achieve. Most successful Marketing Automations are implemented using these fundamentals:

Set SMART goals and define your budget

• Your automation goals should be: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant & Time-Bound. They should also align with a clearly defined marketing budget.

Select Marketing Automation software for your specific needs

• Your Marketing Automation software is the cornerstone of your marketing activities. As a non-negotiable, it must be within your budget and offer the features & functionalities you need. You will also need to consider the support available if you will be executing your automations in-house, or if you choose a Marketing Automation Agency - ensure they provide the level of support and expertise required to deliver your campaigns to a consistently high level. 

Assess and assign your resources

• Will existing teams need automation software training to implement planned activities? Is the team proficient in the strategic and tactical aspects of successful marketing campaigns - or would it be more effective to outsource your Marketing Automations and activities to an agency? Most businesses realise the highest benefit from using the expertise and technical knowledge offered by Marketing Automation Agencies.

Formulate your marketing plan in line with your SMART goals

• From assigning roles and ensuring GDPR compliance, to crafting the perfect copy for your campaigns - this part of the Marketing Automation process requires commitment. This is perhaps the most pertinent area of Marketing Automation to seek expertise on; Marketing Automation Agencies with platform accreditation offer invaluable insights, product knowledge and expertise that can mean the difference between successful and unsuccessful marketing campaigns.

Launch your Marketing Automation

• Once your planning is complete, hit the start button. If you’re implementing Marketing Automations yourself, keep it simple to start with. You can develop your strategy and include more types of campaigns as your marketing activities start to yield results. If you’re using a Marketing Automation Agency, ensure you are provided with a regular report on your campaign activity, highlighting successes and failures.  

Marketing Automation can improve marketing activity ROI, increase the number of qualified leads, enable sales teams to close more deals and also enhance customer acquisition and retention rates.

Automation software offers a wide range of functionalities and capabilities, and can be tailored to your specific automation strategy. 

Marketing Automation is a key element of lead nurturing. Although this list is not exhaustive, the most popular Marketing Automation software can:

• Nurture your leads through emails and other communication which are triggered, based on user activity on and off your site
• Serve as a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tool, keeping track of your customers purchasing history and offering great insights into their behaviour. 
• Market across multiple platforms with optimised emails that display well across tablets, mobile devices and desktop.
• Provide insights and analytics into your prospects’ behaviour across multiple channels - including your blog, website and social channels.
• Gain meaningful insights into your prospects’ and leads’ buying lifecycle
• Nurture your leads through drip marketing email campaigns - a series of emails that help to qualify and engage leads while nurturing them down the sales funnel
• Drive enhanced customer loyalty through exclusive offers to your best contacts
• Qualify leads through timely and relevant content, providing your sales team with a bigger pool of qualified contacts to reach out to
• Delight your existing customers and drive repeat purchases through long-term relationship building
• Manage and enhance your ROI through measured results
• Deliver more targeted messaging and offers to specific groups and personas through segmentation
• Reduce cart abandonment rates and increase first-time buyer ratios

Email Marketing Automation is the strategy and distribution of optimised, timely messages through email communication to your prospects and leads. 

Email Automations can be tailored to all stages of the buyer's lifecycle. Most email campaigns conducted through automation serve the following purposes:

• Provide prospects with relevant and timely content to nurture them down the sales funnel
• Qualify leads to SQL (Sales Qualified Lead) status, allowing your sales team a better opportunity to close the deal
• Encourage your prospect or lead to complete their first-time purchase
• Motivate happy customers to complete a repeat purchase

Perhaps most importantly is that Email Automations are - as the name implies - automated; very little input is required throughout the campaign lifecycle. Many marketers view Email Marketing Automations as a valuable team asset that ensures more qualified leads in a more stable supply.

Marketing Automation can not be ignored. Customer expectations and demands continue to evolve rapidly, and Marketing Automation has proved an invaluable asset for reaching, acquiring and retaining more leads and customers.

It holds huge potential for any business to improve their marketing activities and ensure higher ROI, focussing more effort into well-performing campaigns and enhancing customer engagements and relationships. 

Marketing Automations are crucial for businesses looking to save time, automate lead nurturing and qualifying processes and improve marketing activities to a point of increased sales. 

Both CRM (Customer Relationship Management) and Marketing Automation refer to software. 

CRM works by collecting and managing customer interactions, with a focus on sales. 

Marketing Automation focuses on optimising and refining marketing activities that garner new prospects and leads.

Marketing Automation software also serves as a CRM. While both terms refer to software and activities, they are not interchangeable. Think of CRM as a way to increase sales, and Marketing Automation as a way to ensure you are marketing your product or service to the right people.

Mobile Marketing Automation is a mobile device based marketing process. Email Marketing Automations seem more prolific, but perhaps the very nature of Mobile Marketing Automations is what makes them more subtle. 

It’s important to know that Mobile Marketing Automations are not limited to text or SMS-based marketing activities. While SMS automations are an option, Mobile Marketing Automation overall is far more advanced.

Marketers looking to reach and engage with prospects using mobile apps across iOS and Android can automate push notifications and in-app messages. These notifications and messages are targeted at specific audiences, and are often triggered by a predetermined set of actions. 

This type of Marketing Automation is fairly advanced, and often requires integrated platforms and functionality.