Are you interested in Marketing Automation Technology (MAT)? Wondering how it might benefit your small or medium-sized business in Raleigh and the Triangle? Marketing automation technologies have been around for a couple of decades, originating as a way to automatically add customer contact information into a standard letter. In the last 5-6 years, though, Marketing automation technologies have evolved into systems that enable businesses to identify, nurture, and contact leads who show interest online and convert them into buying customers. How do you know it’s time to invest in MAT?
According to the Aberdeen group, businesses that use some form of MAT have over 105% higher lead conversion and 40% larger deal-size to boot. Marketing automation technologies consist of software that does several things to increase efficiency:
- Posts content across multiple platforms & online channels
- Tracks online visitors
- Nurtures visitors into leads
- Scores or ranks leads by several criteria
- Automates recurrent tasks
The software is fully customizable and can integrate with your business’s CRM software or customer contact information. Other advantages are that it will easily keep track of multiple channels per customer (e.g. multiple email and social media accounts) and provide consistency in communicating your business’s branding logo, taglines, and tone. Marketing automation also helps business owners and marketing professionals measure the effectiveness and success of specific marketing campaigns.
One aspect of MAT that excites business owners most is called “nurturing.” A nurture campaign will track an unknown online visitor’s virtual footprints, such as what search terms they googled or what content they viewed. Once a visitor is tracked, the MAT automatically shows the visitor advertising and content across multiple channels to further “nurture” their interest. The software may entice the visitor to become a “known” contact by offering specialized landing pages or registration forms. The intended end result is that an unknown online visitor becomes more interested in your company’s product or service and either becomes a lead or a conversion.
So does using MAT mean you can fire your marketing department? No, not at all. Your marketing department will be freed up to concentrate on developing a successful marketing strategy. Professionals customize marketing automation software programs to meet the goals set out in your marketing strategy. Carlos Hidalgo, CEO and Principal at ANNUITAS, says “The meaning behind marketing automation is to automate strategy, without a strategy, it will just automate tactics and chaos.”
If you are a small business that would like to take advantage of MAT and the successful lead generation benefits it can offer, but you aren’t able to host a platform, outside marketing agencies like Morris Marketing in Raleigh, NC, can host MAT. A proactive marketing company will help you develop and implement a marketing strategy using MAT for a set monthly fee. Call Mike Morris, President of Morris Marketing at 919-424-8314 to find out if MAT is a good fit for your local Raleigh business.
