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Marketing Automation Software Buyer's Guide
Table of Contents
- » What is the meaning of marketing automation?
- » What is Marketing Automation Software?
- » How does Marketing Automation Software work?
- » Is it worth investing money in Marketing Automation Software?
- » What are the features of Marketing Automation Software?
- » What are the benefits of Marketing Automation Software?
- » How to choose Marketing Automation Software?
- » Questions to ask a vendor when buying best Marketing Automation Software
- » Key factors to consider before choosing Marketing Automation Software
- » How much does Marketing Automation Software cost?
If you are running a business then the plan of its future expansion must always keep turning around inside your head. In fact, it happens to all entrepreneurs and existing business tycoons. With that being said, it is also a common thing to acknowledge that growing business requires improving marketing strategies. Also, you should have your resources ready to take down any opportunity that comes as a result of your new marketing strategy. Well, though the above-said ideal case scenarios sound impressive but are equally difficult to achieve unless you have a helping hand to automate most of your marketing rituals – yes, we are talking about an ideal Marketing Automation Software.
» What is the meaning of marketing automation?
Marketing automation can be defined as a technology that helps companies manage their marketing campaigns and processes across channels automatically. An example of marketing automation can be automated messages businesses send to their prospects and consumers on social media, emails, and texts. It centralizes the company’s diverse marketing efforts and customer interactions.
» What is Marketing Automation Software?
Marketing Automation Software is a complete suite that automates and synchronizes your sales, marketing, support system, and CRM to bring the best outcomes for your business to the table. Instead of using separate marketing automation tools for separate marketing activities, it empowers you to manage your data and sales activity from a single platform. You get to customize conditional workflows from a single dashboard that controls all your marketing activities with ease. Though it may take a while to get comfortable with the tools once you master them, it opens up the door towards endless possibilities for market penetration.
» How does Marketing Automation Software work?
The marketing automation platforms work in multiple stages to fulfill your marketing needs. To get started with, it enables you to create customizable drag-and-drop forms and landing pages through which you can capture more potential leads than before. It seamlessly integrates your marketing and sales team with those leads who can easily convert them into sales before they get bounced. Once the deal gets inked, it takes care of the hassle-free payment and delivery of service from both ends. As a marketing automation system keeps a constant tab on customer’s behaviour and interest, keeping them happy with what they want becomes a cakewalk. Also, it helps your happy clients spread a word about your excellent service on various social media platforms thereby drawing more organic clients without any extra effort.
» Is it worth investing money in Marketing Automation Software?
It is undeniable that marketing strategies are getting stiffer day by day with businesses going global. Designing an effective marketing campaign these days requires everything to be perfect starting from emails to pages and pop-up forms. Unless you are an old-time market Nazi, predicting specific consequences of actions becomes difficult. However, a marketing automation software does all of the above discussed with its top marketing automation tools. That’s why the best marketing automation software for small businesses are on demand nowadays. That clears the air whether you are a solo entrepreneur or a big MNC, having an ideal marketing automation software will save your time and will streamline your efforts for getting desirable results.
» What are the features of Marketing Automation Software?
When one tries to complete the daily chores of marketing companies using human resources, it leads to wastage of time as well as resources. Similarly, the pen and paper-based methods don’t have a lasting effect as they are prone to human mistakes as well as theft or loss. However, after the inception of Marketing Automation Software, the companies and businesses can now efficiently manage marketing tasks without any worries. The software has wholly transformed the marketing process of marketers by automating all the tedious work. Hence, let’s study the various features of the software which come together to make the software a success.
› Automating Daily Tasks
If your company has been operating in the market for many years, then you are no stranger to the risks and longevity of the traditional methods of marketing. However, using marketing automation software has dramatically streamlined the process. Nowadays gathering customer data, arranging, and tagging them does not take more than some hours or even minutes in some cases. Thus, the employees can ensure more celebrated work with higher productivity.
› Lead Nurturing
The main task of the marketing automation software is to help the companies gather leads from the details of their regular visitors. By letting the companies detect and understand the pain points of the customers, the software helps in generating a massive number of leads for sales and marketing purposes. Moreover, it also helps in setting the leads based on their conversion rate, thereby placing higher probability ones at the top position.
› Integrating CRM
CRM plays an essential role in managing the marketing sector of your company by providing various crucial information. Hence, the developers of the software have allowed the marketing automation software to integrate the CRM with other marketing channels seamlessly. Moreover, this helps the sales agent to stay updated on any changes to the leads, which is then assigned to a particular agent once the software captures a lead.
› Customizing Land pages
The marketing automation tools are also capable of customizing the landing pages. The software has simple drag and drop tools, tools for changing colors, themes, font sizes, and more. Hence, one can sketch down their dream landing page into reality rather than focusing on a previously designed one.
› Real-Time Reports
Nowadays the marketing automation tools also come with real-time analytics and reporting systems which helps in understanding the customer’s behaviour based on their visiting and scrolling history. This data provides a piece of detailed information on how the products and services can be modified to keep the customers hooked.
› Bulk Email Marketing
The companies and businesses often prefer email marketing for sending out invitations and promotional notifications to their customers. As the list usually consists of a large number of participants, mailing each one of them takes time. In this regard, marketing automation tools streamline the job by sending bulk emails with less or no user interference.
› Lead Scoring
Imagine if your leads are arranged according to their value to your organization, then, won’t it become easy to prioritize them separately? In such conditions, marketers can use the software to sort the leads according to their buying cycle prospects. Afterward, depending upon the priority, managing each customer by sending them customer-specific offers, invitations, etc., becomes easy.
» What are the benefits of Marketing Automation Software?
Similar to other software, the marketing automation platforms also allow their users to avail a plethora of benefits over the traditional methods of marketing. The facilities and tools provided in the software make it stand out from the pen and paper-based processes. So, let’s proceed to the next step by learning some of the benefits of the software.
› Increases Traffic Inflow
The marketing automation platforms help in achieving a greater traffic inflow to the company or business by sending triggered emails. These emails are automatically sent depending upon the customer’s activity on the page or product, which are accompanied with exciting rewards. It helps in luring the customers while ensuring a better customer experience.
› Reduces Time Required
The software helps in atomizing more than half of the tedious work; hence, a great deal of work is easily achieved within a short period. Moreover, it also serves as an add-on for the employees as they get more time in their hands which they can use for creating customer-specific solutions. Similarly, the work which earlier used to take days to complete is now processed within hours and in some cases even in mere minutes.
› Boosting Return on Investment
ROI plays a significant role in maintaining the profit of the company. If a marketer invests a hefty amount in the company, then it is normal that he/she will expect a higher return on it. In this case, the software helps achieve this mission by reducing the number of human resources required for carrying out daily repetitive tasks.
› Monitoring Employees
Imagine if you can detect the poorly performing employees in real-time, won’t it be a good thing for the company? To help the companies do so, nowadays the marketing automation system comes with tracking facilities. The feature supports the operator to monitor and verify the employee activities, their online time, and more. Afterward, this information can then be used to detect any lacking along with best solutions for efficiently tackling them.
› Enhanced Accessibility
The Marketing automation System nowadays allows users to access their projects using their smartphones and tablets on the go. Moreover, using the software, the users can keep a track on the project’s progress while simultaneously getting intimations on any changes. It also plays a role in unchaining your users from the desktop, hence, allowing them to log in to the server at any time and from anywhere.
» How to choose Marketing Automation Software?
The task of choosing the best marketing automation software is not an easy task as the market is full of choices. Hence, we have created a list to help you out in case you are looking for hiring the software for your company.
› Mobile Optimized Display
In an era where the majority of your customers are using mobile services to navigate anything, and everything, a mobile-optimized access platform can boost the traffic. Apart from this, the feature also allows users to avoid desktops as they will be able to access your products through the mobile app.
› Response Handling
Another essential feature of the best marketing automation which must not be avoided is its response handling quality. If your customers face any issues with the software, then they must be able to communicate with your customer service team instantly. It will act as a trust enhancing factor while ensuring users about the product’s authenticity.
› Tight Security protocols
Apart from managing marketing tasks, the best marketing automation software must have a two-factor authentication process to prohibit unauthorized entry. Furthermore, features like single sign-in, activated firewall, Digital Encryption, and more are also proactively installed in the software.
› Google AdWords Visibility
Many companies and businesses use AdWords to increase profits as well as to get the best ROI. Hence, an online marketing automation software which efficiently complies with Google AdWords is a must to go for. Moreover, the software can also collect visitor data by leveraging the platform’s visiting history.
» Questions to ask a vendor when buying best Marketing Automation Software
1. How does this marketing automation solution work with the CRM software I use?
2. Would there be a two-way flow of information between CRM and marketing automation systems?
3. Does the system support integration with other apps and software?
4. In what ways does the system handle the data flow?
5. How flexible is the software’s reporting module?
6. Does the platform offer tailored reports? Can I export the same?
7. How can I measure success with this solution?
8. Will it offer smooth migration from my present system? Or would it be easy to migrate to another system in the future?
9. Is the process of adding new users simple enough?
10. How long will the deployment take?
11. How much would be the training period?
12. Is the contract/pricing inclusive of all the features and support? Or are there any additional costs?
13. How often is the software updated?
14. What practices do you follow for on-going support for the software?
15. In what ways can we personalize the system?
16. Is the system capable of fulfilling our future needs?
17. Is the product compatible enough to work seamlessly on a range of devices, including mobile devices?
18. Does the system have the functionality to tackle the full customer lifecycle?
19. Should I expect any downtime?
» Key factors to consider before choosing Marketing Automation Software
If you are looking for the perfect marketing automation solutions, then, you should know that the market is full of a massive amount of choices. But in such situations, how can one find out what are the key factors which can ensure that choosing the marketing automation software will be a profitable business. Hence, in this list, we have compiled some of the essential points to help you in the decision making process.
› Users Allowed
If your company has a larger employee base, then managing the marketing chores will need software which allows a larger group of users to work on it. Hence, one must be careful enough to subscribe to software which fulfills the requirement. In such circumstances, one can also estimate the number of users beforehand to simplify the process.
› Facilities and Tools Provided
To ensure that you land with the perfect deal, the first thing is to check if the facilities you are looking for are available in the software. Moreover, the software should feasibly comply with your existing business tools to provide a seamless experience.
› Available Budget
Before choosing the marketing automation solutions, one must consider the budget the company can afford. It is always important to remember that the number of facilities and tools availed is directly proportional to the cost of the software. Hence, it is still advisable to make time and explore as many options available before picking one.
» How much does Marketing Automation Software cost?
Depending upon the facilities and tools availed, along with the other factors the pricing plan dramatically differs from one to another. While the lowest premium plan starts from $8/month, some of the expensive ones can also reach a whopping high of $399/month. Nowadays various top marketing automation tools also come with ‘Pay-as-you-go’ feature which helps the individuals to hire additional tools by paying their fees. However, the best method to land with the perfect software is to initially subscribe to the free basic version of the software, before going for the premium plans.
» Conclusion
There is no doubt that an online marketing automation software can help you in big ways starting from creating marketing campaigns to using insights to get desirable results. Thus, it’s time for you to use all your marketing effort together in combination with various marketing automation solutions to serve your customers through your full experience. Use the knowledge supplements from this guide to select the best marketing automation software from the market and easily adjust your campaigns to max out your sales.