Why Marketing Automation Tools are Essential

What are Marketing Automation Tools?

Marketing automation tools are software programs that automate a range of mundane and repetitive marketing tasks that tend to be time-consuming to do manually. They are a kind of work management solution dedicated to marketing efforts. Platforms offer a range of options, such as drip sequences, email actions, CRM updates and more. Others might provide more advanced features, such as sales lead rotation, lead scoring, SMS marketing, etc.

By using marketing automation tools for your business, you can benefit in various ways, including increasing your overall efficiency levels and freeing up your time to work on more important projects. For example, marketing automation tools can be used to collect subscriber data, which you can then put to use to create marketing campaigns that are more personalised and targeted, increasing overall conversion rates.

The Benefits of Using Email Marketing Automation Software

Email automation refers to creating emails that reach the right people with the right message, at exactly the right time – without having to put in a lot of manual work every time you want to do this. Sending automated messages is one of the most common ways to leverage marketing automation tools. It allows you to target members of your audience based on a range of factors such as preferences, behaviour, and previous buying habits, allowing you to personalise each customer’s experience and increase the relevance of your campaigns. Some of the main benefits of email automation include the following:

A More Scalable Marketing Strategy

When sending out an email series manually, the number of people you have available to do this work will limit the number of customers or potential leads you can reach. If you suddenly got a lot of new subscribers, or your customer base was to double in size overnight, then consider whether or not you would still be able to handle the workload and stay on schedule. On the other hand, when you have automated emails set up, it is easy to scale your email marketing efforts. You can set it up so that whenever somebody signs up for your mailing list, a message is automatically sent to them, eliminating the need to ensure that somebody is available to do it manually.

Get More From Your Marketing Team

Automation tools have been bringing about many changes in how teams work. For professionals who work in email marketing, this means they can be more productive on their working days as there is less of a need to compile email lists and messages manually. Automation frees up time spent on repetitive tasks, which can be used on more important things, such as building stronger customer relationships.

Personalise the Customer Experience

One of the most important things you can do with email marketing automation tools is to ensure that your customers get a personalised and tailored experience. Research suggests that customers today not only prefer personalised messages, but they also expect them. Email is currently the main personalisation experience that modern marketers use, and statistics show that ninety percent of customers find personalised content appealing. When you use email automation tools, you can create a series of automated, personalised emails that help you build better relationships with your customers.

Improve Customer Retention

Any experienced marketer knows that it is much easier and much more cost-effective to market and sell products and services to existing customers of your brand who are already familiar with you and what you offer compared to converting a new customer. Automation makes it easier than ever for you to stay in touch with your existing customers. You can schedule your messages to ensure that customers hear from your business regularly and that your brand is always at the forefront of their minds.

What are the Best Automated Marketing Platforms?

Today, businesses have access to many marketing automation tools to help them get the most from their email marketing efforts and build better customer relationships. Some of the most popular options to consider include the following:

SendinBlue

A digital marketing platform that is hugely popular with small and medium business owners, SendinBlue offers a range of automation features suitable for marketers at all levels. It allows you to easily design mobile-friendly email marketing campaigns with a range of customisable templates or build your designs from scratch. It offers a range of advanced features, including lead scoring and reporting and the option to run text message marketing campaigns.

Ortto

Formerly known as Autopilot, Ortto is a super user-friendly and visually appealing marketing automation software solution. It allows you to create emails using a visual and easy-to-use campaign builder easily. You can access many excellent features, including comprehensive data analytics (as you would also get from a BI tool such as Preset), audience segmentation, log analysis, and activity tracking.

GetResponse

This marketing automation software offers a wide range of excellent features to use. You have a range of plans to choose from at different price points. You can get a list size of one thousand contacts at the most basic level, the option to set up basic autoresponders, and various templates to choose from. You can access powerful features on premium plans, including contact scoring, drip campaigns, eCommerce tracking, and event-based automation. It’s straightforward to use and works brilliantly for email newsletters.

Omnisend

This omnichannel marketing automation platform is built with eCommerce businesses in mind. It offers a range of powerful automation workflows and lets you quickly get started with various pre-built templates for online sellers. You can add several channels to the same automation workflow, including Facebook Messenger, SMS, email, push notifications, and more. A user-friendly visual builder and a range of templates make it easier than ever to create workflows, landing pages, forms, email messages, and popups.

Moosend

This email marketing automation platform is available for various industries, including SaaS and eCommerce. With the automation feature, you can access advanced website tracking and a range of triggers that can be set to ensure that you are sending the right email campaign to recipients in your contacts who are interested in a particular product or service, such as cart abandonment messages. Some tools allow you to easily collect and manage customer data, which is very useful as you can use this to come up with product recommendation campaigns based on the products that customers have viewed or shown an interest in previously.

What to Consider When Choosing Marketing Automation Tools

Choosing the right marketing automation software and tools for your business can get overwhelming, with so many options to consider in the market. There are many factors to consider, such as whether or not you will need a niche marketing automation product, which might be a better fit for some environments. When exploring and evaluating automation software products to determine the best fit for your needs, here are some of the main areas to consider.

Your Business Needs and Budget

One of the main benefits of email marketing automation is that it will allow your business to be run more efficiently, freeing up your time and that of your employees to focus on the tasks that are more important and have the highest ROI. With this in mind, evaluating your marketing automation software’s price and how capable it is of fulfilling your business needs is one of the critical areas to think about.

Reporting and Analytics

It’s essential to be sure that your automation software can keep track of the metrics most important to your business, as you will need to be able to measure the success of your drip campaigns. When implementing automation software, incorporating AI data analytics is crucial. Some companies may also need access to advanced reporting abilities like automatic email reporting or personalised dashboards.

Potential Limitations

Some marketing automation services might limit the database sizes you are allowed or the number of actions you can take per month. When evaluating platforms, it is good to consider your contacts, the average number of emails you send, and your main goals for using the software.

Marketing automation is a powerful tool to enable you and your marketing team to free up time, build better relationships with your customers, and achieve better results.