25 May 2015

What Does Marketing Automation Systems Entails

By Tammie Caldwell


When talking of marketing automation, one normally refers to software platforms and technologies that are geared towards assisting the marketing teams and the organizations at large increase their effectiveness in promoting their products in various online platforms. Products may be promoted by email, through websites and social media platforms. The platforms take over repetitive online functions from being operated by human beings. They require a command that triggers action when the required task is achieved online hence the importance of the Marketing Automation systems.

Your marketing team will define what outcome they need from the platforms. They then specify the route the task that will lead to the desired outcome. The software takes in the commands, interprets them and implements what is required. The software is very efficient unlike human effort. Recent developments have made the platforms even better in analyzing visitors behavior and how to influence them to reach marketing goals. These software are normally hosted on cloud and used as a service.

Marketing automation comes in three distinct categories, The first is all about collecting relevant information from interactions with the prospects. Marketers refer this as marketing intelligence. The software is used to track visitor behavior online by use of codes. It tracks people interested on company products in the website, social media, and those emailed by the sales team. It also measures the intent to buy.

Examples of tracking includes recording the link that was clicked in an email, search terms that visitors used to access a website, a forum thread that was followed or a social media group that has so many followers. Buyer behavior can be tracked by use of such links for a product x. This feedback helps the retailing team develop programs that are in line with the interests of the prospects.

There are marketing automation platforms whose main aim is to move prospects down a retailing funnel. This turns prospects to hot prospects that are ready for sales proposals. The platforms score clients as they interact with the brand online and slowly create interest in the products until prospects become clients.

There are sales cycles used in the process. The most common ones include B2G (Business-to-government, B2B (Business-to-Business), and B2C (Business-to-Consumer). Marketers use these platforms to mix the traditional email retailing with a structured process of business. They do not have to chase customers that are not interested in a product, but keep in contact to those who are warming up to the products.

Some platforms are meant to ensure automation of internal retailing processes. These are referred to as workflow automation platforms. In most cases, the sales cycles are delay by the internal component that takes some time to be accomplished. Such processes include planning, budgeting, internal collaboration, development of retailing calendar among others. They check on anything that involves internal marketing process.

A CRM administrator is needed to set up a series of rules so as to trigger internal processes and marketing professionals to do their work. For example, send email campaigns, letters and design relevant files. Marketing becomes easier when human effort is not required in most of those processes.




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