What is marketing automation? It's a phrase that has been fluttering about for the past few years.
In a nutshell, marketing automation refers to software that aims to automate marketing processes. Think of repetitive tasks like emails, social media postings, signup form responses — how much easier would it be if these tasks could be done automatically without any human intervention?
When you think of the automation of repetitive marketing tasks, that's what marketing automation is: a tool to do just that.
What is Marketing Automation and How is it Used?
There are several different types of marketing automation platforms, some that focus on email, some that focus on social media, but there are also platforms that connect different channels together to automate entire processes and not just parts of them. These are called "multi-channel platforms" because they encompass multiple channels to create automated marketing processes.
Let's imagine for a second that as part of your lead nurturing process, you email every person who signs up on your website via a "Contact Us" form. Chances are that currently you have a form provider that builds the form and then you follow-up with your leads manually. Now, with a multi-channel marketing automation platform, the form and the email would live in the same platform so there is no disconnect between systems. With a form from this platform, you could set it up to automatically respond to leads via email instead of responding to each one manually. These automated emails can also be personalized to contain information specific to the question a lead is contacting you about.
Being able to automate repetitive tasks saves marketing teams time and resources that can be better spent on more valuable one-on-one interactions, such as interactions closer to a sale. At its core, marketing automation aims to help companies buy and sell more effectively by lessening the workload of simple tasks through automation.
If you're interested in trying multi-channel marketing automation for yourself, sign up for a free 14-day trial of SimplyCast 360.
