Why Marketing Automation is needed for Lead Nurturing

Today’s business world has undergone a transition from how it functioned in the previous era. Technology has not only contributed to exponential growth graphs, but it has also managed the planning, strategized goal orientation and made the workforce resourceful. Marketing Automation has helped the businesses with its efficient use of technology. Tasks like emails, social media optimization, forms and landing page creation, content generation and other website development and design related activities are managed marketing automation more easily.

What is Marketing Automation?

As it suggests, marketing automation can be categorised as a mechanism to automate multiple basic marketing actions and streamline the workflow with organisational goals and targets. It saves the time as multiple campaigns can be scheduled ahead of its time. Such facility boosts the efficiency and effectiveness of operations and drives ROI.

Suppose, when you log in to Amazon, you will find out your name dynamically inserted around the page which contains all your search history, wish list and suggests you the products accordingly. Even later, you'll find predictive suggestions on your web screen which will force you to think of the product again, and compel you to make the decision to purchase said product. All this personalization of the consumer interest has been possible because of marketing automation software.

Marketing automation is often misunderstood when it comes to how it works. The database it maintains is gigantic and needs personalization for improvements. After buying an automation tool, its adoption needs meticulous attention and extensive effort.

Some necessities to look for while using a Marketing Automation Tool

• Identify the trends and demand benchmarks while initially beginning with an automated workflow.
• Pay close attention to how frequently members get converted and how many responses your emails get.
• Automation metrics can be calculated to keep a track on performance and can help in building fruitful master plans.
• Identify which metrics turn out to be most productive for your business enhancement. This can help in driving traffic (including organic traffic) and improving lead-to-customer conversion rate.

Why is Marketing Automation needed for Lead Nurturing

Adoption of any marketing strategy is possible only if you trust your workforce to implement it effectively. Furthermore, the level of technicality needs to be raised while maintaining the comfort of consumers. Working with an automation software raises the bar for performing difficult tasks, and consequently contributes to the company’s growth which helps in generating leads. For a better understanding of its usefulness, here are two sample workflow situations for a detailed analysis of this discussion.

1. Newly Earned Leads

Imagine you have been successful in converting your potential customer into a lead where the lead downloaded an eBook. His complete profile database (buyer persona) is recorded with the help of marketing automation software, and now you can get the insight of the customer's persona and the kind of content that was consumed. Now all you need is to follow a simple procedure to proceed further:

• Send a confirmation email with an attached eBook.
• Within the next week, send an email with a link to a different and relevant content form.
• When the open rate and click-through rate is good with the lead, invite them to sign up for your newsletter with a CTA within the eBook.
• Make the lead reach your social media accounts with respective links through CTAs or emails.
• Your workforce must plan to send the lead a series of customised emails, depending upon where he lies on the buyer’s journey. The aim is to educate and make him search for solutions through your website.

2. Inactive Leads Earned Long Ago

Segmentation can play a significant role in such cases, where segments can be personalised according to the potential of the conversion.

Analyse the kind of content preferred and disregarded by the potential customers. Considering a case where they have recently attended webinars or personal phone calls and further can be approached in following ways:

• Email them a precise questionnaire for feedback on the webinar.
• Responses will be delivered an immediate confirmation email with brief guidelines to (recent) future events, similar to the one they recently attended.
• The second email can be drafted for those who haven’t replied back within a specified number of hours or days.
• Leads who answered the survey and consumed the content will then get an invitation online for as per their interests.

Marketing automation is the optimisation of software to automate repetitive marketing tasks to save time or perform certain tasks at high scale. It empowers marketers to take concrete, data-driven decisions and serve customers with the most personalised experiences. Therefore, using the above-mentioned tactics will help to build a relationship between the lead and the increase the brand loyalty.