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Marketing Automation - The most important points in brief: |
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To make their online marketing faster, more efficient, and scalable, an increasing number of companies are turning to Marketing Automation. But how does Marketing Automation work, where is it applicable, and can it support your marketing team? Which tools are best suited for your company?
Marketing Automation is implemented with the help of specific software. It is mainly used to automate recurring tasks to save time and resources. However, it also serves data analysis and management and is even used for customer communication.
Many people associate Marketing Automation primarily with email marketing. However, Marketing Automation tools can also streamline your marketing in various other areas.
Imagine having to greet every new customer or newsletter subscriber individually, thank each one for their purchase, and manually determine which customer should receive which information, product tips, and more. It would consume your entire day. With the help of email marketing automation tools, you can set up an automated workflow that sends the right message to the right people at the right time. You can automatically analyze who reads your messages and, for example, only send emails to people who engage with them. You can also analyze which content resonates well and which doesn’t, as well as check if the provided email addresses are correct and still active, among other things.
Marketing Automation can be very helpful for lead generation as well, through the use of call-to-actions (CTAs), contact forms, and landing pages. For example, when internet users comes across a blog post on your corporate blog and find the content interesting, they click on the CTA to get more information. They are then automatically redirected to a landing page where they fill out a form with their contact details, submit it, and then receive the desired information via email or download, such as a whitepaper. This process automatically turns them into a lead, and their contact information is stored in your contact database.
Once you have the lead’s contact information in your Customer Relationship Management (CRM) contact database, you need to work with the data. Marketing Automation also helps with this. With the help of tools, you can create lists into which the leads are automatically sorted. This can be done based on specific criteria, such as purchase intent, demographics, or interactions with content. Thanks to these lists, you can tailor your content to your customers more effectively and distribute it more targeted.
Through lead segmentation, you can provide the right people with the relevant information at the right time. You essentially nurture and foster contact with potential customers. For this purpose, email marketing automation, as described above, is recommended. With it, you can, for example, send emails to customers who haven’t ordered in a long time and offer them discount codes if they make a purchase within the next few days. You can congratulate customers on their birthdays or celebrate the anniversary of their membership in your community, and more.
For every action a lead can take, you can automatically assign a predetermined number of points, thereby evaluating their stage in the buying process. This way, you can determine whether further nurturing actions are necessary or if the lead has already made a purchase decision.
In addition to the workflows already described that also pertain to customer relationship management, such as automated emails to welcome customers, send order confirmations, and the like, Marketing Automation can be used for your CRM to enable Cross- and Up-Selling, among other things. With the help of specific tools, automated campaigns can be created to offer corresponding deals based on customers’ purchase behavior and preferences. Customers can be made aware of similar or complementary products to their purchases or upgrades for their bought goods. Moreover, Marketing Automation tools can also be used to identify and reactivate inactive or at-risk customers, for example, through discounts or special offers.
Marketing Automations are also available for the social media area. Most people are familiar with the function to schedule posts on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn. Promoting these posts can also be scheduled. Post scheduling can also take place through other tools such as Hootsuite Publisher or Canva, provided they are connected to your social media profiles. Automation helps you avoid manually launching ads at specific times but instead plan them over an extended period. Additionally, A/B testing is possible, enabling you to optimize your targeting settings, captions, creatives, and more. Furthermore, the analysis of ads and posts can be automated.
In addition to social monitoring, automation can also support you with social listening. There are theoretically bots that can automatically like, follow, and comment. However, their use should be carefully considered as they could harm your credibility.
Some providers of social media marketing automations offer real added value. For example, with the marketing automation tool “jobfire” by Local Up, it is possible to serve recruiting ads on social media and Google Search in a personalized and localized manner across various locations, using geotargeting. This way, companies with multiple branches or franchisees can save effort by not having to create individual ads for each open position and branch, especially if they want to avoid a one-size-fits-all approach. Jobfire allows for automatic individualization of texts, images, and even videos based on location and the advertised job, saving a lot of time and effort.
As evident from the blog article, the areas where marketing automations can be applied overlap in many instances. Therefore, it is not surprising that many marketing automation tools are known as all-in-one solutions.
Some of the most recommended marketing automations are:
With the “HubSpot Marketing Hub” tool, you can, among other things, insert contact and pop-up forms on your website without needing any programming knowledge. When leads fill out these forms, additional information such as job titles and social media profiles is automatically retrieved from the internet and stored in your database. It is also possible to track how leads arrived at your website, which content they viewed there, and more. Integrated analytics features allow you to see which pages, offers, etc., have the highest conversion rates. Of course, email marketing is also possible with HubSpot. However, for beginners, fully utilizing its marketing potential can be relatively complex.
HubSpot Marketing Hub offers free CRM sales tools and various package options for even more features.
HubSpot Marketing Hub is an all-in-one marketing automation solution
The marketing automation tool Klaviyo is specifically designed for E-commerce businesses. It offers integrations with various shopping systems, such as Shopify or Adobe Commerce (Magento). With Klaviyo, you can segment customer data and send emails and SMS directly from the customer database. Multi-stage email flows can be created, including welcome emails, discounts, or review requests. Additionally, the database can be linked to social advertising efforts for targeting in metadata.
Klaviyo is available in a free version and various pricing plans, depending on the amount of contact data.
The marketing automation tool Klaviyo is specifically designed for E-commerce businesses
ActiveCampaign describes itself as a “Customer Experience Automation Platform” and targets small and medium-sized businesses. The American company aims to help its users send fewer emails with better results. The platform allows automating email communication based on website visitors’ behavior. With the CRM system, sales can be managed directly from the backend.
Since AI is also becoming relevant in marketing automations, ActiveCampaign has integrated AI into its Content Creator, which helps create newsletter texts faster based on the GPT engine.
Overall, ActiveCampaign is more than just a newsletter tool, as it enables collecting a wealth of information about customers in one central place. However, the learning curve for beginners is relatively steep.
Prices for ActiveCampaign start at $19 per month and increase depending on the desired features.
ActiveCampaign describes itself as a “Customer Experience Automation Platform”.
GetResponse is a comprehensive marketing automation platform. It offers features such as email marketing, marketing automation, landing page and homepage builders, webinars, and many more.
GetResponse provides E-commerce functionalities and integrations with platforms like Shopware, Adobe Commerce (Magento), and PrestaShop. The E-commerce presence can be entirely built on GetResponse, from online shops to product libraries.
Among its capabilities, GetResponse assists in building and expanding contact lists, promoting products and services, optimizing E-commerce campaigns, and running paid ads on platforms like Facebook and Google. It is very user-friendly and, therefore, well-suited for beginners. GetResponse is available in a free version and various package options.
Get Response is available at different prices depending on the scope of services.
Brevo was formerly known as Sendinblue and primarily served as a newsletter marketing tool. With its evolution into a complete CRM suite, the company rebranded itself as Brevo. Today, it stands as one of the leading CRM suites, aiming to establish sustainable and long-term customer relationships for businesses. Brevo offers intuitive and scalable marketing and CRM tools, including email, SMS, WhatsApp, chat, marketing automation, meetings, and more. It integrates with platforms like Shopify, Salesforce, and Intercom. Brevo is easy to use, making it suitable for beginners as well. It is available in a free version and various paid packages.
Brevo is one of the leading CRM suites.
Mailchimp is considered the most widely used newsletter tool for small businesses. However, it not only offers email marketing but also supports other areas such as customer analysis, social media, content creation, and CRM. It has interfaces with a wide range of third-party tools, such as pop-up plugins, course platforms, page builders, e-commerce systems, social media, and more. Mailchimp is particularly suitable for beginners and startups. However, since its server is located in the USA, you may encounter data protection issues when using Mailchimp.
In the free version, Mailchimp allows up to 1000 emails per month for free. Otherwise, the prices vary significantly depending on the desired services.
Mailchimp is considered the most widely used newsletter tool for small businesses.
BiddingLab is a marketing automation tool for Google Ads, enabling search, display, and shopping campaigns. BiddingLab takes care of bid management and keyword management in customers’ Google Ads accounts automatically. This means that bids for search, shopping, and display campaigns are fully automated. BiddingLab offers easy setup and AI-powered real-time optimization, ensuring high-performance results.
For example, if BiddingLab detects unprofitable products or keywords, it reacts in real-time by reducing the cost-per-click (CPC). This helps avoid unnecessary click costs where no revenue is generated. Ads are only displayed when the likelihood of a conversion is sufficient to meet the cost-benefit target. This ensures that the budget is used in the most efficient way, all done automatically. Manual adjustments are no longer necessary, saving valuable time.
BiddingLab can be tested for free, and the price varies based on the desired features.
BiddingLab takes care of bid management and keyword management.
jobfire is a marketing automation specifically designed for online recruiting. It allows companies with multiple locations, branches, or franchisees to create and customize job advertisements on Facebook, Instagram, and Google Search in their own corporate identity (CI) for each location, personalized and targeted within the immediate vicinity, all completely automated. The creatives no longer need to be manually adjusted for each position and location, as this is done automatically using placeholders. Different images and videos can also be used for each location and advertised position. This approach directly addresses applicants, significantly increasing the number of applications per job posting. Additionally, through targeting, it is possible to reach so-called passive candidates who are open to new opportunities but not actively seeking a new job. The automation works quickly and effortlessly, making it suitable for beginners as well.
jobfire is available in various package options, starting at €500 for a 21-day duration with a guaranteed 65,000 impressions.
jobfire is a marketing automation specifically designed for online recruiting.
In general, it can be said that, if your budget allows, you should definitely use marketing automations to make your online marketing more effective and time-saving and to avoid falling behind your competitors. Marketing automation has now become a standard in online marketing. In addition to the mentioned marketing automations, there are, of course, many others that could be suitable for your business.
When deciding to implement one or more marketing automations, you need to consider which features are important for your business. Additionally, it is worth comparing prices and reading some of the many online reviews about marketing automations.
When using marketing automations, make sure to have a targeted strategy in place. Don’t forget to consider your personas and your corporate identity (CI). The selected automations must fit both your business type and your customers. If choosing providers outside the EU, ensure that data protection regulations can be complied with. With a well-planned strategy and the right automations in place, there will be no obstacles to automating your online marketing.
