Marketing Automation
MARKETING AUTOMATION
Background
Let’s first understand what is marketing. Marketing is to communicate the value of any product or service to the desired customer. A closer examination of the definition will reveal that both the factors i.e communicating the value of the product or service as well as identification of the correct customers, are equally important for Marketing to be successful. Marketing intends to bridge the gap between the manufacturer or service provider and the customer.
Automation is the use of technology to perform repetitive tasks. Automation is done to eliminate human errors that might creep in due to repetition of work. It also considerably increases the speed of the task performed.
Definition
Marketing Automation refers to the appropriate combination of various technologies and software platforms. This combination should be effectively used by the Marketing Department of the Company to market its product or service to the customers through multiple online channels viz. social media, email, websites etc in an automated manner.
Factors involving successful Marketing Automation
- Customer Identification. The first and foremost objective of any industry, be it manufacturing or service, is to sell its products. To accomplish this, the industry needs to correctly identify its customers. Demography, climate, age, gender, purchasing power etc. are some of the factors which help decide the industry the correct customers segment. The industry must aim to bring some tangible value for its customers by its products.
- Technology Selection There is a vast array of software platforms and technologies available today. From this array, one has to diligently select the correct type to suit the business objectives.
- Product Highlights Before reaching out to the customers, one needs to be ready with the characteristics of the product. Thereafter these characteristics have to be communicated to the customers in clear and unambiguous manner. This can be done through text, pictures, audio or video mode – through any one or combination of them
5 Points to Ponder
There are 5 major points that a company should take care of, before starting Marketing Automation.
- Intrusion Aim to convert a prospective customer to a customer; and a customer to a repeat customer. But never cross the line and intrude the privacy of the customer while extracting personal information.
- Frequency The frequency of communication should be carefully monitored. It should be neither too high to be an irritant, nor too low so that the customer forgets the background altogether.
- Personalise Any communication bearing the name of the customer becomes personalized and has a definite edge over the rest. It subtly compels the customer to look up to the company as a well-wisher.
- Flexibility One needs to try different combinations of technologies and software platforms for Marketing Automation. This will help remove monotonicity from the customers’ mind.
- Relevance For a customer, ‘value for money’ plays the major role while selecting a particular product or service. In business parlance it is called ROI (Return On Investment). While marketing the product, the service provider must professionally show this ROI to get the confidence of the prospective customer.
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