Marketing success depends upon many factors, but no matter how appealing a campaign may be conceptual, it must be efficient or be at risk of failure. The best marketing automation software can allow you to manage marketing processes across multiple channels automatically. Marketing automation software can significantly increase your marketing strategy’s efficiency and make it more cost-effective.
While many marketing experts understand this, there seems to be some hesitation when automating a company’s marketing strategy with marketing automation software. This is primarily due to business owners’ unfamiliarity with marketing automation software products and the benefits and advantages they offer.
Understanding what automated marketing software can do can help you streamline a very integral part of your business and allow you to focus on other aspects. Doesn’t marketing automation software sound like the answer to all your problems?
That’s good news for organizations looking for new ways to gain a competitive edge over their rivals. With so few companies opting for marketing automation software, being an early adopter gives your business some serious leverage.
To make the most of your marketing automation software experience, however, it’s essential to take your time to research what you need and to use your chosen tools to their full potential.
What Can Marketing Automation Software Do?
Each marketing automation software solution is unique, and each will offer different advantages. Which one you choose will depend largely on your preferred online marketing platforms.
Some of the more basic features you can expect to come in marketing automation software across include:
- Email marketing tools
- Lead capture tools
- Lead nurturing tools
- Marketing and central contact databases
- CRM integration
Data analytics are becoming increasingly popular as part of a marketing automation software tool kit. These are often bundled with quality reporting tools crucial for effective campaign management.
But these are only some of the basics. Your marketing automation software can often be tailored to include exactly what your business needs.
Multi-channel campaigns, mobile device optimization, and dynamic content generation are some of the more advanced features you might find that set one solution apart from the others.
Tell us what you're looking for and we'll offer you personalized software recommendations.
How Do I Start Marketing Automation?
A key component in determining which marketing automation software solution is right for your company is simply knowing from the get-go what your company needs from its marketing software. Below are some tips for selecting marketing automation software for first-time users:
1. Analyze Current Marketing Procedures
Please take a close look at your current marketing policies and procedures, whether or not they include automated marketing. List which aspects of this system are working well for your company, which are not, and what seems to be missing.
Consider how your organization typically markets. If marketing is mainly word-of-mouth social media marketing based, you will need a marketing automation software solution that acknowledges and enhances that.
2. Consider the Needs of Other Departments
Don’t stop with your current marketing system when addressing these questions. Marketing automation software can also augment your operations, for example. You could procure a solution that provides your workers in the field with real-time customer data to build complete customer profiles, or it could provide sales data to your development teams.
3. Understand Third-Party Integrations
Also, consider the other hardware and software tools and solutions your business relies upon. Third-party integration and cross-platform compatibility have improved enormously and are continually improving.
Is your company a BYOD (Bring Your Device) environment? If so, you’ll probably require Android and iOS compatibility to provide everyone with a seamless experience if your marketing automation software solution needs to be deployed on mobile devices.
4. Research Deployment and Implementation
And finally, research what deployment and implementation the selected marketing automation software will require. If your organization has a fully functional internal IT team, this may not be much of an issue—but you’ll still want to know how much downtime you can expect. If your organization tends to outsource its IT needs, you’ll want to determine what support the marketing automation software vendor offers.
Researching and Choosing Your Marketing Automation Solution
There are many methods for researching and choosing the right marketing automation software solution for your business. You can contact representatives from the marketing automation software vendor, request demonstrations of their software, and ask them detailed questions. You can get colleagues that use similar systems to ask for their input.
Another excellent method is to seek comparisons from third-party consultancies and advisory services. We provide a wonderful buyer's guide to the top Marketing Automation software solutions, providing you with a quick and convenient way to narrow down your choices.
What Is the Best Marketing Automation Software?
AI technology has improved the way marketing automation software can streamline business efforts. With product integrations with other business solutions, marketing automation software can become an unstoppable tool in your marketing arsenal. Let’s explore three of the most popular marketing automation software vendors in the market:
Oracle Eloqua
Oracle Eloqua is a marketing automation software that offers a holistic approach to marketing automation for B2B businesses. With its advanced lead-scoring mechanisms, this marketing automation software can be integrated with your CRM and other applications to understand your leads' value truly. The powerful analytical tools provided by Eloqua marketing automation software would help your business reach the highest quality of leaders in your lead generation efforts.
Marketo Engage
Marketo Engage marketing automation software harnesses the power of AI to help your sales teams reach the highest quality of leads with granular targeting and custom messaging services. The AI features of this marketing automation software understand market segmentation to reach potential audiences with the most relevant approach to content marketing, ensuring better conversion.
Constant Contact
Constant Contact is a powerful marketing automation software powered by AI technology to automate all your marketing efforts. With the management of SEO, social media marketing, Google ads, and other platforms, this marketing automation software can consolidate all of your marketing efforts.
If you believe marketing automation software is the right move for your business, consult our marketing automation software guide to understand and compare the best marketing automation software vendors on the market.