How to do marketing automation

Modern marketing does not have different objectives from those of 20 years ago (to earn and to make money), but the tools to achieve them, however, have changed radically.

One of the absolutely innovative aspects of modern web marketing is automation.

The MA or Marketing Automation is the branch of marketing that involves the use of software, more or less complex, which automates repetitive marketing activities and functions.

With data in hand, thanks to marketing automation the average productivity of companies using it increases by 15% and the activity goes into ROI after one fiscal year from its adoption.

What is an automation and how to create one

Marketing automation can take many forms of repetitive communication that generates a marketing automation:

• Email Marketing;
• Landing Pages and call to action linked to newsletters;
• Contact prediction lead Scoring;
• Lead Management: the handling of already acquired contacts that need to be "warmed up" and nurtured;
• CRM Integration: automations related to birthdays, event calendars and prompts for actions on customers in one's database;
• Social Media Marketing: to schedule posts and stories and automate the increase of followers;

In modern marketing, large companies often use automation tools (on average 75% of them).

The real benefits of automations and marketing automation

According to many studies, the real benefits of marketing automation are:

• Time: at least 74% time savings calculated in work hours spent manually performing certain operations;
• Customer Involvement: studies have calculated an increase of more than 68% in customer engagement for companies using automations or carrying out marketing automation activities. This is because customers are automatically followed up in the same way (even if customized);

Up-selling: automation leads to a greater possibility of getting involved customers to purchase new products.

Purpose of automations and marketing automation

The main purposes of marketing automation are:

• Optimizing the processes that lead to the acquisition of new customers;
• Managing lists of old customers (leads) and optimization of lead generation;

Potential disadvantages of marketing automation

There are obviously also disadvantages associated with the use of automations.

These are essentially:

• Fixed expenses for the initial design of software but also monthly fees for their operation;
• Excessive dependence on technology used: when the software stops working, you risk losing the competitive advantages you have gained.

How does marketing automation work?

We've discussed marketing automation, its definition, benefits, drawbacks, and its main purposes.

Let's now look more specifically at the technical operations performed by a marketing automation activity:

Lead nurturing: we have already talked about the importance of automations in the field of email marketing.  However, it is also necessary to delve into lead nurturing which is the choice of ad hoc channels for each contact (obviously done in an automated way) to nurture communication with the lead.

The watchword is personalization in communication even if it's automated.

Lead scoring: lead scoring is an automatic evaluation of the lead's value based on their activities such as opening emails, downloading content, and all those actions connected to your web marketing system. An excellent way to target and segment customers.

The difference between lead grading and lead scoring lies in the fact that while lead scoring is an automation that evaluates the activities of a lead, lead grading, on the other hand, assesses personal data by segmenting the target based on these factors (demographic data, occupation, and all the objective characteristics of the lead).

Monitoring and data analysis: monitoring and data analysis (with subsequent tracking) can also be automated. Automations such as recording the activities that a user performs on a website or logging the data resulting from this activity are essential for an integrated web marketing plan (fundamental for doing remarketing).

Automations through connection to CRM: The combination of automations and the use of CRM is perfect for going beyond just recording customers and related data. This provides targeted communication automatically.

Ultimately, marketing automation makes it possible to achieve extreme segmentation of the target audience based on both intrinsic factors and objective lead data, reducing the CAC (Customer Acquisition Cost) and enabling more effective and targeted lead nurturing.

Some examples

Now let's look at some examples of automations that are useful for companies to speed up and optimize the phases of acquisition, management, and "nurturing" of leads.

Classic examples of automation include:

• Sending a response email after signing up for a newsletter or simply upon submitting an information request on a website, or sending out greeting emails for events or birthdays;
• In the e-commerce sector as well, there are useful automations designed to lower the rate of abandoned carts and increase sales. In this context, email marketing connected to these platforms is very effective in increasing engagement by about 30%.

Social media marketing tools: there are programs capable of automating the scheduling of stories and posts across various social channels. Agencies and freelancers use these tools to not be too tied to specific times and conditions in order to optimize their performance.

Automations are not strictly related to web management; they can also utilize SMS and mobile messaging applications like WhatsApp. 

Create automations for your business directly with Framework360

Framework360 is the best Italian platform for creating automations thanks to its numerous sections and features it offers.

We are talking about a complete platform that is capable of managing even very complex automations including device filters, date filters, industry filters (with custom lists), but can also create campaigns connected to email, SMS, and WhatsApp, as well as link to the advanced tracking system integrated into sites developed on this platform. It finally offers functions related to e-commerce such as the Please note that the last sentence seems incomplete and thus has been translated as it appears. abandoned cart management and advanced tracking of the user's activities within the portal.

Try Framework360