Myths About Marketing Automation
To meet today’s and tomorrow’s demands, you will need a marketing automation plan for your business. Marketing automation is becoming increasingly prevalent, driving customer attention toward organizations of all sizes. A 2019 Social Media Today report found that three-quarters of organizations (75%) had adopted marketing automation tools.
Marketing automation systems are now one of the most popular methods of online communication, and their use will only grow as time passes. Technology experts believe these tools will continue to be used more extensively in diverse contexts:
- Social media marketing
- Email marketing
- Lead generation
- Lead nurturing
- Metrics and analytics
- Management activities.
While the potential of a marketing automation plan is compelling, there are various myths that about the technology that confuse the issue:
Marketing automation is only for big companies
According to a recent Forbes report, marketing automation was cited by 82% of marketers as a major reason for their improved efficiency and positive ROI. While enterprises have growing interest in marketing automation systems, these solutions can be just as powerful for smaller businesses. According to market research, the largest growth segments for this branch of marketing is small to midsize business (SMB) with annual revenue of USD 5-500 million.
Marketing automation is only for email.
Email marketing is a core piece of a sound marketing automation plan. As the below chart indicates, integrating a marketing automation system (MAS) into your operations gives you much more extensive features.
Purely using
email marketing
will not enable you to see and demonstrate how marketing is contributing to the entire system. On the other hand, marketing automation gives you the functionality to track your efforts, with in-depth results for each campaign.
Despite how positive marketing automation is for email, it is certainly not the only place it can be powerfully applied – as indicated by the above bullet list.
Campaigns of any nature, whether inbound or outbound, always need to be monitored in order to obtain the correct analytics and drive optimal performance. If you are not monitoring and adapting, you are increasing the chance of the campaign becoming stale. Be careful not to adopt a “set it, forget it” mentality for any marketing automation platform (MAP), since that perspective could sabotage campaigns, drastically reducing impact.
Do not let the word ‘automation’ convince you that everything this technology does is mindlessly robotic and cannot be personalized. In fact, there is greater capacity for personalization within automation tools than there is within conventional marketing. A marketing automation system is not like “auto-pilot,” keeping the business running in a set way. Instead, it’s a focused labor-saving tool that can deliver your plan with extra personal touch.
With many marketing automation systems on the market, the challenge is to choose the most appropriate toolset at the best price. Many people think incorporating a MAP into their business is prohibitively expensive and would not yield sufficient revenue compared to the amount invested. In fact, a marketing automation system (MAS) is diversified and can easily adapt to varied professional needs, making more economical as it creates greater value.
Marketing automation certainly provides efficiency, but you do need to invest time into understanding its more sophisticated features for the greatest gains. This potent technology provides you with a set of tools to manage the different components of your online marketing campaigns. A MAP is much like customer relationship management (CRM) software, but with tremendous time-saving potential and an easy implementation process.
It is spam.
Marketing automation systems use modern techniques to deliver and monitor a series of automation plans, for optimal effectiveness. Just because communications from a MAS are automated, that does not mean spam is being produced. Spam is illegitimate and irrelevant. If the communication going to your customer is approved, valid, precise, relevant, personalized, and useful, then you have an effective, ethical system.
Generating leads without effort
A marketing automation plan
gives your business the ability to yield better leads with less effort. The system does require campaign personalization and monitoring if you want to attract prospects, nurture them, and convert them into acquisitions. Here are some marketing techniques to
increase lead generation:
Conclusion
Since business strategy ultimately is about perspective, it is your call how marketing automation might serve you best. However, before getting immersed in the technology and its integration into your business model, conduct a comprehensive “reality check” to ensure you are making decisions based on fact. How else do you think marketing automation is misunderstood? Please share your thoughts in the comments. Also, given the prevalence of myths and misconceptions, it can be helpful to discuss the subject with experts. For in-depth analysis and guidance, email contact@epikso.com or book an appointment today.
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About Author
David Miller
Digital marketing consultant with 15+ years' experience. Primarily focused on consulting companies on their digital presence while helping them grow technology for attribution and advertising. Worked with brands and created product roadmaps, created and managed multivariate testing, performed site optimization to increase organic traffic, improved conversion rate on e-commerce sites, and created monetization plans for the largest business websites in the US.
