Marketing Automation technology requires a significant investment in technology, but what's the business case? Here are some of the ways that marketing automation provides a return on investment.
Engage with more prospects before they start buying, and stay engaged
In many businesses, when a sales person gets a new lead and the prospect isn't ready to start buying, that prospect is never contacted again. Marketing Automation provides an automated process to attract and nurture the relationship with large volumes of prospects, until they are ready to engage with sales. By casting a wider net, and maintaining a relationships for longer period, the chance is greater when those prospects are ready to engage with sales - they'll know who to talk to.
Make your sales team more efficient
A typical sales person spends a lot of time looking for prospects to have a valuable conversation with. Marketing Automation provides the opportunity to automate away unproductive tasks, and let sales people spend time building rapport, understanding challenges and providing solutions to prospects that want to buy.
Get the most from your Marketing team
Marketing people are also a valuable resource and like your sales team, they are spending a lot o time on tasks that can be automated. Fewer human resources are required on administrative tasks when systems are automated, freeing up the marketing team to concentrate on big impact campaigns and optimising marketing performance.
Measure and optimise your marketing investments
Marketing Automation systems provide the ability to collect and analyse data about all of your marketing campaigns and strategies. By comparing the performance of marketing messages, communication channels, products, timing and customer sectors, Marketing Automation will help identify which marketing initiatives are working and which ones are not.
Many Marketing Automation systems also provide the ability to automatically A/B test two alternative variations of the one campaign. By using data about which of the variations is providing the best outcome, your marketing team can select the best performing option, and continue to test other alternatives to identify what factors drive your customer engagement.
Recycle Lost Opportunities
Often during the sales cycle, the customer drops out of the buying process, either due to a change in priorities, lack of budget or other distractions. However, they may still be a viable prospect for your organisation in the future. Marketing Automation provides an opportunity to "Recycle" these people back from the sales process into the lead nurturing process.