Every business knows that marketing can be automated. Marketing automation is a necessity for big businesses, who might have hundreds of thousands of customers to interact with daily. But for small businesses is a difficult technique, especially if you’ve never used it before.
Automating your marketing campaigns is typically a net-positive. It’s still important to understand, what is true and what is not, about the process so you know what to expect.
Here are 7 myths about marketing automation and the truth about it.
1. Automated marketing is just sending messages automatically
Automated marketing software sends messages to potential (and current) customers through email, web, social media, and text.
But the concept is about much more than sending messages automatically so you don’t forget to. It’s about maximizing efficiency, so you don’t need to write and send the same (or similar) messages to individual customers every day.
It’s also about targeting and identifying what visitors to your site or store need and giving it to them.
Finally, it allows you to study the data and decide what to do.
2. Automated marketing is an easy task.
In many ways automated marketing is better, but does it make your life easier? Not always.
You can’t simply set and forget your automated marketing campaigns, assuming they will guide people from the top to the bottom of your funnel. You need to monitor what each campaign accomplishes, using the data you collect to target specific groups of customers to achieve better results.
3. Automated marketing is only for email
Automated marketing is used across several channels, not just email.
Email is a great technique to start, you can use it to open up more options for your marketing campaigns and opportunities for lead acquisition. Continue to collect information about your customers and find creative ways to market through them using your marketing platform.
4. Marketing automation is only for big businesses
No matter how small your business, it’s likely worth the investment to let automated processes take over some of your manual ones, allowing you to focus on effective activities.
More and more software providers are entering the market, which means even the smallest businesses will likely find a level of service that matches their budget. You can even start with free trials on many platforms to see which offerings make the most sense for your business.
5. Automated marketing comes off as robotic and impersonal
Your marketing materials will only come off as robotic and impersonal as your copy makes it sound. You can personalize your materials to make them speak to your customers.
Another way that you can encourage more personalized content is by sending a highly targeted and specific copy to as many customers as you can. Group people in narrow workflows so you ensure that each person receives impactful content related to what they’ve already responded to.
This is the point of marketing automation.
6. Automated marketing won’t replace traditional marketing
Maybe you feel that your marketing tactics are effective so you don’t need to use new marketing automated techniques.
If you want to compete with the major players in your industry you’ll need to use some kind of automated marketing software: The marketing software industry is growing by 30% annually.
Marketing tech is the future of the online world. So it’s necessary to use marketing automation and stay competitive.
7. Automated marketing will only provide a boost to your marketing
Automated marketing will carry over into other aspects of your business.
For example, marketing automation can help you become more efficient when it comes to sales. According to MarketingSherpa, just 27% of the leads sent over to sales from marketing will be qualified.
Marketing automation can help you not just find leads, but qualify them, score them, nurture them, and continue to manage them over the lifespan of their time in your funnel.
That way, once sales get ahold of them, they won’t waste time talking to leads that have no future with your business.
You need to encourage people to stay connected to your business and look for upcoming sales, discounts, products, and more.
Marketing automation is creating a new era of marketing where the goal is less about the execution of the basics and more about thinking creatively. That doesn’t make marketing easier, but it does make it more exciting.
There is no reason to believe in myths and fake stories. You need to invest in marketing automation because the online world is changing pretty fast and you need to take action now!
P.S.
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