Currently, digital media such as the Internet, email, and social media is the most popular platform for consumers to share critical information and reviews. The number of Internet users has also increased considerably with the data stating more than 2.6 billion users in 2014, and expected to cross 3 billion worldwide by 2015. Most organizations are making heavy investments in digital media to increase their customer reach and facilitate better communication.
In addition, globalization has led to a high proliferation of new technologies such as broadband, 3G, laptops, smartphones, and tablets. These factors will trigger the demand for marketing automation software solutions in organizations to enhance their marketing experience and improve overall productivity.
Marketing Automation Process
Marketing automation includes the following processes to achieve successful marketing results and close leads.
- Customer Database: Customer database refers to the list of prospective clients created and maintained prior to running a campaign
- Run Campaign: Campaigns such as email and web-based are created and launched for the target customer group
- Measure Response: Responses coming in through emails and other campaign sites are measured. It also studies website behavior and web activity of customers
- Identify Potential Leads: Leads can be classified as high and low potential, with the high-quality leads being transferred to the CRM
- Convert Leads to Sales: Prospective leads are converted into sales through appropriate sales techniques
- Analyze Performance: The success or failure of the sales and marketing teams are analyzed based on the total leads generated and their overall conversion
Growing Focus on Marketing Effectiveness
Intense market competition, resulting from increased demand for automation software solutions and price wars among vendors, has encouraged organizations to improve the effectiveness of their marketing operations. Marketing automation software analyses enterprise-wide marketing data and accordingly provides information to help organizations make investment decisions. The software also integrates enterprise-wide resources to provide a visibility of the marketing efforts, related expenses, and returns.
Need to Improve Customer E-experience
The growing importance of customer behavior with web and CRM has encouraged organizations to make huge investments in such activities. It is important for organizations to manage their customer e-experience effectively to retain existing customers and attract new customers as well.
In addition, advances in technology have enabled customers to stay abreast with the latest technological updates and reviews published on websites. This has a huge impact on their purchase decisions. Marketing automation software solutions offer a user-friendly experience to customers by pushing the targeted content through effective email and campaign management.
