Lead Consultant - EMEA & APAC
14/1/2022
Have you already drawn out your budget for 2022 marketing activities? You might want to revisit it. Around 68% of CMOs increased their MarTech budget in 2021 according to Gartner’s latest annual CMO Spend Survey – and 2022 is expected to be even greater for marketing automation.
Marketing automation has become an essential business tool for millions of companies worldwide. And for a good reason.
In 2020/21, an average of 51% of companies were using Marketing automation – a figure which is only set to increase rapidly.
If you haven’t already adopted automated tools into your marketing – this article will give you a bit of insight.
What is marketing automation?
Put simply; it’s the use of tools and platforms to manage the marketing operations in a company. Typically, marketing technology (MarTech) automatically executes marketing processes and campaigns across multiple channels and outlets.
Main benefits of marketing automation
1. Improved targeting. With marketing automation, businesses can target customers with automated messages across different channels (email, web, social) – a process that can greatly help with lead generation and nurturing.
2. Increased ROI. Statistics show that those using automated tools for digital advertising tend to outperform their competitors.
3. Sales-marketing relationship boost. The insights are increased thanks to marketing automation software, marketing overheads are reduced and productivity and lead conversations are increased in the sales departments.
4. It saves time. And lots of it. Marketing automation can automate tasks you don’t have the time to focus on – giving you extra time to focus on other important tasks. Take social media as an example – introducing a social media automation platform, one of the simple tools, can dramatically reduce the marketer’s workload. – thanks to the automation of posting and ads. And that’s just the beginning…
Marketing automation trends for 2022
Sales automation and insight tools – ultimately making the salesperson’s life easier by equipping them with the information needed to build relationships and sell effectively.
Leveraging machine learning and AI with automation software to collect more information about an audience to develop better-targeted campaigns and maximize their effectiveness.
Chatbots are expected to continue growing in popularity – thanks to their part in customer service and engagement enhancement.
Personalized email automation continues to grow in popularity thanks to its ability to create a tailored email experience for customers – ensuring they receive the right emails at the right time.
A few things to consider
Quality over quantity. You want the content pushed out through your MarTech to add value to your customers not just send them useless, unrelatable information.
Data management can be a real headache. From experience, data management is one of the aspects that marketers find to be most challenging when it comes to MarTech and integrating different marketing solutions. Data needs to be relevant, valid and kept clean for marketing efforts to be effective.
It’s not likely to be cheap. This is usually the biggest roadblock. Marketing automation can be costly, especially if it’s good. It’s important to remember that marketing automation is an investment – not a quick fix. The results are not likely to be seen immediately, but if the right tools and platforms are chosen and correctly implemented, the ROI and increased revenue should come in no time.
It might not be a DIY project. We often see that companies find the implementation process of marketing automation particularly difficult, especially if complex tools and platforms are selected; as a result, troubleshooting and integrations can be a real headache. Sometimes it’s best to leave it to the professionals. I.e. JTF Marketing consultants – we’re here to help.
Why not check out our Readiness Assessment Programme to help with your digital transformation, or get in touch with our experts for more advice on introducing marketing automation to your company in 2022.
