Why Marketing Automation is more Important in 2020?

Many would argue that marketing automation is a requirement and has been done for at least a decade. Then why is it suddenly gaining so much attention? Why are companies increasing looking for ways to automate their digital marketing efforts, which were previously managed well with drip campaigns focusing mainly on email marketing?

Turns out consumer behaviour in the digital ecosystem is as dynamic as ever; demanding marketing professionals to create strategies that are not only effective but also ‘drips down and across' marketing channels to capture every brand touch point. 

As consumer interests and attitudes change with technological changes, there is a greater need for marketing automation that takes care of some of the predictable behaviours. Though there are some amazing softwares available to manage your digital marketing efforts and while they allow planning, monitoring and analyzing all social media and advertising efforts, there is a lot more that can be achieved by using automation tools. 

Understanding your customers is crucial for marketing automation. Market research and integration with CRM systems are crucial in this regard. Understanding how our customers interact with our brand is a key aspect of how we can use automation for our marketing efforts. 

"They think it's only email marketing!"

Here’s what marketing professionals think when we talk about marketing automation. They think it’s only email marketing! Surprisingly even drip campaigns, traditionally, are imagined as creating campaigns on ‘MailChimp’ which reaches an inbox only to be deleted or if read, takes days until a ‘call to action’ can be monitored.  Thankfully with technological advances and integration with CRM systems we are better able to automate and effectively execute strategies in real time and capture the customer’s interests in the right moment. 

Customers’ journey in the digital environment is as complex as it can ever be. They hop from site to site, from one social network to another and the only way to fulfill their needs effectively is to stay relevant in all the channels the customer uses before arriving on a purchase decision or the desirable action

"Customers’ journey in the digital environment is as complex as it can ever be."

Marketing automation has helped professionals, business owners and corporations to generate leads but it hasn’t been as beneficial as it can be. Focusing too much on paid advertising and email marketing leads to reduction in leads in the long term. Instead of appearing in every social network with the same message, create a story with a series of interrelated messages. Understanding customer journey through a mapping process will help identify customer touch points and in crafting messages specially to meet the needs of  different marketing channels. Treat each opportunity to reach your customer as a chance to tell and retell your story, how your offering satisfies the needs and how the recipient of your messages can take the call-to-action to become a conversion. 

For example, designing a campaign that focuses on how much time a customer spends on watching a video message and that amount of time will qualify for the next message to be shown to the same user, on the same channel, is an integral part of this automation process.

There is a long list of tools available for marketing automation and a quick google search will give you all the names, however, these automation tools serve no purpose if you are unable to map out the consumers of your communications, promotions and branding efforts. What journey do my customers take before arriving at the decision to take a desirable action? Answering that as clearly as possible in the early stages of the campaign  not only improves ROI but also creates a long term relationship with your customers. 

In 2020 we only see an increase in marketing professionals looking for softwares for marketing automation but without understanding the full journey, results will not be as startling as pitched by software publishers.