What Is Marketing Automation?

Using data and technology to improve marketing ROI

Marketing automation at a high level refers to using software to automate repetitive everyday tasks. That means you can complete tasks faster with seamless data flowing to trigger the right action.

Marketing automation is effective right from lead generation to nurturing to conversion (and beyond), especially in the B2B SaaS industry, where the sales cycles are long and involve multiple stakeholders in every stage of buying.

Marketing automation has evolved into much more than streamlining your marketing activities. It can help you make your funnel more efficient. At every funnel stage, marketing automation platforms can

• present a clear picture of your lead or customer based on their touch points with your business across channels when integrated with CRM and other data sources

• identify leads to prioritize based on their activity. A shared lead scoring method with data from CRM helps both marketing and sales teams identify the most promising leads

• run experiments and measure outcomes to figure out what works best for your business and brand

• maintain brand consistency with automated omni channel communication

• streamline automated nurture sequences for leads and customers and qualify them better for upselling and cross-selling campaigns

• measure, analyze, and optimize your marketing efforts for better ROI

Choosing the right marketing automation platform for your business should not be limited to these capabilities. It is important to look at the foundations.

The capabilities of a marketing automation platform are fueled by data. Marketing automation uses data from all possible sources — from your website, social media, and emails, to data warehouse, customer data platform (CDP), and product analytics tools to personalize communication. Using the data from multiple sources helps

• you to engage leads and customers with the right message through the right channel and  
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• your leads and customers with relevant information right where they live (in-app, email, etc.), saving their time and effort

Using proper data is crucial for a successful marketing campaign and how a marketing automation platform enables that is one of the differentiating factors of a good one. The marketing automation platform you want to use should integrate seamlessly with your data sources and CRM.

With your marketing automation software working for you, you can spend time on more important things like strategizing, planning, researching, and optimizing your campaigns. Marketing automation not only helps you save time but also reduces human error making your campaigns more effective.

In addition to using data to add context to your campaigns, marketing automation platforms should also be scalable and sustainable to support your growth. Committing to a legacy tool with no or limited flexibility will impede your growth and cost you a ton in the process.  

A good modern marketing automation solution consolidates data to show a clear view of leads, users, and customers to marketing teams right from the lead generation stage and works across your marketing funnel or flywheel stages

The right marketing automation software or platform can simplify reaching out to the right audience at the right time at scale by using technology and insightful data.

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