Wayne Lockwood: Why Automation is Vital to Any Marketing Strategy

By now, marketing automation is nothing short of mainstream in the digital are we find ourselves in, but we may only be at the beginning of the revolution. According to Grand View Research, the marketing automation industry could be valued at $7.63 billion(!) by 2025, which means there’s no better time than now to adopt an automation solution in your own practices. Before you do, though, let’s explain what marketing automation is exactly, and the benefits your company can reap from implementing it.

In this blog, I’ll clarify the definition of marketing automation and explain five of the benefits your organization will see from adopting an automation solution and strategy.

At the highest level, “marketing automation” is an umbrella term for any solution, platform, or tool that “allows companies to streamline, automate, and measure marketing tasks and workflows, so they can increase operational efficiency and grow revenue faster.” This includes anything from email automation to demand generation to revenue attribution. It is a relatively young market but, as seen above, it’s destined to become a staple of every marketing team’s strategy before we know it. If your team hasn’t yet adopted a marketing automation platform, here are five reasons why it’s an investment worth making today.

1. Time Savings

Everyone who grew up wanting to be a marketer did so because it was the sweet-spot between business and art. By leveraging tools that expedite the “busy work” from our days, employees remain engaged and focused on what they do best—create revolutionary content and strategies that propel organizations beyond what they once thought possible.

Perhaps the pinnacle of technological advancement lies at the heart of marketing automation solutions: what once took days, now takes hours, and what once took hours, now takes minutes. The technological explosion of the last two decades resulted in less time needed for menial, redundant tasks, leaving more time for marketers to do what they signed their offer letters for creative, strategic problem-solving. Few have benefitted more than today’s marketer. Simply put, their lives have been regained and dramatically improved through freed-up time.

2. More Effective Spend

If marketing automation saves time and “time is money,” simple logic suggests that your marketing budget will be less tied up in labor costs and free to be invested in the breakthrough decisions that will take your organization to the next level. Automation of marketing tasks liberates your mind and precious budget to better serve (or lead) your team and put your money where it’s most needed, whether that be a larger ad spend to distribute your message, premiums on elite talent, or hundreds of other available options. The bottom line: marketing automation solutions all but guarantee a positive ROI when effectively implemented.

3. Scalability

As your initial marketing efforts begin to find their groove, a great problem arises: your current marketing stack—whether that be an entry-level CRM or a Rolodex—will no longer cut it. If your organization is lucky enough to be growing at that kind of pace, you have two objectives:

Dance a celebratory jig.
Invest in an effective marketing automation solutions that can support both your short and long-term growth.

The first is practically cost-free (as long as you have tap shoes), and the second sets the stage for years of potential growth. The value of a MarTech stack that matches your business’ long-term vision simply can’t be overstated. Besides having the tools in place to reach a larger population today, there’s nothing more comforting for an ambitious organization than having all the pieces in place to reach an audience that is 5x, 10x or even 100x the size of your current contact base.

4. Strengthened Sales and Marketing Partnership

The epitome of “frienemies”: sales hounds marketing for more leads, while marketing chastises sales for squandering the leads they worked hard to obtain. Allow me to introduce the olive branch that has escaped modern businesses for decades: marketing automation makes quick work of strengthening the relationship between these two teams. The “Law of Large Numbers” suggests that the more prospects marketing can reach, the more pipeline they create, giving sales more opportunities to close. CMOs are happy with their team’s increased productivity and cost reductions, but CEOs and board members will revel in the influx of closed deals, all thanks to the power of the right marketing automation solution. It’s a win-win-win between, sales, marketing, and leadership. Kumbaya.

5. Concrete Measures of Success

The top marketing automation solutions will undoubtedly have some manner of reporting on each campaign’s performance, which is critical in today’s data-driven world. Beyond that though, the elite marketing automation solutions can even forecast future campaign performance based on historical data, using machine learning and AI. We all know the value of understanding which marketing initiatives work and which don’t, and nothing provides a clearer picture than a marketing automation solution with powerful revenue attribution capabilities.

These are just five of what may be hundreds of benefits to investing in a marketing automation stack. If your business is still just using email blasters or introductory CRM platforms, it’s time to ask yourself the following: Do you want regained hours, lower operational costs, larger reach, symbiotic sales and marketing teams, and irrefutable evidence that your work is valued? I know the answer, and I think you know your organization’s next step.

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