How to Choose the Right Marketing Automation Platform for Your Business
Marketing automation is a popular technology trend that is gaining traction like fire. Businesses use marketing automation platforms to speed up lead generation, lead nurturing processes, and ensure timely follow-ups for customer acquisition and retention.
According to research– Businesses befriending marketing automation technology experience a more than 400% increase in qualified leads.
Are you also amazed by marketing automation’s power and want to use it for your own benefit?
Follow this detailed guide on “how to choose a marketing automation platform” and set up your business for success.
Let’s start with the basics.
What Is Marketing Automation?
Marketing automation refers to the process of using software to automate manual and repetitive marketing tasks of generating qualified leads and converting them into paying customers.
The repetitive tasks can include activities like:
- Personalization of marketing content
- Sales lead nurturing
- Sending emails to prospects
- Social media posting
Marketing and advertising automation helps save time and create actionable and goal-oriented marketing plans.
Why Use Marketing Automation for Business?
Marketers are experimenting with various software to automate sales and marketing processes. By automating, they can reach out to more prospects, generate reliable leads, nurture the leads during the initial phase of the customer journey, and increase the chances of getting them sales-ready.
A good marketing automation software coupled with behavioral tracking offers you a detailed overview of how a potential customer acts on your website and how effortless is your website experience. You can also identify the path visitors take, where they spend the most time, and after what point they feel like leaving the website.
Accordingly, you can follow up with the customers via personalized emails or social media messages. You can even attempt to improve customer experience in real-time by reaching out to the right customer at the right time.
Factors to Consider When Choosing the Marketing Automation System
Here we have listed down some essential factors to choose the right marketing automation platforms for business:
The user interface of the marketing automation platforms is the first interaction you have with the tool. It has to be easy-to-use, intuitive, easy to navigate, should offer clear information, and provide results in a few clicks. Always ask for a demo or free trial before committing to a platform to see if the software fits your needs.
The features of a marketing automation platform (MAP) differ from product to product. It’s best to research and create a list of desired features beforehand, based on your unique requirements. Take into consideration any existing platform you use. It might happen that you may only need an add-on to the existing features, for which you can look for specific integrations.
Customer support is the most crucial yet the most overlooked aspect of a marketing automation platform. Every MAP offers some kind of customer support. Go for the highest level of customer support available 24/7, where you can connect with the experts via phone, mail, live chat to get your problem resolved quickly.
When there is a shortage of time, who wants to undergo the hassle of connecting with a support agent just to understand a simple concept or execute an action? Choose a platform that comes with an in-built knowledge base or offers a self-help section, including how-to-videos, guides, tutorials, and articles to enhance your knowledge the moment you need to.
Teamwork and collaboration are vital to enable the marketing teams to solve customer queries faster, create campaigns to attract desired audiences, and provide excellent support. Ensure the marketing automation platform has features for knowledge sharing within the team and should offer instant file and information sharing.
The best tools give your team access to up-to-the-minute data that gives you valuable insights and a bigger picture on how effective your existing marketing efforts are and what your team can do to improve them.
The marketing automation platform should have the ability to record all the interactions with the customers, including email clicks, website visits, etc. It can have lead forms, helps capture lead data, and add it to the database. In addition, data visualization must be accessible and easy to read.
The blend of CRM and marketing automation platforms can help marketing teams achieve the best possible relationships with customers, nurture sales and generate better leads. When supported with automated efficiencies, the teams can save a lot of time responding to customers.
The marketing automation tool has to be cost-effective and it should offer free trials for you to try the product. Always compare various platforms for their features to not end up with a substandard tool while saving some dollars. Also, be aware of any extra costs or hidden fees beforehand.
Marketing automation platforms should offer you the highest limit on how many users you can connect with, how many emails you can send, etc., within a single package. Also, there should be the ability to upgrade its features and meet the ever-evolving customer communication needs.
One of the best ways to delight customers is to get regular feedback, especially after their interaction with the brand. Marketing automation platforms that come with built-in surveys keep you abreast with customer’s sentiments, aspirations, satisfaction levels, and never let them feel neglected in the customer journey.
You must know that the marketing Automation solution is examined by an auditor for its information security management systems, and provided with mostly an ISO 27001 certificate, to ensure the customer data is secure and not prone to any kind of breach, fraud, or theft. Make sure the marketing automation solutions you pick have security controls and risk management plans in place.
To understand better, let’s explore some best tools:
Top 5 Marketing Automation Tools
ProProfs ChatBot is a customer support automation tool that helps your business answer incoming support requests and capture leads right away. This chatbot builder supports drag and drops functionality that helps you build instantly. You can customize its chatbot widget and offer support 24×7.
Marketo is a proper marketing automation software that offers a smart combination of customer data & analytics, personalized content, and automated marketing campaigns to meet the evolving needs of sales and marketing teams.
Hubspot is a popular platform for lead generation and closing sales. It is an inbound marketing tool that offers functionalities for email marketing, content optimization, marketing automation, etc.
Customer.io is a great tool to craft personalized emails and automate email marketing. Notable features of Customer.io are customer profiles, A/B testing, conversion tracking, and in-context conversations.
Keap (previously Infusionsoft) is a cloud-based sales and marketing platform that offers functionalities for marketing automation, customer relationship management (CRM), and e-commerce abilities.
Get More Customers With the Right Marketing Automation Platform
When you are opting for the top marketing automation software products, there are a few risks you need to be aware of. Firstly, don’t fall for tools with expensive features that you may not even need. Next, personalize your brand message based on your current interaction with the customers for highly personalized and relevant targeting.
Ready to automate your marketing process to win more customers?
