Any marketing tool capable of routinely delivering a six-month payback period and 500-percent-plus return over three years is sure to be a hit. Done right, marketing automation can save you time, improve engagement with your customers, and boost the efficiency of your campaigns.
But, with some 6.3 gazillion automation tools now available to marketers, focusing on the “done right” part is key.
Here are five essentials for organizations that want to make the most of their marketing automation:
1. Nail down the data.
The foundation of a good campaign is organized, accessible data. Any organization’s first step into automated marketing efforts is going to uncover deficiencies here. Given the requirements of marketing tools, the vast majority of business leaders are making data quality improvements a priority. That’s fitting, given that most companies struggle with having their data complete and organized.
The use of data lakes—or repositories for vast amounts of raw data—is poised for huge growth in the next few years. And the use of data warehouses that store filtered, ready-to-use-by-marketers data is also on the upswing.
2. Use their name.
The godfather of career coaching, Dale Carnegie, would say “a person’s name is to him or her the sweetest and most important sound in any language.”
And data backs him up. Personalization by name is expected and enjoyed by your prospects and customers. Studies show as many as 80 percent of customers are more likely to buy from companies that use their names while marketing to them.
3. Take advantage of machine learning.
We’ve written about the power of machine learning in Google Analytics 4—but the overall use of machine learning is being adopted at a dizzying pace. Attuned marketing managers are getting creative on how to use Google and other machine learning tools to predict behavior and continually improve marketing ROI.
If prognosticators are right—Fortune Business Insights says machine learning will grow from a $21 billion industry now to a $210 billion industry by 2029—those in fields such as healthcare, manufacturing, and retail soon will be struggling to catch up if they don’t adopt machine learning.
4. Put it on a dashboard.
Just as it’s important to organize the data going in with an effective data warehouse, smart marketers also receive performance metrics from multiple sources in a tidy package. Marketing dashboards, such as those offered on Hubspot, Tableu, Google, Zoho, and a host of other platforms, are indispensable for this.
5. Tie it all into the journey.
All four of the above listed practices will be given purpose through the customer journey that every successful company develops and knows well. Those basics are important. Every element of your marketing automation should be established with the five steps of your customer journeys in mind.