Our last post mentioned Marketing Automation and what a great tool this emerging technology is for today’s marketers. Today’s post goes into more detail about the why and how behind the technology.
These days, the buying process starts at a computer. The buyer searches for a product or service online. They quickly find web sites, landing pages, articles and other content that match their search. They begin to show interest by digital interaction. Wouldn’t it be great if you could know when buyers are interacting with YOUR digital content? You can do just that with marketing automation software. Here are some of the ways you can gather marketing intelligence:
- Website Visitor Tracking/Analytics:You will know who is visiting your website, when they are visiting, pages they are viewing, content they are downloading and what brought them there. This business intelligence helps you craft future messaging that is relevant to the new contact.
- Email Marketing:You can go beyond the limitations of a typical email marketing platform and leverage the power of marketing automation features such as list management, lead scoring, behavior history, A/B testing, subscription management, automated programs, etc.
- Lead Scoring:Each lead gets profiled and their actions tracked in order to assign a score value to each one. You are free to assign the value to the related action. Lead scoring will help you determine sales-readiness and will point you to the leads you should focus on.
- List Management:Segment leads and messages based on profile attributes, buying cycle stage and/or observed behaviors to boost your click-through rates and ultimately lead to higher conversion rates.
- Lead Nurturing:These “drip” campaigns send a series of automated touches that are at scheduled intervals to qualified, but not sales-ready, leads. Drip campaigns may include e-mail, direct mail, and phone call prompts.
- Social Media Management:Integrate your social media activities with your other online channels for increased consistency and measurability. Leverage the power of social media to drive traffic and action and know when it does.
- Landing Pages and Forms:Create highly trackable destination pages for your content, offers, surveys, events and campaigns that utilize progressive profiling.
- Reporting:Measurement is critical to your online marketing program. With marketing automation, you can see results in real-time, gain insight into campaign performance and make adjustments and refinements on the fly.
NextPage uses Marketing Automation internally and deploys programs for clients on a regular basis. To learn more about how this technology might help your business contact us today.