Marketing Automation: How & Why Would You Use It

Heeey there,

Today we’ll talk about why Marketing Automation is more than creating a flow on Zapier or sending automated emails with MailChimp.

But first…

I'm currently spending some time in Tuscany, in an absolutely breathtaking scenery, with a bunch of smart marketers, entrepreneurs and the lot.

...it's an absolute blast!👇

Now back to marketing stuff 🤙

Today's newsletter is the first in a series that will walk you through the fascinating world of marketing automation, one step at a time.

Over the next few weeks, we'll be exploring the:

• process,

• challenges,

• and solutions

involved in setting up marketing automation for businesses, especially in the B2B SaaS world.

The goal of this series is to provide you with valuable insights and strategies that can empower a business to enhance its customer experience and increase efficiency through the power of marketing automation.

We'll cover everything from early-stage analysis and strategy to implementation, measuring success and learnings.

In this edition, we're kicking things off with an in-depth look at what we think of as “Phase 1” namely: “Analyse & Strategize”.

We have also been working on the concept of a podcast that could accompany some of our upcoming newsletters…

so that those of you who’d rather listen to tips & tricks during your morning preparation or commute could do so in the future.

In this 1st edition of the Business Companion, we are talking about the 1st part of our Mastering Marketing Automation series, we’ll explore the key insights from our 1st podcast episode, discussing how marketing automation can transform a business, and what it shouldn’t be.

If you find these insights valuable, the best way to support our work is by inviting your friends to become Dot Connecters and learn more about Connecting The Dots between marketing activities and financial goals.

Topic Of Today:

• Why & How We Decide On Marketing Automation 🤔

• A Holistic View Of Marketing Automation 🌍

• Revenue Generation & Customer Retention Challenges 💸

• Current Data Collection And Marketing Tools 🛠️

• Achieving Leadership Buy-In 👩🏻‍💼

[don't forget to click on "View entire message"]

Why & How We Decide on Marketing Automation 🤔

In this episode, we began by exploring the common misconceptions about marketing automation and emphasizing the importance of a holistic approach.

To better understand a client's needs, we have to dive into assessing their current data collection processes and marketing tool tech stack.

This involves working closely with their developers to map out the necessary data and create a future-proof plan for data collection and marketing automation.

We also talk about why and how we end up setting up complex marketing automation flows for a business.

Instead of approaching our clients with a set idea of what they need, we start by assessing what the challenge they are facing is, and what end result they are looking for.

In this case, the 2 most common challenges that they talk about are:

1. Revenue Generation

2. Customer Retention

There are of course a platoon of challenges a business may face, but when the solution includes setting up a complex marketing automation ecosystem the most common challenges are all related to these 2.

They could also be looked at as:

1. Business Efficiency

2. Customer Experience

Finally, we discussed the importance of leadership buy-in and how to present the benefits of marketing automation in terms of time and resource-saving efforts.

By comparing the before and after states of a business, we can demonstrate the value of implementing a comprehensive marketing automation strategy.

Some of the key points that we discuss during this episode:

A Holistic View Of Marketing Automation 🌍

Marketing automation is more than simply using tools like Zapier or MailChimp.

It's about assessing data needs and integrating tools and processes to provide valuable insights.

A well-designed automation system will improve customer experience, and streamline operations across the entire customer journey.

This holistic approach allows businesses to unlock the full potential of their revenue generation motions across marketing, sales and customer succession.

In other words, it helps in driving meaningful improvements in both revenue and retention. By leveraging data from different tools and channels in a concise and clear form, marketing automation helps create a cohesive ecosystem that makes it easier for departments to understand and cater to their customer's needs and preferences.

Simply put: when done right it affects a lot in your business and can fix issues you didn't even know you were having.

Revenue Generation & Customer Retention Challenges 💸

As discussed, clients for whom we set up a solution as such, often face challenges in generating revenue at the desired pace and/or retaining customers long enough to generate a good ROI.

When set up right, marketing automation can fix these issues by clearing up already available data and providing further insights into customer behaviour, preferences, and pain points.

Literally, you need to clean your data for it to work, so even when you have a lot of data available, it could turn out that some of it is unreliable, some duplicated, some inaccurate and some just misleading.

By implementing a comprehensive marketing automation strategy a business can identify and address the root causes of challenges relating to business efficiency.

This will then lead to:

• an enhanced customer experience,

• increased customer lifetime value,

and ultimately »

• stronger revenue growth.

1. Tailored messaging,

2. personalized content,

3. and targeted campaigns

are just some of the ways marketing automation can help businesses nurture leads and keep customers engaged throughout their journey with the business.

Assessing Current Data Collection And Marketing Tools 🛠️

Creating a future-proof marketing automation plan requires a thorough assessment of a client's existing data collection methods and marketing tools.

Unless of course, you plan on working more for less.

When a client has already been collecting data from multiple sources »
(meaning they’ve been using tools like a CRM, an email automation tool etc. for long enough)

this involves collaborating with their developers to:

• map data that is necessary for understanding the current elements of a user journey

• plus to understand how the data is currently being collected,

• and to identify any gaps or inefficiencies.

Once this has been done, a plan can be devised for improved data collection that includes clearing up naming conventions, i.e. making sure that each data piece that relates to the same information is stored in the same way.

For proper automation in the future and to be able to set the stage for a more streamlined and data-driven approach, the data needs to be collected and stored in a way that makes handling it straightforward and does not need the work of developers.

Datamapping also ensures a business that the marketing automation tool they choose can seamlessly integrate with their existing tools and processes, making the transition as smooth as possible.

Otherwise one can waste their life away trying to fit a triangle into a circle-shaped hole.

Achieving Leadership Buy-In 👩🏻‍💼

Convincing leadership of the value of building an ecosystem, that requires time and resources from them is crucial for its successful implementation.

Unsurprisingly, not many are fond of the idea of spending resources on changing their current operations

A possible approach to overcoming this is demonstrating the time and resource-saving benefits of planning initial effort into the planning and implementation of a new set of tools or the revision and reconstruction of their current setup.

A rather straightforward approach to showcasing the benefits is by comparing the Before and After states of a business.

By illustrating how a new approach -in this case, marketing automation- can lead to:

• increased efficiency,

• better insights,

and ultimately:

• improved revenue

• and customer retention.

Additionally, highlighting the potential cost-saving aspect of reduced dependence on expensive resources, such as:

• developer time

• and tool subscriptions

can further strengthen the case for implementing a new approach.

In many cases instead of using 10 different tools, one can set up an ecosystem by implementing 2-3 tools in a more comprehensive way.

By framing marketing automation as an investment that will yield significant long-term benefits, we can secure the support needed to drive its successful implementation.

That’s it for today…

Stay tuned for the next episode of Mastering Marketing Automation, where we'll be diving into Phase 2: Data Model Build-Up.

We'll explore the importance of preliminary analysis, defining the right metrics and data, to be able to set the stage for successful implementation.

Want to know how you can enhance business efficiency and your customers’ experience?

…or perhaps you’ve been meaning to implement some automation in your marketing motions »

In any case, don't miss out on the upcoming episodes of our series: Mastering Marketing Automation.

Subscribe to our podcast and keep an eye on your inbox for the next edition of our newsletter as well.

Happy learning!

P.S. If you haven't already, be sure to check out our first podcast episode on YouTube for a more in-depth discussion on Phase 1: Analyse & Strategies.

LinkedIn posts worth reading this week:

1. How To Create A Viral Product?
Jonah Berger analyzed hundreds of contagious messages, products, and ideas.
He noticed that the same 6 ingredients or principles were often at work.

2. When Talking To Your Customers Is Not Enough
16 must ask questions for well-rounded a B2B content strategy.