Robot Wars: The Challenge of Online Marketing Automation
Automation of online offers, interactions, content, analytics and workflows in the digital space is increasingly being used as a strategy for online marketers to increase efficiency. But what exactly is marketing automation, and does it really work?
Originally used to describe software that automates repetitive digital activities, like email marketing workflows, the term’s meaning has broadened, and marketing automation vendors now offer integrated marketing strategies, content marketing, content management, customer relationship management (CRM), social media tools, as well as other platforms.
This approach ostensibly allows companies to concentrate on what matters: their target audience, prospective customers, and business goals. Today’s consumers are being described as channel agnostic – this means that your target audience is more interested in accessible, relevant human interaction than in which channel they use to interact with your brand, be it mobile, online, social and so on. Digital marketers are therefore focusing on integrated marketing solutions and omni-channel approaches to reach customers. Integration with CRM is vital in closing the gap between customer service and sales and marketing, for example.
Given that the personalised/targeted/human aspect is so important in the online marketing sphere, marketing automation without the human dimension – which requires advanced analytics and insight into the online behaviours of your target market – is pretty much useless. Customer experience is greatly improved by personalisation features, and having an accurate customer view is crucial to your success.
Marketing automation success depends on a numbers of factors. Firstly, flows should be designed in a relevant way that follows the target audience. Secondly, internal processes must be easy to use – employees who lack the necessary skills may find the software too hard to use and give up in despair. Lastly, your content must be timely and, most important, relevant to the target audience. No matter how advanced marketing automation software becomes, real content written by real writers will always be King.
