Choose your marketing automation platform wisely

Marketing automation can help you pinpoint your target audience and personalize the marketing experience for each customer. It’s important to research all the options available when choosing a marketing automation platform. This includes segmentation rules and automated tasks like emails or text messages that are sent to groups of people as well as integrations with other tools.

A brief overview

Marketing automation is the practice of using software to automate repetitive tasks in your marketing process. The benefits of marketing automation include:

• Saving time. Instead of manually creating each email, sending it out and waiting for a response from your customers, you can use software to do all that work for you automatically. This saves hours each week that would otherwise be spent on manual tasks such as managing lists and sending emails.

• Creating a better customer experience. By automating marketing functions, you are establishing a positive experience with your business from the start. From there, you have better chance to convert a lead into a customer.

• Increasing revenue. We are in business to make money. Your opportunities become more effective by targeting sales leads with personalized messaging based on their interests and previous interactions with your brand (or competitors).

The choice is yours

Choosing the right marketing automation platform is a crucial decision that can have lasting effects on your business. It's important to consider several factors when choosing a platform, including compatibility with your current systems and level of customization required. You should also consider how well it integrates with other tools in your arsenal and whether or not it's easy to use.

These are the essential features to have when choosing a marketing automation solution:

Segmentation

Segmentation allows you to target different audiences based on their demographics and behavior, whether it's by location or time of day or any other way you can think of--and that's just for starters! You should also be able to create custom segments based on customer data that you've already collected (like email addresses).

Automated tasks

Automated tasks are like mini-programs within your platform that can be used for everything from sending out welcome emails when someone signs up for your newsletter list all the way through sending out birthday cards every year on their special day! The best marketing automation solutions allow you to set up these automated tasks with simple drag-and-drop functionality.

Reporting and analytics

Reporting and analytics are essential for measuring your results. Without these features, it's impossible to tell if your campaigns are working or not. The best marketing automation platforms will allow you to measure the results of your campaigns by tracking conversion rates and other key metrics like pageviews and time on site.

Integrations

Let’s face it: most of us don’t use just one vendor for our tech stack. Integrations allow you to connect your software and data, so that you can automate tasks across multiple platforms.

Integrations with other platforms such as CRM (customer relationship management) or sales tools make it easier for your team members to work together on projects and share information. You might also want integrations with social media platforms like Facebook or Twitter so that you can post directly from within the platform, or email marketing tools like MailChimp so that subscribers can be automatically added into an email campaign when they sign up for one of your newsletters.

If you sell products online then an eCommerce integration will be essential for tracking customer purchases through automated checkout processes which integrate seamlessly with your CRM system. And if mobile is important in reaching out digitally then look at whether there's any support for mobile apps too!

What’s next?

If you are new to using a marketing automation platform, the best thing to do is first narrow your list down to 2-3 contenders. From there, sign-up for a trial. Truly dive into the product offerings so you can do a side-by-side comparison. If you are still having problems, reach out to us here. We are happy to do a deep-dive to help you make your decision.