What is marketing automation?

Many important marketing tasks take a long time. Data analysis, email marketing, lead nurturing, customer relationship management… the list goes on. They’re not the most glamorous of tasks, but they’re all critical in ensuring the continued success and performance of your marketing efforts. But, because they take so long and require expensive resources, you risk delays and errors that could see you fall behind competitors.

Thankfully, marketing automation can alleviate these risks by doing the lengthy leg work for you. You don’t have to dedicate hours sifting through data – instead, marketing automation software can do it in seconds, producing actionable insights you can use before a member of your team even has a chance to open Excel.

Marketing automation comes in several forms, with each taking pressure off your team in various ways:

• Email marketing automation
• CRM automation
• Analytics automation
• Lead management automation
• Advertising automation
• Social media marketing automation
• Mobile marketing automation

When your team isn’t wasting hours sending lead nurturing or marketing emails, scheduling social media posts or wading through data, they can get on using their skills and getting results.

10 key benefits of marketing automation

Now that you know more about what it is, what are the benefits of marketing automation? Below are 10 reasons why it plays such a key role.

1. Saves time and increases efficiency

It’s fair to say that there are a fair few tasks in marketing that take a long time to complete, which isn’t usually the best use of resources. Automation takes tasks like these and completes them for you, which ensures that your team uses their time far more efficiently.

2. Increases job satisfaction

Thanks to the time saved, it ensures your employees can do more of the things they enjoy working on and are good at – and when they can do that, it helps increase job satisfaction and builds a happier culture in the workplace. And happy employees tend to stick around longer, preventing the need for lengthy and expensive recruitment.

3. Smoothes customer journeys

Because automation can do so much, from helping you produce accurate personas to sending emails, it helps create a more streamlined customer experience. Data is collated on individual customers so their journey can be tailored to them, so every customer has a unique experience and isn’t treated like a number.

4. Ensures you collect accurate data

Automation allows you to collect data from different sources and collate them into a report without having to lift a finger. This can give you up-to-date insights on what’s working and what could be improved, so you can make tweaks to get the best results.

5. Nurtures leads more productively

Lead nurturing can be a long and frustrating process, but automation can make it less painful for everyone. Automation ensures leads are sent the information they need when they need it, guiding them through the sales funnel to improve your chances of converting leads into valuable customers.

Automation can gather the information that sales staff sometimes can’t, such as behaviours, engagement and browsing history. This information scores leads and prioritises those that are most likely to lead to a conversion. This increases the overall efficiency of your sales process.

Everything relies on solid and actionable data, so your business can make decisions based on cold hard facts, which prevents time wasting and missed opportunities.

6. Improves your testing

Marketers understand the value of testing so that engagement and conversion rates can be as high as possible. A/B testing can be challenging to implement manually, but automation not only speeds it up but accurately identifies the most effective strategy, email, copy, landing page and more. Data is collated in real-time, allowing you to make informed decisions quickly.

7. Improves your revenue

Of course, the more efficient and effective your marketing strategy is, and the more productive lead nurturing is, the more revenue you’re going to generate. If you can reach customers with the information they want, when they want it, they’re more likely to spend money with you.

Plus, automation can help you not only win new customers but retain them as well, helping you build a loyal customer base.

8. Generates better marketing ROI

Marketing doesn’t come without risks; one wrong decision can cost your business a lot of money. In late 2023, smokeless grill brand Solo Stove released what, at the time, was named the ‘campaign of the year’ with a viral campaign featuring Snoop Dogg. But, the campaign didn’t lead to an increase in sales and ultimately became a costly mistake. Automation ensures you have the data you need to maximise your marketing ROI and you don’t risk putting all your eggs in one basket.

9. Ensures consistent messaging across marketing and sales

With customers engaging with your brand across multiple channels, from social media to your website, consistency is vital. Your customers need to see the same messaging wherever they are, and data collated from various sources means you can do that efficiently and effectively.

10. Ensures better personalisation

When it comes to marketing, personalisation is critical. But personalisation can be hard – especially when attempted at scale. Automation helps you speak to your customers on a personal level, communicating with them how they like, when they like and in a way that they like, based on the data you have. The more your customers engage, the more data you collect, and the more personalised your marketing becomes.