What is Marketing Automation?
At Slightly Mad, marketing automation is the confluence of technology, advertising & marketing. We have actually figured out a way to get all three to play nice in the sandbox and free them to be conduits for communication and growth.
For us marketing automation is about a synchronized advertising and marketing program that delivers the right message to the right audience, across the right medium, at the right time - with actionable, measurable metrics to bring it all together. Our proven approach to your marketing allows us to deliver these messages to the right people, TRACK them (even before you know their name) and nurture them.
Not only do we tell you where they’ve been and what they have been seeing about you - but we can connect the dots and build powerful automation rules to send them dynamic content or targeted emails based on their interests.
Drive more leads. Convert them to sales.
Google the term "marketing automation" and you will see tons of software providers promising that if you automate your marketing using one of their software solutions - you will drive more traffic to your website and (in theory) drive sales. What they don't tell you is that there is still an art to delivering the RIGHT message, to the RIGHT audience in the RIGHT way - whether you are using automation, or good old snail mail. In order to convert that traffic to leads, you're going to need a little more than software.
"What's the difference between Marketing Automation and my Email Service Provider? I use Constant Contact and it sends bulk emails."
Email service providers have their place when it comes to sending email blasts, but they don't offer the deep dive analytics that a marketing automation platform can to track exactly where contacts have traveled through the sales funnel.
With our process, you can see where your prospect traveled from landing page, to website to social media posts AND score these behaviors in real time so that you can provide relevant, targeted content based on their behaviors.
Here's an example
You send a lead (let's call her Jane) an email through your marketing automation system. Jane clicks to the landing page, you have scored that behavior as 10 points. Each page Jane visits is logged and increases her score. Jane follows your Facebook (another 5 points!) but so far Jane hasn't reached out yet.
Next day Jane sees your social media post and clicks through - adding another 15 points to her lead score. This triggers another email - this time containing content which is directly related to what she has viewed so far.
AND your salesperson gets an alert - HELLO JANE! Your ESP can't do all this! With a clear idea of what Jane has experienced of your brand - your sales force knows just what to say to her to convert the sale.
Want to know more? Download this MA vs. ESP comparison sheet for more information.
What's the difference?
We know you're wondering, what's the difference between a CRM (like Salesforce) and Marketing Automation?
Glad you asked! It's not a question of either - or, you may need BOTH!
Customer Relationship Managers (also called CRMs) like SalesForce or Zoho mainly serve as organizational tools for tracking sales communications and housing data on prospects, leads, and customers.
But even though some CRMs do offer some marketing functions, a CRM does not generate leads or help convert them to sales. Marketing automation, on the other hand, provides a suite of tools for generating and qualifying leads and converting those leads to sales.
For a deeper dive into how Slightly Mad Marketing Automation and CRM (like Salesforce) can work together to BOOST qualified leads by us much as 451% (that's right!), download our white paper!
Not sure if Marketing Automation is right for you?
Take our Marketing Automation workshop!
Learn the BASICS of Marketing Automation, How (and why) to create and use a buyer persona, What are Hyper - Personalized Landing Pages and how to use them, How (and why) to write compelling (hyper-personalized) content, How next-generation digital campaigns can change your world! PLUS! How you can finally track ROI from your SOCIAL MEDIA efforts! (you read that right!)
Sign up today!