Is Marketing Automation a Pro or Con for Your Business?

Are you spending a significant amount of time on marketing tactics? The constant need to respond to prospects and leads leaves little room for exploring revenue-generating activities. Plus, you’re paying employees to generate leads, not spend hours entering data or scraping sites for market research. 

Fortunately, the world of marketing automation is finally affordable and attainable to the small business owner. So what does this mean for you? Automating various tasks does more than save you time; it improves customer experience. And happy customers refer new clients to your company.

If you’re considering automating your marketing process, then explore top reasons why business owners use marketing automation and why others hold off.

How Marketing Automation Enhances Customer Experience

Let’s start with the big question here. How does marketing automation improve customer experience? The answer is simple. It reduces wait times and allows you to personalize experiences. Multiple surveys demonstrate the impact of marketing automation on customer experience. For example:

• According to Social Media Today, 48% of marketers say personalizing customer experiences is their main reason for using marketing automation.
• Ascend2 says that the most effective marketing automation tactics include mapping customer experience and using personalized/dynamic content. 
• Liana Technologies reports, 45.9% of marketers say that marketing automation has improved customer experience.

Examples of How Marketing Automation Improves Experiences

Business owners use marketing automation to craft messages for leads or customers based on their actions. The software helps you gather information about who’s visiting your website and what they’re doing while there. Everyday examples of marketing automation include:

• Automating a welcome email sequence after a purchase
• Sending a targeted email promotion to a lead who abandons their cart
• Employing a chatbot armed with answers to frequently asked questions

Pros of Marketing Automation

Using software that streamlines your workflow provides tons of benefits to your small business. For a small company with limited resources, marketing automation makes you feel like you have extra staff members on hand. Top reasons for using marketing automation include:

• Improve prospect, lead, and customer experiences. Consumers want seamless experiences and mobile responsive sites. With proper integrations and setup, marketing automation solutions glide people gently, at every touchpoint, towards your goal. 
• Increase team productivity. Your staff spends less time updating lead and customer data. In return, they can focus on building relationships and value-added tasks. With a shared database that’s automatically updated, it’s easy for sales and marketing teams to collaborate. 
• Boost revenue and revenue-generating activities. When you dump the spreadsheet for a database, marketing automation builds lead and customer profiles in the background. This behind-the-scenes work increases your number of quality leads.
• Quickly make informed decisions. Speed is of the essence in marketing, as customer sentiment and needs change rapidly. You must pivot strategies and messaging to see results from your marketing strategy. Marketing automation tools compile real-time data and generate insights into your customer and their journey.

Cons of Marketing Automation

Without the right strategy, processes, and training, it’s challenging to get good marketing automation results. Recent advances in the area help small business owners incorporate the technology into their workflow, but there’s still a steep learning curve. The main reasons entrepreneurs decide against marketing automation include: 

• Problems with the technology or integrations. For a tool to be successful, it needs to easily integrate with software used in everyday workflows.
• Staff stuck in old ways. It’s hard to get out of old habits or trust the unknown. Some teams end up spending more time with fewer good results due to inadequate training and implementation strategies. 
• A lack of marketing strategy. Marketing automation is your tool. It doesn’t work without a well-developed marketing plan with clear metrics and measurement methods. 
• Unclear return on investment (ROI). Marketing automation tools can be pricey. If you don’t understand how it fits into your strategy or have access to technical support, it isn’t easy to calculate your ROI.

Expand Your Reach With Marketing Automation Tools 

According to GetResponse and Smart Insights, 30% of business owners say that saving time is the biggest benefit of marketing automation. 22% report that technology gives them an advantage in lead generation. Think about where you need help in your business. Then, explore tools and services that improve the customer experience while freeing up your time for building better client relationships.

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