Have you ever found yourself spending hours and hours on social media marketing and wished there was some way to automate the whole process? What if I told you that this was, indeed, possible? 

That’s right! There are certain software that help you automate your marketing tasks. After all, you can’t spend all your time on marketing, right? Let’s learn about marketing automation platforms!

What is a Marketing Automation Platform? 

A marketing automation platform is a software or tool that lets you automate certain marketing tasks and streamline your workflow. You can use it to automate repetitive tasks such as social media posting, behavioral analyses, creating lead generation funnels, and A/B testing, among others. 

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Marketing automation platforms can also help you identify potential customers and make them sales-ready. Not only does your marketing become more efficient, your customers get a personalized experience based on their preferences and behavior as well. In short, a marketing automation platform allows you to market your brand without needing a human element every step of the way. 

Types of Marketing Automation Software 

There are several types of marketing automation software, and each one performs a specific role. Here are some of the most important ones.

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1. Social media marketing automation which helps you drive engagement by automating content scheduling, publishing, monitoring, and analytics. 
2. Email marketing automation which can set up lead generation forms, send emails about your company to potential customers, and even track success.
3. Lead management automation which automates the process of acquiring as well as managing qualified leads. 
4. Analytics automation which presents your insights in the form of charts and graphs and even identifies patterns in the data.
5. Customer Relationship Management (CRM) automation which automates your interactions with customers and potential customers. 

How Does a Marketing Automation Platform Work? 

Marketing automation software tracks and collects data of all the digital interactions made by a user (such as app usage, clicks, purchases). It, then, creates patterns using the data and uses it to identify and target potential customers. 

You can set up automatic triggers to go off based on the user’s actions. The software delivers personalized experiences to them and nudges them into becoming qualified leads.

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To put it simply, Y action gets triggered when the user does X. For example, if a user puts items in their cart and leaves without completing the purchase, an email will be sent to them reminding them of the items in their cart. You can also set up coupon discount emails to go out based on their past purchases. 

Finally, the automation software also analyzes and tracks the results and adjusts actions based on what is working and what isn’t. 

Sounds great, right? But why, exactly, are such automation platforms necessary for you as a brand?

Benefits of Marketing Automation Platforms 

#1 It saves you time, resources, and manpower

By automating repetitive tasks, you get to save time and increase your engagement and ROI simultaneously. Your employees are freed from simple tasks, which allows your team to focus on higher-level tasks that need a human element – such as strategy. This also increases employee productivity, since they are no longer bogged down by manual tasks.

In short, it makes marketing more streamlined and effective for you. 

#2 It increases customer retention 

Marketing automation platforms help you get to know your customers better by collecting data about them. Using this, you can provide a personalized service for your customers, such as sending emails on their birthdays and anniversaries. This shows customers that you value and prioritize them, which, in turn, increases customer retention. 

Why? Because people are more likely to shop from a brand that treats them like individuals with different needs rather than from a brand that treats them like one of the masses.

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#3 It increases your conversion rates 

Based on the data that the automation software collects, you can target the right people at the right time. This increases the possibility of closing a sale, which means higher conversions for you!

A study conducted by eMarketer corroborates this. Brands that used marketing automation platforms saw a 50% increase in conversions!  

#4 It enhances team collaboration 

Since marketing automation streamlines the entire process right from finding qualified leads to converting them into customers, it makes it easier for the sales and marketing team to collaborate. It ensures that the necessary information is reaching the right people, meaning that a qualified lead will not go to waste simply because it wasn’t redirected to the concerned representative. 

Best Marketing Automation Platforms

Here are some of the top marketing automation platforms that will help you take your business to the next level.

• Hubspot Marketing Hub. It has several popular features such as SEO, ad tracking, live chats with customers, social media management, and email marketing, among others. 
• Constant Contact. It lets you create powerful email sequences. You can also embed forms into the emails to get additional information about your customers!
• MailChimp. This tool lets you automate emails, generate more orders with customer journey builders, and even conduct A/B testing. 
• SharpSpring. This tool provides full funnel marketing and sales automation along with CRM. You can grow your revenue using this single platform.
• AdRoll. It helps automate your entire ad campaign. You can run and manage all your ad campaigns across various platforms. It also helps you retarget customers. 
• Klaviyo. You can send personalized emails and text messages using this tool. It sends the emails at the right time, increasing your conversion rate. 
• Bloomreach. This tool helps eCommerce brands create personalized customer journeys. With this, you can match customers to their perfect product, resulting in a better experience for them. 
• Keap. An all-in-one sales and marketing automation platform, Keap helps you collect leads, turn them into customers, and even retain them. 

Best Practices for Marketing Automation 

In order to get the best out of marketing automation, you need to keep certain things in mind. 

1. Set clear goals. Think about what you want to achieve and streamline your automation process towards achieving that goal. This will help you track your progress as well. 
2. Segment your audience for hyper-targeting. Different groups of people have different needs. A product that appeals to a 25 year old will not appeal to a 17 year old. So, decide how you want to segment your audience and target them according to their needs. 
3. Understand your customer’s buying cycle. This will help you send the right message at the right time based on the action they take. 
4. Retain your customers. Acquiring a new customer is more expensive than retaining an existing customer. So, use automation to make your customers feel like a priority. Send them personalized emails based on past behavior and make them feel appreciated. At the same time, don’t overdo it. This increases customer loyalty and, subsequently, customer retention.
5. Test everything. Take a look at your analytics and tweak things frequently to see if another strategy works better. For example, experiment with different subject lines, images, and times. 

Once you put in the initial effort to set everything up, marketing automation will make your life easier. Which marketing automation tool are you most likely to recommend to others? Let me know in the comments below! And don’t forget to share this article before you leave.