Marketing automation: what is it? + choosing strategy & agency

Introduction

In a market where customers expect brands to understand them before they make themselves known at all, efficiency alone is no longer enough - relevance is crucial. Marketing automation enables organizations to communicate personalized messages at scale, driven by data and automated processes. The result: higher conversion rates, stronger customer relationships and more predictable growth.

For entrepreneurs, marketing automation is not about tooling, but about strategic advantage. It is a way to align marketing and sales, turn customer data into value, and structurally improve the commercial strength of the organization. In this article, we analyze the strategic impact, practical applications and pitfalls of marketing automation.

What is marketing automation?

In Dutch, marketing automation literally means automating marketing processes.

Marketing automation is the use of technologies and software to automate, personalize and optimize marketing processes and customer interactions across multiple channels, with the goal of improving efficiency, increasing conversions and strengthening customer relationships (Järvinen & Taiminen, 2016).

Marketing automation is transforming online marketing communications from manual communication to data-driven, real-time and personalized communication. It allows organizations to scale while maintaining personal relevance - a key requirement in competitive markets.

Benefits of marketing automation

Marketing automation has several benefits. Wood (2015) gives the following benefits of marketing automation:

• It provides a high level of efficiency and time savings that simply cannot be matched by humans, no matter how responsive your marketing team is.
• A personalized experience for each customer driven by the customer themselves (which is also simply not possible for humans, especially on a volume basis).
• It expands your access to the customer journey, giving you the insight to align future customer experiences with actual customer behavior and demand.
• Complementing the previous point, you have the ability to respond quickly to customer demand, or even the threat of competition.

Furthermore, in a survey by Liana Technologies (2017) and others, most marketers indicate that marketing automation helps them show the right message to the right person, improve the customer experience and receive more quality leads.

Another important benefit of marketing automation is that you can automate recurring or repetitive tasks. This helps reduce your marketing costs, optimize your business processes and improve your conversion rates. In a survey by GetResponse and Smart Insights (2018), 30% of marketers say that marketing saves them time, allowing them to spend more hours on other tasks.

The aforementioned Liana Technologies study also shows that 32.9% of marketers have seen ROI improve thanks to marketing automation, while 30.1% of those surveyed have seen an increase in conversion rates.

Furthermore, a side effect of marketing automation is that marketing and sales work better together. In fact, marketing delivers better leads to sales, after which they are more likely to convert.

Functionalities of marketing automation

Let's zoom in on what you, as a business, can now do with marketing automation. As it is obvious, it has many benefits, stemming from the following functionalities:

Building a rich customer base through CRM: By using marketing automation along with CRM, the customer can have a fine journey from visitor to customer. The integration between CRM and marketing automation ensures that your sales department gets the full picture of the prospect's interactions with your company. The sales department has the complete customer journey in view and knows exactly which marketing interactions the prospect has already had.

Supplement to Customer Data Platform (CDP): CDP collects all your customer data from all your data sources to create a comprehensive customer profile from it. Marketing automation plays an important role in this because it collects a lot of information about user behavior on your website and emails. You can then use this data to create personalized content.

Personalized e-mail marketing: The ability to send exactly what your contacts want. For example, you can create an e-mail with the instruction "Hi [First Name]," with the system filling in the correct first name for everyone. This can also be used to create content based on your contacts' interests, which is really where the value of personalized e-mail marketing lies.

Dynamic content: Marketing automation uses the collected data to create dynamic content for potential customers. This content is specifically targeted to the visitor at that moment, with the system expecting the content displayed to have the highest probability of interaction.

Machine learning: Marketing automation software uses machine learning. Based on the data collected, software gets better and better at making the best choices that lead to the highest efficiency and effectiveness. The more data available, the better the software will make choices.

Behavior-based automation: Automatically send messages based on channel interactions, events on your website, predictive analytics and other platforms data. As an example, let's take a customer who adds a product to her shopping cart, but then leaves the website. The system will send an email to the customer 1 hour after she leaves the website, notifying her that the customer still has an item in the cart.

Segmenting your customers: Because of the rich customer base you collect through marketing automation and CRM, you can segment your customers by a variety of information such as behavior, location, order date, customer lifetime value and more.

Channel optimization: With channel optimization, it allows software to send messages to customers through the channels where they are most likely to show interaction. Since this is different for each person, it's nice if this is automated by your software.

Send-time optimization: In addition to the optimal channel, marketing automation allows you to direct your marketing so that your campaigns are delivered at the times with the greatest likelihood of customer interaction. Timing is key.

What do you use marketing automation for?

There are some common processes you can apply marketing automation to:

• Website visitor m apping - Get insight into who is visiting your website
• Email marketing - Automatically send emails targeted to a particular audience
• Website and content optimization - Consider A/B testing of landing pages to find out which version converts best
• CRM - Building a rich customer base
• Social media - scheduling posts for social media
• Contact - A chatbot that answers the most frequently asked questions

Customer journey (or customer journey)

With the help of marketing automation, you get even more insight into the customer journey, or customer journey and customer experience. You get a complete picture from orientation to the actual purchase and how customers experience products or services afterwards.

Lead Generation

One of the most important components within any bedrijf is leadgeneratie. The first step where marketing automation can help is to encourage prospects to interact with you so that they eventually become a lead. You want people to visit your website and then take an action there such as:

• Subscribe to your newsletter
• Download your ebook (in exchange for contact information)
• Contact

All these contact moments can be recorded and linked to automatic actions that can then be taken.

Lead nurturing

The next step is lead nurturing, in which you build rapport with your prospects. You do this by sharing valuable information through a newsletter, blog articles and ebooks, among other things.

In addition, point leads to customer experiences in the form of case studies, references and reviews.

Lead scoring

Using lead scoring, you map out what stage of the buying process a lead is in. In doing so, you assign values per lead for each action taken. Think about:

• Which pages on your website are visited
• Subscribe to the newsletter
• Downloading an ebook
• Completing a contact form

In addition to these behaviors, you can also assign points based on personal and demographic data. Is a lead active in and industry that doesn't fit your business? Then you don't need to take any further actions. Based on all the points, you then determine whether a lead is already "warm" enough to potentially convert or can be approached by the sales department, or whether this lead needs further nurturing. All this contributes to creating your ideal customer profile.

Marketing automation examples

The examples below will give you a better idea of how to apply marketing automation in practice.

#1. Email series

One of the most commonly used marketing automation solutions is setting up an e-mail marketing campaign, for example, for new members of your newsletter.

These types of e-mail campaigns are successful in part because people are used to receiving them. They serve as a confirmation that someone has signed up for the newsletter and often provide information the person is looking for.

Instead of manually sending a welcome email with every new signup, set up a system where every new member receives an email at set times. For example, consider the following workflow in your email marketing campaign once someone signs up for your newsletter:

• Immediately after enrollment - Thank you email for successful enrollment
• Day/Week 1 - Email with exclusive information
• Day/Week 2 - Email with more information on a particular topic
• Day/Week 3 - Offer for a service or product

#2. Recalls

According to the Baymard Institute, an average of 69.6% of consumers do not check out the products in their cart on an online store. If you can encourage even a fraction of these people to check out after all, this will increase your sales significantly.

For example, Web shops can track visitors on their Web sites and then target people automatically. Suppose someone has created an account on your website, then adds products to their shopping cart but does not pay for them. Through an e-mail, SMS or remarketing ad campaigns, you can subtly point out to this person that he/she has not yet paid. To reinforce this, you can offer a special discount code that expires within a certain amount of time. This way, you can immediately see how many people end up placing an order anyway and whether it makes sense to apply such discount offers more often.

By extension, you can also try to win back people who have dropped out after a trial period. For example, Disney regularly sends emails to people who have tried the online streaming service Disney+ asking them to come back.

#3. Customer Loyalty

After leads are converted into customers, you want to retain them, improve the customer relationship and ultimately prompt them to make new purchases. One way you can do this is by subtly reminding them of this. People need this because they like to be taken care of.

Suppose someone has made a purchase from your online store of a product that needs replacement after four weeks. Then create a message that is automatically sent via email or SMS three weeks after the purchase, or send a notification to someone on your team that this person will be contacted. Good examples are ink cartridges or razor blades.

If it turns out that the purchasing pattern is different than expected after all, for example because someone uses more ink or shaves less frequently, you can easily incorporate this information into your processes and adapt it to this person.

How do you get started with marketing automation?

Getting started with marketing automation doesn't have to be complicated. Follow these practical steps for a smooth implementation within your company:

Step 1: Define your goals

Clearly define exactly what you want to achieve. For example, do you want more qualified leads, higher customer retention or simply save time on routine tasks? Clear goals ensure focus and better results.

Step 2: Map your customer groups (segmentation)

Analyze your customer base and create clear segments. Think of target groups based on behavior (e.g. frequent buyers versus one-time visitors), interests, or stage in the buying process. This helps to send relevant messages to the right audience.

Step 3: Create relevant content

Marketing automation only works well if you have the right content, such as automated welcome emails, relevant newsletters, practical guides or attractive offers. Make sure your content matches each stage of the customer journey.

Step 4: Choose an appropriate marketing automation platform

Select software that fits your business. Tools like Mailchimp are simple and ideal for starters, while platforms like HubSpot and ActiveCampaign offer more extensive functionality for more complex campaigns. Test different options before making your final choice.

Step 5: Build and test your first campaigns

Start small and set up one or two campaigns first. For example, an automatic welcome series for new newsletter subscribers. Then measure success: open rates, click rates and conversions.

Step 6: Monitor, analyze and optimize continuously

Keep measuring results and improving campaigns. Marketing automation is not a one-time project but a continuous process of testing, learning and optimization. Adjust your campaigns regularly based on data and customer behavior for best results.

Marketing automation software

There are several marketing automation tools available, each with its own benefits and concerns. Below are some popular options suitable for business owners:

1. Mailchimp

Suitable for: Small businesses and entrepreneurs who want to get started quickly and easily.

Advantages:

• Easy to use, intuitive interface.
• Strong in email marketing and simple automation.
• Well affordable (free entry option).

2. ActiveCampaign

Suitable for: Entrepreneurs looking for comprehensive capabilities, especially around lead nurturing and personalization.

Advantages:

• Excellent opportunities for email automation and customer segmentation.
• Integration with common CRM systems.
• Comprehensive analyses and reports.

3. HubSpot

Suitable for: Entrepreneurs and SMEs looking for an all-in-one solution for marketing, sales and customer service.

Advantages:

• Fully integrated solution: marketing automation, CRM, and sales tools.
• Comprehensive reports and in-depth insights into customer behavior.
• Good scalability and flexible options.

4. Zapier

Suitable for: Entrepreneurs who want to connect different marketing tools (e.g. forms, CRM, mailing lists) and further automate processes.

Advantages:

• Easily connects thousands of different tools and systems.
• Saves a lot of time by automating repetitive tasks between tools.
• No technical knowledge required for standard links.

5. Marketo

Suitable for: Larger SMEs or scale-ups with complex automation needs.

Advantages:

• Strong in advanced campaigns and multichannel automation.
• Detailed tracking and segmentation options.
• Suitable for companies with high automation requirements.

6. Leadinfo

Suitable for: b2b companies with active sales

Advantages:

• Seeing which companies are visiting your website.
• Instantly have all business information at hand.
• Automatically proactively approach leads.

Common mistakes

Marketing automation offers many benefits, but business owners often make the same mistakes when implementing it. Here are the main pitfalls and how to easily avoid them:

1. Too generic communication

It is tempting to send the same automated messages to everyone. However, this often leads to impersonal communication, causing customers to drop out.

How do you prevent it?

• Create clear segments within your target audience and send personalized messages.
• Use available customer data to create relevant, tailored messages.

2. Not setting clear goals

Many entrepreneurs start without knowing clearly what they want to achieve with marketing automation, making campaigns less effective.

How do you prevent it?

• Set clear, measurable goals in advance (e.g. number of leads, conversion rate, or time savings).
• Evaluate regularly whether your goals are achieved and adjust where necessary.

3. Insufficient attention to follow-up

Marketing automation does not stop at sending messages automatically. Without follow-up and monitoring, you lose sight of potential customers.

How do you prevent it?

• Provide automatic alerts on key interactions (such as clicking on links or viewing pages).
• Integrate marketing automation with your CRM so that follow-up runs smoothly.

4. Creating overly complex workflows

Entrepreneurs often start enthusiastically and set up overly complicated workflows that are difficult to maintain.

How do you prevent it?

• Start simple, with one or two effective campaigns.
• Only expand when you see what works, and optimize step by step.

5. Not optimizing regularly

Marketing automation requires regular adjustments based on data and customer behavior. Static campaigns quickly lose their effectiveness.

How do you prevent it?

• Actively monitor results and keep improving campaigns.
• Continuously test different messages, times, and triggers to get better and better results.

Conclusion

Marketing automation helps you not only save valuable time, but also get better results from your marketing efforts. The sooner you start, the sooner you will benefit from more qualified leads, higher customer satisfaction and more sales.

Want to get started right away or find out how a marketing automation agency chooses the best approach for your business? Then feel free to contact us for advice.

Resources

Järvinen, J., & Taiminen, H. (2016). Harnessing marketing automation for B2B content marketing. Industrial Marketing Management, 54, 164-175. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.indmarman.2015.07.002

Bagshaw, A. (2015). What is marketing automation? Journal of Direct, Data and Digital Marketing Practice, 17, 84-85.

Baymard Institute. (2023). 48 Cart Abandonment Rate Statistics 2023. https://baymard.com/lists/cart-abandonment-rate

GetResponse & SmartInsights. (2018). Email Marketing & Marketing Automation Excellence 2018. https://www.getresponse.com/resources/reports/email-marketing-and-marketing-automation-excellence-2018

LianaTech (2017). Survey: What are the Benefits of Marketing Automation? https://www.lianatech.com/resources/blog/survey-what-are-the-benefits-of-marketing-automation.html

Wood, C. (2015). Marketing automation: Lessons learned so far.... Journal of Direct, Data and Digital Marketing Practice, 16, 251-254.