What is Marketing Automation and How Does it Work?

April 12, 2023

If you’re a business owner or marketer, you may have heard of marketing automation but not quite understood what it means. In simple terms, marketing automation refers to using software and technology to automate repetitive marketing tasks and processes. Marketing automation has become essential to modern marketing strategies, helping businesses streamline their efforts and improve efficiency. This includes everything from email marketing and social media posting to lead generation and more.

Marketing automation software enables you to create workflows, set up triggers and actions, and automate tasks such as lead nurturing, scoring, and segmentation. By automating these processes, marketing teams can improve efficiency, reduce manual effort, and focus on more strategic tasks, such as developing content and improving customer experience.

The primary goal of marketing automation is to streamline marketing processes and improve efficiency. It allows businesses to:

• Nurture leads: By automating communication with potential customers, businesses can guide prospects through the buyer’s journey, ultimately converting them into customers.
• Personalize communication: Marketing automation software can segment audiences based on behavior, preferences, and other criteria, enabling businesses to tailor messaging to better resonate with target audiences.
• Improve customer retention: Marketing automation systems help maintain relationships with existing customers by delivering personalized, relevant content.
• Measure campaign performance: Marketing automation tools provide real-time analytics that helps businesses optimize their marketing strategies and make data-driven decisions.

Measuring Marketing Automation Performance

Essential Marketing Automation Metrics

To effectively track and assess the performance of your marketing automation efforts, consider the following metrics:

• Click-through rate (CTR): The percentage of recipients who click on a link within an email or other marketing communication.
• Conversion rate: The percentage of leads who complete a desired action, such as purchasing a product or signing up for a newsletter.
• Return on investment (ROI): A measure of the profitability of marketing campaigns, calculated by comparing the revenue generated to the cost of the campaign.
• Lead scoring: A method of assigning a numerical value to leads based on their likelihood of converting, helping marketers prioritize their efforts.
• Customer lifetime value (CLV): An estimate of the total revenue a business can expect from a single customer over the course of their relationship.

By tracking and improving these metrics, you can increase the efficiency of your marketing efforts, optimize your workflows for better results, and accelerate revenue growth. With a data-driven approach to marketing automation, you can identify areas for improvement, prioritize your efforts, and ultimately achieve greater success in reaching and converting your target audience.

How to Implement a Marketing Automation Solution to Grow Your Business

Now that you understand the basics of marketing automation, here are some steps you can take to implement it in your business and start reaping the benefits.

1. Define your goals and objectives

   Determine the specific objectives you want to achieve with marketing automation, such as increasing lead generation, improving customer retention, or enhancing ROI. Clearly outline your goals to help you identify tasks and processes to automate, choose the right marketing automation tools, and develop a strategy aligned with your business objectives.

   Example of marketing automation goal setting

   “HealthyBites” (a fictitious company) is an online store that sells organic snacks and supplements.

   Goal: HealthyBites wants to increase lead generation, nurture existing leads, and improve customer retention. They aim to achieve a 20% increase in lead generation and a 15% increase in customer retention over the next six months.

2. Choose the right marketing automation software

   Evaluate various marketing automation platforms (MAPs) to find the one that best aligns with your goals, budget, and existing technology stack.

   Evaluate various marketing automation platforms, such as HubSpot, Marketo, Pardot, and Eloqua, to find the one that best aligns with your goals, budget, and existing technology stack. Consider factors like your budget, business size, and required features, ensuring the software integrates well with your existing systems and tools. Take the time to research and compare different options before making a decision.

   Example of choosing a MAP

   HealthyBites outlines its specific requirements for a marketing automation platform:

   1. Ease of use: A user-friendly interface for their small marketing team to navigate and manage campaigns efficiently.
   2. Lead scoring and segmentation: The ability to score and segment leads based on user behavior and preferences, enabling targeted campaigns for their distinct personas.
   3. Email marketing capabilities: Advanced email marketing features, including templates, personalization, and analytics, to improve the effectiveness of their campaigns.
   4. CRM integration: Seamless integration with their existing CRM to synchronize customer data and create a unified marketing ecosystem.
   5. Social media integration: Built-in social media management tools to streamline scheduling, monitoring, and reporting on social media campaigns.
   6. Scalability: A platform that can accommodate the company’s growth without requiring significant changes to its marketing strategy or technology stack.
   7. Budget: A cost-effective solution that fits within their allocated budget for marketing automation software.

   After evaluating several marketing automation platforms based on these requirements, HealthyBites chooses its MAP. This MAP meets all their outlined criteria, offering a robust set of features, ease of integration with their existing tools, and budget-friendliness.

3. Integrate with existing tools

   Ensure your chosen marketing automation system integrates seamlessly with your current CRM, email marketing, and analytics tools to create a cohesive marketing ecosystem.

   Example of integrating tools with marketing automation

   HealthyBites integrates the MAP with its current CRM and web analytics to create a seamless marketing ecosystem that shares data across platforms.

   • CRM integration: They ensure the integration is set up correctly to synchronize customer data, lead statuses, and sales activities. This allows the marketing team to access up-to-date customer information and create more targeted campaigns.
   • Web analytics integration: They connect their web analytics account and tracking pixels enabling them to track website traffic, user behavior, and conversions directly within the MAP.

   HealthyBites maps data fields and syncs information across platforms for accurate data sharing.

4. Define your audiences and personas

   Create detailed buyer personas that represent your target audience, including demographics, behavior patterns, motivations, and goals. Understanding your audience helps tailor your marketing automation efforts for maximum impact.

   Example of defining personas

   HealthyBites identifies three primary buyer personas:

   • Fitness enthusiasts
   • Busy professionals seeking healthy snacks
   • Individuals with dietary restrictions

   They create detailed profiles for each persona to tailor their marketing efforts.

5. Map out your customer journey and visualize workflows

   Identify different stages of your customer’s journey, from initial awareness to post-purchase follow-up, and create automated workflows to guide them through each stage. Design targeted, relevant, and effective workflows that cater to your audience’s needs

   Example of visualizing the customer journey

   HealthyBites maps out the customer journey for each persona, from the awareness stage (e.g., discovering the brand through social media or blog content) to the post-purchase stage (e.g., receiving personalized offers for future purchases). They create workflows that guide prospects through each stage, like for “fitness enthusiasts” as follows:

   1. Awareness stage: Fitness enthusiasts discover the brand through targeted social media ads promoting their healthy snacks, and blog content featuring workout tips and nutritious recipes.
   2. Interest stage: HealthyBites sends an automated email series with fitness-related content, tips for maintaining a healthy lifestyle, and product highlights tailored to their fitness goals.
   3. Desire stage: They showcase customer success stories and reviews from fellow fitness enthusiasts, helping to build trust and demonstrating the benefits of their products.
   4. Action stage: Fitness enthusiasts receive targeted offers or limited-time promotions encouraging them to try HealthyBites products, such as a discount on their first order or a complimentary product sample.
   5. Post-purchase stage: After a purchase, customers receive personalized follow-up emails with relevant product recommendations, additional fitness tips, and exclusive offers for future purchases.

6. Set up workflows and automation rules

   Configure your marketing automation software to automate tasks based on specific triggers, such as user behavior or time-based conditions, ensuring timely and relevant communication.

   Example of setting up automation rules

   HealthyBites configures their MAP to send automated welcome emails to new subscribers, followed by educational content based on their persona. They also set up triggers for cart abandonment reminders and post-purchase follow-ups. To set up their welcome email and nurture series, they take the following steps:

   1. Create a welcome email: visually appealing and informative, this email introduces new subscribers to the brand and offers a brief introduction to their product offerings and relevant information.
   2. Set up trigger: they configure the MAP to automatically send the welcome email whenever a new subscriber is added to the mailing list. This can be done based on the event such as a form submission or when a new contact is added to a specific list.
   3. Develop educational content: they create a series of educational emails focused on topics related to fitness enthusiasts, aiming for 3-5 in their series with content that provides value and encourages engagement.
   4. Schedule email series: they determine their sending frequency (e.g. one email per week) and configure the MAP to send according to this schedule. They set up time-based conditions in the workflow to maintain the desired cadence.
   5. Set up automation rules: they create a rule within the MAP to guide subscribers through the email series. For example, a rule is set up to send the first educational email three days after the welcome email, followed by subsequent emails spaced out by one week.

7. Segment your audiences and personalize messaging

   Collect customer behavior, interests, and preferences data to create targeted campaigns that address their needs and interests. Personalize your messaging for increased engagement, conversions, and customer loyalty.

   Example of segmenting and personalized messaging

   Based on HealthyBites’ earlier findings on fitness enthusiasts, they want to segment and personalize their messaging for this top-performing target audience.

   • Analyze engagement data: HealthyBites identified patterns in open rates, click-through rates, and conversions. They found that fitness enthusiasts are particularly interested in content related to high-intensity interval training (HIIT) workouts and plant-based protein sources.
   • Deeply segment audience: They create a new audience segment within their MAP specifically for fitness enthusiasts interested in HIIT workouts and plant-based protein.
   • Develop further tailored content: HealthyBites’ content team creates new blog posts, social media updates, and email campaigns focused on HIIT workouts and plant-based protein sources. This targeted content is designed to resonate with the interests of the newly identified audience segment.
   • Personalize messaging: They use dynamic content and personalization features in their MAP to tailor email subject lines, greetings, and calls-to-action based on the preferences and behaviors of each subscriber within the fitness enthusiasts segment.
   • Adjust workflows: HealthyBites modifies its existing automation workflows to incorporate the newly created segment, ensuring that subscribers within this group receive tailored content and personalized messaging.

8. Develop your content strategy

   Create a content plan that includes a mix of blog posts, emails, social media, and other marketing materials tailored to your target audience, ensuring a consistent and compelling message across all channels.

   Example of content strategy and execution

   HealthyBites creates a content calendar that includes blog posts, emails, and social media updates focusing on topics relevant to their personas, such as healthy snack recipes, workout tips, and the benefits of organic supplements. The team initially outlines plans to support a first-month campaign to run tests and collect initial data.

   They produce the following assets to support their efforts:

   • Engaging blog posts: 4-8 posts (1-2 per week) on workout routines, pre- and post-workout snacks, and the role of nutrition in fitness.
   • Social media content: 20-30 posts (5-7 per week) showcasing their products in action, workout videos, testimonials, and other fitness-related content.
   • Email series: 4-6 emails (1 per week, plus 1-2 additional for promotions) with fitness tips, articles on organic supplements, and personalized product recommendations.
   • Customer success stories and reviews: 2-4 stories (1-2 every other week) featuring fellow fitness enthusiasts who have benefited from HealthyBites products.
   • Targeted offers or promotions: 1-2 promotions during the month, such as discounts on first orders or complimentary product samples to encourage fitness enthusiasts to try their products.

9. Launch campaigns and start seeing initial performance data

   Implement your marketing automation campaigns and gather performance data to gauge their effectiveness and identify areas for improvement.

   Example of launching campaigns

   HealthyBites launches its first campaign by completing some final steps:

   • Finalize campaign assets: The team ensures all content assets are ready.
   • Finalize testing and QA of workflows and triggers: the MAP triggers and workflows have been tested and approved by the team.
   • Freezing the launch timeline: the team finalizes the launch plans and timing.
   • LAUNCH! The team starts publishing content at 6:00 am
   • Tracking and responding to initial responses: HealthBites monitors audience engagement and quickly reacts to responses and comments from their audiences.

10. Monitor performance and adjust better results

    Continuously track your marketing automation campaigns’ performance using analytics tools to measure key metrics like open, click-through, and conversion rates. Identify successful campaigns and areas that need improvement, using A/B testing to experiment with messaging, subject lines, and calls to action. Continually analyze and optimize your campaigns to improve ROI and drive more revenue for your business.

    Example of monitoring and improving performance results

    HealthyBites continuously analyzes campaign performance, identifying areas for improvement and adjusting their workflows and messaging accordingly. They use A/B testing to optimize subject lines, calls to action, and content, leading to a 25% increase in lead generation and an 18% increase in customer retention over six months.

Marketing automation can help streamline your marketing efforts, improve efficiency, and provide a personalized customer experience. By defining your goals and objectives, choosing the right marketing automation software, mapping out your customer journey, segmenting your audience, and analyzing your campaigns, you can unlock the full potential of your marketing automation strategy.

Potential Marketing Automation Obstacles Ahead

As you embark on your marketing automation journey, it’s important to be aware of some potential obstacles that you may encounter. By being prepared for these challenges, you can tackle them head-on and ensure a smoother and more successful implementation. In this section, we’ll outline some common issues that marketers often face when implementing marketing automation and offer recommendations on how to mitigate them.

While it’s natural to encounter challenges when implementing a marketing automation strategy, being aware of these potential obstacles and planning for them can help you overcome them more effectively. By anticipating and addressing these issues, you’ll be better equipped to create a seamless marketing automation experience that drives results for your business. Keep in mind that it’s a learning process, and with time and perseverance, you’ll find the right mix of strategies to maximize the potential of your marketing automation efforts.

Begin Your Marketing Automation Journey with Lunary by Your Side

We know that diving into marketing automation can seem like a daunting task. As you begin your marketing automation journey, remember that it’s normal to feel both excited and a bit apprehensive.

At Lunary, we’re here to support you every step of the way. Our mission is to help you navigate the complexities of marketing automation, ensuring a smooth and successful implementation that aligns with your business objectives. We pride ourselves on providing personalized support and guidance every step of the way. From selecting the right marketing automation platform to optimizing your content strategy and tracking performance, we’re here to help you overcome common obstacles and unlock the full potential of marketing automation for your business. By working together, we can turn your marketing automation challenges into opportunities for growth and success. Let’s partner up and bring your marketing to new heights!

Ready to unlock the full potential of your marketing automation strategy? Subscribe to our newsletter today to gain access to exclusive best practices, industry insights, and expert advice that will help you drive more leads and grow your business.