Execute campaigns with marketing automation during staffing shortage

Do you need marketing talent? Are you having difficulty scaling your sales and marketing with fewer resources?  Marketing automation could help you to grow your business and reduce the dependencies on human capacity. You can save time, money, and headcount. 78% of successful marketers say that marketing automation is most responsible for improving revenue contribution! 

What is Marketing Automation?

According to HubSpot, marketing automation is all about using software to automate marketing activities. Many marketing departments automate repetitive tasks such as email marketing, social media posting, and even ad campaigns.  It’s an efficient way to provide a more personalized experience for your customers. The technology or software of marketing automation makes these tasks easier.

HubSpot workflow

What is included with the marketing software?

Many of the marketing platforms have tools for multiple channels such as paid ads, email campaigns, landing page templates, and social media.   These tools usually connect with your customer data and provide an opportunity for lead scoring.  

Lead scoring is the process of assigning values or points to each lead you generate for the business based on actions taken by the leads or prospect. Small businesses and b2b marketers primarily use email marketing automation and lead nurturing to improve lead generation. 

Benefits of marketing automation

The primary benefit of marketing automation is to help marketers launch more efficient and effective marketing campaigns. Below are just a few more benefits:

• Efficiently pass information from the marketing team to the sales teams
• Save resources and focus on priorities to grow the business
• Tailor customer experience to improve satisfaction and sales
• Replicate campaigns and improve processes for better execution
• Align sales and marketing activities to improve lead generation
• Connect marketing tools and platforms to tracking goals and objectives

Implementation of marketing automation

According to a survey, 53% of B2B organizations implement marketing automation, and 37% are planning to implement it. Before you implement marketing automation, take the time to understand your processes, tools, ideal customer, personas and create an inbound marketing strategy. 

There are a number of marketing automation platforms on the market.  My recommendation is to identify one that integrates with your existing toolset and aligns with your goals.  For example, your marketing automation software should integrate with your customer relationship management (CRM) system so you can see how your prospects are interacting with your marketing. 

HubSpot App Marketplace for Integrations

Use workflows to automate your marketing and sales processes.   Workflows give you the ability to automate your marketing, sales, and service processes to make your team more efficient. Set enrollment criteria to automatically enroll records and take actions on your contacts, companies, deals, quotes, and tickets.

You can implement sequences in some marketing automation tools. A sequence will send sales emails from your inbox.  A sequence might include actions such as a telephone call or LinkedIn emails. The emails are sent using marketing automation software. The "from" address can be customized in the email editor. Once the sequence has been completed, the contact is added to a relevant audience for use in ad retargeting via platforms including Facebook, LinkedIn, and Google Ads.

Sound like a lot of work?  It is can be a complicated process but there are resources available to help. Most marketing automation tools have solution partners to provide support to new users or to manage complex issues.  For example, DaBrian Marketing Group is a HubSpot Solutions Partner so we can help you with your implementation and execution.  We also provide support of Pardot and ActiveDemand which we used and supported customers with in the past. Get in touch with an agency that has done it before to save you time, money, and maximize your marketing campaigns. 

How much does marketing automation cost?

The cost of marketing automation software varies depending on the number of users, contacts, and add-ons.  Add-ons include new-customer enablement, support packages, consulting services, training, and instructor-led education. The pricing of marketing automation tools can range from free plans up to $5000 per month.  As a general rule, you can estimate that marketing automation will take up between 3-5% of your marketing campaign budget.

Keep in mind that someone will need to manage the software, write content, run ads, and post on social media.  So, you will need to consider the talent needed to successfully execute marketing campaigns. Below is a list of items to consider:

• CRM integration or Set-up
• Technical Implementation
• Form Integration
• Creating Marketing Reports
• Creating Newsletters & Email Templates
• Developing Workflows Based on Triggers 
• Writing the Content for Landing Pages, Emails, Blogs, etc. 

The cost of marketing automation goes beyond software and should include the time, resources, skills, and ad budget necessary to execute campaigns.