3min
Marketing automation and marketing technology, or MarTech, get an unfair amount of stick if you ask me. Especially as the cutting edge, or the most underdeveloped pieces are the ones that come in for the most criticism.
There are clearly some big issues surrounding MarTech, especially when it comes to its intersection with AdTech. We are right to be afraid of massive data breaches and identity theft and the general misappropriation of our information for instance, but maybe we don't need to quite so worried about advanced AI robots and the intrusion of super targeted ads. At least, not yet…
And do people really believe Alexa is listening to us?
Marketing Automation & MarTech Saving The Sands Of Time
When I think of MarTech and marketing automation particularly, I tend to think of it’s ability to be a massive help to SME’s especially. I’m thinking of the now common email workflows, autoresponders and even the basic bots that come included in even the lowest level of HubSpot licenses.
Most small and medium business owners are the marketing director and finance director and sales director and more, all rolled into one. The ability to save time with marketing automation is reason enough to consider it for your business.
It's not all about creeping people out by stalking them around the web and interrupting their browsing with sales messages from the pages they last looked at on Amazon. It's also about the efficient handling of customer enquiries, or complaints when you haven’t got time to pick up the phone.
LiveChat
A polite LiveChat holding message, or even more useful, a messenger bot that can answer basic questions and point people to your knowledge base is worth its weight in gold. Meaning the customer gets what they want, and you get to finish that annoying but essential task you’ve been putting off for weeks.
And your sales effort can benefit too. If you are stretched, or worse, maybe even the only sales resource, then website forms that capture your potential clients information on your behalf and can even be set up to ask qualifying questions will save you a bucket of time. In some cases, the entire sales process whether the client is a fit or not, can be handled automatically before involving you and your extremely expensive personal touch.
You can even create an excellent level of client engagement with sensitive and cleverly designed email automation. Enrolling specific clients on a specific list to ensure they get personalised content is literally a few clicks work these days. And if that content is highly valuable, that consistent level of conversation is creating increasingly engaged leads, or even converting customers into advocates while you sleep!
CRM Crushes It
Potentially the most important aspect of the MarTech revolution is how easily it now is to set up and fully utilise a hugely powerful CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system. Indeed, HubSpot, one of the leading suppliers of CRM systems in the world, think this is so important that they provide their fully featured CRM to anyone completely free of charge.
A CRM does any number of things for your business. Above all, you should think of it as a central repository of the truth as your business understands it. One place to store all data, and keep it ‘clean’ and up to date, allowing for the rest of your marketing stack to work from reliable and up to date information.
A CRM does the following, and more:
● Stores client and even team members personal / contact data
● Helps to manage data protection, GDPR and Cyber Security
● Manages the relationship between your contacts and the businesses they work in
● Stores all interactions with the client and the clients company
● Manages follow up activities to make sure no stone is left unturned
● Allows you to assign the correct action to the right person in your business
● Creates business pipelines to help plan revenue forecasts
● Allows for sales and marketing activity analysis and management
And finally, a CRM system is a great first step into the world of MarTech and Marketing Automation. Many people start at the end, and jump straight into Social Media apps, or email automation apps. But this can cause confusion in the business and worse, duplication of data and effort, leading to waste and the potential for worse.
Having data lying around in different Silo’s, like in your accounts package, and your email automation app, contacts app, the old email automation app, HR files, Customer guarantees, sales records etc. is a recipe for disaster.
Sorting, cleaning it and generally getting it ready for ‘exploitation via a well chosen CRM is the way to go. But this stuff can be a bit confusing to begin with. And it can quickly become overwhelming when you start to look into all the options out there and the different routes you are able to take.
So whether you are just starting to look at entering into the world of MarTech & Marketing Automation or have got a bit lost in your own systems, we’d be happy to help steer you in the right direction with our free one hour consultation service. Just fill out the form below and we’ll be right in touch.
