There comes a time when your business starts to get more leads than it can handle. When it gets tough to nurture leads across multiple channels, some leads are bound to slip due to various reasons like lack of attention to important leads, lack of personalization etc. That’s when every marketer thinks, what if they had an extra pair of hands to help them with this.
Imagine an extra pair of hands that would – Notify a sales rep automatically when he/she has a new sales qualified lead, generate appointments For the sales team, automatically trigger personalized emails and follow-ups. That Extra Pair of hands is HubSpot Marketing Automation.
What is Marketing Automation?
Automation, whenever we hear that word, the first thing that comes to our mind is mindless robots working in a factory. While that is true for manufacturing automation, marketing automation is different in terms that robot overlords won’t take your job away, rather than make it simpler and more effective, also free up some of your time so that you can do what’s really necessary. It is especially effective in conversion and closure stages of marketing.
Let’s take an example, suppose you want to automate Nurturing prospective clients, you can set the enrollment criteria, Form Submission for “Download Our Whitepaper” now add the following steps:
Step 1: Send email: “Here’s Your Whitepaper”
Step 2: Set property value: Lifecycle Stage = Marketing Qualified
Step 3: 3 days later, Send email: “3 Things You Need to Know”
Step 4: 10 days later, Send email: “Client Case Study”
Step 5: 5 days later, Send email: “Request Your Free Consultation”
Isn’t this like the future we dreamed about as kids, we tell a computer what to do and it does our work for us! Now that we know the fun part, let’s take look at when to invest in marketing automation and when not to.
The case for Marketing Automation – Why or Why Not?
Since the ultimate goal of marketing automation is to nurture the lead, the more relevant is the lead more personalized the experience will be. With Marketing Automation, there is no need to send a general message to your entire contact list that will end up getting deleted or marked as spam because it’s not relevant. Set it up to make the experience more personal.
As a prospect wouldn’t you love it if you get more personalized emails instead of blasts that you know is sent to thousands of others?!But even though Marketing Automation is a magical thing, it has its fair share of shortcomings along with all the promises of ease it makes. It is very important to know that not all scenarios need marketing automation.
From a buyers perspective
Before investing, you have to know where does marketing automation fit in your marketing strategy. Usually, that is in line with your Inbound Marketing strategy. You can see from the illustration we have for cases which are stated below:
1. Low Leads and Short Buying Cycle
This is a definite no scenario, to get ROI you need to have enough leads.
2. Low Leads and Long Buying Cycle
This is a maybe scenario, where eventually you’ll get ROI if not immediately.
3. High Leads Short Buying Cycle
This certainly makes a good case to invest in Marketing Automation.
4. High Leads and Long Buying Cycle
This is definitely the best case to buy Marketing Automation Software as this would give the maximum ROI.
These were the four different scenarios. Make sure you have plans for software setup, integrations, campaign planning, content development, and training before getting marketing automation.
From a sellers perspective
Even from a sellers perspective, we have four cases which are explained below:
1. Small Team and Low Scaling Desire
Investing in marketing automation software would be a waste as there’s no plan to scale.
2. Big Team and Low Scaling Desire
This is a case by case basis scenario, but investing in training and setup is a must.
3. Small Team and High Scaling Desire
This is a very good case for Marketing Automation as it would help achieve more with small team
4. Big Team and High Scaling Desire
This is also a very good case for marketing automation and would help your team work efficiently giving good ROIMake sure you keep in mind the above-mentioned scenarios before making an investment in any marketing automation software.
If you are planning to invest here is a list of the best marketing automation vendors followed by the key features of HubSpot marketing automation. Take a look at these market leaders.
Marketing Automation Vendors
There are a lot of marketing automation software provider mostly SaaS but the market leaders are HubSpot, Marketo, Pardot, Eloqua etc
Why HubSpot Marketing Automation?
HubSpot has been ranked as the best marketing automation platform from thousands of users across the world at business solution review platforms like G2Crowd and Capterra. We ourselves have used all three tiers of HubSpot. HubSpot marketing automation is our recommendation for various reasons like intuitive interface, free CRM, powerful workflow also predictive lead scoring.
With HubSpot Marketing Automation you can Nurture Leads on a case by case basis, Build product awareness, Engage members with meaningful causes and a lot more.
Conclusion
In conclusion, while HubSpot Marketing Automation can be a fantastic platform to help a company with lots of leads to nurture across various channels, it isn’t for everyone. Make sure you take an informed decision.
