Traditional offline marketing can be expensive programs. If you’re going to commit financial resources to a trade show, you want to be sure that you stay engaged with the leads you generate long after the show ends.
What is Marketing Automation?
Marketing automation is a combination of software and tactics that equip you with the ability to nurture leads with specifically targeted content.
This method of segmentation allows you to more effectively reach and educate prospects who are interested in your products or services.
Marketing automation, when fully embraced and implemented with the correct training, can drive more qualified leads to your sales personnel. It is important to understand that while beneficial, marketing automation does not improve your lead generation.
If your company does not have a large quantity of existing leads, it would be more beneficial to focus on improving marketing efforts in other areas.
If your company is doing a great job of attracting leads, marketing automation is a great way to streamline your scaling process and make the most of your opportunities.
How Does Marketing Automation Relate to Offline Marketing?
Marketing automation works perfectly with traditional offline marketing practices like trade shows. Trade shows give you an opportunity to connect with potential customers at an early stage.
By meeting with individuals face-to-face, you will gain firsthand information about their priorities. If you are going to invest in these traditional marketing methods, it is important that you yield lead information.
Once you obtain this lead information, marketing automation gives you the opportunity to create tailor-made marketing material that speaks directly to their specific wants and needs. By providing fresh, relevant content, you can establish a positive connection with your leads and nurture those relationships.
Without a substantial and targeted follow-up, the lead information yielded by trade shows and direct mail flyers is useless.
How Does Marketing Automation Creates Real Value?
There are three specific ways marketing automation turns lead information into real value for your company.
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Centralizes Marketing Data
Marketing automation software gives you the ability to sort your raw data into meaningful information. By organizing your lead information you can prioritize your leads better and ensure you’re not missing out on customer opportunities.
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Nurtures Leads
Marketing automation allows you to nurture leads into specialized sales funnel that increase their likelihood of becoming a customer.
By providing them with opportunities to digest relevant content, leads will have the ability to become better educated on their specific pain points. This has the dual effect of putting your sales team in a great position to build a personal relationship with your lead and lowering your overall cost-per-lead.
This is a great way to give your customers the confidence to vocalize their specific needs before they even pick up the phone.
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Improves Tracking Capability
One of the great benefits of marketing automation is that in addition to centralizing your data and segmenting your marketing efforts, you can easily track the success of each campaign.
This high quality feedback lets you know what is resonating with your target audience and what messages are ineffective. This allows you to stay in step with your potential customers and evolve along with your target market.
By remaining relevant to your target market you will gain credibility as a thought lead and improve your ROI. Marketing automation is an important step in effectively integrating your offline and online marketing efforts.
Mastering marketing automation will give you a powerful tool in your marketing gameplan and turn initial interest into real value for your company.
Want to Learn More About Marketing Automation?
If you’re looking to learn more about the concept check out this article from HubSpot.
If you’re interested in seeing how marketing automation fits into a broader marketing strategy see our free daily checklist that we use for B2B marketing.