Marketing automation is a collection of tools designed to automate a company’s marketing strategy. These tools benefit not only large businesses, but small businesses as well.

Smaller businesses without much experience with marketing automation often think it’s only a tool for automating repetitive marketing tasks. These companies only see the value of marketing automation as a time or cost saving solution.

It’s true that marketing automation saves time and money by automating repetitive marketing tasks, it also allows businesses to:

• Identify more qualified leads
• Increase the conversion of those leads
• Increase the resulting revenues
• Apply lead scores to prospects
• Notify sales team regarding opportune leads

Furthermore, a comprehensive marketing automation service like the one employed by Push Marketing also provides Anonymous web visitor identification, end-to-end analytics (not Google Analytics), dynamic lists, and behavior tracking.

Marketing automation services are being adopted at an exponential pace, and as it becomes more and more affordable, smaller companies are also getting on board and harnessing its power.

Marketing Automation vs. Traditional ‘Email Blasts’

Marketing automation is very different from the auto-responder tools that many businesses have used in the past. Such antiquated tools were hit-and-miss, and often resulted in driving off potential customers with irrelevant “junk mail.”

However, when used properly, marketing automation all but guarantees that leads receive narrowly targeted and highly relevant marketing messages, and at exactly the right moment.

This targeted messaging is totally unlike traditional email delivery services like MailChimp or Constant Contact. Such basic email delivery services are typically only able to send non-targeted email “blasts” to a large group of recipients in a linear fashion. Too often, this untargeted approach is viewed (correctly) by the recipients as spam.

In contrast, marketing automation such as that developed by SharpSpring and employed by Push Marketing features behavioral-based targeting and communication. Using marketing automation, a company can automatically send a fresh prospect (one who is just starting the education process) very high-level information that is relevant to the lead’s interest.

On the other hand, if a lead is ready to buy, the lead can be sent purchase-oriented materials. Simultaneously, the marketing automation service will send a notification to a salesperson who can contact the lead directly. Leads looking at a single product on the website can be sent information about that specific product, without having to ask any questions. This is important when the buyer is researching a company and is not yet ready to buy.

This high level of behavioral-based targeting will almost certainly generate higher conversions and more revenue, and that’s a good investment for any business, big or small.

For more information, check out other posts in this series:

Push Marketing Introduces Advanced Marketing Automation
Marketing Automation: Why It’s Essential for B2B Businesses
The Benefits of Marketing Automation for B2C Companies
After the Click: Behavior-Based Email Tracking
Email Automation with Personalized Communication