How to automate marketing in your company using software solutions
Today there are a lot of talks around business process automation. Companies integrate software solutions to raise efficiency of sales and marketing departments, optimize such processes as decision-making, request processing, communication within the enterprise, and much more.
There are a plenty of possibilities for you to choose, from custom mobile and web app development to CRM system or part of its features. In this post we will consider marketing process automation, as marketing activities play a significant role in company profit.
Also, you will find out the benefits you can get from the implementation of a software solution as well as how to define the right one. The first and probably the most important question to be answered is:
Advantages of marketing process automation
1. Increased productivity
Automation of any working processes results in streamlined workflow within a certain department and sometimes even within a total company. The same is with marketing process automation.
Every piece of marketing activity can be optimized and enhanced. Decision-making, lead generation, lead scoring, customer data search, email marketing, advertising campaigns launch, and a lot more.
2. Enhanced relationship with clients
When your marketing managers have a huge and complex database which includes each piece of information about each customer – it’s just great.
Contact information, company name and address, date of the first contact, all others and the planned ones, information about closed/open deals as well as to what you have come in the result of issues discussion, purchase/request history, and so on.
Having all customer data in one place your marketing managers will easily define the target audience of your company, enhance communication process with clients, and in prospect increase their loyalty.
3. Reduced costs for department
Marketing process automation can also affect your expenses on the department and sometimes even reduce them.
Many companies choose web or mobile applications development for this purpose. The second case usually implies a mobile app to be an addition to a web one.
And others, having thought about the question of how to automate marketing activities, decide to implement some kind of CRM system and start, for example, with free and convenient HubSpot.
However, the issue of reduced expenses depends on the software solution you integrate. Some CRM systems, for example, may cost a lot of money, which isn’t beneficial for small companies.
At the same time, it’s unreasonable for large corporations to choose some simple software solutions with several main features.
Generally, they implement complex marketing automation systems to streamline the performance of marketing departments and raise the total efficiency. These systems cost a lot of money, but in such cases they really worth it.
Hence, for startups, small and middle-size companies we advise to choose at first custom mobile or web app development, or the integration of free CRM system (HubSpot, Sugar, Insightly, etc.).
4. Integration with other company departments
One of the strong points of marketing process automation in your company is a simple and convenient interaction of different departments. Imagine, for example, the close and easy cooperation of your sales and marketing managers.
Fast and shared access to customer and contact databases, communication dashboards, shared access to all the information including shares, discounts, prices, services, operations, and so on.
Thanks to that you will raise the productivity of both departments, which in turn will allow you to encourage your business growth. Sounds great, doesn’t it? And here comes the second question.
How to automate marketing activities with software solutions?
1. History of contact with clients and customers
You will get the opportunity to instantly find and check the history of communication: how and when contact was established, the deal, discussions, agreements, and so on.
2. No “lost” calls, emails, etc.
If you choose custom mobile or web app development, you can integrate a feature of tracking each call (via Viber, Skype, and so on) and email, and also automatically notifying you of each one.
3. Real-time analytics and statistics
Very important for researches, analysis, detailed and accurate reports, and more. Your marketing managers will get the opportunity to track each customer/user activity happened at the very moment, as well as receive clear precise statistics in real-time.
4. Shared quality contact base
It’s much more convenient to have a shared contact base for the whole company in order to avoid crossings between various departments and out-dated information as well. Each update made by a manager (sales, marketing, or account one, or other employees) will become visible for everyone within a certain enterprise.
5. Plan and launch email and social marketing campaigns
One of the most useful features for marketing process automation. Your marketing managers will be able to prepare engaging email and social marketing campaigns, settle a date and user base to send them, and after that see the statistics and analyze the results.
For example, for email marketing, you can choose easy-to-use MailChimp. And CRM systems, for instance, Salesforce CRM, involves such an important feature providing Salesforce Marketing Cloud.
Read more about Salesforce CRM and Salesforce application development.
6. Push notifications and personalized messages
One of the opportunities to automate the marketing process is sending push notifications and personalized messages to your clients.
Various software solutions (enterprise mobile and web applications development, CRM system, marketing automation systems) enable to do it based on real-time customer behavior, their purchase and request histories, and even location.
The last one implies that messages will be automatically sent to users at the moment they are near your shop. Beacons efficiently solve this challenge by providing great opportunities for retailers, restaurant and cafe owners, and more.
Find more information about beacons in our blog post.
How to choose the right solution for marketing process automation?
1. Features
First, you need to define the features a software solution must have to meet your needs and goals. For example, CRM systems like Salesforce, a leading CRM provider, offer a plenty of various features.
Surely, all of them are useful, but if you have already implemented some software that includes most of them and you are happy about the price, you should consider other options. For example, web applications development where you define all the necessary features you want the product to involve.
However, if you have determined that CRM system suits you most and involves all necessary features, so now you need to decide which CRM to choose, it should be noted that Salesforce provides the most reasonable prices among paid ones.
2. Price
Each company has a certain budget for different activities and marketing is one of them. It’s always a challenge to meet goals and not exceed it.
So, take into account the price of the software solution, consider the cost of product further enhancement and additions you will probably need in the future. Speaking about CRM you should also look at license cost.
3. “Division of responsibilities”
You can integrate a software solution for marketing process automation which will involve all (or practically all) features you need. In case if you have some software that satisfies some of your needs, but it isn’t enough, for instance, you need something for launching marketing campaigns, you should “distribute responsibilities”.
For instance, you have MailChimp for email marketing, a web application for real-time analytics and statistics, and now you decided to try HubSpot CRM. Later you will define whether you need to add something or not.
Such an approach is very efficient for small and middle-sized companies. Thus, pay attention to size, solutions you’ve already had within the enterprise, and so on.
Smartum Pro has a strong team of skilled and experienced software engineers and offers quality custom mobile and web app development services.
We are always ready to provide you with reasonable recommendations on how to automate marketing in your company considering your business specific needs and goals.