MARKETING AND SALES AUTOMATION
1. What exactly is automation?
WHAT DOES THE TERM “AUTOMATION” MEAN?
Translated, automation means automation. In the context of a company's marketing and sales department, the term means the IT-supported execution of recurring processes. The aim of automation is to ensure that sales and marketing employees spend less time on administrative tasks and can therefore focus more on more complex tasks. Hardware or software is used to optimize the overall process and at the same time manage the activities of employees. For example, automation software takes over the maintenance of databases or supports lead generation.
2. How are marketing and sales automation related?
THE INTERPLAY OF MARKETING AND SALES AUTOMATION
A real optimization of the overall process can only be achieved if marketing and sales are closely interlinked. Although there are many overlaps between marketing and sales automation, the biggest difference is in the respective focus: While marketing automation mainly looks at the processes for identifying potential customers (lead generation), sales automation focuses more on communication with customers and closing sales.
By automating marketing processes, both the quality and quantity of leads can be improved. These improved leads are passed on to sales, which can now fully exploit the potential of the leads in conjunction with sales automation.
In order for the collaboration between marketing and sales to run smoothly, it is necessary to develop common evaluation points (scores) for the maturity level of a lead. The funnel model helps to visualize the individual maturity levels: At the top are most contacts with only loose interest. With each subsequent level, the funnel becomes narrower and the number of leads decreases while their quality increases. Ultimately, only those remain who have a genuine interest in buying (sales qualified leads) and are "sales ready" according to the definition agreed upon jointly with sales. At this point, the marketing department hands the potential customers over to sales, who process them further and, ideally, achieve a sale.
The interaction between marketing and sales automation does not only work in one direction: As the contacts are processed, the sales department collects further information that is important for the marketing department. For example, during a negotiation, a lead's other interests may become apparent, which may provide opportunities for further processing by the marketing team. Accordingly, information about a lead or account flows both from the marketing department to sales and vice versa.
INTRODUCING MARKETING AND SALES AUTOMATION
We support you in the introduction of marketing and sales automation measures in your company.
3. What are the benefits of sales automation?
HOW DOES SALES AUTOMATION SUPPORT YOUR EMPLOYEES?
In most cases, suitable CRM software is used to automate certain sales processes. CRM software supports the company in all customer-related processes and therefore plays a central role in sales automation. But CRM software also provides valuable assistance in lead generation. Such a marketing and sales automation platform is particularly effective in the following areas:
- Collecting customer information: Manually creating different data sets about each individual customer is a time-consuming task. The software takes over this step completely by automatically collecting and storing important information about customers. This information includes, for example, the size and industry affiliation of a customer as well as their activities on social media platforms.
- Lead nurturing: Regardless of whether it is welcome nurture in the form of content offers or warm-up nurture: processes can also be automated in this area, especially when it comes to standardized procedures such as sending a welcome email. Sales and marketing automation also ensures that no important lead is forgotten. Since sales focuses on the most promising customers, the potential of the remaining prospects is wasted due to inadequate support. This can be counteracted with the help of an automated lead nurturing process. The less promising leads continue to receive individual support without sales having to divide their attention.
- Maintaining the contact database: Which lead has unsubscribed from your newsletter? Which one has already indicated interest in making a purchase? In both cases, this is important information that determines how to proceed with a lead. Automation software is able to assign this additional information to the right contacts and then segment them according to quality.
4. How is marketing and sales automation introduced?
CREATING A MARKETING AND SALES AUTOMATION STRATEGY
The use of sales and marketing automation is only effective if it is based on a well-thought-out strategy. Both marketing and sales should be involved in developing such a strategy. The first step is to ensure that both departments share the same view of challenges, goals and solutions. This avoids possible irritations and problems that could otherwise arise later in the project.
Once you have reached a common understanding, you now need to set your goals. Since the range of applications for marketing and sales is very broad, you should limit yourself to three main goals. To avoid possible conflicts, these are coordinated and sorted by priority. The goals could be, for example:
- Marketing: improved lead generation, increased brand awareness and higher visibility
- Sales: Increase in the number and quality of leads as well as greater sales efficiency
Since marketing automation is closely aligned with the customer journey, sales plays a particularly important role in creating the strategy, as they can bring in-depth knowledge of the customers and the market. Using this knowledge, the basis of the strategy can be developed: the buyer persona. The term buyer persona describes a research-based model representation of the ideal customer. With the help of a buyer persona, the behavior of the buyer is mapped and a meaningful profile is created that all marketing and sales activities are based on. The principle of the buyer persona can therefore be described as a further development of the target group models. The key difference is that with a buyer persona, the focus is not on the socio-demographic characteristics of a target person, but on the motives and needs that trigger the purchase decision process.
There are essentially three different approaches to developing a buyer persona:
Guessing game approach: This approach may be the least complex, but it is also the least accurate. In a meeting, employees with and without customer contact collect characteristics that they believe apply to the target customer. The result is often a depiction of the customer from the company's internal perspective, a simplistic profile that has little to do with the actual needs and behavior of the buyers.
- Multi-method research design approach: This approach combines quantitative and qualitative research methods. It is a comprehensive information search that includes, among other things, the analysis of social media data and interviews with customers and prospects. The disadvantage of this approach is that it is very time-consuming and accordingly expensive.
- Interview-based qualitative approach: This approach is a compromise between the guessing game approach and the multi-method research design approach. In several open interviews, trained interviewers ask customers and potential customers for information relevant to their purchase decision. The focus is on the purchase decision process. The interviewers tailor their questions to the individual interviewee, but the initial question is always the same: What triggered the process that led to the purchase decision?
Based on the buyer persona, a requirements profile can now be created regarding the content, orientation and tone of the content to be produced, which will help attract the right prospects.
5. How is marketing automation used in practice?
SUPPORTING THE CUSTOMER JOURNEY WITH THE HELP OF MARKETING AUTOMATION
Marketing automation encompasses and connects all market-oriented business areas that can be found in the company along the customer journey. It is therefore often viewed as the technical backbone of disciplines such as lead management or inbound marketing. But what does customer-oriented marketing automation along the customer journey look like in practice?
In order for interested parties to even begin the customer journey, suitable touch points must be defined with which you can draw attention to your company. Touch points can be, for example, blogs or newsletters that give the person seeking information the impetus to engage further with your company.
Particularly interested readers then leave their contact details in exchange for further information (e.g. white papers, webinars or eBooks). In this way, an unknown prospect becomes a lead, who is entered into the CRM system along with his data. A call to action (CTA) should be present in all marketing steps. This makes it easier to develop the lead automatically using content that corresponds to his main interest.
6. How does marketing automation differ from behavior scoring?
THE INTERPLAY BETWEEN BEHAVIOR SCORING AND MARKETING AUTOMATION
The information collected via the touch points is then used to determine the lead's behavior score. The behavior score provides information about the intensity with which a person is interested in a product or offer. Marketing automation can then be used, for example, to implement targeted email campaigns. By automatically dividing the leads into different groups based on characteristics and interests, it is possible to send them individually tailored content and thus deepen their interest even further.
Along the customer journey, there is other important information that influences the behavior score. This includes surfing and search behavior as well as the willingness to download or participate in a product presentation. In addition to these positive behaviors, there are also those that negatively influence the score, for example when a lead unsubscribes from a newsletter.
If the lead reaches a certain score, it is automatically transferred to the next stage of the marketing funnel, where it is processed with further individually tailored measures until it finally becomes a sales qualified lead and enters the sales funnel.
7. How are sales and marketing automation introduced?
THE INTRODUCTION OF SALES AND MARKETING AUTOMATION
The introduction of sales and marketing automation means a fundamental change in the way the marketing and sales team works. That's why it's important to prepare your employees for this change with the right change management and to train them in how to use the software.
Automation only achieves the desired effect when sales and marketing work together. Therefore, care should be taken to ensure that both departments use the same definitions and pursue the same goals. This guarantees an uninterrupted flow of information in both directions.
A sales structure that is too automated can have disadvantages. The personal touch is often important, especially when selling. Persuasion is also often more successful when carried out by a real person. So make sure you leave room for human qualities.
CONCLUSION: MARKETING AND SALES AUTOMATION
Automating recurring processes makes both marketing and sales more efficient. By collecting important information about the interests and behavior of leads, the automation software can develop and qualify them using individually tailored content. The lead nurturing process is also largely automated. By working closely together between marketing and sales, sales receive more qualified leads that are more likely to be converted into customers. In this way, automation helps sales to shorten acquisition times and close sales more quickly.