Marketing Automation: An Overview

Saves time, rationalizes business processes and optimizes campaigns ... Technical devices allow the automation of a suite of marketing actions.

If the concept of automation marketing is not new, it has probably never been so popular. These devices, software or techniques allowing the automation of a series of actions dedicated to the optimization of its marketing, has become crucial in a universe where the consumer journey is ultra-fragmented, between the fixed Web and the mobile, Online and offline.
In addition to saving time and efficiency, marketing automation enables companies to manage the acquisition, retention and evaluation of their new consumers. They can also optimize their sales, by cross-selling or even upsell, and, of course, have a clear view of the return on investment of their campaigns.

Who uses them?

CAC 40 companies and major technology groups have long adopted the trend. Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are the fastest growing segment, according to Marketo, an automation marketing solution. While B2B companies, especially those from the high-tech world and services, were the first to get into the breach, today we find all types of players in finance and insurance , In the media, retail or health.

To do what ?

Each advertiser corresponds to specific needs and an adoption of the specific marketing automation solution.

Depending on the degree of maturity of the company, the automation marketing needs will be more or less important. © Marketo

• E-mail marketing

It is one of the most important marketing channels and is the one most often involved in an automation approach. First, to create a newsletter via a simple Wisiwig (What I See is What I Get) tool and send it to a database . Then to track the campaign's performance (opening rate and clickthrough rate). Sometimes, to manage the reputation of the sender, sending emails triggered in real time (after a prospect action), AB testing or even optimization for the mobile.

• Management of prospects

The solution must allow to enrich its database CRM with data from third platforms ( social networks , mobile ...) What give an exhaustive view of the client that allows to manage and feed these leads . And thus trigger the right interactions at the right time, by micro-segmenting the database according to a combination of socio-demographic and behavioral data.

• Management of the customer database

Without much surprise, one of the most popular features is the management of multichannel marketing campaigns ( display , video, affiliation , mobile ...), whether it is media buying or CRM, selling a product, A council or an event. This allows more sales of the same product to the customer (incentive sales), sales of additional products to the customer (cross-sell or up-sell), as well as customer loyalty and sponsorship . The solution must also provide marketers with the indicators they need to justify to their hierarchy the impact of marketing on turnover.

• Social Marketing

As social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram have become key audiences (and hence communications), they have been integrated into their range of offerings by automation marketing solution providers. To make social listening, plan organic publications or media campaigns and measure the ROI of its social actions in terms of conversion within the social platform, its website or even Point of sale.

Who are the biggest players?

• The most comprehensive solutions

Pardot (B2B) or Exact Target (B2C) by Salesforce / Adobe Campaign / Marketo / Eloqua by Oracle / SilverPop by IBM Marketing Cloud

• Smaller and more flexible solutions

Hubspot / InfusionSoft / AgileCRM / LeadSquared / Act-On / SalesFusion / Mautic / iContact / SimplyCast / SharpSpring / SalesManago / Ontraport / Net-Results / MindMatrix