Marketing Automation: what is it and where do we come in

The power of Marketing Automation is undisputed. While years ago it was merely a trend, it is now becoming clear to C-level that you need to serve customers personally and efficiently in order to meet customer expectations.

• What is Marketing Automation?
• What does Marketing Automation do?
• Why Marketing Automation?
• Marketing Automation benefits
• Marketing automation software
• What are the costs of Marketing Automation software?
• What does Marketing Automation software deliver?
• Marketing Automation at Ternair
• FAQ: about Marketing Automation

What is Marketing Automation?

Marketing Automation is technology or software that allows you to communicate personally with large groups of customers and prospects. Using the power of smart and automated workflows to improve your own productivity and provide a better customer experience.

By using a Marketing Automation platform in combination with a Customer Data Platform – or comparable technology in which you can aggregate customer data – you create a complete picture of relations, activities and preferences. This allows you to provide information at the right times to make decisions. It is called supporting the Customer Journey. It goes from prospect enrichment, conversion to loyalty promotions.

What does Marketing Automation do?

Unlike email marketing tools that offer selections based on fixed lists and bulk functions, a Marketing Automation platform gives you many more functions and (real-time) integrated data.

• Hyper segmentation
  You can create dynamic customer segments from all available data. These are calculated every moment and each relation will receive their own personal follow-up. This way you are able to send or show every customer or prospect a relevant message at the right time.
• Advanced Email Marketing Automation
  You can send scheduled emails or triggered by action of a relation (webhook). By having multiple schedules that follow each other, a complete customer journey workflow is automated. It can start with the first introduction on your social media, the webshop or website, than the payment and onboarding up to loyalty and upsell campaigns.
• Omnichannel
  Your relations use different means of communication at different times and locations. You are in the driver seat coordinating the channels:
  – email messages with the right message at times your target group can be reached via email
  – social media (advertisements) to your different target groups (custom audiences) based on the knowledge in your data
  – website and landing page personalized and pre-filled
  – SMS and app messages when your relations are mobile (on location, in the store).
  – web push messages for direct service and engagement when relations are online
  – print and telemarketing exports and links into your CRM
• Personalization
  You can personalize content on the basis of all combined data. Depending on the person receiving the communication the correct content is added to the channel.

Why Marketing Automation?

By ensuring communication with relations takes place at the right time and by personalizing it, a Marketing Automation platform helps your customer and prospect in their search and it helps you in achieving returns, more efficient campaigns and customer retention. You can enter into the right communication with relations at every stage.

Marketing Automation benefits

• Return on investment
  By arousing the interest of relations in your product in the right phase, providing information for orientation, a targeted offer or after-purchase service, you increase the chance that your offer and service will meet the customer’s wishes. With large groups of relations, it is crucial to do so using smart software and based on aggregated data in the organization. A higher ROI is the result (10-30%, see McKinsey).
• Efficiency
  Personal approach of relations at the right time is possible with the help of smart technology and software that brings together the ‘4 D’s’: Data, Decisions, Design-content and Distribution. But the automation of manual, error-prone organizational processes is also solved with Automation. Think about booking appointments or payment transactions. It provides another 10-20% more efficiency (McKinsey) in the organization. Time that can be spent on optimization, savings or not having to expand in FTEs/employees or hiring external freelancers and partners when growing.
• Customer retention
  All kinds of client signals are (real-time) updated in your customer data. From data into ordering systems, customer service notes, web visit to store (checkout) information. The correct registration and follow-up of an order, a complaint and the follow-up offer are taken care of with Marketing Automation. More upsell retention simply means less pressure on generating new customers.

Marketing automation software

There is a lot of marketing technology on the market. Sometimes you will need additional tools, which means you need to make an informed choice. Some are derived from CRM systems containing some advantages and disadvantages. Other software has limitations which are fine for an SME, but quickly limit the possibilities for growing organizations. Here you will find a good overview of the most common options. Well-known Dutch and English software suppliers are ActiveCampaign, Adobe Eloqua, Act-On, HubSpot, Marketo, Ternair Marketing Automation, Selligent and Salesforce Pardot/Marketing Cloud. Take a good look at your organizational guidelines and GDPR legislation as to where the data is stored (EU vs US).

What does Marketing Automation software cost?

Small SME companies can purchase a Marketing Automation tool for just a few euros per month. However, the possibilities are in no relation to advanced tooling. A few thousand euros per month is no exception for professional tooling which offers optimal growth opportunities in terms of return and savings of FTEs (employees).

The most important drivers for costs are the number of relations and customers, the possibilities to integrate data from different sources (from simple and standardized plug-and-play to customization), the number of customer channels to be used and the number of users of the software.

Roughly speaking, you can maintain the following range:

You want to compare what you can do with marketing software before you make a decision. Read in this article a comparison of the capabilities of different marketing technologies.

What does Marketing Automation software bring you?

Return on investment, efficiency and customer retention. Of course, Marketing Automation will deliver more when you have more customers, multiple sales channels, a larger product range, higher order values. Yet, by far the biggest challenge is your ambition to better serve your customers based on data. That is exactly where Marketing Automation with the right services will help you.

Roughly speaking, use the following percentages:

Explore and calculate your marketing automation business case through our whitepaper. To see examples of how Marketing Automation can work for you, check out our webinar.

Marketing Automation at Ternair

Ternair develops Marketing Automation software. We do this in combination with Customer Data Platform options so that your campaigns will use all your data together, in the segments you wish, without having to set up a data warehouse or CRM first.

Our approach: Marketing automation flows

All advanced Marketing Automation options are included standard in Ternair, like creating (email) Marketing Automation flowcharts, performing A/B testing, contact pressure management, creating web services, but also sending newsletters and one-off campaigns. The automation software includes a complete email software editor including the send outs. Technical knowledge is not necessary. You combine all your data in real time for every customer in every channel. Your entire Marketing Automation workflow is supported. Ternair has Marketing Automation specialists who will train you and who are available when you wish to outsource (temporarily).

FAQ: about Marketing Automation

• How do I choose the right Marketing Automation tool?
  With Marketing Automation software, you will reach out to the right prospects and customers more often and with less fragmented resources. But with power comes responsibility. When you choose Marketing Automation software based on wrong assumptions and expectations or use it incorrectly, your customers can become alienated from you. Good preparation is therefore essential.
• What does a Marketing Automation tool cost?
  The costs of a Marketing Automation tool depend strongly on the exact use, your ambitions and the size of the organization. Thanks to a better offer per customer and focus on campaigns (+10-30% more return), 5x as many campaigns with the same capacity (+10-20% efficiency) and a better customer view with more targeted follow-up campaigns (+5-10% customer retention) the investment normally pays for itself twice over within 2 years.
• Which organizations use Marketing Automation?
  We use Marketing Automation for both large and small(er) Dutch and International organizations. Thanks to our experience at companies like KLM, Dutch Council for Refugees, RAI Exhibitions Amsterdam, Springer Nature, Vesting Finance, Bouwmaat and smaller organizations, we understand what is important to you and how we can help you.