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Marketing today is basically an unconventional blend of strategy and technology. It has come a long way from the times when the idea was to simply try selling goods and services. Now that we are undergoing a digital evolution, a majority of companies both new and established ones are adopting marketing automation solutions for the growth of overall success rate of their marketing campaigns across channels.
Companies are fast realising the potential of marketing technology. According to the Marketing Automation Report India 2017, more than 48% of the marketers have decided to have MAS in their marketing strategy. Marketing is more sophisticated, targeted and data driven than ever before. The availability of data enables marketers to evaluate their strategies and take corrective actions.
For a majority of companies in India or even across the world, converting leads into customers comes as a top priority but unfortunately, due to a gap between their marketing and sales departments, things do not work out the way they are expected to. An integrated strategy combining marketing campaign with the sales efforts, which is also known as ‘Smarketing’ really works in bridging this gap. As many as 70% of the marketers are using automation technology to increase their lead conversion. And how? The marketing team can help sales department understand aspects of the company that drew the leads to it, whereas sales can help marketing figure out what potential clients are looking for.
Marketing automation provides a range solutions like predictive scoring and machine learning, workflow builder, unified customer view and customer lifecycle analytics. Marketing platforms offer a list of features and services which can also be customised to suit the clients. These features vary depending on the scale that a business operates upon.
For any enterprise, marketing plan determines the overall direction that their product or service should take for being profitable. Usually, these plans include a number of details specific to the product or service but at times, in the day to day operations of a company, the details might get overlooked causing the execution of the plan not to work out in the best possible way. This makes evaluating marketing plan on an ongoing basis crucial to ensure that you are progressing on the right track. Since marketing technology solutions offer unified cross channel report, hence it becomes easier for enterprises to judge performance of various channels.
Not only this, it has also helped in increasing customer delight. Since the communication with a customer is more targeted and specific due to marketing technology, brands can now personalise their messaging and judge when, what and how to communicate.
Marketing technology has been changing its face. Some of the key trends that will define the marketing strategies in 2017 are:
- Customer Acquisition Marketing: Marketing will increasingly become more targeted in 2017. Marketing automation has allowed brands to have a well-defined audience acquisition and marketing strategy and it will continue to do so.
- Unified View of Customer: This is one feature that is defining customer experience in 2017. With a unified comprehensive view of multiple channels, it has become possible for marketers and brands to map a customer’s journey and enhance the omni-channel customer experience.
- AI in Marketing: Chatbots and Machine Learning are enabling more efficient and real time engagement with customers. Moreover, tools of Artificial Intelligence offer cost saver and faster channels of lead acquisition, engagement and conversion.
While some organisations consider marketing technology as an expenditure, I think that it is an investment with clear ROI. Marketing technology can not only make marketing expenditures more efficient but also help in boosting customer experience. In the long run, not only you save some big bucks but build a brand that customers love. As they say, loyal customers, they don’t just come back, they don’t simply recommend you, they insist that their friends do business with you.