Companies today are seeking marketing solutions that can minimize human input through automation. Removing manual work is an ongoing trend, but it's also essential in every industry. Marketing
automation solutions should be adopted by companies that want to scale. Every business that wants to grow should rethink its operations to manage resources more effectively, which leads to
offloading partially heavy and repetitive work to online marketing platforms.
The article below answers, to some extent, one of the major questions about marketing performance in B2B in the context of content marketing distribution. We share about social
media automation, email automation, and blog automation. See more in the article below.
Table of Content
What is marketing automation?
Marketing automation is about deploying solutions that will automate the most frequent tasks in your business. At the same time, the business approach should be changed as many of the tasks will
not be handled manually. In today's B2B marketing and sales, you should be able to automate most tasks. There are systems that allow the creation of sophisticated workflows
or have them already embedded into their functionality. Businesses are using these marketing platforms that can automate sales and marketing.
Why automate marketing?
The big challenge of marketing automation comes from content marketing distribution. Simple things like handling content marketing through social media, such as creating posts, can pose
challenges to marketers responsible for very diverse work. Today, companies in B2B really need content because its lack affects SEO, which boils down to a lower number of
customers. There is more explanation, but we want to focus solely on this technical reason. Your website will be less and less visible if you do not go along with content marketing production and
distribution.
For example, let's imagine a single person in the marketing department, which is so obvious for many companies, that is supposed to handle the role of marketing manager or
coordinator. This person is constantly overloaded and most likely unable to handle effective marketing strategies. It's only about time management, which
is impossible to cover all needed. So, simple work like creating social posts can pose a significant challenge due to a lack of time because this person has an agenda and
organizes events. From a PR perspective, events are much more critical for organizations as these create opportunities for direct communication. From the perspective of failure during trade fairs
and conferences, we can lose much more.
These are just some of the reasons why you should automate marketing. Here are the reasons why automation solutions for marketing are important.
Increased productivity
Time savings: Automation handles repetitive tasks such as email marketing, social media posting, and advertising campaigns, which we haven't mentioned. You can free up time
for the team to focus on strategic planning and creative activities.
Consistent execution: Automation ensures that marketing activities are carried out consistently. So, you don't do anything ad hoc, and all the tasks are handled without
delays or human error. This allows maintaining a steady flow of communication with audiences on various channels.
Increased personalization
Targeted campaigns: Automation tools can segment audiences based on demographics, behavior, and preferences. You don't have to do this manually, and this also enables
personalized messages that resonate more effectively with your listeners.
Dynamic content: Automated systems can dynamically adjust content based on user interactions and data. This requires a bit of AI solution today and provides a personalized
experience for each customer.
Improved Lead Management
Lead Nurturing: Automation can guide prospects through the sales path with customized content and timely follow-ups. This is the part of marketing that has direct
implications for sales. It increases the likelihood of conversion of any MQL.
Lead Scoring: Automated systems can score prospects based on their engagement and behavior. It's unusual not to have this system today, but personally, we still meet
companies during the fairs that register leads manually on paper. This is insane😉 However, lead scoring is helping sales teams prioritize the most promising leads digitally.
B2B marketing video production
Learn about the impact of social video marketing and targeted video marketing campaigns with best SEO practices. As B2B adopts this trend, companies are leveraging
transparency through interviews and live podcasts to showcase services.
Real-time insights: Automation tools provide real-time data and analytics to track campaign performance and make data-driven decisions.
Comprehensive reporting: Automated reporting features compile data from different channels. The META platform, former Facebook, for example, can pull data from all the
channels, offering a holistic view of marketing activities and their impact.
Integrate analytics
Just imagine that you operate on several platforms and have marketing operations in several countries. It's also crazy to get properly readable data! You need to take advantage of
integration because the trends in different countries are similar in B2B. That's why it's better to know how you can connect all your data sources.
Lower labor costs: By automating routine tasks, you can reduce working hours and lower operating costs.
Maximum return on investment: Automation helps optimize marketing spend by targeting the right message to the right audience at the right time. It improves return on
investment (ROI), nothing more to add:-D, you can save money in long-term. This is all about!
AI tools
Your company can benefit from online marketing platforms that use artificial intelligence. This allows you to create a sophisticated workflow when sending multiple emails. So there is no
problem with mass email actions and you can automate them. This is useful if you want to send "thank you emails" to customers from online stores or in B2B send emails that drive the sales
funnel.
Easy scalability: Automated systems can handle increased workloads as the company grows without a proportional increase in manpower.
Global reach: Automation effortlessly enables large-scale campaign management across multiple channels and geographies.
Improved customer service
24/7 engagement: Automated responses and chatbots can interact with customers around the clock, providing immediate support and information.
Consistent branding: Automation ensures a consistent brand message across all touchpoints, increasing brand recognition and loyalty.
Faster adaptation to market changes
Agility: Automation allows rapid adjustment of marketing strategies based on real-time data, enabling fast response to market trends and customer feedback.
Testing and optimization: Automated tools facilitate A/B testing and other optimization techniques, helping refine campaigns for better results.
Automate LinkedIn posts
You can automate your social media with one integrated plaftom. For example, if you created great post with amazing photo and you want to replicate a single post with slightly changed
text, but the same photo, than you can use HupSpot and post directly to Facebook and LinkedIn, and insert the same photo with a different text.
Focusing on the niche of content marketing automation in this article, we can take you closer to the three pillars needed for content distribution. There are social media,
emailing, and blogging.
Social media automation
There are many social media automation tools on the market that can automate social media posting. Social media automation involves using tools and software to manage and streamline social media
activities. This includes scheduling posts, monitoring engagement, and analyzing performance.
Tools and platforms:
Scheduling tools: Platforms such as Hootsuite, Buffer, and Later allow you to plan and schedule posts across social media channels. This ensures a consistent publishing
schedule and frees up time for other tasks.
Integrated platforms: Social media giants such as Meta (which includes Facebook and Instagram) offer built-in automation capabilities. These tools can help with content distribution, targeted
advertising, and analytics.
Benefits:
Time savings: Automating posts means you can schedule your content calendar in advance, reducing your daily workload.
Consistency: Ensures content is published regularly, which is critical to keeping your audience engaged.
Analytics and reporting: Automated tools provide insight into engagement metrics, helping you adjust your strategy based on performance data.
Email automation platform
Today, companies can use bulk email marketing software to send newsletters. : Email automation platforms enable companies to automatically send mass emails, newsletters, and personalized
email campaigns to their subscriber lists.
Tools and platforms:
Mass email software: Tools such as HubSpot, MailerLite, Mailchimp, Constant Contact, and SendinBlue enable companies to create, schedule, and send large
volumes of emails effortlessly.
Personalization and segmentation: These platforms offer audience segmentation and email personalization features to make communications more relevant and engaging.
Benefits:
Efficiency: Automates the sending of newsletters, promotional emails, and follow-up messages, saving time and effort.
Personalization: Segmenting your audience allows you to send tailored messages that increase engagement and conversion rates.
Analytics: Track open rates, click-through rates, and other metrics to measure campaign effectiveness and make data-driven decisions.
Blog Automation
Blog automation uses tools to streamline creating, publishing, and promoting content.
Tools and platforms:
Content Management Systems (CMS): Platforms such as WordPress offer plugins that can automate tasks such as post scheduling, SEO optimization, and social media sharing.
Automated writing assistance: Tools such as Grammarly and Jasper (formerly Jarvis) can help generate content ideas, improve writing quality, and ensure SEO-friendly posts.
Benefits:
Consistency: Automates the scheduling and publishing of blog posts, ensuring a steady flow of content.
SEO optimization: Automated tools can help optimize your content for search engines, improving your blog's visibility and ranking.
Promotion: Automatically share new posts on social media platforms and via email newsletters, increasing reach and engagement.
HubSpot automation marketing
There is nothing more important than integration, and to handle a successful integration in marketing automation, the best option is to use a single platform that has all these capabilities built
in. That platform is HubSpot.
All in all, HubSpot offers comprehensive tools and features that help companies attract, engage, and delight customers throughout their journey. It enables companies to grow their business
efficiently and effectively in today's digital landscape.
What HubSpot is doing?
Here's what HubSpot offers:
Marketing automation: HubSpot enables companies to automate marketing processes, including email marketing, social media posting, prospect acquisition, and campaign
tracking. This automation streamlines workflows and improves efficiency.
Content management: HubSpot offers a content management system (CMS) for creating and managing content for websites, blogs, and landing pages. It includes features for
SEO optimization, content planning, and performance analysis.
CRM (customer relationship management): HubSpot's CRM helps companies organize and manage contacts, track interactions, and nurture potential customers along the sales path.
It provides insight into customer behavior and facilitates personalized communication.
Sales Automation: HubSpot Sales Hub automates sales processes, including email sequences, task reminders, and pipeline management. It integrates with CRM to provide a
seamless experience for sales teams.
Analytics and reporting: HubSpot provides robust analytics and reporting tools to track marketing campaign performance, website traffic, lead generation, and sales
activities. It offers insights to optimize strategies and improve results.
Integration capabilities: HubSpot integrates with various third-party applications and tools, enabling companies to combine marketing, sales, and customer service
systems for a unified experience.
Summary on marketing automation
For many, the question of improving performance in B2B doesn't have a simple answer. This becomes evident to those involved in B2B marketing for many years. There isn't a single practice
that can solve all marketing challenges. However, as mentioned earlier, automation is critical to leveraging your business's marketing performance and capabilities.
Companies continuously assess their staff to ensure optimal performance. They have implemented various management systems that enable real-time data tracking. A typical example is Salesforce,
with HubSpot as a Sales Force Automation (SFA) system. Depending on the industry, the qualitative functions of the SFA system may vary by department.
Both in sales and content marketing, companies can establish systems to enhance their performance and daily activities through automation. Nothing allows for better adjustment of business
activities than accurate, analytical data visible through statistics.
The best marketing automation platform varies depending on a business's specific needs, but some top contenders include HubSpot for its ease of use and comprehensive features,
Marketo by Adobe for its robust lead management capabilities suited for large enterprises, Salesforce's Pardot for excellent B2B marketing automation and alignment with sales
efforts, ActiveCampaign for combining email marketing and sales CRM effectively for small to medium-sized businesses, and Mailchimp for its simplicity and affordability, ideal for
small businesses and startups looking for basic automation and email marketing features.
To start with marketing automation, begin by defining your goals, such as generating leads or retaining customers, then choose a platform that suits your needs and budget;
integrate this platform with your existing CRM for data consistency, build and organize your marketing database with customer and prospect information, segment your audience based
on demographics and behavior for targeted messaging, create engaging content like emails and landing pages, set up automation workflows for repetitive tasks, and continuously test
and optimize your campaigns to improve performance.
The three pillars of marketing automation are lead generation, which focuses on attracting potential customers and capturing their information through various forms and calls to
action; lead nurturing, which involves sending personalized and timely communications to guide leads through the sales funnel with targeted emails and educational content; and
lead scoring and management, which evaluates leads based on their behavior and engagement, helping prioritize those most likely to convert and ensuring sales teams focus on the
most promising prospects.
Paweł Bęś
B2B Marketing Expert
A professional with expertise in crafting communication strategies, lead generation, B2B content marketing, SEO, and excelling in video and copywriting.
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We present exciting perspectives on B2B technology marketing and explore the domain of B2B SaaS sales. Learn about performance and value-based marketing
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We interviewed Ulrica Björnsdotter Larson, a marketing expert with nearly 20 years of experience in marketing operations in European-Scandinavian and
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