A reader commenting on one of our recent blog posts (Why Marketing Automation Should Be a Part of Your 2014 Marketing Budget) said that marketing automation is a “great way to foster relationships without the need for one-on-one contact for every encounter.” We thought that this was an insightful and relevant comment.
Customer relationships are necessary and important for all brands. Mostly every brand wants to feel that they have an actual relationship with their customers and that they have a meaningful place in the lives of their customers. In some product categories, this is more true and especially on items where price points are considered moderate to high by a significant amount of consumers. When someone interacts with a brand on a day to day basis, the way that they feel about that brand and how they perceive it becomes more relevant.
There are many times where the word automation gets a bad reputation for being associated with the avoidance of human to human interaction. I think that this mainly caused by customer interactions with automated customer service phone systems when there is a need to interact with a customer service representative. However, the phrase “marketing automation” shouldn’t be at all associated with an automated, customer service system. Marketing automation is meant to enhance the overall brand experience. It is essentially geared towards creating one on one relationship building on a massive level.
Marketing automation, when applied in a multi-channel setting, allows for dynamic campaign assembly & personalization. In the simplest terms, what does that mean and why should you care about the effects of it? These are good questions to ask. In a simple example, a field sales rep simply sends one personalized message but the recipient receives a personalized e-mail, microsite, brochure, video, presentation, and more. Dynamic Campaign Personalization dramatically improves field sales and marketing efficiencies, as well as helps deliver better response rates through highly personalized marketing experiences. Since dynamic campaign personalization is a key part of our distributed marketing automation solution, it drives our results, which have been known to include:
- Improved marketing efficiencies by over 25%
- Reduced sales support costs by 10%
- Improved sales conversions by over 10%
If you’d like to learn more about how marketing automation can enhance your customer relationships, contact us today!