![Marketing Automation Features and Benefits]()
by bersondev | Sep 16, 2019 | Marketing, marketing automation, marketing technology
Marketing automation empowers marketers to focus on the strategic initiatives rather than get bogged down with the tactical implementation, and it aligns sales and marketing towards accomplishing common goals. This all adds up to decreased costs and increased revenue.
FEATURES
Campaign and Email Management
Create and track highly targeted marketing campaigns. Manage end-to-end email campaigns, including database management, target list creation and segmentation, email personalization, and SPAM-compliant auto unsubscribe capabilities.
Website Search Engine Optimization
Connect with your customers early in the buying cycle with search engine friendly pages.
Landing Page and Forms
Create dynamic landing pages and forms. Build reusable templates to create a consistent look and feel. Instantly create leads in your CRM system for immediate sales follow up on all form submissions.
Lead Reporting and Analytics
Get comprehensive insight into your marketing programs by program type, lead source, and promotions — in real-time. Seamlessly track lead-to-revenue to measure the ROI of your lead generation programs.
“91% of the most successful users agree that marketing automation is ‘very important’ to the overall success of their marketing across channels.” —Ascend2
BENEFITS
Effective Multi-Channel Campaign Management
Streamlines the execution of complex marketing campaigns across multiple channels, including websites, email, events, and social media with a centralized marketing platform.
Improves Sales Collaboration
Aligns marketing and sales goals to improve collaboration and convert leads into customers.
Shortens Your Sales Cycle
Delivers highly relevant dynamic content to prospects at the right time, right place and right channel, guiding them through the buying cycle.
Quantifies and Prioritizes Leads
Captures, identifies, scores and nurtures leads based on profile, behavior, interests, and conversion readiness to deliver sales-ready leads.
Real-Time Visibility
Provides insight into campaign performance and return on investment (ROI) with robust analytics.
To learn how to best use Marketing Automation to increase ROI, check out this article.
As a recognized Marketing Automation leader for the past decade, we work with firms to help them utilize their marketing technology to increase revenue. To see how we can help you, schedule a free consultation or email Lori Berson at lberson@BersonDeanStevens.com.
———————————————————————————————————————————————————-
BersonDeanStevens has been a recognized brand strategy and marketing leader for over 25 years, including over a decade in Marketing Automation. We work in partnership with you to differentiate your brand and achieve your business goals. Client list.
![Marketing Automation Features and Benefits]()
by bersondev | Sep 12, 2019 | Marketing, marketing automation, marketing technology
Here are five marketing strategies you can use to improve your marketing efforts across multiple channels, messaging, and execution.
1. Determine whom you want to reach.
Before creating any messaging, channel development, etc., you need to determine which audience segment you want to target. It’s best to create marketing personas to define these different groups of people. With each persona, determine the characteristics of this subset. What are their likes and dislikes? Where do they live online and offline? What are their common challenges and pain points? By defining these audience attributes, you can more accurately target your marketing to them.
2. Tailor your campaigns to your personas.
Customize your marketing campaign messaging and research the channels in which you send these messages — according to your audience’s preferences.
For example: During your research, you may have discovered one client segment that doesn’t read print media; for this segment, you’ll want to develop digital-only materials. Use the appropriate channels to reach your target audience(s) to ensure the maximum exposure and engagement.
“Best in class marketers are 67% more likely to use a Marketing Automation platform and see 14% overall growth in marketing revenue.” — Aberdeen
3. Leverage trigger marketing.
You now know whom to talk to and where, how about when? If your customers receive your campaign at the right moment in the buyer’s journey, they are more likely to be receptive to your message. Trigger marketing sends emails or campaigns at specific points in a customer’s engagement lifecycle and can significantly increase your chance of success. Marketing Automation facilitates these efforts.
“Triggered email messages average 70.5% higher open rates and 152% higher click-through rates than “business as usual” marketing messages.” —Epsilon Email Institute
4. Test your campaign performance.
Build tests into your campaign plans and measure what’s working and what isn’t.
For example: Test what channel works best, how your web pages and emails are performing, what time of day or day of the week you should publish content, etc.
Additionally, you should conduct A/B tests on different headlines, page designs, calls-to-action, button and text colors, and email subject lines. Control your tests by limiting the variables being evaluated at the same time. Test and track the results continuously.
“63% of surveyed marketers indicate that the ability to set measurable objectives for each of the campaigns is the biggest value driver of Marketing Automation.” — Gleanster
5. Measure your results.
After you’ve conceived, created, and launched your campaign, you must track your efforts. This can be done with a simple Excel chart or a more robust dashboard. Make sure your Key Performance Indicators (KPI) tell the story of your campaign.
“91% of the most successful users agree that Marketing Automation is ‘very important’ to the overall success of their marketing across channels.” —Ascend2
Once you’ve started testing and tracking, it’s time to assess and refine your campaign. Based on your findings either repeat or delete the campaign.
For assistance with your campaign strategy, Marketing Automation implementation, and optimization, contact Lori at 877.447.0134 or lberson@BersonDeanStevens.com.
![Marketing Automation Features and Benefits]()
by bersondev | Jun 6, 2019 | Lead Generation, Marketing, marketing automation, marketing technology
Marketing automation is a crucial element of most marketers’ overall strategies. It streamlines lead generation, automates lead nurturing, improves personalization, accelerates sales, and replaces guesswork with analytics.
“Companies that excel at lead nurturing generate 50% more sales-ready leads at 33% lower cost.” — Forrester Research
Addressing Business Needs
As more businesses embrace marketing automation, vendors are responding with new and improved capabilities to provide desired results at reasonable costs. A good marketing automation system should include these features:
1. Scoring and Tagging
Scoring and tagging will help increase your knowledge of your prospects and customers, as it analyzes their preferences and activities. It’s a great way to create a more comprehensive customer profile and a perfect automation workflow. It’s best if marketing and sales establish scores and tags together to determine marketing qualified leads, sales qualified leads, and how and when to hand off leads to sales.
2. Tracking Website Traffic
Tracking website traffic increases your prospect and customer conversion and engagement. It allows you to understand the interests and behaviors of your subscribers in terms of what pages they visited and what actions they took. You’ll then be able to evaluate your website pages with the highest traffic and assign tags or scores to each visit. This is easily accomplished by adding a tracking code, provided by your Marketing Automation platform, to your website pages.
3. Creating Campaigns
You can design custom landing pages and emails that can be personalized and sent in automated campaigns at set intervals or triggered by a visitor behavior to capture and nurture leads, and/or encourage a transaction.
To get a jump start, create an onboarding program, engagement program, and retention program. To see examples, check out these articles:
“B2B marketers who have successfully deployed lead nurturing programs average a 20% increase in sales opportunities from nurtured leads versus non-nurtured leads.” — DemandGen
Aligning customer marketing and Marketing Automation strategies can be challenging and time consuming. The right Marketing Automation platform and experienced external resource will streamline and simplify the process, ensuring that your Marketing Automation strategy is on-point, on-budget, implemented properly and optimized for success.
To learn how to best use Marketing Automation to increase ROI, check out this article.
As a recognized Marketing Automation leader for the past decade, we work with firms to help them utilize their marketing technology to increase revenue. To see how we can help you, schedule a no-obligation call or email Lori Berson at lberson@BersonDeanStevens.com.
BersonDeanStevens has been a recognized brand strategy and marketing leader for over 25 years, including over a decade in Marketing Automation. We work in partnership with you to differentiate your brand and achieve your business goals. Client list.
![Marketing Automation Features and Benefits]()
by bersondev | Jun 8, 2015 | Content Marketing
How do you write content that will remove the fears of your prospects, clearly explain what you offer, and then move prospects toward purchasing?
Tips on how to craft effective messaging that convinces and converts.
1. Prospects’ Point of View
The foundation of any good sales message is an understanding of the interests and needs of your prospects. Before you begin writing your sales message, consider who will be reading your message, and their thoughts and emotions as the consume your content.
Learn:
• Who your target audience is.
• How they found you.
• The key problem or pain points that led them to seek a solution.
• The objections or concerns they might they have about your product or service.
• The other products or services they may they also be considering.
To craft the most engaging and effective content possible, approach your writing with these needs and considerations.
2. Emotion
While not all problems trigger intense emotions, all will have an emotional component (even if only a small one).
Effective content can and should address the underlying emotions surrounding the sale. Rather than focusing on the features of the product – or even the benefits.
3. Reason
It’s only after an emotional appeal has been made that it’s time to address reason. Reason refers to the relevant facts and features, as well as any objections your readers may have.
Elements you might want to include:
• The size, capacity, color, etc. of your product. Basically, the features of your product.
• Your unique value proposition: How your product is different/better than the competition.
• Delivery details: How will the product be shipped or delivered, how much will this cost, etc.
• Objections: Thoughts that may be preventing prospects from buying your product.
• Benefits: The practical and tangible benefits of using your product or service. The problems it helps solve.
Reason consists of all the informational and logistical aspects of your product/service and of the impending sale. It will also help to alleviate any concerns your readers may have by addressing common objections.
4. Credibility and Social Proof
Credibility is a subset of reason, however it can also help make an emotional connection with the reader by reducing the sense of risk. The goal is to allay the fears of your readers by showing that your product/service works and that others have benefited from it. Here are some elements you can use:
• Customer or client testimonials or endorsements: e.g. “This product helped me reduce my expenses by 20%’
• Relevant statistics or research from credible sources: e.g. “The American Medical Association recommends using this type of product.”
Link to the source whenever possible. Reference the popularity of a product: e.g. “1,000 business owners have already signed up for this program.”
• Past results: e.g. “Over 25 clients achieved ___ results with our service.” Show proof of these results whenever possible.
• Customer reviews or ratings.
A few extra tips:
• Avoid relying on hype: Overstating benefits or making unsubstantiated claims can work in the short term; however they can also be a serious turn off.
• Use conversational language: Do not try to impress your readers. Use language that’s familiar and comfortable to your prospects. Avoid industry buzzwords and acronyms. Use a casual, personal tone/voice. Write like you talk – even if that breaks some basic rules of grammar. It’s better to come across as approachable and trustworthy than perfect.
• Test long and short copy: They can each work well, depending on the niche, business and audience.
• Use storytelling: Open your sales copy by sharing a personal story or anecdote to let your readers know that you understand where they’re coming from. A story functions as a great hook, drawing the reader in to the rest of the copy.
Don’t get hung up on following someone else’s proven copywriting framework. The suggestions above may be effective for some but not others. There is no one-size-fits-all strategy for writing persuasive copy.
Remember, what works in one industry may not work in another, so it’s important to test a variety of copywriting strategies. The strategies above are a great starting point, but be flexible and create copy that’s right for your audience.
What strategies do you use for creating successful content marketing copy? For help call Lori at 877.447.0134.
![Marketing Automation Features and Benefits]()
by bersondev | Mar 2, 2015 | marketing automation
Few businesses are maximizing marketing automation opportunities.
Marketing automation will only get bigger in the coming years as marketers grow more comfortable with the technology. The adoption and usage has a way to go. A December 2014 study by Ascend2, indicates 24% of marketing professionals worldwide reported using marketing automation extensively. 35% had a limited use of marketing automation and 34% who weren’t using it said they planned to in the future.
December 2014 polling by CallidusCloud found bleak results among sales and marketing professionals worldwide from business-to-business (B2B) firms—often considered more advanced at marketing automation than their business-to-consumer counterparts. Just under 13% of respondents said they had successfully automated 75% or more of their sales and marketing processes. Meanwhile, more than half said fewer than 50% of their processes had been automated, with the majority of that group automating less than 25%.
Marketers looking to accomplish a list of goals would be wise to jump into automation quickly. Among Ascend2 respondents, 86% said marketing automation was successful to some level at achieving important objectives. However, just 25% ranked this as “very” successful, suggesting room for improvement among users.
Increasing sales revenues and lead generation were the most important objectives of a marketing automation strategy, each cited by 47%, followed by improving lead nurturing (44%), customer engagement (37%) and marketing productivity (33%). Though personalization is hot, just 25% ranked improving campaign targeting as an important objective.
Despite the powerful effect of sharing data companywide and the ability for marketing automation technology to help with that, only one-fifth of respondents said improving marketing-sales alignment was a top priority for marketing automation. Technology solutions were fragmented across B2B sales and marketing departments. About three in 10 (31.4%) respondents said both departments had automation technology solutions, and among marketers only, just 28.6% said so.
Are you using marketing automation to nurture and convert leads?
To lean how, call Lori today at 877.447.0134.
![Marketing Automation Features and Benefits]()
by bersondev | Feb 17, 2015 | marketing automation
Lead nurturing (52%) and analytics and reporting (51%) are the most valuable features of a marketing automation system, according to survey results from Ascend2 and its Research Partners. Previous research has found those to also be the most-requested features by buyers, although lead scoring, another highly-requested feature, was cited by few respondents as valuable to them.
The survey indicates that the most important objectives of a marketing automation strategy are:
• to increase sales revenue (47%)
• lead generation (47%),
with productivity improvements less important than in a similar survey conducted last year. The most challenging obstacle to marketing automation success continues to be the lack of an effective strategy (45%).
About the Data: The Ascend2 study results are based on a survey of 317 marketing, sales and business professionals from around the world. Some 49% come from companies with at least 50 employees, and 76% are primarily B2B-focused.
Need help implementing your marketing automation?
Call the experts at 877.447.0134.
