A Simplified Perspective on How Marketing Automation Works
Marketing automation is a simple concept if you’re in the industry or familiar with these types of solutions. But, what if you’ve never heard of marketing automation before? Take five minutes to read this simplified summary of how marketing automation works.
Eric Wittlake made some very important points about marketing automation. Let’s summarize what Eric says about the premise of marketing automation:
Marketing automation is built on the premise of delivering the right communication to the right person at the right time. When your competitor’s delivery of content is more timely than yours, you have been trumped. Even great content will not engage your audience if the need has already been met by someone else’s more timely delivery. – Eric Wittlake, Babcock & Jenkins
Eric also highlights what fuels the marketing automation engine, successfully delivering the right content at the right time hinges on data. Data that is provided explicitly by prospects, and more importantly, data that is provided implicitly through their engagement with your communications and content.
Eric does a great job summarizing the marketing automation workflow. It’s important to note that marketing automation is only as strong as its weakest link. If any of the three links mentioned below break down then the marketing automation model loses strength. Eric discussed the drawbacks of removing a link in the workflow. We’ll invert Eric’s thinking to view the benefits of continuing the marketing automation cycle.
• Continued database profiling and lead qualification enables accurate follow up communication.
• With accurate follow up communication, prospects will engage.
• With engagement, lead profiles and lead scores are updated to deliver the right message at the right time.
• Rinse and repeat…
Check out our other articles to learn more about lead scoring and how to do database profiling.
Eric Wittlake (@wittlake) heads up the media practice at Babcock & Jenkins and is an active B2B and digital marketing blogger at B2B Digital Marketing.
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