Marketing Automation in 2015: This is YOUR Year

We’re confident that 2015 will be The Year of Marketing Automation – this could be both our and your best year yet. After all, the idea of Marketing Automation isn’t a new one.  Marketing automation has been around in one form or another for decades.  Mailing campaigns intending to engage customers have existed long before we became a social medial and email culture.

Now, marketing solution is one of the fastest growing marketing solutions available and 2015 is poised to be a grand year for it.  Let’s go over what’s happening in the market right now that makes this the best time to add marketing automation to optimize your performance and get the best results.

Why Add Marketing Automation in 2015?

First, when you look at the data it’s easy to see why you should add marketing automation software to your repertoire of business solutions.  75% of top performing companies have been using some type of marketing automation in their businesses for the last two years.  Other data suggests that business-to-business companies increase their sales-pipeline contributions by 10% when adding marketing automation – this includes 25% of business-to-business Fortune 500 companies.

Mobile Marketing and Marketing Automation in 2015

If you really want to get serious about marketing automation in 2015 and you already have a platform, then your next logical step is to think about mobile marketing.  Mobile technology is the first screen in a customer’s life and a marketing tool that they carry everywhere.  By employing mobile marketing, you’re able to tell when, how, and where they’d like to be approached.  However, to properly engage customers using mobile devices, there are some hard and fast rules you should note:

• Don’t engage based on location alone.  With location services activating marketing messages, consumers are likely to be blasted with messages at every street corner.  This will lead to frustration and many customers will begin to ignore messages, even when those messages are relevant.
• Beacons aren’t able to engage successfully.  Beacons are messages, much like location services, that engage a consumer based on what they’re near.  Staying at the Hilton?  Beacons will send messages to a device letting the consumer know what restaurants, sporting events, and theaters are nearby.  Poor beacon strategy will decrease engagement and drive consumers away.  Don’t rush to roll out beacons unless you’re sure you have a strategy in place that will be successful.
• Protect your customer’s data.  With high profile data breaches in the news last year, consumers are aware that you’re collecting their information and that there’s always a potential for it to get out.  Taking appropriate steps to ensure a checks and balances system before collecting data will ensure that your customers are safe and you’re protected from bad press and customer disenchantment.

Marketing automation is also getting more affordable. Many new marketing automation startups that have proven successful, are forcing old players to get with the times and reduce prices.  If they choose not to lower prices they’ll become more specific in different areas in order to service their customers.  Competition will be fierce in 2015, which will lead many to change the way they do business.  Many startups will see success and offer freemium services and/or services with no startup fees involved.

2015 will truly be the year that any company, no matter how small or the size of its budget, can begin to market like Fortune 500 businesses.  Let us show you how marketing automation can make this year the best yet for your business!