Marketing Automation Trends to Watch
Time to keep your eye on a few marketing automation trends to watch. With more than 60% of top performing companies utilizing marketing automation, one might believe that marketing automation has hit its peak. After all, there’s nowhere left to go but down. However, the percentage of businesses utilizing marketing automation continues to increase. While the benefits of these services are impossible to ignore, it’s important to be aware of upcoming trends to make the most out of your marketing automation.
With marketing automation pervading all business functions, it’s not enough to just automate and personalize content and messages. In fact, marketers are beginning to demand automation that predicts interactions and lead conversion rates. Software continues to evolve at such a fast pace that predictions about consumer behavior and buying patterns isn’t that far off. As algorithms and technology advance, marketers are able to determine who their best customers will be.
Mobile Marketing Automation
An astounding ninety-one percent of American’s now own cell phones. What this means for marketing automation is that messages and content are being delivered whenever and wherever a customer is. In fact, market research predicts that mobile apps will own almost 30 percent of all sales in just two short years – by 2017. Additionally, the price point of mobile marketing is astounding: for every $1 spent, marketers can expect $20 in sales returns.
Even now, mobile data and location services can give marketers powerful information, like what brands or stores a customer is near. That information means that soon marketing automation will be able to transmit messages that are not only personalized but messages that are specific to the right time and place, as well as tracking online and offline events. Marketing automation is also evolving to let marketers make their own goals. The best indication of success is real-time customer behavior instead of clicks and opens. Tracking these numbers will give valuable insight into measuring smaller progressions to reach an ultimate goal, which is set by you and not the service.
Looking into the Future
Another big trend in marketing automation is the fact that you are no longer required to possess a deep technological knowledge to understand or operate marketing automation software. Drop down menus and drag and drop functionality have changed the way marketing automation is used. It’s incredibly simple software that can make a tremendous impact on how you do business and your results. Also, no longer is the software a big expense – even the best marketing automation software out there can be affordable and relatively inexpensive – especially when you consider your return on investment.
These trends are just some that you can expect to see over the next 12 months. While there will be others, these are the ones most likely to make a significant impact in 2015.
