It’s a daunting feeling when you walk into a store and know what you need but have no idea where it is. This is as true for big-box warehouses as it is for websites, only with websites you can click to the next store in a matter of seconds. Customers aren’t stuck there, and they know it. So if they can’t find the right virtual aisle in the first 30 seconds—regardless of whether exactly what they’re looking for is three clicks away—they’re checking out, and not in the good way.
Adding marketing automation technology to your website is like giving your prospective customers a loyal and tireless butler. Think Alfred Pennyworth, Batman’s caretaker. Alfred knows what Bruce Wayne wants and needs, and he uses that knowledge to keep Batman in superhero form. Likewise, marketing automation technology dramatically improves your customers’ experience with your brand and makes it easier for you to build long-lasting, meaningful relationships with them.
Take a moment to think about how new customers decide to reach out to a business for the first time. Maybe they hear about a company from a colleague or they click on an ad or they do an internet search. Without marketing automation, they need to search through your content and try to find the information that is most useful and relevant. If it takes more than a few moments, they’ll abandon their search and look elsewhere.
With marketing automation, businesses can plan their unique customer journey in advance and welcome them at the door. And as the customer interacts with your site, you collect information—name, email address, phone number, job title, etc.—that allows you to cater to them even more. Based on their profile, you can serve them useful content to prompt more engagement and you can continue to build out their profiles as they interact.
All of this information adds up to measurable potential of that person becoming a customer —a lead score you assign them based on their behavior. As the behavior increases, the score improves. You can test which information they find most useful and in what format—video, interactive media, articles, infographics, etc. After they leave, you can serve them ads, text messages and emails to entice them to come back and learn more.
When their lead score is high enough, your sales reps can make warm calls rather than cold calls armed with information that can dramatically increase the chances of closing a sale. The entire system gets better and more personalized over time, continuously and automatically filling the sales pipeline with qualified leads.
The goal of marketing automation is simple—make it as easy as possible for your prospective customers to feel confident about choosing your product or service over your competitor’s. And the results can make you look like a superhero. There’s no way Batman could act quickly to save the day without Alfred sending him information from the Batcave.
Director of Marketing Technologies and Systems Cathleen Wells has a wealth of experience in digital strategy, Web development and online marketing. Have a question for her? Send an email to cathleen_wells@dixonschwabl.com.